Back In The Zhytomyr Region!

Well, you might want to grab a cup of coffee...I'm catching up from some of last week too!
We had a great stay with the Peipon's for a few days. It is exactly what we needed! I told Marianna she is going to have to get some beds with the springs sticking out so that we will want to leave! There ministry here in Ukraine reaches out to so many...adoptive families, physicians from all countries, AIDS orphans, other missionaries,. Just staying with them, you realize how many people that they touch on a daily basis. While we were there a guy from Romania came to spend the night who is going to be doing missions work in Ukraine at a music camp for over 1,000 orphans. It was great to get to talk with him over breakfast about Romania. It was wild when he walked in the door the night before and said he was so exhausted because he had been organizing a Josh McDowell conference in Romania before he came. This has just been so cool for us to hear people from other countries talking about ministries that we follow from the states.
Then, we headed back to the small town we were in right past Zhytomyr. The town is called Novograd- Volinsky and we found out an interesting fact that it is the oldest city from the old Soviet Union times. The scene here is very old buildings and village houses. Our hotel window looks over a village and there are roosters at the bottom of our window. It is still very cold here. One thing that we have enjoyed is that everyone has been so friendly here and have treated us wonderfully with all of our paperwork to be done with officials.
About the children that we are trying to adopt...we have visited them several times before we left and today when we got back. The little girl (who will hopefully be OUR little girl on Tues.) has warmed up to us right away. From the 2nd day that we visited her, she always comes running down the hallway to give us HUGE hugs and she and Grant are pretty much inseperable. She walks everywhere holding our hands or holding on to us. She is very energetic and she and Grant laugh A LOT! On our 3rd visit with her, she brought us all paper roses that she had made and even made one for our facilitator who translates for us each day! She is in a huge orphanage of about 200-300 kids ages 6-16. They also go to school there at their orphanage. They allow us to walk around her orphanage, so we have seen many kids there. Sometimes, it is heartbreaking to see that many kids without a family. They are so hungry for a family that when we walk through the halls or go outside to play with her, it never fails they completely stop what they are doing and sit and just watch. One day, we were playing on the playground with her throwing an American football and there was one particular boy that was sitting on the ground very close to us just watching and so we threw him the football and he was so excited and immediately we had over 50 kids run over to play football with us. It was great to get to play with all of them! We have a particular time that we can visit with her and they give us 2 hours a day. Today, we were sad because when we got to her orphanage, we waited for them to bring her for an 1 hr and 45 minutes before we found out that her whole floor of the orphanage was in isolation for one child that had gotten sick and went to the hospital. They told us when we only had 15 minutes left with her that they would bring her down, because she was not sick. We shared snacks and juice box with her and gave her a hug goodbye until tomorrow.
The little boy is in a very small orphanage and he has been there since birth. He is very sweet and smiles a lot. He is very delayed in every way physically, mentally, etc...He is 4, but is on about an 18-24 month level. We believe that it is from being in an orphanage his whole life, but he will have a thorough evaluation when we get home at the UAB International Adoption Clinic. We had learned from this clinic before we left of how children in orphanages could experience severe delays from being institutionalized, so we were somewhat prepared for this. We also learned that there are significant changes most of the time quickly once they are in a family. Also, on our first meeting at the orphanage, we were told that they thought that he couldnt speak yet, but the great news is that we have actually heard him say 3 words since we have been visiting him. He always recognizes us when we visit and smiles and today he cried when we left. When we gave him back to the caregiver to go back in the room, he spread his body out, so she couldnt take him through the door. We couldnt get him to stop crying, so we had to leave him crying today. We were glad to see that there seemed to be an attachment building, but it is also hard at the same time. Tomorrow, we will see him again. I am going to try to post pics of both orphanages tomorrow.
Well, we have prayerfully been planning out our next steps over the past week. There is still another month left at the least in this process before we can take the kids back to America and there are several holidays coming up for Ukraine that the government will shut down and will slow our process down. We still have the court date, 10 day waiting period, passports and 8 day waiting period, birth certificates, medicals of kids, etc... and they cannot leave Ukraine until all of this has been completed. Because we have already been here for over a month, we have had to make some hard decisions about our time in the country and believe me, we have considered every scenario possible. Please be in prayer as we make the final plans over the next couple of days, but it is looking like either Grant and I or Jason, Grant, and I will be traveling home a few days after the court date for many reasons...so that Grant can finish school, we can prepare for both kids coming home, etc...and then one of us will return to finish the process when the holidays and waiting times are over. There is a chance that if we can come on my brother's buddy pass (he works for an airline) that at some point we could all be here to get them out of the orphanage and bring them home. Although we are very homesick, it will be hard to leave, but we know that it is a short amount of time and when we come back we will all be together forever.
We want to thank publicly Carlton & Aimee Weathers and Grace Fellowship Church for all of your prayers and financial support for our adoption. We have just been made aware of what you are doing for our family and we are just in awe that a family and church that has never met us would give to support our adoption in such a huge way. You have been an instrument in showing the Hall family just how BIG our God is! May God bless your family, church, and your adoption process to China more than you can ask, think, or imagine! I can't wait until we can bring our children to Grace Fellowship to meet all of you! By the way, I clicked on your name and read your blog and it is was very inspiring!! I would encourage anyone who will to read it!

Comments:
Channing: Glad to hear from you! We have thought about ya'll several times since we have been here. Thanks for the Hab 3 scripture...I have wrote it in my journal and look at it every morning.

Christy~ 10 day wait starts the day after court date.

Josh G: Oh, we miss Wed night dinners too!!! Although, when we get back, we are either going to have to get a van to go out or I'll have to strap some of you to the roof, haha! Don't worry, we will always have a place for Josh! So, you are a little rusty on the music huh? Well, you best start studying up, because when I get home IT'S GONNA BE ON!!!

Corrie~ Glad ya'll are doing good and the class too!! We miss ya'll!!! Give the kids a kiss for us!!

From Grant:
Emma~ Happy Birthday!
Mrs. Susan~ I eat hamburger, FF, and coke at McDonald's.
McKayla & Austin~ Yes, I am having a good time! Hope to see you soon!

That's all for today! Luv~ Mel