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| Our Journey to Luke |
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| As we prepare to travel, we have set up this website in hopes of including our family and friends in this adventure we call adoption. |
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| Our Favorite Adoption Sites: |
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| Please Email if we can answer any of your adoption questions |
| As The Voyage Begins Author Unknown As the voyage begins I feel you drawing near. Across countries you'll travel to release me from here. You'll arrive with excitement and compassion in your heart; A decision you must make of with whom you will depart. I won't have the words to tell you that I'm the chosen one. Look to my eyes and see that I'm your's by order of the Son. I know that along with you, new trials are on their way. I'm anxious and willing to deal with new challenges each day. For on the other side of those challenges lies a loving home; A home which I'll grow up in and be proud to call my own. Come quickly and swiftly with little strife; I'm eagerly waiting to become part of your life. |
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| May 15th ~ 6 days! So much has been going on. I am so glad my last day of work was last Friday because I would be pulling my hair out if I didn't have all of my hours during the day. There have been so many changes in the Ukrainian program both by the government and by our agency in the last 6 weeks. Each change squashes our hopes of a successful adoption a little more. We have spent many nights on the phone with our agency this past week getting updates and pep-talks that everything will work out and be okay. Although the facilitator, Yuri, we had hoped to work with in Ukraine has moved to Canada, we have been assured by both him and our agency that he and his wife Lena have set the groundwork and we will be well taken care of during our trip. Scott and I are very disappointed we will not get to meet this wonderful couple, but wish them much success in their new life. We have also talked a lot this week about the possibility of coming home with one child. Of course there is always the chance we could come home childless, but we both have agreed we will follow our hearts and only take on what we feel we can handle. We continue to trust in God's plan for this. He has done some amazing things for us in the past 7 months and we know better things are to come. I have been running errands around town and trying to gather all of our last minute travel supplies. It never fails that I forget something while I am out or I think of something I should have bought. I am sure in the next 5 days I will make numerous trips to Walmart (which alone is a nightmare of an adventure). We believe Abbey is catching on that something is about to change. She has been moping around the house a lot and every time we walk out the front door she pitches a fit and starts barking or howling. Oh! If she only knew! May 17th ~ 4 days! I started really packing yesterday. I wrestled our travel SpaceBags for a while. The bags are wonderful, but I swear there is a hole in one of them and I can't find it. I was on the floor, knees on the bag with the duct tape ready and my ear to the bag listening for the sound of seeping air. I am sure I looked ridiculous. Tonight we are going to a Bon Voyage party thrown for us by Jennie and Chad Patterson. I was trying to remember the last time Scott or I had a party thrown for us… Does our wedding count? We are really excited and feel so blessed to have this group of friends. They have been our family while we have lived up here. We couldn't have asked for a better support system! I think Yahoo is going to be down over the weekend, so I will have to update again on Monday when we will be LESS THAN 24 HOURS from leaving! May 21st ~ 15 hours!!!! It is actually 1 o'clock in the morning so I thought I could officially say … THE DAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!! We are completely packed: 1 suitcase and 1 carry-on for each of us. I am amazed we actually fit everything in. Yes, for those of you who received an e-mail from Scott today, I did freak out this morning. We had a million and one things to do and my head was spinning from it all. Luckily, everything fell into place and after I calmed down, we enjoyed the day. Thank you to everyone who called today to wish us good luck and safe journey. Please know your well wishes made our day. I guess the next time you hear from us we will be in Ukraine. Even better… the next time you see us, we will be parents! Still so much to do… I am off to become a Mom! |
