We are home

sorry took so long to write, we are tired and busy with adjusting to this new addition to the family. The travel......well was the hardest thing we've ever done. With us being tired, Paul, Ivan, and myself not being able to communicate on the plane and talk to him. It was a long.....long travel. Lots of crying and screaming. But we made it and it's behind us. The homecoming together at the Airport was uneventful, Ivan fell asleep just before we got on the plane from Chicago to Grand Rapids and he wouldn't wake up. so when we came into view of the girls and Grandparents he was asleep. But he did wake up and gave a big smile to his sisters. He loves the girls and is playing well with them, sleep is a big issue for all of us. He needs to get comfortable and secure, and his body needs to adjust to the time change. Pray for that transition. Also for me in the coming week when Paul goes to work because Ivan screams when Paul leaves. We have alot of things to get through but we are very blessed to have this little man in our house, how different to have a boy, playing with a truck!!! But his favorite is the kitchen set. ( maybe he'll be a chef) Thanks for all your prayers, keep praying.
The Van Zalens Paul, Vicki, Mallory, Alaina, Josie, and Ivan.

zoo

October 3, 3:51 pm.
Our days start out with waking up, getting dressed, going down to breakfast. Then we go back up to our room and hang out a little bit ,then go out for a walk. Today is not a very nice day its bit chilly and rains off and on. We did walk to the mall, not much in it.(very disapointed) After that we walked down to what we would call a farmers market, lots of fruit and vegetables and meat, there was a catfish head the size of a bushel basket, couldn’t believe it. On our way back about ¼ of it was left….who eats catfish head?????
Then we went out for lunch, walked back to our hotel, played a little bit and took a nap. Slept about 1hr. Woke him up, took a long time to fall asleep last night. Having a snack, playing..right now is playing on the floor driving his matchbox cars around. Love hearing the car noises. Supper soon the maybe a little walk, bath time, then bed. And we begin again.
We’ve had a good day with the little man, trials here and there but for the most part we are all doing fine. He is getting very silly….sometimes hard to stop. It’s hard to come up with things to do….same things over and over. Ivan is ok with it but it gets old for Paul and I. We forget how busy 4 yr. olds are, and especially a boy, we are tired, he keeps us busy. Just to let you know we have to buy internet for how long we want it but we can only use it once, then we have to buy it again. So that is why we are not keeping in touch as often. So Bye for now
Blessings Paul, Vicki and Ivan.
Sorry I haven’t posted a blog the hotels internet wasn’t working. So I’m going to add another day. The boys slept good, mamma on the other hand has her normal stomach issues with a little added to it. But we had to keep going today, we went to Gorki Park, and Zoo park. It is a very big park and zoo. It was fun watching Ivan’s reaction to the animals, at first he wasn’t quite sure, but then he realizes the animals were in cages and got very interested. The animals were very active and made a lot of noises. It was so cool, their were wolves and coyotes and they all started to howl at the same time, boy was that loud!. We had a good time, it took a good part of the day. Now we are back in our room playing , maybe a little rest time. Please pray the days go by fast they are going slow. Talk again soon I hope.
Oct. 4, 3:04pm

Doctor visit

We all slept good, we had to wake Ivan up to go and eat breakfast. We get complementary breakfasts here at the Hotel. We had to go see the doctor at 9:30 , Ivan wasn’t to sure about the whole thing but he did real well. He is 50% in height and 10% in weight. We found out some things that are good to know and we will take care of them when we get home, nothing to major. Went for a walk, Ivan loves the stroller it is hard to get him out of it, and of course only papa can push him. We went out for lunch, when we got back to the hotel Oleg was there and we needed to fill out some paper work for the embassy. Came back to the room to take a nap….a trying nap time, but he did finally fall asleep. Ivan still tries to say different words, if we say them first, not to many but it’s a start. We are going to go to the zoo, Oleg says it’s a really nice one, can’t wait to see how Ivan reacts to it.
Keep praying, for us and the adjustment we have, we have wonderful times and trying times and I pray “Lord you don’t give us anything we can’t handle” As a great friend told me “Vicki you need to plug into the” Power” and I’ve been doing that, hard to be away from home, Ivan need structure and to know what place is home since we have had 3 different places.
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL.
Paul, Vicki ,and Ivan
Please keep the girls and my parents in your prayer also.

we are here in Almaty

I am not posting any pictures because we are having some problems with the computer. the hotel staff is very helpful, I just can't seem to get the internet to connectto our computer. this is when I wish I had my friend Doug B here.
Anyway we had a great day, Ivan slept all night and woke up happy. we left at 1:00pm for Almaty and arrived saftly at 3:30. I haven't told you all this but we have the best little boy ever. He was so good on the plane, played with his toys, we thought her was going to take a nap but he chose not to. To many new things to look at. We have a very nice hotel, we are in a very nice room because they are very busy, so we are moving to a new room tomorrow. I'll take pictures of our room it's great!!! Ivan said some english words...More...hot...we think bus. can you believe it we were shocked when I asked him to say "more" and he did.And when Paul asked him he said it again. Ivan is sleeping again and fell right to sleep Paul tried singing to him and he started to laugh so Paul had to stop. We went out to dinner with him for the first time and he did so well, he sat the whole time, ate all his dinner.. the boy eats everything. We had a great day. We will be going to the embassy tomorrow morning at 9:30 to see the doctor and then we hope to go again on monday and fill out the rest of the paperwork and then on our way home. Thanks for all your prayers we have really felt them and have been lifted up!!! Talk to ya again soon.
Vicki Paul and Ivan

we have our son!!!

