It's Official! Andrew is our son!!

WHOO WHOOO!!! God is so good!! It's official, Andrew is our son as of today. We just returned from court today and the judge officially declared Andrew as our son! We are so happy and excited to be parents at last. Andrew is our forever son, at last. How truely blessed we are to have Andrew as our son. It's hard to express what we are feeling emotionally.



Today, when the judge asked me about why we wanted to adopt a child from Ukraine, of course the emotions started to flow. Alla told me not to cry. I controlled myself as much as I possibly could, but when your dream is at the final stages of coming true it's hard not to get excited, emotional and thankful to God for all He has done throughout this whole process. The judge also asked some questions about our finances, home, education and work which then helped to calm me down. And then he asked if I wanted to ask him anything and then I knew it was time to ask him if we could adopt Andrew and to change his Russian name to the name we chose for him. Well, the tears of joy and emotion were flowing again when I asked the judge if we could adopt Andrew and change his family Russian name to Millilo and to change his first name Andrey to Andrew Lawrence. I was surprised at how emotional I was when I asked him this. I was laughing and crying at the same time. Robert gave me a tissue to dry my eyes. The lawyer of the orphanage stated to the judge that she has seen with her own eyes how much we love Andrew and that they were tears of joy. The judge then asked Robert some questions regarding his work and Robert also stated that we obligate to register him at the Ukrainian Embassy after the adoption and understand that Andrew will be an Ukrainian citizen until the age of 18 years old. He will also be an American citizen once we hit US soil when we return home.



As of today we are parents, however, they didn't waive the 30 days waiting period before we can bring Andrew home with us. Robert and I have decided that it would be better for Andrew to stay the extra 30 days here in Ukraine with him to continue bonding with him until we are officially allowed to bring Andrew home. We will be staying at the same hotel, however, we will switch to a larger room with A/C. Alla is setting everything up for us regarding the same driver to take us back and forth to visit with Andrew everyday and take us to the market or pharmacy or whatever we need since she won't be with us during the 30 days. She will check in with us from time to time and visit us once during our stay. Alla has been wonderful through everything with this whole adoption and we've made her as one of Andrew's babushka's (grandmothers). She has helped taken care of us and Andrew and helped us through all the legalities and we praise God for her and Cathy Harris and Valentina and all of the Ukrainian Angel groupies for all of the Godly wisdom that they've provided for us. God directed us to Ukrainian Angels halfway through our adoption process and let me just say that the wisdom and favor we have received through this group has been exceedingly and abundantly far above what we had asked for.



For this child we've prayed and this is the petition which we've asked of Him.

First Car Ride & Bonding with Papa

Today we took Andrew to get his picture taken for his passport along with some other adoptive families. It was interesting holding Andrew in the backseat of a car without strapping into a carseat. With the bumpy rodes bouncing us around I felt like I was Andrew's carseat strapping him down. Of course he wasn't happy sitting still so I kept changing his position to keep him quite. He was finally happy when he was grabbing and tickling Daddy's neck from behind through the bottom space in the head rest from the front seat. Once he tickled Robert's neck, Andrew would lean over to look at Robert's reaction when Robert would turn around and smile at him. In return Andrew grinned happily that he made Papa laugh. Andrew kept doing that in the car to keep himself occupied while I held him.



We all then came back to the orphanage to play with our children until 6:00pm. Andrew loved his new rider motercycle toy that we got for him. One where you sit on it and push with your feet to make it go. At first he was more interested in pulling the stickers off of it than riding on it. (Andrew likes to pull labels off of our bottles). He does better going backwards on it than forwards or he likes to push it as he holds onto it. It gives him balance as he pushes it around. Andrew was also playing with another toy where you put the shapes in the correct holes. He was starting to figure it out with the help of Papa today.



This morning, we were walking Andrew around to get him some exercise and after about 10 minutes of walking he plopped himself down on the blacktop and wouldn't stand when I helped him up. I told Robert that he was probably tired and that he needed a break. Well, Robert picked him up and Andrew started to get sleepy. So I held him and he slept for about an hour on my shoulder. He's been quite the active boy the past couple of days. He finally needed a rest.



Another funny story real quick I wanted to share was when we were going back to our hotel one night we were waiting for the elevator to open when this stray cat that hangs out in the hotel came over to the same elevator to wait with us. When the elevator doors opened the cat immediately walked into the elevator before us and Robert, Alla and I all looked at each other and laughed. We joined the cat into the elevator and Robert pushed floor number 2 and our floor number 6. If anyone knows Robert, knows that he is not too fond of cats since he is allergic to them. He pushed floor number 2 so the cat would get off on that floor instead of our floor and sure enough when the doors opened the cat got off and said goodnight. We all had a good laugh over that one. Too funny.

Balloons, Explosions & Energy

Hello to all friends and family back home. Sorry no pictures today, Andrew was a handful and a half today. I think because of all of the protein and vitamins he has been receiving from his Mama and Papa his was like a freight train today. Just couldn't keep still, even when we fed him. Robert kept him occupied for a while with a balloon that he blew up. Andrew was playing catch with Daddy and then he thought it was funny to hold the balloon in his mouth by the knot. He was giggling and cooing the whole time he was playing with it.



A funny thing happened this morning when we were feeding him his cottage cheese and apple and peach baby food. Andrew was sitting in his yellow chair facing us as we fed him and as I placed the spoonful in his mouth he sneezed and a explosion of baby food splattered ALL OVER Robert and I. Yes we were christened by our Prince Andrew and now we are OFFICIAL parents. Robert and I just looked at each other in amazement and how far the food splattered and laughed. Too Funny! That's one for the books.

Andrew was also speaking more today. He was babbling at everything today. I forgot to mention that on Friday Alla was showing Andrew our family album and showing him our picture teaching him to say Mama & Papa. Well Andrew surprised us all and said "Papa" on Friday and ever since. Todays new word was "Bye" instead of paka (russian for bye). We've been showing him flash cards of animals and different obects and working with his language skills. He is starting to really speak more often now and mimic both Robert and I. Even if I make certain sounds to get his attention or different sounds to identify that I'm about to tickle him he is repeating what I do and that sounds I make. I forgot to mention that yesterday was the first day that he answered and turned his head to me when I called him Andrew. He usually only answered by Andrushka (what they call him at the orphanage) but yesterday I said Andrew to get his attention and he turn his head and looked at me like "you called"?? We weren't sure if he got a nap today because he was so rammy and a bit cranky towards the end of the day.



We went shopping today for new shoes and some other clothes for Andrew. As if you didn't notice, Andrew has been wearing pink sandles, which is all the orphanage has in his size. One of the other adoptive American mothers helped us size his foot to be we think a 4 toddler. Looks right but we'll see how they fit tomorrow. Since he is also getting to be so active we will probably get him a toddler walking car or some type of walking toy to help improve him walking. The pavement and grass areas around the orphanage are extremely uneven and unsafe just for walking. All of the roads, sidewalks, pavements you name it are needing some serious help. You really have to be careful just walking down the sidewalk.



The weather here today was wonderful. Cool and breezy with a bit of sun. The caretakers dressed Andrew in a sweatshirt this morning because it was so cool. We loved every minute of it. It was a nice change from the past couple of weeks. Well, that's it for today. Have a good evening.

Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

We have good news for everyone! Alla got court scheduled for THIS Friday!! Hallelujah!! We were so excited that I gave Alla a BIG Kiss on her cheek. We were one of the few couples that did get our court scheduled for Friday. We are blessed to have Alla and the favor of God on our side.



Boy oh Boy what an active child Andrew was today. From morning till afternoon he just didn't want to sit still. He is getting stronger and stronger as each day goes by and more and more active. Last week, he wanted to sit a lot or be held and walk a little bit. Today he didn't want to sit still much, he wasn't sleepy at all...he was just on the go, go, go. Sounds like Robert, ehhh?? We also noticed that he was testing us today to see how much he could get away with. When we purchased the lawn furniture we also purchased a little chair for Andrew as well. Today was the first day that he actually wanted to sit in it. Of course since it was plastic we had to keep it steady so it wouldn't fall over when he was getting in and out of it. When it came time to feed him we placed him in his chair and halfway throughout feeding him he started to stand up in the chair. I told him to sit and he wasn't listening at first so I firmly said sit and pointed to the chair and as Robert was holding the chair waiting for him to listen to me Andrew (with food on his face) gave us this silly grin like he was saying (yeah right). So I pulled the food away and said for him to sit (more firmly) or no more food. So he sit down and then we continued feeding him. He didn't seem that hungry today either. He ate about half of a jar of baby food and was playing with it instead of eating it. He was really playing with me by putting his tongue in the way so the spoon wouldn't fit in his mouth and then he would finally open up wide enough and he wouldn't close his mouth to take the food, instead he would let me scrap the food off into the roof of his mouth and he would keep his mouth open and let the food drop to the bottom of his mouth and then smile with food squishing out of his mouth. Such a silly happy boy he has become in such a short time. We have noticed that he is getting a bit heavier as well.



Today we noticed that he hasn't had his hair washed in a while so we washed his hair with a baby wipe and Robert thought it was funny when his hair was all spiked up (as you can see in the picture below).