| May 27th ~ Yeah! I finally found an internet cafe that I can update the website. Let me try and update from the last time I wrote. We flew in on Wednesday and had an appointment on Thursday morning. It was really an awful experience. We were shown very sick children and kids over 6 years old. The inspector at the AC showed us a little boy with a cleft palate and lip and we decided to make the 12 hour trip to see him. While we waited to leave, Alex called the orphanage and found out that the boy had chronic inborn Hep B. After talking with our doctor, we agreed to not visit him. His condition was listed as not living for very long. We went back to the AC on Friday and looked again through the files. We saw many more children, but again they all had horrible diagnoses. We chose to see a little 24 month old girl near Kiev. We visited the orphanage and when we walked into the room my heart jumped. She was absolutely beautiful. Everything I could have dreamed of... dark hair, big brown eyes pudgy cheeks. We noticed right away that she did have some traits of metal retardation. Her medical records said her mother was mentally handicapped and by taking her measurements we could tell she also carried the condition. Her head circumference (brain) had not grown at all in the last year. The doctor and orphanage director told us she would only be able to clean our house for us... nothing more. It was the hardest thing I have done.... walked away from a beautiful baby girl. I never dreamed I would have to do that much less had the strength to do it. We were very disappointed, but made it through the weekend okay. We spent Saturday at the Kiev Day celebration with 200 thousand Ukrainians. It was alot of fun. Sunday we toured the WHOLE city! I mean we WALKED the whole city. ARGH! I have never been so tired or HOT. Texas doesn' even compare to the hot I was yesterday! We went to the AC again this morning. The inspector actually said she liked us today! (WONDERS NEVER CEASE!!) She said we were a lovely couple that she could tell wanted a family very badly because we did not give up. She showed us some files... mostly older children. Then she handed us two files. They were two little boys. Our hearts jumped out of our chests. They are 3 and 4 and fairly healthy! Then Tatyana noticed they are located in the worst region in Kiev... Dialajhlkasdfjaslkj (I don't know how to spell it!) We couldn't believe our luck! Our facilitators said they do not work in that region because the adoption could take several months and costs much more than other regions (many more bribes). We started looking at more files, but Scott kept being pulled back to the two files. We both feel that God blessed us with the great generosity from our friends and family. We had questioned what we would do with the funds if it was not spent in Ukraine, but now we understand God's plan.... He was preparing us for this region. Once Scott and I talked, we knew we needed to go to the region. So we will leave tonight at 11:00pm to arrive there when the orphanage opens in the morning. OKAY! I do have to tell you some quirks about this country.... Diet Coke is called Coca Cola Light. It says in Russian "no sugar", but I don't believe it. It tastes a little strange. Next, ALL women wear the highest heels you have ever seen and you have to remember they walk everywhere. I don't know how they do it. American food in the supermarket does not taste or look like our food. Cheerios are huge and Chips Ahoy are odd looking. I am sticking with fruit because you can't change a banana or grape too much. Now for the most imprortant of my quirks...... THE BATHROOMS SUCK! I had to go to the bathroom so bad at the AC on Thursday. I did have some toilet paper in my purse so I thought I was well prepared... WRONG! It is a hole in the ground with feet grips on both sides. So basically you have to squat to do your business. Well, I had to go, but couldn't because it felt so unnatural. Five women came in and left while I stood there and prayed to go. No luck. After trying twice, I had to tell Tatyana that it was impossible and we had to find a "normal" restroom. She had a good laugh and promised she wouldn't tell Alex why we had to make another stop. Needless to say, I have been very dehydrated this trip for fear of having to use a public restroom. Scott is sitting beside me sending out an email... Don't believe anything he says! Oh and by the way... I wasn't worn out climbing that hill. Okay maybe a little, but it was a big hill! I don't know when we will have a chance to find another internet cafe. It looks like we will be here a couple of more weeks and if we fall in love with these children, we will have to return to the US for 30 days and then come back to get them. I hope we will be able to post pictures as soon as we have them! Keep praying for us and our future children! We love you! Nikki (and Scott) June 2nd ~ Well we have been here almost 2 weeks and still have not found our children. It is Sunday here and we are in the region of Simferopol. We drove the 14 hours from Kiev last night. We are to look at two children in the morning. One is a little girl who will be three in September. She is said to only have delays which is wonderful here in Ukraine. The AC said she is an aggresive little girl, but our facilitator said the AC always says something bad about every child. There is also a little boy at the same orphanage. The only thing we know about him is that he was born in 2000 and he has had surgery for a problem with his back. We were told that he will