Getting closer

Yesterday was "Day 6" of the waiting period. The kids didn't have school so we met them at the orphanage early. Their group was getting ready to go on a field trip so we joined them. We had a great time walking thru some of the cities parks and riding on some amusement rides. We got some great pics of the city from way up high on a farris wheel. But once again, we still can't post them from here. We will have lots to post when we get to Kyiv.

Today is "Day 7" and the girl's group is planning on going bowling, should be a great time. It sure helps the time go by faster, with us joining the group on their outings. We would recommend to anyone adopting to get as involved as possible, it not only helps you bond faster with the child/children but its fun as well. We have met some really great kids in the orphanage that we would not have been able to meet otherwise. So if their is anyone out there that has been thinking of adopting from this area (Sevastopol, Ukraine) let us know.

Hugs and Kisses to our kids back home in America. Where's your comments???

Hey Volleyball kid, we saw the pics of your truck on myspace. You should be thanking God every day. A little less than a foot higher and that power line would have come thru the window and hit you. When we get home, we need to find you another truck like that one, cause it was a good one.

Hey Superstar, we heard that you've been giving 110% out there on the field. Keep it up buddy. Wish we were there to see it. Please ask Coach Brown if he will video tape some of it for us.

Hello Cheer girl, hope you are all better now, caught up with your homework and practicing your cheers. Look forward to seeing your outfit.

Hello Honor roll girl, congratulations on your grades. Keep it up, you make us very proud. Have you been practicing for volleyball? You know it starts soon.

O and N can't wait to get to America. They are so ready to see you guys and to start their new lives. They mentioned something about going out for volleyball as well.

Anyway, we have to be going. Time to head to the orphanage for more fun. Look forward to seeing our families (personal and church) soon.

Love you all,
M&G

A Great Surprise

Well, when we picked up the girls.. The Director said that they may stay the night with us. They were so excited. They are counting the days everyday till they never have to go back to the Desky Doma. They had smiles so big. They are ready to come home as we are. We believe we will be home soooooon. They looked so cute in their new PJs. They seemed to sleep well, we got the biggest hugs in the morning. I can't wait to be able to get hugs from all of our kids. :) I will be the happiest Mama in the world. :)

Love,
M&G

Hello to C,J,T,J. We love you guys. Where are our comments?? Miss ya. Good talking with you. Talk soon.


Saloyou
Love,
Mom and Dad

Day 3

The skies here are still overcast. But with each day that we get closer to our waiting period being over, they just seem brighter. Looking forward more every day to finishing up all of our Docs so that we can head home.

We are looking forward to seeing the rest of our children sooo much that it almost hurts. We love you guys soo much.

Just want to thank Mike's mom again for watching our kids for us.

Hope that J.L. is feeling better, heard she was sick.

Love to all,
M&G

Waiting "Day 2"

Well, we are still here in Sevastopol. We only have 8 more days till the court decision is uncontestable. Then we get to pick up the girls and never have to take them back to the orphanage. We have pictures but can't seem to get them loaded onto the computer here. Will try again in Kyiv. Right now, we have brought the girls to the internet cafe for the first time and they are having fun playing. They can't wait until we are on the plane flying back to America. When the girls found out that we had a court date, Nadya started jumping up and down with a big smile on her face and Olya just kept asking over and over about the date like she couldn't believe it was really happening. Now they count the days just like us. The weather is turning cold again and Gail's allergies are really starting to kick in. Lots of molds out here due to all the leaves and such on the ground when it rains. We are just glad we remembered to bring the Loratidine and the Benadryl. Will write more as it happens.

M&G

Sending all our love to our children at home. See you guys soon. Can't wait to give you all a great big hug and kiss.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Verdict Is!!!

Well, we went to court....
We were all pretty nervous about seeing the judge due to hearing that he was mean. But we found the opposite to be true. He was kind to all of us and very curtious. He asked Mike about 10 different questions and asked Gail about 4. Then it was time for the girls to come before the judge. They were both scared. He made them feel at ease by smiling and joking with them. All in all it was a very pleasant experience.
The only thing we had to tell the judge about was Mike's income, our (M&G) health status, who would care for the kids, what the living arrangements would be, Mike's character in Gail's opinion, and made us aware that when it came time for the girls to get married that it would be our responsibility to take care of the arrangements as there wouldn't be anyone else to take care of it.

So without further ramblings. We are now the proud parents of two more girls, Olya Marie age 13 and Nadya Nicole age 12 for a total of 7 children.

Great News

We finally got our court date. We see the judge at 4pm today. Can't wait. Details to follow.

God's Blessings

We received a phone call from home today. M's mom called to tell us our middle son "The Volleyball Kid" was in a car accident. We are so thankful that the Lord protected him and that he is fine and resting at home.

We want to send a big THANK YOU, to our family at Calvary Open Bible/History Makers for being there for our family at this time. We truly appreciate the love and support since we are away.

Hey Volleyball Kid, we are very excited to hear that you are OK. Don't worry too much. Just know that Mom and I love you very much. Get plenty of rest and let your body heal. You need to get well soon so you can get back on the court.