Just wanted to add that tonight I had veal at a restaurant and let me just say that it certainly doesn't compare to Catelli Brothers' Veal. Boy am I spoiled with such quality veal from Catelli Brothers. I miss it as well as all of my family at Catelli Brothers and our family at home and at Victory Christian Fellowship Church! It's great to get emails from everyone while we are here. Makes us feel closer to everyone. Sorry if we haven't responded to everyone's emails, very limited here. Just wanted you all to know that your emails, thoughts and prayers are sooooo much appreciated. Until tomorrow. Paka (Good bye)

Our Silly Little Boy

What a wonderful day it was today. The weather was a bit cooler than it's been and it was quite windy, which helped cool things off today. It was a nice change from the last week being hot and humid with no A/C. For those of you that are planning on coming over to adopt any time soon, make sure you bring insect repellent. They don't have screens on their windows here and to keep cool you must keep the windows open when you sleep. We've been coating ourselves with bug spray before we lay down to go to sleep or else we won't be able to sleep.

We were tired of crouching on our blanket to visit with Andrew so we stopped at the store on the way in to visit with him to purchase a plastic bench and a couple of chairs to sit on to make it more comfortable. We were thankful to be able to spend time with Andrew on Sunday (which is usually not allowed). As you can see from the picture that he was quite a silly little boy today. As each day goes by his personality is blossoming. The caretakers told us in the orphanage that before we came he was such a serious and quite little boy which rarely smiled. Now they can see a definite change in him. Much more happier and more energetic. They say he has happy eyes now. Today the doctor of the orphanage came over to sit down and talk to us regarding Andrew. She said that she has been caring for him since he was 6 months old. She gave us some parenting advice and told us the change she has seen in him this past week as well. Alla then picked him up out of my arms and stood between the doctor and myself and spoke to Andrew in Russian saying who do you want to go to the doctor or Mama? Andrew looked at the doctor and then looked at me and immediately threw his arms out towards me to hold him. The doctor was very impressed and glad to see that Andrew is attaching well to us. That is exactly what she wanted to see. The doctor then asked if we could purchase some allergy medicine for another child who got stung by a bee today and is all swelled up. They didn't have enough allergy medication for the child so we went out and purchased it and brought it back to the orphanage during our afternoon visit. When we were through playing with Andrew later in the day, I saw the doctor in the hallway of the orphanage and she gave me a big hug and kiss for bringing the medicine for the other child. I told her that we were happy to help. I then asked her how the child was doing and she brought me down to see the child. I told Alla that I just wanted to make sure that the child was doing fine and she wanted me to see the change in the child from getting the medication. The child is doing much better and most of the swelling has gone down. The doctor is such a sweet lady. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of Andrew. She threw her arms around all of us and hugged both Andrew and I. She told Alla for us to come back to the same orphanage next year for a little girl. I told her we just might.



Andrew today was being his silly self. He was sitting on Daddy's lap straddling his leg while I was taking a few pictures of him. He got into it and started posing for Mama. He laid down on Daddy's leg and looked at me in a silly way, as you can see. The he would get up and lay back down and give me this silly smerk. What a ham he is. Everyone says how happy of a child he is and his playfulness is really starting to show.



Today we were reading a baby book to him and showing him pictures of the babies in the book. Each page had a baby and baby supplies. Each page I would point to the baby and say "Baby" over and over again. Then I would ask Andrew, "Where's the baby", and he would immediately point to the baby and he said, "Bab Bab! What a smart little cookie he is. He is like a sponge just absorbing everything. Hallelujah!! God is soooo Good!!





Robert wanted to add that our spiritual training has given us strength to use each and every day. Today, coming home from the orphanage we had the green light and were proceeding through the intersection while in the other direction to our left another car was speeding in and around other cars to speed through the intersection before the light turned red. The light turned red for him, however, the car didn't even slow down. We saw him and if we proceeded any further through the intersection we would be in the hospital right now. We thank God for the angels that surround us each and everyday giving us protection from all evil. The car slammed on his brakes because he finally woke up and slid right by us by a hair and through the intersection he went and kept going. We noticed that there were 8 adults piled in the car the size of an escort. "We don't need to crash test any 30 year old Russian cars while we are here". As Alla says, Life is Life!!



Tomorrow, the paperwork trail starts again. We will be meeting with the judge to see when we can have a court date. We will keep you all updated on our progress and as soon as we find out when court is we'll let you all know. Until then Dasfidanya!! (Goodbye)

Butterflies & Tickles

It is so good to be connected again to everyone back home. We appoligise for keeping you all in suspense so long. This week was a whirlwind week of legalities once we found our son. In between visits with Andrew we were running to get all of the paperwork (red tape) together as quickly as possible so we can get court scheduled as soon as possible. Alla has been doing backflips getting the paperwork done. Our paperwork was approved by the inspector on Friday and is in the process of being approved by the NAC and hopefully on Monday we will get a court date for the end of the week from the judge. As you know we want to bring Andrew home as soon as possible, that is why we were out of touch so long.



We've been told that the region where Andrew is in does not waive the 30 day waiting period from the time of court. That means that after our court date we would either have to come home for 30 days before bringing Andrew home or stay here for another 30 days before we can all come home. We will see if this is really the case. Please keep it in prayer that the 30 day waiting period is waived so we all can come home as soon as court has taken place. We were aware of this when we accepted the referral to meet Andrew, however we felt he was worth the extra 30 day wait if that were the case.






We are so in love with our son, Andrew. He is such a cutie! This morning Andrew fell asleep again on my shoulder. The orphanage has just moved him into an older group of kids (therefore he is the youngest in his groupa). They are trying to keep him up in the morning to visit with us, instead of getting a morning and afternoon nap and therefore we are able to spend 2.5 hours with him twice a day instead of 1 hour twice a day. Our little prince couldn't hang this morning though and passed out on my shoulder. It was pretty funny watching him get all sleepy as he was trying to stay awake. And then he was sleeping propped in my arms like he was still awake. Like father like son. Robert can sleep sitting up as well anywhere and any time of the day. Hehehhee!! I finally laid his head down on my shoulder to make it more comfortable for him. Such a sweetie he is! And I'm not just saying that cause he is our son. Everyone is saying that we got the best kid out of our groupa.



Today, Andrew was walking around with me as he was holding my finger on the orphanage grounds and we saw a lot of butterflies flying around. So when we got real close I pointed to the butterflies and repetitively said the word butterfly over and over again. About a half hour later when we were feeding him outside on our blanket, Andrew pointed to a butterfly nearby and said "But" "But". We were amazed at how quickly he picked that up.





Also today we were tickling and playing with Andrew...just being goofy to make him smile. He is showing his silly personality with us. He loves to be held up in the air over your head. He laughs and giggles so much when we do that.



Well, that's all for now. We appreciate all of the prayers in the past and future prayers. We believe that God is blessing you of your hearts desire as well. Thank you all for thinking of us and joining in with us on our excitement of our son, Andrew.

Day 4 with Andrew

Day 3 with Andrew

This morning’s visit with Andrew went well. We took him outside and played with him a bit and gave him some juice with his vitamins mixed in. Boy, I tell you, once he latches onto the sippy cup he never lets go. His strength is mighty when it comes to his juice. He drinks it so fast that he starts choking on it. We try to pull the cup away from him but he hangs on for dear life. He is becoming more relaxed and friendly towards us as each day goes by. He is such a sweet little boy. He loves to give Robert a slap on the hand like he is giving him five….and then he laughs. After we were done feeding him this morning and wiped him down, I stood up to pick him up off of Robert’s lap and stretched my arms out to pick him up. To my surprise he immediately outstretched his hands towards me for the first time. I squealed with delight and picked him up and gave him many hugs and kisses. Towards the end of our visit, he outstretched his hands to his daddy for him to pick him up as well. Robert was tickled pink that Andrew has attached to him so quickly.



In between visits with Andrew, Alla had us running around town doing errands to prepare the paperwork for court. We stopped at the police station, for paperwork regarding his birthmother, then we went to the notary to sign a petition to adopt Andrew which will go to the city and the NAC, we stopped by the birth certification building to make a petition that when we adopt Andrew we will change his name to Andrew Lawrence Millilo. We found out that his name isn’t actually Andrew, it’s Andrey (in Russian) but the caretakers at the orphanage call him the affectionate nickname of Andrey which is Andruska. So since that nickname is close to Andrew, that is what we’ve been calling him and decided to change it to Andrew as his first name. We gave him my father’s first name as Andrew’s middle name, Lawrence in honor of my dad. We then went to make some copies of some documents, went to the inspector’s office, Alla spoke with the orphanage doctor regarding his blood tests which came back today all negative!!! Praise God!! There were some other specialist doctors which also checked him out today and said that he is healthy boy. The only delays are in some physical with walking for his age and speech. He said just to work with him regarding talking to him and teach him certain words. He also has a heat type of rash on his back, chest and neck, which, Robert and I have been putting ointment on him, and has helped a bit. We checked to see if his bottom had the same type of rash and it didn’t. So it’s probably from being out in the heat (which it has been quite hot here) and sweat and dirt etc.