need additional surgery. Hopefully, we will find out more in the morning. We did travel last Monday to the other region to look at the two little boys. We arrived there on Tuesday morning and went to the orphange exhausted from the long drive. They brought in the two little boys together and Scott and I could not believe how delayed they were. The 32 month old boy looked no older than 9 months. He could barely even sit up by himself. He was a sweety though. He could sing and smile his heart out. The 4 year old just started talking. We could immediately see that he would be a handful. He was into all of our bags and wanted to see everything in the room. While we were sitting there, they brought in the most beautiful little girl. My heart jumped and I grabbed onto Scott's arm. There we sat in a room totally overwhelmed by all that was going on. 4 caretakers, 2 doctors, 1 translator, 1 facilitator and 3 children all in a reasonably small room. Our heads were spinning. The little girl had just turned two and you could tell her legs had a problem. They were very limp. They told us all of her medical information. We were told that her doctor said with good physical therapy and American doctors, she would be walking within 6 months. We sent our doctor pictures and all of the medical info we had. We had to wait until Wednesday to get his reply. It was a very long 24 hours and we just knew the little girl had a good future. When we talked to him on Wednesday, his news was not good. He said she looked like she had a form of Cerebral Palsy and best case scenario would be that she would have to wear braces and worst case would be she would be in a wheelchair. He did tell us some things to test her with and things to look for. We were very upset, but decided to go back to the orphanage and talk more with the orphanage director and do some of the tests Dr. Mason told us to do. The director told us more information about the girl that we wished we had heard the day before. Several American couples had come to look at her. One had her checked out by American doctors in Keiv and those doctors said she would never walk. Another family had taken her to a specialist in the region just last month and he said she would never walk. We found out that the only doctor that said she would walk was a doctor with "special powers". It was told to us that this doctor had been using his biological powers to help cure the baby. Scott and I were devistated, but we decided to see her again and have Scott look at her legs another time. We entered the play room and Scott walked her around the carpet. She failed every one of the tests Dr. Mason told us to use. I sat on couch and cried as Scott played with her. She was such a sweet baby, but we knew this child was not the child we had come thousands of miles to adopt. We were not prepared to take on her serious condition. That was one of the worst days of my life.... and there have been some pretty bad ones. I felt so selfish not taking her out of that orphanage. I cried so hard as we walked out of that orphanage. Scott and I talked about ever option we thought we had. Did we think we could raise this child? Were we only considering her because we had seen so many horrible conditions these children had since we have been in Ukraine? Were we being rational? We prayed alot that night as we traveled back to Kiev. We prayed that we were making the right decision. We prayed for little Stella. We prayed for the children or child we were meant to come home with. We have now gone to the AC five times. We have spent a total of 11 hours looking at children's files. We hope and pray that our journey will end here in Simferopol. Please continue to pray for us. We are so ready to be a family and find our forever children. We have found a wonderful internet cafe not far from the horrible flat we are renting here in town. Hopefully we will be able to update the site more often now. June 3rd ~ Bad news... the little girl we had our hopes on has FAS. It was very obvious by looking at her. She has many of the medical conditions that come along with it also. The little boy is beautiful, but we are sending info to the doctor to see if his back problems are something we can treat. They also showed us a little four year old girl with a cleft lip and palate. Her lip has been corrected, but her palate still needs an operation. (Laurie- Exactly like Andrew!) She is very smart, but can hardly talk because of her cleft. She also has some problems with legs, but can thankfully run and play like a 4 year old should. We again will have to do some soul searching and long conversations with the doctor to see if she was meant to be the child we came for. We are going to press the orphanage a little more to see if there are any other children available. I have a feeling it will cost us though.... everything has a price here! Our flat here is awful! Even Tatyana thinks so! I haven't showered in 3 days. Scott calls it a "field shower"... wipe down all the essential parts. :-) I think it is gross, but at least it is not humid. I had an upset stomach this morning and Tatyana convinced