Another Roller Coaster ride

The day started out with us visiting our girls in the morning. It is always the best part of the day when we are greeted by four smiles, four hugs and four kisses. We were only able to spend about 45 minutes with them because we had a meeting about our court date today. It was enough time to get some playing in. As we were leaving we had a break through with Oksana. All the other girls love to give us a kiss goodbye. But, Oksana usually will give you her cheek. Today she insisted on a kiss just like the other girls. We understand her and where she is at right now. We found out that we are the third family that has committed to adopting her and she has been a bit protective of herself. So, we are seeing signs of her opening up. Praise God!

We were very concerned today is it looked possible that we would be having either two or four separate court dates because our girls are unrelated. We put a call out to our friends for prayer and God answered! We are scheduled for court on September 8th, one court session for all. We have an up hill climb ahead of us as we are in uncharted territory. We will be the first to adopt four unrelated children out of this region. Prayers are requested!

Tomorrow is another huge holiday here as it is the firs school bell after summer vacation. We're going to be picked up real early so we can walk our girls to class on this special occasion.

Full report tomorrow!

Peace and Love Friends!

Shane & Diana

McDonald's Delivered!

We have been promising the girls that we would bring them McDonald's French Fries. Today we delivered. You think we are spoiling them?

Playing with my Girls!

They could keep this up all day...although i'm sure i couldn't! ;)

Requesting a Court Date tomorrow!

Tomorrow after we visit the girls we head over to the Court offices and request a date. Please pray for an expedited date!

We also would ask that you lift up our friends the Harper's as they request a court date tomorrow as well. And, our friends the Bollinger's as they start tomorrow on a more certain path! There are many other Families here as well that need your prayer. Please pray for an unmistakable momentum to start here so that all will know that God is the Father of all and He alone makes these decisions!

Peace and Love!

Shane & Diana

UPDATE: WE DIDN'T HAVE ALL THE PAPERWORK COMPLETED TO BE ABLE TO REQUEST A COURT DATE. SO, WE WILL TRY AGAIN EITHER TUES OR WED. PLEASE PRAY!

Sisters!

The trip to the doctor today was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. Our girls are such troopers. They went in, had their blood drawn and were out like it was nothing. I would have preferred spending the day with them just playing. But, it was good to see how they were away from the orphanage also. Tomorrow our driver is off for her 10th anniversary (Happy Anniversary Natasha!) so we won't visit the girls tomorrow. We will likely spend the day with some missionaries that we learned about.

If that isn't a perfect picture of sisters there isn't one!

Momma packed the perfect lunch for the trip to the Dr.'s office. Sausage, cheese, crackers and fruit (as requested)! And jello for dessert...Mmmm!

The "I so have daddy wrapped around my finder" look!

You can't say I didn't warn you about those eyes!

The girls call me Papa. But we have not forgotten about the Papa that allowed us to come on this trip.Clearly we are "without words" Blessed by our Father! We've learned that this is absolutely not something we ARE doing! Rather, by the grace of God we are allowed to do this! Thank you Jesus for the honor of Your trust in allowing us to care for these Precious Angels in this temporary home!

Peace and Love Friends!

Shane & Diana

A little look into Heaven!

I have to say the major grocery store near our apartment puts all the big boys back home to shame! The meat looks better, it is cleaner and the carts roll better!

Oh and the desserts.....Mmmmm!

Back to two players in the game.

Diana rested all day yesterday and felt good enough today to go visit the girls. That gave Dad a better opportunity to spend some one on one time with them. How amazing each day is with them! They love to sit on my lap and just play, give kisses and hugs. I AM INCREDIBLY BLESSED BY OUR FATHER!

Tomorrow will not be such a fun day as we have to take them to see a doctor and they have to get blood drawn. I'm not looking forward to it! I'll probably suck up to them afterwards with a trip to McDonald's.

Peace and Love Friends!

Shane & Diana

The test of Fatherhood.

Diana has come down with a cold and opted to stay home and rest up. So, i went to see the girls by myself. Yes, it was active!!! Yes, i'm pooped!!! We had a great time and played like mad. I always had at least one girl in my arms, usually two and at times three. Maybe we'll try four tomorrow...NOT!

Each day we bring them some water and a small treat. To my amazement, they asked if tomorrow we could bring them fruit, meat, bread and cheese instead of candy? SURE! I'm all for that! in a few minutes i'll walk up to the store and prepare for tomorrow.