During this afternoon’s visit, Robert and I gave him some more juice with some fruit. He doesn’t seem to chew very well so we are sticking to baby food for now with some soft fruit. Andrew has 12 teeth, however, most are in the front and a couple new molars are starting to break through. Andrew has surprised us both by not being the type of baby who chews or sucks on his hands or want to put anything in his mouth (except food or juice of course). I found his ticklish spot today, by his upper portion of his legs and got him smiling big with teeth and all. I’ve been taking photographs day by day and will update with photos when I can. Towards the end of our visit, Robert and I brought him back to his group and gave him hugs and kisses before we put him back with his group. When I put him down, he started to get upset that we were leaving. Then the orphanage doctor came over and spoke to him and diverted his attention from getting upset to blowing us kisses goodbye and smiling. Ohh how precious our Prince Andrew is. He blew us 3 kisses goodbye and gave us such a cute little grin. Be still our hearts, Andrew has captured ours forever.

Day 2 with Andrew

Today we got to visit with Andrew twice, once in the morning for about an hour and once in the afternoon for about an hour.



Morning Visit:



When we arrived the orphanage was getting ready to draw some blood from Andrew and the other children that were about to be adopted for some testing and they weren’t allowed to eat until after the blood test. He was a little cranky during and after the blood test since the little guy was also hungry and hadn’t eaten anything yet. They gave him a little something to eat when Robert and I waited to visit with him in the waiting room. When they brought him out to visit, he still didn’t reach for me to pick him up, however, I took him in my arms anyway. He would give me this look as if he were checking me out and then I’d give him a big hug and kiss. Robert was afraid to hold him right away, since the children are not used to being around men and he didn’t want Andrew to start crying. Robert figures for Andrew to get used to me first and then by the end of the week he’ll hold him. I put him down to see how strong his legs were and to see how good he could walk. I held his hands and he was trotting around me quickly a couple of times. Then he stopped abruptly and started crying. So I then picked him up and started humming Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He then calmed down and Robert and I sat him on my lap to feed him a banana. Robert pulled out the banana and broke off a little piece and handed it to me. I put it up to Andrew’s mouth and he gently bit into it and ate it. When he was finished with the first little piece, Robert broke off another piece and handed it to me and Andrew grabbed it and fed himself. Boy the shyness wore off quick. We then gave him a little water from a water bottle we had and he sipped a little bit down with no problem at all. Robert thought that was enough banana he folded up the rest of the banana and was about to put it in our bag. When he moved the banana toward the bag, Andrew opened his mouth real wide like to say…don’t put it in the bag, put it in my mouth instead, can’t you see I’m still hungry? So we gave him more banana and a little more water and all of a sudden this loud burp came out of him and surprised us all. We all had a good laugh and then took Andrew outside to be close to his groupa (the group of children in his age group). We went outside and since Andrew didn’t have any shoes on, I held him in my arms as I sat in a chair near his groupa. He was babbling to his playmates as I held him and then he got real sleepy. He fell asleep in Mama’s arms for the first time on day 2. How precious he is. Robert got a few quick pictures of our precious prince sleeping and then the caretaker took him inside to sleep in his crib.




Afternoon Visit:



When Alla brought Andrew out of his room into the waiting room, we both gave Andrew a big hello. He seemed much more pleasant even from the start of our visit. Alla held his hand and guided him over to Robert as Robert took his picture. Since he had sandles on we took him outside and played with him near the monkey bars. He was wearing a cute little hat on his head. One of the orphanage caretakers and doctors greeted Andruska with a friendly hello and he about pulled me over as he was running to go and greet them. He responds happily and affectionately to all of his caretakers and orphanage doctor when they greet him by name. He tries to bolt over to them with a cheerful and playful laugh. As I help him walk or bolt over to them when he sees one of them approaching and they cheerfully call his name, I literally have to keep up with him since he is holding my hands to help him walk. I am glad to see that he is loved here by his caretakers and he loves them.



As I was on one side of the monkey bars and Andrew was on the other, I told Robert to take his hand until I get on the other side of the monkey bars to help him. Well, Robert took a hold of Andrew’s hand and Robert was helping him walk down the path to Mama. I snapped a few photos of Andrew and his Daddy and then we sat down to feed him. I told Robert to pick him up and put him on Robert’s lap as I get his food ready. When Robert placed Andrew on his lap, Robert stuck out his hand and Andrew immediately gave him five (slap on his hand) and laughed and looked at Robert. We all laughed at how Andrew is warming up to us and us to him. Such a beautiful moment…of course I got out the camera for that Kodak moment as well with his Papa. Andrew seemed much happier, stronger and more active during this visit. When I fed him he had no troubles putting down a jar of peaches and apples and some carrot and apple juice. Towards the end of his feeding time with us, Andrew started closing his mouth real fast to squish out the food all over his mouth. And then you see this big smurk appear on his face. He did that a few more times and we all laughed. His personality is starting to show and we’re loving it. We walked him around some more and then gave him lots of huggs and kisses. He is becoming much more receptive towards us and more relaxed as the day went on. I could see that Robert is falling in love with him as much as I am after today’s visit. When it was time to leave I gave him more hugs and kisses and then put him in his outdoor groupa room with gates all around it. After we said our goodbyes and walked away we turned around to wave goodbye again and he was walking to the end of the gate near us and looking through the bars as to say where are you going??? Don’t leave so soon. It was a splendid day with Andrew. We are so looking forward in taking Andrew home with us as soon as possible. We are thrilled to have the privilege of being Andrews parents.

We Found Our Son!!

August 2, 2005: Day 1 with Andrew our son!



Today we found our son in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine! He is a precious 18 month old little boy as of yesterday, August 1, 2005. He is approximately 18 pounds in weight and 68 centimeters long. He was born premature at 7 months gestation, however, is developing more and more, day by day. His name is Andrew or as they call him in the orphanage Andruska.



We traveled by train overnight to visit the orphanage today and didn’t get much sleep due to the movement and noise of the train. It was an interesting train with 4 cots to a room. Robert, Alla and I all stayed in the same room and finally turned the lights off around 1am. The train arrived in Dnipropetrovsk around 7:00am. Since it was too early to meet with the city inspector and then the orphanage inspector we had some breakfast at McDonalds. I was looking forward to a McGriddle breakfast sandwich, however, come to our surprise they didn’t have breakfast food, only cheeseburgers, French fries and Mcnugguts. So we had McNuggets with orange juice for breakfast. Once we met with the inspector of the city and then the inspector of the orphanage we traveled to the orphanage to meet the orphanage director and then meet Andrew. Since Ukraine is switching ministries of who will oversee the orphanages the orphanage director was in an all day meeting with some city officials until 4:00pm. We waited for 4 hours along with 3 other couples waiting to meet with the orphanage director for the first time. Once she got back from her meeting, we were all hoping and praying she would let us see the children for a bit before they closed at 5:00pm. Well, Praise God, she saw all of us waiting couples and brought in the children we were waiting to visit with.



When they brought Andrew into the room to see us he was shy, hesitant and not sure of who these two new people were to him. They let me hold him and he just looked at me and didn’t know what to make of what was going on. I tried to get him to smile but he was very serious. I was bouncing him in my arms as I was standing and started softly singing “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine”, however, I was starting to get choked up with just singing the first few lyrics. As I was holding him, Alla and the orphanage director was quickly giving us Andrew’s medical history. Andrew is perfectly healthy little boy. Since it was the end of the day and the other couples were waiting to meet with the orphanage director we had to say goodbye for today to Andrew. The caretakers took Andrew back to his groupa and changed him into his summer wardrobe for outdoors….his undies. We saw him again before we left outside and got to hold him and get a quick couple of family photos with Mama and Papa Millilo. Robert and I are so excited about our new son Andrew.

Our Second Appointment at the NAC

National Adoption Center Emblem 




Today we went down to the NAC and we waited for them to call us into their offices. We went in and met with a different much nicer psychologist that showed some loose files of children that just came off of the ministry and now available for foreign adoption. Our translator went through the individual files with us and their medical records. We selected to meet one of them. It is a boy that is 18 months old as of today and has some normal orphanage delays. The picture of him is his newborn picture when he was all bundled up with his eyes closed. He has dark hair (looks like a typical Millilo baby). Robert and I are both excited that we are moving forward and praying that this child is our little boy. When we selected him the psychologist took his file and held onto it to put it with our dossier and to get our paperwork ready to travel to see him tomorrow. When she took the file out of our hand the tears of happiness and relief started to well up in my eyes. Valentina and Alla saw that I started to get emotional and motioned for me to stop. I guess because we still have to visit him and THEN give our final approval to adopt him. The psychologist just smiled as she knew they were happy tears. So I controlled myself and stopped crying. Please keep praying for his health, and for God to continue to give us wisdom, direction and discernment on the decision of this little boy. REMEMBER NOTHING IS GUARANTEED YET!! We waited for our referral letter to give us permission to visit him on Tuesday, Aug 2, 2005.



This highlighted region is where we will be traveling to. 




Once we got the letter and all of our documents we went to the travel agent to get train tickets for late tonight. Alla said that it takes approximately 5-7 hours by train to travel to Dnipropetrovsk region where the orphanage is located. This region is SE of Kiev. If you look on the map I highlighted the region where we will be visiting the little boy. We then went back to the apartment to collect our belongings, and got drenched from the major downpour of water after getting off of the taxi bus. We should arrive in Dnipropetrovsk around 7am and will then meet with the inspector of the city and of the orphanage. After that we will meet with the orphanage director, orphanage doctor and then meet the little boy. We will keep you all informed as much as we can on the outcome of tomorrow. We know that you all are just as excited for us as we are in becoming parents. We hope and pray that our internet service will be as good there as we have here in Kiev. Until we blog again, keep us in prayer for safe travels. Love to you all!!