Sending Love

Hey kids, C, J, T, & J. We really look forward to being home with your new sisters so that we can give all of you a really big hug. Tell J.L. that we look forward to hearing about her fitting for her cheerleading uniform. J.S. we can't wait to see the skateboard that you bought. We are proud that you earned and saved the money to buy it on your own. Also, yesterday, we saw the boy that J.S. played soccer with last year. Man has he gotten tall. He didn't recognize us though, maybe because it was night time. If we see him during the day we will try saying hi to him.

We want to hear from ALL of you kids so post comments.

XOXOXOXO

Love, Mom and Dad

A few busy days

Well we havn't gotten a court date yet. Our judge was called away on a business trip before he could give us an appointment. The last few days have been busy. For "O" Marie's B-Day on Thursday we went to the orphange with some cake and juice for the group. All the girls demolished the cake, :). Afterwards the girls wanted to go to a park to play, so we took them on three of the rides that were there. On Friday we went with all of the children from the orphanage to the mountains where they had their orphanages 10yr aniversary. It was an all day affair. We were so tired afterwards that we were in bed by 7pm. The last few days it has been getting rather chilly here. 5deg C. Yesterday, (monday) we decided to take a bus trip to see the city. Sevastopol is alot bigger than we thought. While we were out on our trip we were able to get the girls some coats to wear since its getting so cold. Especially since it's even colder in Kyiv where we hope to be going soon.

Hugs and Kisses to our children back home who are constantly supporting us while we are here. We miss you alot and we love you even more. :). Talk to you all soon.

Gma N. give us a call when you read this.

Love,
M&G

Yippeee!!!

We just found out today that we will know when our court date is on Monday. Please be praying for us about this.

M&G

Sleep, Whats that?

Haven't gotten much sleep here. Too much to do with hanging out with the girls and the fact that our minds won't quit running. LOL. We've been getting alot of good pictures while we're out, we will post them when we get back to Kyiv. The internet/computers are to slow here to download pictures. "O" Marie's B-Day is tomorrow the 11th, she is very excited. We plan on taking cake and juice to her orphanage on Friday to celebrate with her group.

Dad, from what we understand, it's approx. $20k for a vacation home down here by the black sea. A small one. That's just for the apartment, then you will probably still have to pay fees for the privitization of the place. Do you want us to forward your email address to our friend out here?

All is well here with us, we miss our kids back home a whole bunch and can't wait to get back home.

God Bless,
M&G

Hello again

Monday morning, Oct. 8th.

Our facilitator should be back tomorrow, so far we have been able to survive on our own. Hopefully we will have court this week or early next week. We were finally able to find some sneakers for "N". She wears a size 9. A big foot for a 12yr old girl.

We were laughing this morning, Rachel Ray brags about being able to keep her spending down to $40 a day for food, well we have her beat. We can go five days on $40. :) The food here is cheap. Unless you go out to eat.

Hey kids, tell Uncle Gary happy birthday, it was on the 7th. The internet cafe is way to packed to come on the weekends or we would have tried to email him then. We miss and love all of you. Be good for Gma.

Pray for kids out here, they need it. We have seen kids sniffing glue in bags. Pray that they would find God so that He can fill whatever hole is inside them.

There are alot of children out here that are wanting families. Please be praying about wether God would have you adopt.

Love to all,

M&G

On our own

Hey everybody, just wanted to let you know that things are still moving along great. Our facilitator/interpretor has gone to Kyiv to get our paperwork from the SDA. He should be back soon and then we can have our day in court. So we are now taking the buses by ourselves to pick up the girls. We look forward to celebrating "O"'s birthday in 7 days, we plan on taking her to an amuesment park of some kind. We had some borsht from a Ukrainian cafe yesterday and it was the best we have had. As a bonus, it was within walking distance of our flat. If any of you have questions, feel free to ask. It makes it easier to talk about more than just the adoption process.

Folks from the Tesoro gang. Mike can't access his company email from here so feel free to email him and let him know how things are going. Use this email account: gmnealey@yahoo.com.

Photos from Sevastopol

The photo above is a sideways pic of our patio.

This photo shows the side of our apartment. It's nicely enclosed. Very private.

The view down and across the street from our apartment.

Internet access finally

Greetings from Sevastopol!! We had an exciting arrival into Simferopol. The girls Mamma (Caretaker from orphanage #2) met us at the airport with her husband and transported us to the Orphanage Inspectors office an hour away and to meet the girls. Normally her husband would get paid for this, but we didn't have to pay anything since she feels we are family to her. What an awesome surprise. They were excited to hear that "T" is doing very well in school. We finally found an internet cafe. Mike is feeling better. The girls are constantly wanting to be on the go, can't seem to sit still for long. The flight home should be interesting. We do have access to regular email (gmnealey@yahoo.com). Our facilitator is preparing to take our Docs to Kyiv within the next day or two. We hope to have our court date sometime next week. :) The girls have both written their official declarations for wishing to be adopted. Their names until we get back to Kyiv will be "O" Marie and "N" Nicole. They are both currently 12 years old. Both have long dark hair and brown eyes and have grown so much since we saw them last year. Look forward to sharing more news as it developes. Will try to upload photos in the next few days. That's all for now. Look forward to hearing from all of you.

M&G

Wendy W, email us to our personal address instead of thru the blog. Answer these questions. Inquiring minds (K) are dying to know. 1) Where are you in the process? 2) When will you travel?