me to take charcoal. It was disgusting, but actually I felt better a couple of hours later. Scott was amazed I tried it. I was amazed I didn't throw it up. Diane, you made us laugh with your email.... Maybe you can catch us on the next "Amazing Race". It sure seems like we are running toward something. I hope we find the end soon! We have lots to think about tonight. I hope we sleep! Mom and Dad, I love you and miss you! June 4th ~ So many people are emailing us... It is WONDERFUL! We had a better day today. Things look like they may be getting better. We will hopefully be able to share more information in the next few days. Of course, we are not getting our hopes too high, but who could blame us at this point. :o) Today we walked around Simferopol and Scott and I actually ventured out by ourselves. We sucessfully purchased two ice cream cones without any help. Okay, we had some trouble, but we got the cones nonetheless. Also, a man stopped and asked us for directions and we just looked at him and kept walking. I felt awful for being rude, but what could we say? After that, I just told Scott to answer anyone who asks us a question with the reply of "DA" (yes). The people at this internet cafe probably think we are crazy. We have been here 5 times today already. This is really our only American link to society. Our facilitators taught us how to play a game named "Stupid" tonight. We could have sworn they were trying to make us look "stupid" because we didn't understand the silly game at all. We also couldn't tell if they were cheating or not... who knew what they were saying to each other back and forth in Russian. It didn't matter in the end because Scott and I somehow won the game. We have been calling them Stupid ever since. What else.... I buckled down and took a shower this morning. Not as bad as I had imagined, but still not the cleanest I have ever been. I had a horrible nightmare last night that we returned home without a child. I was runnning around trying to figure out how to get back to Ukraine. When I woke up and saw that we were still sleeping on a board of a mattress in the freezing cold, I was SO happy. I knew right then that we would be here for the long haul to find our child or children. Hope we have more good news to share tomorrow. Thanks again everyone for the kind thoughts. They mean the world to us over here!!!!!! June 8th~ Well it is Saturday here and we are back in Kiev. We saw a little boy in Simferopol on Thursday. We were told he was very healthy and was the best child they had available in the orphanage. When they brought him out to us, red flags started flying, but I tried to stay very optomistic. After playing him for over an hour, we had major suspicions of him having autism. We left the orphanage and went to lunch to think things over. At lunch, Scott said something to me that made me really see into the future... He said "If we take this little boy, we have to be prepared for him not show us love, play with us or ever have a really affectionate relationship with him." We decided to return to the orphanage to talk with his caretakers and other doctors. Their descriptions of his behavior and characteristics knocked the wind out of my chest. Each description was a sign of autism in toddlers... not talking, barely babbles, no eye contact, does not like to play with other children, refuses to be held, giggles only when tickled, does not respond to name being called, and the list goes on. We returned to Kiev early Friday morning and visited the AC again that morning. Scott and I were both nervous wrecks that morning. It also didn't help when our van ran out of gas just blocks from the AC. I thought I was going to throw up running to the AC. We spoke directly with Ms. Kunko. She was very kind to us and promised to help us. (I was especially excited when she looked at my photo album!) As we left the office to walk down the 4 flights of stairs, I was still so nervous my legs were shaking and Scott had to help me down. Good news is... we will travel in the morning to look at a very young little boy. We pray he will be the one! After we make our decision, we will fill in more of the details. Scott and I are ready to be here for the long haul. Expenses have not been too high, so we think we can hang out if we need to. We even told the inspector at the AC we were willing to be here until we leave with a family. Scott has enough time off and I am thankfully unemployed, so no problem there. The only real problem is our poor Abbey. We miss her terribly and hate the thought of her sitting in a kennel. She is the nosiest dog I have ever seen and I am sure she loves sitting and watching all that goes on around her. Thank you everyone for your email and prayers! We love the emails and wish we could respond to each one individually. June 14th ~ WE HAVE FOUND HIM!!! The little boy we saw ended up being absolutely perfect for us! He is almost 17 months and is the cutest thing. He has red hair just like his daddy to be and the biggest cheeks. He is developmentally on track and will be speaking English before we know it. We have decided to name him