Our Weekend in Kiev

Robert & Karrie Sitting Next to A Famous Russian Writer 




Saturday, Robert and I enjoyed our time to relax today and take it easy. We knew it was going to be a hot day today we stayed inside for a majority of the day. We exercised to our Tae Bo Billy Blanks Ab Bootcamp dvd and caught up on some emails, caught up on our paperwork and watched some movies. Around 4:30pm Dima came over to take us out on the town. He took us to a wax museum where they had some Russian Olympic figures, Russian actors, poets, Russian Presidents such as Lennon, Breshnif, Stalin and Arnold Swartzineger & Britney Spears. Dima then took us up one of the 7 hills in Kiev to the Russian Parliament building where all of the diplomats and political figures meet. We then climbed another hill to walk through Maritzzio Park that over looks the Dnipro River and Kiev. He then led us through the park where the first Prime Minister built a magnificent home where other countries presidents and diplomats stay while they are in town. Behind the gates of the Prime Minister home and building were approximately 15 tents that were set up close to each other with protest signs. Dima said that these people are still protesting the Orange Revolution that went on last winter. This is just a very small percentage of the people that were camped out protesting for 3 months last year when the elections were going on last fall. We then continued through the park and saw a lot of monuments of Russian composers, politicians and historians. We walked a little further and came to a free outdoor classical arena where people were playing their instruments. The arena was packed with an interested audience. We stayed and listened for a while as we overlooked the city and watched the roller bladers weave in and out of their cones on their toes. This city has some huge parks. If you are planning on coming to Kiev to adopt or visit, you must walk through some of these parks. A little further down in the park was a huge playground and a couple of ponies for the kids to take a ride on. Seems to be a common thing here in the city for people who can afford it. Robert didn’t want to pay for me to ride on the pony so I wasn’t a happy camper. =) I could see that he wanted to ride the monster toy trucks by the way he was watching the little kids drive them around. I said, “No not today…maybe next time”. =) By that time we were tired, our feet hurt and were dripping with sweat. Dima hailed the taxi bus and we went home. It was an exhausting day between exercising in the morning and climbing the hills in Kiev and all the walking we did. By the time we got back to the apartment Robert’s Mom & Dad called and chatted with us for a while. I was too tired to blog last night, so we just relaxed when we got home.



Sunday: In the afternoon we went out on the town ourselves. We took a taxi bus to one of the malls and did a little shopping in the wonderfully air conditioned mall. Of course we took our time to enjoy much of the cool temperatures as possible, have lunch and nosing in and out of the shops. When we were in the center of the mall in one of the shops a funny thing happened. All of a sudden out in the center of the mall this loud up beat music started blasting and disco lights were flashing to get everyone’s attention to come out of the stores and into the center of the mall. When we walked out of the shop to the center of the mall we saw this red carpet go up this ramp and around the corner along with this red velvet rope that bordered the red carpet. Well they started announcing something in Russian over the loud speaker like they were introducing the President of Ukraine or something. Then when we heard female names being announced Robert turned to me and said that he thought that it was going to be a fashion show with models walking down the red carpet. Well wouldn’t you know it that there were these 5 ducks…yes I said DUCKS that were running down the red carpet, flapping their wings like they were waving hi to us and running into the fountain (where the carpet led to). They were so FUNNY!! They were playing around in the water climbing on top of each other, flapping their wings real hard to get everyone wet and then got up out of the fountain and ran down the carpet the opposite direction and waved goodbye with their wings as they squaked Dasfidanya…or goodbye!!! One of the most hilarious things we have seen yet. Robert just shook his head in disbelief. Well that was our exciting day out on the town in Kiev today. We hope you had a good laugh about it as well.



Tomorrow will be our second appointment at the NAC. We are anxious to move forward with our adoption of our child, so please pray and be in agreement with us to have favor in finding our forever child. Once we select our child we will travel to the region where the child is located. Depending on the region and how remote or not it is will depend on if we will be blogging regularly or not. We will do what we can to keep you all informed as much as possible. So if you don’t hear anything from us in the next few days, don’t be alarmed. I will get a message to my mom if necessary to update our blog as soon as possible. As you know there are regions in Ukraine (like we have experienced last week) that their phone lines are not working or up to speed. So we’ll see where and if we are able to keep in contact with everyone. We love you and thank you all in advance for the agreement of our forever child.

Deciding To Adopt One Child Under 4 Years Old

This morning Robert and I felt a prompting in our hearts to speak to Alla about pursuing one child instead of a sibling group, since the sibling groups that we pursued last time were all out of country on sponsorship programs. We didn’t want to waste anymore time to see if the sibling groups are available to visit and proceed with the adoption or not. We’ve been here in Ukraine a week already today and at the NAC for 3 days in a row with no outcome as of yesterday.



So this morning we invited Alla over to the apartment where we are staying to discuss the matter and to let her know we are ready to move forward with the adoption of one healthy child under the age of 4 years old. We stressed to her our concern of pursuing a sibling group again since the 6 sibling groups of kids we looked into were all on sponsorship programs either in Italy, Spain or USA and wouldn’t be back for a few weeks to a month. She understood and saw my emotional level was about to break. We told her that we came here for a reason and that was to adopt a child or two. As of yet we are still in the same standstill as we were when we arrived in Kiev a week ago. Alla reassured us that they will do the best they can for us to proceed forward with our adoption.



Since we submitted our letter of petition to get a second appointment with the NAC to look and select from the files again, we waited to see when our appointment would be. Praise GOD!! We were given an appointment for Monday, Aug. 1st to go through and select again. We are so thankful that we don’t have to wait 5-7 days for a second appointment. HALLELUJAH!! The favor of God is definitely upon us and all of our prayers have been effectual and continue to avail MUCH!!! Hallelujah!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!



Robert and I are hopeful about our upcoming appointment on Monday and we believe that God will reveal our forever child on Monday, August 1st . A new month for new beginnings.



We feel like this has been a soap opera story and you all have been the viewers….As the World Turns….or …and this has been “The Days of Our Lives”…Just trying to keep a sense of humor throughout this wonderful week at the NAC.



Anyway…that is the saga for today. We are hopeful about our appointment for Monday, and would appreciate all of your prayers for favor to be shown a healthy child under the age of 4 years old and that the child is available to go and visit with either Monday or Tuesday.



We love and miss you all very much. Feel free to email us at rkmillilo@msn.com . We feel out of touch with everything going on at home and would love to hear what everyone else has been up to.



Until tomorrow…same time…same station….same channel. =)

Staying Strong and Encouraged!

The weather today has been the hottest it’s been around 86 degrees plus humidity and no wind or A/C. Just our body fat turning into liquid and rolling down our arms, legs and buttocks. We heard that it’s only getting hotter over the next few days. Good way to loose weight anyway!



Robert and I had another wonderful day waiting all day to see if we could either travel to the orphanage and take a chance to see the sibling group of 3 children were available, or find out if the NAC or Alla has heard from the orphanage to give us the scoop on the kids. Alla finally received a call from the orphanage director at 5:00pm as we were walking out of the NAC. She said that the boys were at the orphanage, however, the girl was in Italy on a sponsorship program until September. Since they can’t be separated, we decided to get another appointment with the NAC to go through the children’s files again to select once again.



Robert and I are staying peaceful, strong and encouraged throughout this time. We believe that God has the right children picked out for us already and He will reveal them to us real soon. We are keeping the faith and are confident that God is working everything out for good on our and our children’s behalf.



We appreciate all of your love, encouraging and faith filled words, and most of all your prayers.



Stay tuned for more information…Same time…Same channel…Same Station…

When you have done all to stand, STAND!

(Robert decides to speak up today) Hello to all friends and family. It seems that we are in the middle of a war and we have one more battle to go through. So for those of you who have been praying for us, do not stop….we’re almost there. Tomorrow will be our third day going to the NAC where we are looking to get permission to go to the orphanage to meet a sibling group of 3 children. Today the phone lines to the orphanage and inspector’s office were not operating therefore we could not get a hold of them to get permission to see the children. All the other sibling groups that they were checking on for us were unavailable for one reason or the other. We refuse to give up on our harvest, therefore we are meeting with the NAC tomorrow to find out if they received information on the children or we will insist on visiting the children without knowing if they are at the orphanage and not at camp.



(Karrie speaking) Alla our translator, has been pulling strings right and left for us. She has been going over and above what we thought in regards to accomplish our goal and visiting the children. They found out through information that something is wrong with the phone lines at the inspectors’ office and at the orphanage. Alla and Valentina phoned the inspector from the region and told him that we were having difficulty contacting the inspector at the orphanage and the orphanage itself to get information on the children. The regional inspector will find out what is going on and will contact the NAC with the information on the kids by tomorrow. Or we will get permission from the NAC to visit them without contacting the orphanage first. Sometimes in the summer the children go to camp outside of the orphanage or they go on a sponsorship program in another country. There were a few other sibling groups that were away in other countries on sponsorship programs to USA and Spain. So that is why the NAC wants to make sure that we find out if they are at the orphanage before we visit them and to see if any of their relatives are still visiting them.



