Things are looking good!

Again, I wish we had more frequent access to the internet and to phones... sorry for the delay, but we have some great news to share. On Tuesday we were able to get some papers signed and then were able to arrange to take ---oh, I guess we should share his name... Elijiah Cooper Zickel - Eli for short! we thought it sounded sort of like Igor and it just felt right to both of us!---- so anyway, we were able to arrange to take him to Kiev to the American Medical Center where we met with a pediatrician from New Jersey who of all things is a Rutgers grad... we had a nice exchange about the Big East rivalry. We wanted to get an opinion about some of the reports that were in his records that weren't adding up. The doctor evaluated him the best he could... Eli didn't want to cooperate much, he is not a crier and screamer, but just shuts down... the first thing we are going to tackle with him. Anyway after talking with us and the caregivers and doing a short exam he said that he couldn't with 100% certainty but he would not based on his exam recommend any additional tests/MRIs etc... and that he would most likely with proper nutrition, love and care develop into a healthy young little boy. He is little... at 4 1/2 years old he is 5% in height (38.5 inches) and 10% in weight 30 lbs. but the doctor was encouraged that he was at least on the charts. So based on that evaluation, and what our hearts are telling us, little Eli will hopefully be coming home with us in just over 2 weeks. We have our court date tomorrow- that is the next big step, the judge has to give us the OK and then from there it is a 10 day waiting period, then 3 or 4 days of getting paperwork, going to his birth city, getting a passport, another medical exam and clearance from the US embassy. God has been with us, Galya our faciliator has been able to work some miracles that has taken 4 or 5 days easily out of the process for us!!!! But ---Please continue to keep us in your prayers, it really is rough over here- we miss home a lot... We were sad last night when thinking about Jake being at his ball game and we weren't there to cheer him on.... Oh, Jennifer and Rick- we watched all of Season 1 of Entourage last night! most likely will tackle Season 2 tonight, we are HOOKED! Not sure when we will have access again, but as soon as we do we will update...

PS- for those of you who read my blog that are waiting to adopt from the Ukraine at some point when we are back in the states I promise to give a detailed overview of all the steps of our journey, I know when I was waiting to travel I read blogs to find out more information... I will share the full story - my prayers are with you as you get ready to set out on your journey!

Things are looking good!

Again, I wish we had more frequent access to the internet and to phones... sorry for the delay, but we have some great news to share. On Tuesday we were able to get some papers signed and then were able to arrange to take ---oh, I guess we should share his name... Elijiah Cooper Zickel - Eli for short! we thought it sounded sort of like Igor and it just felt right to both of us!---- so anyway, we were able to arrange to take him to Kiev to the American Medical Center where we met with a pediatrician from New Jersey who of all things is a Rutgers grad... we had a nice exchange about the Big East rivalry. We wanted to get an opinion about some of the reports that were in his records that weren't adding up. The doctor evaluated him the best he could... Eli didn't want to cooperate much, he is not a crier and screamer, but just shuts down... the first thing we are going to tackle with him. Anyway after talking with us and the caregivers and doing a short exam he said that he couldn't with 100% certainty but he would not based on his exam recommend any additional tests/MRIs etc... and that he would most likely with proper nutrition, love and care develop into a healthy young little boy. He is little... at 4 1/2 years old he is 5% in height (38.5 inches) and 10% in weight 30 lbs. but the doctor was encouraged that he was at least on the charts. So based on that evaluation, and what our hearts are telling us, little Eli will hopefully be coming home with us in just over 2 weeks. We have our court date tomorrow- that is the next big step, the judge has to give us the OK and then from there it is a 10 day waiting period, then 3 or 4 days of getting paperwork, going to his birth city, getting a passport, another medical exam and clearance from the US embassy. God has been with us, Galya our faciliator has been able to work some miracles that has taken 4 or 5 days easily out of the process for us!!!! But ---Please continue to keep us in your prayers, it really is rough over here- we miss home a lot... We were sad last night when thinking about Jake being at his ball game and we weren't there to cheer him on.... Oh, Jennifer and Rick- we watched all of Season 1 of Entourage last night! most likely will tackle Season 2 tonight, we are HOOKED! Not sure when we will have access again, but as soon as we do we will update...