Luke. Luke means "bringer of light" and this child is already the light of our lives. I can't to post pictures! Funny story ~ When we first arrived at the orphanage, the director was away at a meeting. One of the caregivers knew our translator and said she would bring out the little boy we were there to see.... but only on one condition... we could not talk to him or touch him. She would just walk by a couple of times so we could look at him. It was dark in the hallway and he had just been woken up from his nap, but Scott and I immediately noticed he had hints of red hair. This very kind caregiver put him on the floor and showed us he could walk. Oh! I just wanted to grab him up and hug the life out of him! I don't think either one of us cared at that point what his medical report said. We were in love! We will be here for another 2 weeks or so. We are staying in Kiev right now until we can start the paperwork to adopt this beautiful boy. With Ukrainian and American holidays coming up, we pray everthing will run smoothly and we can get home ASAP. Most of you know that we came over here with the hope of adopting two children. It turns out that after 22 days, 6000km travel across Ukraine, six trips to the Adoption Center, and one incredily amazing little boy, we are ecstatic and ready to come home. Well, we have been here 23 days so far and are homesick like mad! Please continue to remember us in your prayers. These next few weeks are going to be hard and long! June 25th ~ Yes, we are still here. I am beginning to forget what it was like to be at home. I am absolutely sick of being in our flat. I have never been so bored in my life. Although I do have to admit, we are getting pretty good at tuning out the Russian translation over the English when watching movies. We do try to get out and roam around Kiev once a day. We have been to the WWII museum, the suvenier market, the book market and the children's market. One day we got a little lost trying to find a department store. The store was listed in a Kiev tourist guide and I was itching to walk through something other than a HOT market. Well, we walked all the way around the block were it was listed as being and then realized the gutted building we had just circled was it. I guess it would help if we would have looked at the HUGE sign on the fence... not that we could have read it! One holiday down and three to go. It looks like the holiday coming up on Friday will really mess up our plans to get out of here ASAP! Our court has been moved to Thursday because of a paperwork issue and we are not counting on completing all of the necessary paperwork after court on Thursday to leave for Kiev. We continue to be told that this region is a very "adoption friendly" region and it should not be difficult, but with our luck so far we aren't getting our hopes up. Scott has almost finished his second Tom Clancy book. His head is in that darn book 24/7. I tried to hide it one day, but for some reason he was looking through the kitchen drawers and found it... and I thought we were actually going to have a conversation that night. :o) Even when I wrote above that I have never been so bored, Scott read it and asked, "Are you really that bored?" HELLO! I have totally mastered Solitaire and read a couple of books. But the closer we get to our court date and getting our child, the harder it is getting to concentrate. I have cleaned our flat from top to bottom... several times, arranged and rearranged the suitcases, washed even the clean clothes and figured out how many different outfits we can make with the clothes we bought for Luke.... I CAN'T WAIT TO BE HOME! We continue to watch our video of Luke and sit and scroll through our digital pictures. One night we even called our parents and played the audio of him laughing. It is SO cute. It immediately puts a smile on my face. We cannot agree more with the phrase "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." We absolutely love this kid! Hopefully the next time I post here, we will be parents and I can add his picture. We are looking forward to that day... have been for years! :o) July 4th in Warsaw! So much has happened since I last posted. Everything has been a whirlwind and we have had no time. WE ARE PARENTS! June 27th's court hearing in Donetsk went very smoothly. We sat in a very small room in front of a judge and were pronounced parents of LUKE STEVEN DAVIS. We picked him up at the orphanage that evening and have been having the time of our lives ever since. We finished up our paperwork in Kiev at the US Embassy on Wednesday morning and made our flight to Warsaw at 11:50 that morning. Luke only cried while we were landing in Warsaw, but fell asleep just as we touched down. He slept in his stroller through passport control, baggage pick-up, and customs. (I think he is going to give us a run for our money be being obstinate about when he sleeps. He fights it so hard before he finally collapses.) e arrived at the wonderful Sheraton hotel and felt like we stepped into another world... English speaking people and AIRCONDITIONING! I almost started to cry as we checked into