Please stand in agreement with us that we will receive information on the children and that they are available to be adopted and that we can visit them tomorrow.



We are standing fast and keeping the faith that our harvest of our children is already done. We are looking forward in visiting them tomorrow.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! EAT A PIECE OF CAKE FOR EACH OF US. WE LOVE AND MISS YOU. WE HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAY WAS A HAPPY ONE!! HUGGS & KISSES.
ROBERT & KARRIE

Our Appointment at the NAC

Hello Everyone! We know you all have been waiting and wondering how we made out at the National Adoption Center today. We arrived at the NAC earlier than our scheduled appointment and had to wait until it was our turn to go in to the office. We went into the Scooby Doo like hallway (long hallway with lots of closed doors..not knowing who will appear out of what door next) and waited some more time until it was our turn.



When we finally were asked to come into the psychologists’ office we met with a young woman that asked to see our invitation letter that they sent to us and our family album. We also gave her a picture of 2 previously adopted children from Ukraine that we know and lives near us. She seem to favor that we are in touch and live near another family that has young adopted children from Ukraine and that they look very happy and well adjusted. She then asked us how many children we were looking for and we said 2. As soon as I said two and held up 2 fingers, she responded 3? I said no two children, preferably under the ages of 7 years old. Alla, our translator, spoke to her in Russian and we were shown some loose files first that were sitting on the window sill. When we went through them we selected a few files of sibling groups of 2 and sibling groups of 3 for the psychologist to call the orphanages to find out if they are definitely available. Even though the childrens’ files are in the books at the NAC, if a relative is still visiting them, then they are not on the availability list, unless the relative is willing to sign off for them to be adopted. We did not have any more time since other couples were waiting to meet with them as well, however, the favor of God was certainly going forth on our behalf. We were actually given a great deal more time that was allotted for looking through the files of children and I had the strength of the Lord today meaning I wasn't emotional and Alla was working hard at persuading the pschologist to give us more time to look. Your prayers are certainly going forth on our behalf. We appreciate them all. Keep them coming our way.



We will meet with the NAC tomorrow around 11:30am again to hear the results and select from those files she called about today. If we select a sibling group of 3 children we would need to get another approval from the INS and an addendum from our home study agency in America to allow us to bring 3 children back into the states. We contacted INS and our home study agency today (Thanks to the help of Mama Sherry-OOH you know Mom how thankful we are for all your help today!) to see if and how long it would take to get an updated approval and what is the process to do so. They said it shouldn’t take but more than a weeks time to get it all updated. So to answer you question, Yes we are possibly thinking of adopting 3….yes I said 3 children. And, No we are not crazy! We’ll be Just ONE BIG HAPPY BLESSED FAMILY!!! From there we will select one of the sibling groups and go to visit them. Until then, please pray and be in agreement with us that these sibling groups are available so we can proceed forward with our adoption.



Robert and I wanted to wish my brother David and our brother in-law Billy a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!! We love you both and hope your birthday was a happy one.

Anticipating Tomorrow's Appointment with NAC

Russian Orthodox Cathedral & Monestary Underground 




Today, Dima took us out again tonight to see some more of Kiev. We visited a Russian Orthodox Cathedral today and toured the Underground Monastery where the monks and Russian Orthodox people lived underground. We went through the underground tunnels that were lit by candlelight. The only thing we saw besides the narrow and short tunnel hallways were out coves of tombs of monks and saints all wrapped up in their royal tapestry garments in these glass coffins. One of the tombs the person’s hand was showing through their tapestry garments and it’s mummified skin was barely covering the bones in the hand. Of course Robert had to point it out to me to skeeve me even more than what I was walking through these dark tunnels looking at tombs. He had a good laugh at seeing and hearing my reaction though.



Mama Karrie & Papa Robert outside of Monestary Underground. Women must wear a scarf on their heads to enter. 




All of the churches here are absolutely gorgeous with murals all over the inside and outside of saints and scenes of the Jesus walk here on earth. Of course you are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the churches or the monastery. We also got to experience a traditional Ukrainian meal today, as per my request. We had borcht (beet soup with potatoes, beets, onions and sour cream) very tasty, ham with mushrooms, mayonnaise, and onions, ham with cheese, tomato and onions which was very tastey and rice. We all got our bellies full and rolled out of that Ukrainian Café. Dima then took us for a 2 hour tour boat ride on the Dnipro River. The Dnipro River is the main river that runs from the central north section of Ukraine to the south section and it flows into the Black Sea. It was a lovely day today for touring the city. The weather was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We enjoyed it thoroughly, however, my mind kept wondering about the outcome of tomorrow. We were fairly quite on the boat ride (partially because we were tired from walking everywhere the last week, and partially because of our anticipation for what children God has in store for us). Dima thought we weren’t having a good time and wanted to make sure that we were so he kept asking if we were having fun. I tried to explain to him that we were enjoying his tour, however, we were just excited and looking forward to our day with his mom, Alla tomorrow at the NAC.



Praise God! Tomorrow, July 26th is our appointment with the National Adoption Center. We’ve been thinking about it all day today and are wondering what children God has for us. What ages and gender are they, what do they look like and do they even realize that their Mama and Papa are so excited to meet them and to take them home and love them forever. Our darling children, Ohh how we’ve longed to have you join our family and to smother you with hugs and kisses. We love you already and haven’t even met you yet.



We’ve been praying for God to comfort, clothe, feed, protect and nourish you during this time apart from us. We’ve been praying that the Lord is whispering in your ears that He knows the plans He has for you both. Plans to prosper you and give you peace and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Ohh and what a future you have in store. Our future together as a family has been our dream for so long. We are so grateful to God for Him directing us to you both and all of the people who have helped us get to where we are today.



Please keep us and our appointment with the NAC in prayer and agreement with us that we have supernatural favor with the authorities that we will be meeting with tomorrow, supernatural wisdom for God to direct our paths (for our thoughts are not His thoughts and our ways are not His ways) and that God shows us which children He has directed and planned for our lives and family.



We will keep you all posted as soon as we find out anything. Our appointment at the NAC is for 11:30am (4:30am EST) so we will hopefully be able to go in and select our children and get a permission letter signed to visit them sometime this week. Until then, we will hopefully get some sleep tonight.

Touring Kiev with Dima in Afternoon

WWII Victory Monument & view of Kiev from monument. 




This morning we stayed inside since we had a morning thunder showers with lightning. We called Alla and told her not to send Dima because of the storm, since her son, Dima was going to show us around town again today. It was nice for Robert and I to kick back and relax since the last week we’ve been on the go. We spent some time watching Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland Ministries and working out to a Tae Bo workout DVD we brought. Then we relaxed had lunch and organized some of our belongings and paperwork.



The sun finally came out today around 2pm so Robert and I went out for a walk and discovered an outdoor open market (like I imagined....like a cowtown fleamarket). People were selling fruits, vegetables, flowers & arrangements, eggs, meat, wooden carvings, clothing (everyday) and many other items. All of their tables or booths had umbrellas to shade them from the sun and rain. There was a man selling nuts and I noticed he was cracking the shell open to pull the nuts out to collect in a bowl to sell to people. Today I also noticed when we were on the taxi bus, an older woman wearing a lightweight scarf on her head and a long dress get onto the taxi bus. When she got on the bus she sat down near the door without paying the bus driver. The taxi bus lady asked for the money (I think anyway) and the lady go all huffy and started looking through her purse. The bus then stopped and the older lady got off the taxi bus. I thought we were making a regular stop, however, they were just letting her get off because she didn't have the money to pay for the ride. It's really sad to see so many people in need.



After we got back to the apartment, Dima called and ask to see if we wanted to go out to see more of Kiev. So he showed us around to a few parks (lots of parks in Kiev and beautiful I might add). Dima also showed us to WWII monuments and museum where we could check out their Army tanks, missiles, helicopters, and all kinds of WWII vehicles outdoors. We also past by an Orthodox Russian church where someone famous was getting married. There were many people standing outside of the church with photographers and a Videographer and police all around. Dima said that it would probably be on the news tonight.



For dinner Dima took us to a Pizzaria where we had pizza of course. It was very good. Robert and I both thought it was very tasty. I guess Dima wanted to bring a piece of home to us since he suggested a pizzeria. I think tomorrow I will suggest a typical or traditional Ukrainian meal instead. I really want to experience as much of our children’s culture as possible. I am tired now so I’m saying good night for now.

Our 1st Day Touring Kiev, Ukraine

Robert & Karrie in front of St. Michael's Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine. 





Dobrey Den! (Good Day) Everyone! Yes, and a Good Day it was touring Kiev, Ukraine with Alla, our translator and her son, Dima. They picked us up at our apartment around 10:00am and brought a cell phone for us to rent from them. She showed us how to operate it and then Alla asked us some more detailed questions about ourselves, the type of children we were hoping to adopt, occupations, family and home. Since she wasn’t our original assigned translator, she was just trying to get to know us a little better and to understand better what age ranges we were looking to adopt. We then showed her our photo album that we put together of our home, the childrens’ bedrooms, family, friends and surrounding areas we live near, such as Cape May Beach & Lighthouse, pictures of Wissahikon Park in Philadelphia and NYC- The Statue of Liberty. They were both very interested in looking at our pictures and to get to know us a little better. They really seemed to favor the pictures of our families and our nieces, Nicole, Christina, Maria Clare & Julia and our nephew, Billy. By the way, our 3 and a half year old niece Maria Clare and her mom (Robert’s Sister), Maria made us these awesome chocolate chip cookies to take with us on our trip! They are wonderful and a nice treat from home to enjoy in the evenings. Thanks again to both Maria Clare & Maria for your sweet treats from home. They are YUMMY and appreciated!