They are active but so so sweet. They love the attention from a Papa. The care givers kept telling them that Papa must be tired and that they should give him a break. They would respond "But our Father is strong". If they only knew just how tuckered i was.

Peace and Love to all of our friends!

Shane & Diana

God Speed!

Everything went perfectly well today! Praise must be given to God because it could only be by His will that this was accomplished so quickly. We had to drive out to two of the villages where our girls were born to get a paper that allowed us to continue with the process. Because Monday and Tuesday are Holidays here it was declared that Saturday would be a work day. But our facilitator called for two days to let them know we were coming but no one answered. So, on a chance we drove way out in the country to two different villages and were able to get what we needed.

Today (Sunday) we will just stay here at our apartment. Tomorrow we start visiting our girls daily and just enjoying them.

Sweet Day!

We spent our second day with the girls yesterday. I can't describe the feeling of walking through the gate and having four little smiling beauties running to you yelling "Mama Papa"! They are so precious and we can see already will be a handful. I could go on forever about them!

So, today is another paperwork day. There are some papers we must get done before we can begin filing with the court. So please pray that we get these papers today.

God comes through again!

God is amazing! We did receive the referral we needed today so this evening we are on the overnight train again to the region to do more paperwork and love on our girls.

We are now heading out the door to have dinner with the Harper's and another couple John & Diana from Indiana. Then back here to grab our bags and head to the train station.

Shane & Diana

Back and forth!

We have been on a fast run since we arrived. Tuesday was our appointment and we recieved our referral that afternoon. That evening we took the overnight train to the region. We arrived there about 6:30am, went to our apartment, freshened up real fast and headed out to meet our girls.

We were doing okay until we pulled up to the front gate of the Orphanage. That is when all the emotions hit us that the time we have been waiting for had finally come. We took a few minutes to pull ourselves together and then headed in. We aren't going to go into great detail about how it all went down. But our time there with them was amazing. So many emotions! Instantly you feel like they have always been yours!

They were a bit shy at first but started to open up very soon after. Krista was showing us all the things she is good at. Chloe said when we gave them a Teddy Bear "They always bring you something when they come". and then before we left she asked Mama "When will we go home"? Mama said "soon. Yana, "When is that"? "What if i finish all the bottle of water you gave me while your gone"? and she kept going...so impatient...love it! I don't think they really know what a Mama and Papa are, only that they have always wanted one. After a little while Dad finally picked one of them up and gave them a hug and kiss. They seemed to like it because they kept coming in "pit stop" style for another, then off running around again. We were only there about an hour because there was a lot of paperwork to complete before we boarded the night train again heading back to Kiev. New procedure in place that requires lots of travel.

So, at the moment we are back in Kiev waiting for a second referral so we can catch another train back to the region tonight. The Ukraine is on Holiday Monday and Tuesday so they are working this Friday and Saturday. There is much paperwork to be done and we're going to try to get as much done as we can. Olga our facilitator is amazing!

KEEP PRAYING FRIENDS!

Shane & Diana

Heading out!

We had our SDA appointment today and received our referal. They are very kind there and you can tell they do this because they love these children. We have to return in a little bit to get the form we need and then we board a train tonight for the region.

We also met the Harper's for lunch today. We hit if off like old friends. We hope we get to see them again before we leave.

We'll try to keep you updated. We aren't sure what kind of internet service we'll have in region. We will also be on a dead run through Friday. Small snag that we can't talk about yet, but God has it handled!

Shane & Diana

We made it to Kiev

Just wanted to update you all real quick and let you know all is fine. We made it to Kiev and Miss Olga was there waiting for us.

Tomorrow is our appointment at the SDA. We probably won't be able to travel to the region tomorrow because we have to wait on the official paperwork.

We'll keep you updated!

Shane & Diana

Leaving Tomorrow!

It is 11:30pm and I just got in from dropping our 16 year old son Alexi "BIG MAN" Lewis off at his best friends house where he'll stay while we're gone. You are never reminded more of just how much you love your child as when you have to leave them! Our comfort comes in the awesome Christian loving family that will care for him while we're gone.

So, we are out of here tomorrow to go meet our girls for the first time. We are very anxious. Bags have been packed for three days and sitting by the front door. Please keep us in your prayer!

Shane & Diana

Girl's room ready and waiting!

This is a video we made for our girls so we could show them their room.

Daddy's Girl's

Pretty much the cutest girls ever!!!