PS- for those of you who read my blog that are waiting to adopt from the Ukraine at some point when we are back in the states I promise to give a detailed overview of all the steps of our journey, I know when I was waiting to travel I read blogs to find out more information... I will share the full story - my prayers are with you as you get ready to set out on your journey!

Monday May 28th

Hello all,

sorry it is so long between updates, we don't get to the internet cafe often.

This is going to be short, we have met with the little boy three times now... on the first visit they disclosed some medical information that wasn't given to us initially, and it has raised some concerns- ones that we don't feel we can let go without having checked out. So later this week, could be anywhere from Tuesday-Thursday we will be bringing him to Kiev to have him looked at by doctors at the American Medical Center here. We have been doing a lot of praying for a conclusive diagnosis that will help make our final decision a peaceful one. Please keep us in your prayers that regardless of what the diagnosis is that it is perfectly clear! We love you all and miss you dearly. We will update again as soon as we can.

Shannon and Kenny

We're Here!!!!

Hi everyone... well we made it... all of the flights were wonderful.... great for someone who is a little hesitant to jump on an airplane. When we arrived in the Ukraine yesterday we were met by Galya who will be our facilitator... She is an amazing woman... she has a great wit and knows just how to keep me in check! We found out we were going to be able to stay the first night in an apartment with another couple from Louisville (Anita and Tom)who are also adopting and have been here a week... it was great to be able to talk with someone about the process for a while. Then Anita, Tonya (Anita and Tom's facilitator) and I went for a walk... a good stress relieving, work up a sweat kind of walk. Kenny and Tom stayed back and actually watched Ukranian TV...

We went to bed early to prepare for this morning... our appointment ended up being at 11 am Ukranian time, which would be 4 am Louisville time. I was nervous (and Kenny says he was a little bit nervous too!)as we got ready to go in but just decided to let go and trust a higher power. We were greeted by Tatiyana the translater who took us in to meet with Zarena the psycologist... we showed them the photo album we put together and they asked lots of questions and looked at every page... (Thank goodness Charlie and Todd's pictures were not in there!) then they asked us what type of child we were looking for... Zarena then said she had a child's file she had just gotten and she wanted to make a few calls to see if the child was at the orphanage as it stated.... after a few minutes, and lots of conversations we did not understand they explained they were going to start by showing us one file but if we wanted to see more we just had to ask... They then mentioned that the little BOY they were going to show us was about 4 1/2 years old... and that they thought he looked like Jake... they talked some more about him and his situation and then showed us his picture... and he DOES look like Jake... now the picture was taken 2 years ago... so who knows what he looks like now.... if all goes well we will meet him tomorrow to see if everything checks out... there might be some red tape around his situation, we will have more information in the next 24 hours or so... Keep the prayers up... they are working!!!!!! We are not sure where we will be staying yet... the orphanage is about 2 hours from Kiev... and we hear there might not be an internet cafe in that region.... but hope to be able to post again soon. Keep the messages and posts coming... we love hearing from you! All our love, K & S

We're Off!

Dad is sitting here telling me to get off the computer, Kenny is throwing luggage down the stairs... and I am still trying to fight off the tears! In less than 2 hours we will be on the plane and the adventure will begin... I hope to update in the next day or two... Thanks for all the prayers, well wishes and support... we have the most amazing friends! I know that Jake will be in great hands while we are away! All our love

Shannon and Kenny

2 weeks

2 weeks from this very moment we will be in the Detroit airport waiting to board a flight to Amsterdam... then about 8 hours later we will jump on a 2 hour flight to Kiev where the last leg of our 18 month journey will begin. Between now and then we have a lot to do... we have a room to get ready- well not really ready, but cleaned out and ready to be made ready... we have lots of packing to do, we have lots of baseball and most of all we have lots of lovin on Jake to do! I wanted to go ahead and get this blog set up... our hope is that we will be able to update often while we are away, to let Jake and all the rest of our friends and family be a part of our journey... one that will change our lives in ways I can't even imagine at this point...
S.