By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Nicole!!! We love and miss you much and hope your birthday is as special as you are to us! Have a piece of cake for both Uncle Robert and Aunt Karrie.



We then walked out of our apartment and down the street and saw that we are across the street from a McDonalds. Fancy that. A little piece of home right across the street. Alla guided us through this underground mall that leads out to the other side of the street where we waited for a taxi bus. We took the taxi bus to a park called Shevchenko (not sure of the spelling) park. It was a beautiful park that was surrounded by a university and monuments of different historian Ukrainian figures one being Shevchenko himself. It was a beautiful day for a walk in the park and around the city. The temperature was approximately 86 degrees F. The humidity is low so we are really enjoying the weather.



St. Sofia's Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine 





Alla and Dima were sharing with us a lot of history about the buildings we past. We past the National Ukrainian Opera House, Shevchenko University, St. Sophia’s Cathedral, and St. Michael’s Cathedral. We saw at least 12-15 different couples that just got married and were having their pictures taken with their friends outside of St. Michael’s Cathedral. They had their finely decorated cars (Mercedes and Limos) decorated with flowers and streamers. Of course, these people were the upper class citizens of Ukraine. Alla said that they have to have lots of money to pay for all of these fancy limos and Mercedes to be chauffeuring them around. We took some pictures and walked around the building and viewed more brides and grooms that were touching the holy water in this fountain that had a cross on top of it. It was interesting to learn a bit about the Ukrainian traditions when they get married. Near the fountain was a lady playing the violin. It was a beautiful scene. St. Michael’s Cathedral and St. Sofia’s Cathedral and gorgeous old Russian looking churches with the gold covered dome roofs and colorful walls. Their beauty and grand in stature prescence really took my breath away. No wonder why so many couples get their pictures take in front of them. We then walked to Independence Square to walk around for shopping and to watch the parade. Samsung and UMC (another cell phone company) were parading up and down the streets in Independence Square with their bands and people with flags with their logo on them rolling up and down the streets on their rollerblades. There were a lot of street vendors selling goods and food items. The streets of Independence Square are shut down to vehicles on the weekends, for people to enjoy the activity in the square.



After a fun filled day in Kiev, Alla directed us to an underground mall near our apartment where I could purchase a hair dryer and curling iron since the outlet receptacles are different. We then went to our apartment and Alla checked our paperwork/dossier copy that I brought with us for our adoption to see if everything is correct. She gave us her approval and then she left us for the evening. Robert and I thought we’d go across the street and get a taste of home at McDonalds. It was interesting trying to order without Alla doing it for us. But we handled it with no problem. It was funny, when we were at McDonalds eating, we noticed a little girl celebrating her birthday with her friends. She turned 7 years old and they were playing a game where the McDonalds lady told the two teams of girls to run around and get so many signatures of the people in the restaurant. A group of 7 year old girls ran immediately over to our table and were asking us (so I think) to sign their placemat from McDonalds. So I signed it and they thanked us and ran to the next table. Robert and I thought it was cute and are getting more excited about sharing these experiences with our own children. Well, that’s all for now. We are spending the day with Dima (Alla’s 17 year old son) tomorrow in Kiev. Das Fi Danya (Good Night).

WE'RE HERE...AT LAST in KIEV, UKRAINE!!!

PRIVIT (Hello) Everyone! Greetings from Kiev, Ukraine! We arrived in Ukraine today around 2:30pm (Ukrainian time) and met up with our VIP serviceman named Alex. He quickly escorted us to the baggage claim area where he told us that he would help us fill out the immigration customs form and help us take our baggage, get us through customs and direct us to where we would meet up with our translator. He was very serious about getting us to our destination as quickly as possible. He then proceeded to asked us if we were carrying more than $1,000.00 on us, however, his accent was so strong Robert and I were a little confused as to what he was asking. I could tell that Robert didn’t fully understand him either so I looked at him confused and told him that I didn’t understand. Well, that was the wrong thing to say. He obviously got annoyed and raised his voice (like I couldn’t hear him the first time) and even leaned in closer to me like he was yelling in my ear and asked the exact same question over again. We then figured we’d better answer the question (even though I was unsure if we should tell him how much cash we had strapped to our bodies). After answering the question, he helped us fill out our immigrations forms for customs and then we waited for our bags to arrive through baggage claim. We collected our baggage and he escorted us right on through customs (even though there were many more people in front of us). He put us right to the front of the line and they sent us on through. Robert and I are still reminising and laughing at the situation when the Alex didn't get an answer to his question. TOOO FUNNY!



After customs, and collecting our baggage we were in a crowded room where many people and taxi cab drivers were waiting for their families to arrive. While Robert stayed with our bags, I looked around for our translator holding a sign with our name on it. When I saw our name on the sign and looked at the lady and told her I was Karina Millilo she graciously greeted me and told me that she was glad to meet us. When I first saw her and was about to shake her hand, I became overwhelmed with emotion, because this lady, our translator, will be our life line to the adoption process and our go between to complete the adoption of our children while in Ukraine. I felt like hugging her, but I kept my composure and shook her hand and told her it was a pleasure it was to meet her. We then joined up with Robert and Alla, our translator, introduced us to our driver, Sasha. She said, he was her Big Boss and then laughed. Alla is not the original translator that we were supposed to meet up with, however, Alla is very nice and experienced at what she does. She has been working with Valentina’s team for 5 years and I have heard many good reports from other families on our Adoption Forum.



Alla and Sasha then escorted us to their car and took us down a long highway into the city part of Kiev doing approximately 170 kilometers/hour. I’m not sure what that translates out to in miles/hour, however, I know we were up there in speed. I just looked out of the side window at the scenery instead of looking forward. Sasha is a very good driver, I must say. He can even stop on a dime when needed, as we experienced when Valentina (our facilitator)was also with us in the car. We met up with her after stopping at a local market to get some food to heat up at the apartment for tonight’s dinner. When Sasha, stopped quickly because this large truck in front of us stopped, Valentina threw up her arms and told him EASY!!! EASY!!!....Alla interpreted Valentina’s reaction and we all had a good laugh.



We all then went back to our apartment, where we will be staying for the next couple of days, until we get our referral and permission letter to visit our kids that we select so we can visit them. Our apartment reminds us of a 1950’s style 4 room apartment. Kind of like apartment #2 at the Ventnor house. We have a living room, kitchen with a small table to eat on, bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen has a small refrigerator, gas stove that you have to light with a match, and all cooking utensils and pots, pans and plates. Our bedroom is a hide-away sofa bed with a television, desk and cabinets. Our bathroom consists of 2 rooms. One room has just the toilet in it and the other room consists of a small sink that is right next to the tub with a shower. An interesting thing we discovered was the faucet for the sink is the same one used for the tub. You just move the faucet part over to hang over the sink to wash your hands and then move it back for when you want to use it with the tub.



We then met with Valentina and Alla in the living room of the apartment and they answered all of our questions and asked us some questions regarding what we should expect, how many children we were looking to adopt, what was included with their fee etc. Both Valentina and Alla are very professional and experienced people with dealing with the NAC, the adoption community and judicial authorities. We then gave them the balance of their fee owed to them and they gave us their home phone numbers and cell phone numbers as well as what our phone number is in our apartment. If anyone would like to call us, feel free to do so….just remember when calling that we are 7 hours time ahead of you. Here is our apartment phone number for the next couple of days in Kiev 38044-248-20-03.



We had our first dinner in our apartment today, which consisted of chicken breast that was pre-cooked, potato pancakes stuffed with mushrooms and onions and a seafood salad that had corn, imitation crabmeat celery, and peppers along with some soft yummy bread. Robert and I shared with each other that we can’t believe we are actually here. The time has come for our children to join our family! Praise God!

Windsor Castle, Stone Henge & The Baths

July 21,2005 





Robert and I had a splendid day in the outskirts of London today. We took a tour bus to the Windsor Castle and saw the changing of the guards and tour where Queen Elizabeth visits on the weekends. We then went to Stone Henge which is a phenomenon where these gigantic stones are placed in a circle out in a huge field like area. Some say that people over 5,000 years ago built it to worship the sun and the moon. Anyway, we then went on to a old mill which was created into a cafe where we enjoyed lunch. After that we went to a town call Baths which is a very european looking city. Almost reminds us of what a village in Italy would look like. We visited the Roman Baths which is a place where the Romans built this building around these hot springs of water (116 degrres F) The springs there create over one million liters of hot springs a day. The Romans used the Baths as like a sauna, place to relax and cleansing experience. It was also a social hangout back then for the Romans, kind of like a country club.