our room. Scott told me as we walked away from the counter that he was so happy with the service, he wanted to ask the attendant to marry him. We went straight to the hotel restaurant and had a burger, nachos, iced-tea and a brownie sundae. Oh we were in heaven! This morning I gave Luke a bubble bath in the huge tub. I laughed so hard my stomach muscles hurt from watching him figure out what the bubbles were. He would get them on his arm and shake it really hard trying to get them off. I showed him if you blow on them they would come off. He did this a few times and finally managed to get some of them off.... right onto my face. He thought that was hilarious and I had bubbles on me the rest of the bath. He threw a fit when I took him out of the bathtub. I think he would have stayed in there all day playing if I would havelet him. He finally took a nap this morning. (Actually, he fell asleep playing on the floor.) We were able to get some much needed sleep also. But not for too long, tiny little fingers and slobbery kisses woke us up. I honestly would not have wanted any other wakeup call. We are looking forward to getting home. I spent 3 hours at the Lufthansa counter yesterday trying to get tickets home on Saturday. Everything was booked out until Tuesday. We finally found tickets to Franfurt on Friday night with a twelve hour layover and then flying into Dulles on Saturday at 1:30pm ET. We are going to be so tired when we arrive in DC, but I know our happiness adrenaline will keep us going until we collapse into our soft bed on Saturday night. Scott and I have never been happier as we are right now. This little boy has already changed our lives and brought more joy than we ever thought possible. We cannot wait to experience the world and everything in it through the eyes of this child. He could not be more perfect! I can't post a picture here, but I am dying to show him off. Luke and Daddy both got a haircut while in Donetsk and Luke now looks like a little military man. July 8th ~ I am so excited, I am finally able to show off our little man. He has been such a joy to be with. I can't even imagine what the rest of our life will be like... filled with constant wonder and amazement! The plane ride home went wonderfully. He actually did better than all of the other kids on the plane. Of course, we had lots of toys to keep him occupied and they worked wonders. We were also able to leave the Frankfurt airport and stay in a hotel on Friday night. After some persuasion, passport control issued Luke a 24 hour visa for Germany and we could not have been more relieved to fall into the hotel bed that night. When we walked out of customs at Dulles, we had a whole gang of friends waiting with balloons, cameras, and toys for Luke. I lost it when I saw them. The floodgate of tears just opened up. I was so happy to be home, to see familiar faces and to finally share our beautiful son with those who mean so much to us here in DC. Luke was a little shy to begin with, but after an hour or so he was smiling his gorgeous smile. Things have gone really smoothly since we have been home. When Luke first saw the shelf of toys waiting for him, he gasped with amazement. Unfortunately, that shelf is no longer filled with toys… they are all over our house. :o) His inner clock is still on Ukraine time. He wakes up VERY early every morning ready to play. He is quickly learning words. He can say ball, bubble and (I think) dog. Scott swears Luke can say Dada, but I am not so sure. For the first couple of days we had him, I thought he was saying Mama. But we were later told he was saying "give" in Russian. And here I thought he was the smartest sweetest baby ever when really he was being obstinate. We are working on Mommy now. Hopefully, he will be talking up a storm very soon. I can't wait to know what is going on in that little brain of his. Luke and Abbey are still on uncertain terms. One minute, Luke will be chasing Abbey around trying to hug and kiss her. The next, Abbey will be on Luke's heels licking the back of his head. Each being constantly irritated by something the other is doing. We have tried to leave them alone and let them make their own peace, but just like sibling, they sometimes need to be separated. It has been funny to watch and we can already tell they will soon be very good friends. I have lots of other pictures I will eventually put up on Luke's page. He is such a happy baby and his smile is just so contagious we can't help but share it with the world. |
| Unfortunately, I feel I need to put a disclaimer here regarding Focus on Children, the adoption agency we used. This site in no way promotes their agency. It is just a journal of our adoption journey. We left out alot of information in this website in order to finish our adoption on good terms with FOC. Needless to say, this did not happen. We hope others heed this warning! |
| NEW!! |
| First Family Picture at Orphanage |
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| Luke with his favorite caretaker |
| Our Referral Picture ~ Luke approx. 3 months |
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