Praise God!

Yippee! After almost 10 months of painful delivery and incredibly wrenching beauracracy and paperwork challenges, we gave birth to two beautiful, bouncing daughters today! Welcome to a new world, Zhanna Hope McKenzie and Ella Joy McKenzie! May you belong to the Lord.

Our day in court went very well. "Spaseba Bog!" "Thank God!" We arrived with Tanya and Arkadi, the social worker, about 10:00. The girls arrived with a representative from the orphanage a bit later. Then we all waited and waited and waited. Our hearing was scheduled for 10:00. The female judge didn't actually show up until almost 11:00 (Ukrainian time, you know!). Then we went through about an hour of grilling. The girls were required to sit away from us. The judge read the entire case from our paperwork, with Tanya translating to Mark and me as quietly and quickly as she could. Then Mark was required to stand, state his full name, birthdate, and address, and was asked many questions by the judge. Those questions included information about salary, our home, his job, his intentions as a father, how we plan to educate them, and even if we plan to change the girls' religion. He answered that one well, "No, we just intend to show them the love of God."

I thought once they had asked all those questions of Mark that I wouldn't need to talk, but wrong! I was also required to stand and give the standard information, then the judge asked me questions about my job, about how we met the girls, about our other children, and a question about why we chose to adopt children from Ukraine, rather than Russia, or any other place. I simply said, "Because we met these two girls last year and fell in love with them. We were not even planning on adopting before, but our other kids are older now and we still have love and energy to give. God brought them to us."

The girls were then each required to stand and the judge asked them if they consented to the adoption. They both said, "Yes!" The judge asked if they were certain, and they said, "yes." Then Mark and I each required to stand again and make a statement about what we wanted from the court. We were told to say that we petitioned the court for adoption of Zhanna and Ella, that we wanted to change their names, and that we wanted to become their parents. After that there was some more formal procedure and reading to be done. This was information about Zhanna and Ella's background and the fact that their birthparents' rights were taken away and they were brought to the orphanage in Mariupol in 2005 and since then no relatives had ever visited them or attempted to make any contact with them. Also, no Ukrainian citizens had shown any interest in adopting them. That part was really sad. We wondered how the girls were feeling through all of that. Then all of us, except the judge and the officials of the court, were required to step outside for about 5 minutes. When we reentered and took our places, it was declared to be in the best interest of the girls that we become their parents and it was a done deal! It was official about noon, Ukraine time. We took some pictures and said our thank-you's and good-byes, and Mark and I became new parents to two pre-teen girls! Hallelujah!

We wanted to celebrate somehow, but God already had a day of celebration planned for us. Unbeknownst to us, June 1st just happens to be International Child Protection Day! Therefore, the kids from the orphanage had been invited to a day of fun activities. Tanya drove us to the bowling alley all the way across town so that Zhanna and Ella could join the group. She then left us with the girls so she could go back to work.

The remainder of the day was a crazy, confusing kaleidescope of contrasts between the old and the new in what is uniquely Ukraine! On the way to the bowling alley we passed street sweepers. I'm not talking about motor vehicles with big brushes. I'm talking about women with head scarves tied in the back and baggy blue pants and orange vests, sweeping the edges of the streets next to the curb with the old fashioned Ukrainian twig brooms. Then we arrived at the bowling alley, and it was more modern and cleaner than any I have been to in America!

After the bowling alley, the children were divided into different groups of about 20 children, plus teachers. We, of course, tagged along with Zhanna and Ella's group. We walked down the road a ways, then crossed a busy street and waited for a city bus. When you ride a bus in Ukraine, you can bet that most of the time, you won't be seated. There are many people that ride the buses and the buses aren't very large. They cram people in like sardines. So here we are, getting on the already crowded bus with 20 kids, plus adults. It's a wonder we didn't lose one of the children today. But we managed to squeeze in, bump along, and hang on to our next destination. After the short bus ride and a somewhat longer walk, we ended up at a pretty large cafe where they had planned tea and a program for the kids.

By this time it was already after 2:00. Mark and I hadn't eaten much for breakfast because of the nervousness about the court hearing. The kids were all seated around tables that were laden with wonderful pastries and candies. They were served hot tea and cold tea and unflavored soda water (which they love here, because they hardly ever drink sugared soft drinks). Mark and I were told to go sit in the corner and wait for them. We tried to be polite and smile at the children as they were eating and being served, but I guess they could see us salivating profusely, so some of the girls finally took pity on us and brought us a napkin filled with pastries and sweets. We greedily consumed them all over in our dark corner!