July 21,2005 





That was our day for today. We heard on the bus ride back to London that there were a couple incidents that happened here in town today. We are fine and pushing forward with our adoption journey in Ukraine tomorrow. We fly out of London tomorrow morning and arrive in Ukraine around 3:00pm (8:00am EST). Please keep us in prayer for safe travels and for God to guide us and direct us to select our children during our appointment on Tuesday, July 26th with the NAC. I am sure He will, He has cleared the path so far for us and has come through for us in every other aspect. We'll be in touch from Ukraine as soon as we get settled, hopefully sometime tomorrow. We Love you all. Robert & Karrie

Robert & Karrie in front of Tower Bridge. 

Kensington Palace & Tower of London

This morning we had coffee and a Hardy English Breakfast in our hotel, which consisted of 2 sunny side up eggs, Canadian Bacon, 1 link of sausage, half of a baked tomato, 2 tablespoon sized portions of plain baked beans, 1 teaspoon sized portion of sautéed mushrooms, orange juice , toast and coffee or tea. The coffee here is like mud, however, Robert doesn’t seem to mind. Me on the other hand, I prefer a spot of tea instead. It must be the English in me. We’ve noticed how pleasant, friendly and cordial the English natives are in our travels. Always willing to help. We’ve also noticed that the people here don’t curse so freely like many Americans you’d find especially in a big city. We haven’t heard any cursing in public and we’ve been in the presence of many different types and classes of people.



After breakfast we booked the tour to go to Windsor Castle, Stonehedge and The Baths for tomorrow since I couldn’t get through the phone lines last night. So today we were contemplating going for a train ride to Paris, France. It really was too late in the morning for that thought since we found out it takes almost 3 hours by train one-way to go to Paris. So we went to Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived at one time and The Kings and Queens lived. Yes, Debbie (my cousin) we saw the wedding dress of Queen Victoria. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the palace since the light destroys the material of the dresses. We also saw some dresses of the late Princess Diana and toured the rest of the palace that had different galleries, drawing rooms, bedrooms ballrooms and overlooked the Kensington Gardens, which we walked through to get to the palace. We had the audio self walking tour, so by the time we were done, it was lunch time. After lunch we wanted to stop at the post office to mail home the few memorabilia items we purchased so we don’t have to lug around the extra weight in Ukraine.



We then made our way to do a tour of the Tower of London and to see the famous Tower Bridge. We jumped on the underground system since it was way across town and our feet and legs were still sore from yesterday’s walk-a-thon and this mornings walking tour. The Tower of London was a place where they held prisoners at times (some of them royal prisoners) and either tortured them or executed them in a tower call The Bloody Tower or outside in the courtyards. There was also a building in the Tower of London which housed the royal jewels, crowns, swords, and showed a video of when Queen Elizabeth II was inaugurated as queen. One of the royal swords that had a 500 karat diamond in it with all other kinds of jewels. It was an interesting day finding out more history on the royal family and touring the Tower of London, however, we're ready for bed now so that’s it for today. Tot Ta for now!

Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace 

The Amazing Race in London

It was a beautiful day today in London. The temperature high of the day was around 65 degrees and a bit windy at times. Since we arrived late last night we didn’t have a chance to book a tour for today in advance. At breakfast this morning in our hotel, The Adare Hotel, we were telling one of the other hotel guests that we weren’t sure as to what we were going to do today. Since he knows the area, he suggested, since the hotel is so close to many tourist attractions and since it was a beautiful day, to take a walk down Hyde Park along the lake and then we’ll come across Harrod’s Department store, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abby. So that is just what we did and loved every minute of it. Except we didn’t stop walking around after visiting Westminster Abby. We kept walking down past Big Ben, saw and rode the Eye of London (which is a huge Ferris wheel that is right on The Thames River and overlooks the whole city of London. What a great opportunity for me to take pictures today. And I took close to 200 pictures. I’m in the process of setting up an account with Ofoto.com to link to this site. When I do, I’ll post our pictures. We also visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, which was interesting and headed to China town for some dinner.



After that we were too pooped to do much else since most of the day we traveled by foot except toward the end of the day we took the underground lines. It’s amazing how easy it is to use London’s Underground system compared to NYC’s Metro Subway system. We were amazed at how much we saw today on foot. I told Robert that I felt like we were on the Amazing Race today since we did and saw so much in one day. The most memorable part of today was when Robert kept calling me Mummy throughout the day. Of course he was pronouncing it like the English people here. We noticed many differences in the way these English people express themselves and communicate. Here are some of the terms or phrases that we heard today: Mind your head (Watch your head), or Mind your step (watch your step), Lift (Elevator), Lile (little), Mum (Mom), Cheerio (Goodbye). It was an absolute stunningly lovely day.



Everything we’ve purchased here in London is very expensive. To give you an example, we paid 12 pounds or about $24.00 for 2 sandwiches, 1 bottled water, 1 juice and one slice of carrot cake for lunch today. After we arrived back at our hotel this evening, we walked down the street to get some ice cream. For 2 bowls of homemade ice cream, which was very good, with a little bit of whipped cream and 2 bottles of water, we paid 9 pounds or $18.00. Thank goodness we’ll only be here for a few days.



Tomorrow we are going to book a tour possibly to visit the Windsor Castle, Stone Hedge and The Baths. Signing off for now. We’re exhausted. We walked all over London today and our feet, legs and back are feeling it right now. Robert and I were talking about how much we walked today and we both agreed that this is like training week before we go to Ukraine for our children. From what we hear, you walk quite a lot when you are in Ukraine. So we’ll be ready to roll once Friday comes…this is just a warm up session. We hope all is well with everyone at home. Feel free to email us if you’d like at rkmillilo@msn.com. We’d love to hear what and how you all are doing. Cheerio for now.

We Made it to London! Yippie!

We made it to London, safe and sound. It was a long day traveling and now approximately 1:00am London time. I woke up this morning at 3:30am anxiously awaiting the beginning of our adoption journey. I was wide awake and Robert was still asleep so I just laid awake and started praying and thanking God for His goodness. Robert woke up about 4:00am even though our alarm was set for 4:30am. Once we got dressed and on our way to the hotel we noticed how most people that were waiting for the shuttle had just one or two little bags and here we were with these two large stuffed to the gills duffle bags that weighs a ton and two backpacks. When the shuttle arrived to take all of us to the airport, of course since everyone else had little bags, they were able to hop right on to the shuttle. Robert and I just looked at each other wondering if we were going to fit on the shuttle with our luggage after everyone else got on board. Well, we were the last to board and it was barely standing room only. When we checked our luggage we barely made it under the weight requrements. Praise God, we didn't have to pay any extra fees. Our one bag weighed 69.3lbs and the other weighed 70.2lbs. We just made the 70lb/per bag limit. WHEW! Airport security was a breeze. The only thing that they looked at more in depth of ours was our backpack with our laptop and electronics. They used this ionized scanner to check it out and of course released us to move on ahead. We then grabbed a bite to eat and boarded our plane around 8:15am. As soon as we boarded the airplane my stomach turned to knots. I wasn’t feeling nervous or anxious, I think it was the strong coffee and green tart apple I ate. Our plane departed from Newark about 40 minutes late due to there were 20 other planes ahead of us waiting on the runway for take off. We sat next to this lady, Ruth who was from Australia and was meeting a friend in London to go backpacking across Eastern Europe until September. Sounds good to me. I guess that is kind of like what we’ll be doing once we get to Ukraine, except we will be adopting our Ukrainian Angels in the process. YIPPIE!
As we were descending we saw Big Ben and the London Eye. Well the flight went well and were glad to be back on the ground again. Robert and I were both surprised how easy it was going through customs in Heathrow London Airport. They asked us a couple of questions and we told them we were spending a few days here on Holiday…as they call a Vacation and that was it. While we were waiting for our shuttle to take us to our hotel, we noticed these police with bullet proof vests, a couple of hand guns on their belts and they were holding machine guns as they were patrolling the airport like they were looking for someone. OK…I was ready to get out of their after that scene. We are not in America anymore. It looked as if they were looking for someone in particular and were ready to start shooting. Time for us to make like a tree and LEAVE. Thank goodness our shuttle arrived to take us shortly after that scene. We are now settled in our hotel and just enjoyed what London England is known for which is their fish and chips and very good I might add. We’re not quite sure what we will visit first, but we’ll keep you updated.

We're on our way!

Well, today is the day that we leave start our Adoption Journey.

We are currently in the Newark area at the Holiday Inn settling in before our flight tomorrow morning. I just figured out how to get on-line from outside our home.


Our immediate families visited us yesterday while we were actively packing and getting the house prepared to leave it for a month. My mom will be staying at our house so that is a big relief. Saying goodbye to them for a month was heartbreaking. Especially our mothers. We all got teary eyed and embraced each other like we would never see each other again. At least I was...Robert was the stronger of the two of us. I will miss hearing my mom's voice as much as I usually talk to her. She is a special lady in my life and we are the best of friends.

This morning Robert and I woke up when the alarm went off and looked at each other in bed and smiled, because we knew we were going to start our journey to adopt our children. How excited we are.

Our pastors at church called us up to the pulpit for them and the congregation to pray over us for safe, smooth and peaceful travels. Many friends at church gave us their blessings as well. Thank you all for keeping us and our children in your prayers for safe travels, health, wisdom, direction and a peaceful joyful journey in adopting our children.

We'll be in touch.

Robert & Karrie in Wissahikon Park, Philadelphia April 2000

Thank You All For Your Love and Prayers!

Robert and I are so thankful for all of our family and friends' joy and excitement for us and our new family to be. Our family and friends are just as excited as we are and it warms our hearts to receive all of your love, encouragement, support, prayers and generous gifts you all have blessed our family with. The love and supernatural favor of God has been poured out upon us through all of you and we thank you for all of it.



Our family has been so wonderful throughout this whole process and have helped in so many ways. My mom, Mama Sherry, has given us so much of her heartfelt excitement, encouragement, gifts to help with our adoption, has helped me with registering at Babies R Us and Target, help with taking care of our home, bills and plants while we are away in Ukraine and has made some outfits to give to the orphans in Ukraine. Your love and encouragement has brought so much joy to our lives. For those of you that don't know, our children will be the first grandchildren for my mom so she is bubbling over with excitment and joy as we are in becoming first time parents. My brother, David helped me with some helpful hints on updating this website and had his friend, Karl, who is a Ukrainian native, now American Citizen, loan us some Ukrainain published books and magazines on Ukraine and the countries history to prepare us for our travels and to give us some insight on the lifestyle, people and surroundings. What a blessing that was to read more on the history of Ukraine and to get some preliminary scenes of Ukraine before we travel.



Robert's parents, have also been a blessing to us with all of their love, support encouragement and prayers. Robert's mom, Mama Maria, back when we were going through fertility treatments would give me my daily shot in the derrière whenever Robert was at work and couldn't do it. Her encouragement and prayers have touched our hearts throughout these past several years planning for our family. I also remember when God first laid on our hearts to adopt our children, Robert's parents were one of the first people we discussed it with. Our conversation with both of them regarding the subject of adoption was a heartfelt and memorable one that helped encourage us to move forward with the adoption. Maria McMahon, Robert's sister, has graciously helped me with registering as well, since I didn't have a clue as where to start. How would I know what brands and products are reccomended and good to use if I never used them before. Robert's Grandma, who is near and dear to my heart, as well as Robert's heart, has given us her love, excitement and has kept us in her prayers for a safe and speedy adoption journey. She is anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new bundles of joy like the rest of us and I am so looking forward in our children meeting and getting to know their Great Grandma or "babushka" which is the Ukrainian word for grandma. =)



Besides getting ready for our adoption journey, we've been blessed with a family barbeque over at our cousin's Debbie & Don Bingeman's home with many other family members including my Mom (Mama Sherry) and sister, Marli, Aunt Marie and Uncle Kenny, our cousins Wendy & Bruce, Jeff & Tammy, Brian & Harmony and of course all of their children there to celebrate our upcoming adoption. We were also blessed with a celebration send off from the Shabach Singles at Victory Christian Fellowship Church, was treated to a homemade brunch and fellowship from our dear friend Jerri Swann in her home. I also thank God for our friend, Kathy Jakubowski who has been a dear friend in both Robert and I's life and is always sowing into our lives, marriage and now into our family in one way or another. We also met with our pastors from our church, Pastors Gary & Faye Whetstone from Victory Christian Fellowship where they gave us some wisdom and insight on traveling and living in Ukraine (since they've been there on missions trips in the past), prayed with us and loaned us a copy of the bible school, "The School of Biblical Studies" www.gwwm.com (since we'll have a lot of free time on our hands while in Ukraine). If any of you are looking for power impacted deep revelational knowledge on the Word of God click on the website above and look for The School of Biblical Studies. It's a great way to get a deeper understanding of His Word and will benefit your life and others around you in more ways than you can imagine. We also visited with Robert's Grandma and his Aunt Marie and Uncle Russ and was blessed with their love and encouragement.



Today, the company that I work for, Catelli Brothers Veal and Lamb company www.catellibrothers.com gave me a baby shower and farewell luncheon celebration. What a tremendous blessing all of my family at Catelli Brothers have been to me in the past 3 years since I've worked there. It is such a family atmosphere in our office and I thank God for each one of them. Many of them have touched my life and heart in so many ways. For example, I could always count on my boss and owner of the company, Tony Catelli, to make me smile with telling a joke or demonstrating a practical joke towards someone else of course. He has given me the freedom to do whatever I needed to do to plan for our children either for the adoption or when we were going through fertility treatments with encouragement and compassion, which has touched my heart with overwhelming gratitude. His support has meant a lot to me for there are not many employers out there that are willing to allow their employees to come and go for doctors' appointments or adoption appointments to plan for a family like he did for us. He has also blessed us with the farewell/baby shower party today and I thank him, Gorge & Jim Catelli for their ever so generous gift. All of the rest of my family at Catelli Brothers also shocked me and Robert with their love and generous gifts of love, the photo album with pictures of President Andrew Jackson throughout and Dumbo"The Flying Elephant" and his care package of goodies. What ingenius ideas they are filled with. My family at Catelli Brothers holds a special place in my heart and I must say if Chris has misplaced something while we're in Ukriane tell him he can't blame it on me anymore. =) VIRY GOOD! You know I'm only teasing you Chris. You know I love ya and will miss you yelling across the office for me saying....UUUUHHHHH ...pause.......pause......KARRIE!!! You know Chris you keep everyone on their toes when you hold that long pause after you say UUUUUHHHH, not knowing who's name you are going to call after it....everyone is just looking at each other like...ok who's name will he be yelling for now. =) Carol, I thank you for lending your ear many times and friendship and love you've given me. Your sweetness and love for everyone at Catelli Brothers is truely golden. Joan, Lorri, Monica, Carolynne,Therese, Sharon, Nancy, Cheryl, Maria, Vanessa, Beverly, Diane, and Donna, all of your friendship is truely valued as well as your goofy sense of humors. Anita Coleman I thank you for your powerful effectual ferverent impactful prayers for us and for your friendship and encouragement. Boris Ayzenberg, I appreiciate your friendship and the time you've help me prepare for our trip to Ukraine and your help with learning a bit of Russian & Ukrainian. Don't be surprised if you get an emergency call from me to translate what our children are saying. You're my inside Ukrainian connection. =) I also thank everyone else at Catelli Brothers as well. You all are a blessing in my life and I am so looking forward in introducing you all to our children real soon.



By the way, if any of you enjoy eating Veal Marsala, Veal Piccata or Veal Provencale, you HAVE to try Catelli Brothers latest and greatest Italian Bistro Product Line. If you need a quick and outstanding meal that is reasonably priced go to your nearest ACME, Pathmark or A&P and purchase the Catelli Italian Bistro Veal Marsala, Veal Piccata and/or Veal Provencale. It takes literally only 5 minutes to make and comes with the veal and the sauce. UUUMMM it's YUMMY!! www.catellibrothers.com/retail/news.asp?intCategoryID=75&intArticleID=431



Now you can understand why we are so thankful to God and sentimental for giving us such a wonderful and generous group of family and friends in our lives. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family helping us, loving us, encouraging us, praying for us and our children, and that are filled with such excitement in the new soon to be additions to our family. Robert and I thank you all again for everything that you've done and the outpouring of God's love, favor and wisdom that you have shared with us. We pray that your seeds sown will be multiplied back to you 100 fold. May God continue to pour out His love and blessings upon your lives as well.

Updated Documents Have Been Approved

We just got word from our translator that our documents that we had to have updated were translated into Russian, submitted to the NAC, approved and filed with the rest of our documents. Whoo...Whoo!!! What a load off of our minds. We will bring extra originals of all our documents for precautionary reasons, but I am confident that all of our documents are all together and ready for our arrival. =)



Our Facilitator, Julia also told us who our in-country translator will be. Her name is Ira and she is very experienced in working with adoptive families in helping them to complete their adoptions. We also have an in-country lawyer, who's name is Valentina who will be our in-country coordinator in the Kiev, Ukraine region. I hear from other adoptive families that both Valentina and Ira go above and beyond the call of duty for the families that they work for and get the job done as quickly as they can.



We were told that Ira, our translator, will be waiting for us in the airport with a sign with our names on it. She will then take us to our driver and from their we will go to our hotel in Kiev, Ukraine. Ira will be the one whom will be with us for the most part of our adoption journey, since she will be translating for us throughout the process.



Since we will arrive in Ukraine a few days before our appointment we will have time to tour Kiev and record some memories for our children. Kiev is a major metropolitan city and has many old architectual design buildings, churches, open markets (like a Cowtown..or as my mother-in-law calls it "Out-of-town Shop"). So there will be a lot to see in Kiev before we meet with the NAC on Tuesday, July 26th.



OOOHHH it's getting so exciting! It's funny, because I'm usually the one purchasing little toys and educational items for when our children arrive home and yesterday Robert showed me what he purchased(the 1st toy he purchased himself) which is a nerf football. Yes, Robert is getting excited to have a son or two of our own. Since we don't know the age of our children yet, he has been telling me and our families not to purchase anything for the children until we get back from Ukraine. I was so tickled to see that he purchased the nerf football to take with us to Ukraine. My honey's excitement is bubbling over like it is with all of us.



Boy how the time has flown these past couple of months. We are so looking forward to meeting and getting to know our forever children. God is so AWESOME! He is working everything out for good exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think.