After the tea we all walked BACK to the bus stop, crossed an extremely busy street, almost lost a couple of kids under the tires of a truck or two, but it was okay. Then we waited at that bus stop trying to get on every bus that passed by, but no joke, there was not an inch of room in any bus. We have NEVER seen them so crowded. In Ukraine, people may get in at the middle door or the back door to the bus (there is no front door). Once you are on, there is a woman inside who collects the fares from each passenger. I don't know how they train these women, but they must implant some sort of infrared sensors into their eyeballs, because they can spot new bodies in a crush of humanity that defies description. One bus was already packed and we saw a man get on, barely squeeze in, and was still partially hanging outside with the door open, as the bus took off. Somebody needs to tell the Ukrainian Transportation Department that there has to be a better way!

Obviously, we weren't going to get 20 kids on any of these buses, even if they do have small bodies. So, it was decided that we ride the tram system back to the central bus loading area, try to get a bus that was initially less crowded and then ride all the way home. The tram system is not what we think of as riding up the mountain in Albuquerque. It is also a type of bus system that runs on railroad-type tracks with cables overhead. The tracks run down the middle of some of the streets. The tram buses are larger than the regular buses. But the tram buses are even older than the other buses. So even though we are not driving over all the potholes in the streets, we are bouncing and bumping as we "ride the rails."

We made it to the central loading point, and bus after bus came by, but as soon as it pulled up, people crushed inside, filled it up, and we couldn't get the kids on. Finally, one of the women leading our group went to talk to the bus driver in one of the waiting buses and made arrangements for our group to load first. Praise God. We all got in and everyone had a seat, even though several of us were sitting 3 or 4 to a seat, rather than two. Then the bus pulled to the regular loading area, and picked up the other passengers. One man got on very loud, and I think probably drunk, and started yelling at our kids. I think he was upset because they got on first and took all the room. The lady fare taker told him something like, "Come on, they are kids from the orpanage!" Thankfully he left, but many other people got on. I think the buses were only designed to hold maybe 30 or 40 at most, even with people standing. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were almost 100 people on that bus by the time we got to our stop, which was a l-l-l-o-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g-g way. It took about half an hour to get there and it was a warm and humid day. Many people in Ukraine don't wear deoderant. We had 20 sweaty, little kids in the bus all around us. Need I say more? We were glad to get out of there! I don't know how people do that every day. One thing I think Zhanna and Ella will notice right away is the ease in which we live our lives. It is so easy for us to travel from one place to another. Our road systems and public transportation systems are easy and comfortable and comparatively clean and modern. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for.

We got everyone back to the orphanage in one piece and as the kids went to go get a snack, Mark and I said a prayer together for God's blessings on the day. Then we spent a little more relaxed time with Zhanna and Ella. We looked at some books together. Ella was looking at a book about animals, and I was saying the English names and she was repeating. Then we saw pictures of the animal families, and she and Zhanna would name them, "The whole McKenzie family - Mark, Dawn, Nathan, Annie, Zhanna, Ella." Then they would giggle. It was precious. We said good-bye to our "novi divichki" our "new daughters," with the promise we would see them tomorrow "da zaftra."

Tonight at the TLC they had a celebratory meal. We have no idea if it was planned, or a coincidence. No one said anything about it, but we ate a great dinner of a large meatball in tomato sauce with barley and cabbage slaw and bread. Then we had dessert! Pastries, and "marozhena" "ice cream!" We enjoyed these gifts from God very much.

Tonight we are full - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. God has given us so much. We are happy. Please pray for the vote tomorrow by the Ukrainian parliament on the adoption law. Please pray for all the other families waiting to adopt, and for orphans here and around the world who need a family. Please pray that our next 10 days here will go quickly as we wait out this time until the adoption is totally legal, and then please pray that the remainder of this adventure will all be in God's hands and in God's timing so that we can be home as soon as possible. Thank you, God. "Spaseba Bog."

Thank you so much again, to all who have prayed on our behalf. We have felt your love flowing around us. Your support has kept us going. We couldn't have done this without you.
Love,
Dawn and Mark