sorry it took longer to post we have a very active 4 year old. We had a good party, cake,juice,fruit. Then we took some pictures,changed his clothes and we were off. He wasn't quite sure about going in the car,then going into the appartment, we tried taking a nap, he didn't want to,we had tears, I rocked him and he finally fell asleep, tried to put him down and he woke up.We didn't get much sleep.All in all we are doing great,we leave tomorrow at 12:00 to Almaty, pray the trip goes well,we have no idea what Ivan will do.Pray that he sleeps tonight, so we can sleep.
Paul,Vicki and Ivan Written at 7:00 pm.

We are here

We have arrived.Smooth flights,no travel problems....just takes so long......We are in a different apartment,it is very nice we even have WiFi!!!! We are going to see Ivan tomorrow at 10:30 to have a little party, and then he will come with us to be our son...can't believe it is really happening...I feel like a mother taking home a new born. Please pray for a wonderful reuniting,that Ivan will except us, and we can start a wonderful new beginning with him!! We will have some pictures for you tomorrow.
Paul and Vicki. time written 6:30 pm on Tuesday

going at last!!!

Yes, we are finally going to get Ivan. We are leaving on Sunday the 27th of September and returning home on Oct 6,or Oct 7. We are so ready to go and get our little guy home with us. Please pray for safe travel,for Ivan that he may feel safe with us and we will begin to bond with eachother once again.Thanks again for all your prayers. I will try to blog when we are in Kaz. so you know how we are doing.
Love Paul,vicki, Mallory, Alaina, Josie and Ivan.

still waiting

yes we are still here in Michigan, still waiting on the Immigration Paper to be sent back to us with the right age of Ivan so we can leave. We are hoping and praying to recieve the paper sometime this week. Please pray for us, we need patiance, understanding, and that the papers do come soon. And for Ivan as we are gone from him for a long time, that he still will be excepting of us when we do come and get him. I'll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything new.
Vicki

not so fast

Well here we are with no plans to travel. The paperwork we thought we had in hand still has a problem it says we are adopting a male child who is 0-36 months and Ivan is 4. So we need to send the paper back to the immigration office and have them change the age. So we are waiting again. Please pray for Ivan as he is waiting for us to come and get him!! we miss him very much and just want to have him home with us. We will update as soon as we have any more information.
Vicki

almost ready

I haven't written in a while, we have had some delayes in returning to Kaz. to pick up Ivan. To make a long story short a paper expired that is from immigration, which will allow us to take Ivan to the US. We have finally received the document that we need to leave.So now we have to make flights and other arrangements. Pray for us as we prepare to pick up Ivan, prepare his little mind and heart for this big transition. Pray for the girls and my parents as the girls will start school without us and my dear mother will once again have to make school lunches.
We should only be gone about 10 days or so. I'll post again with the date we will be leaving.
Vicki

Home at last

Paul and I made it home on Sunday night at around 8:30. How great it feels to be back in Michigan. We are blessed over and over again, I'm thankful the Lord put me here in my safe and beautiful Jenison, Michigan. Yesterday was a family day Paul stayed home from work and we spent the day with our girls, went swimming, watched videos of Ivan,the girls loved to watch them to learn and hear new words in Russia. We miss our little Ivan, watching those videos makes me miss him more, but it makes it more real for the girls to see their brother in action. We will be leaving to bring him home by the end of August.
From Paul myself, the girls and my parents, we would like to express a deep and grateful thank you to all of you for showing such and interest in our adoption journey. Thank you for your food, cleaning, taking the girls for a time, carpooling for soccer, and especially for the prayers. We were blessed by those and felt covered in them daily!! God is good!! We can't wait to make our family whole!!
Love the Van Zalen Family

Last day

A nice sunny day here in Kaz. Warmer today no need for a jacket. We were off to the baby house for the last day. We had a nice visit, he is getting more attached to his papa all the time, he doesn’t really need his mama there, it’s a little hard some times, I want my son to want his mama, it will come, I keep telling myself I’ll have many days alone with him when the girls are in school and Paul is at work. We said our good byes we got a few extra big hugs and kisses, we told him we would come back soon but we need to get things ready for him, when Ira asked him if he would wait for us he shook his head and said “yes” he would wait. I think it was harder for us to leave him, I don’t know how much he really understands. So pray for little Ivan as he waits for our return.
Tonight we are going to dinner with Patrick, Shelia and Jonathon to say good bye to them. This will be the last blog for a few days, we leave for the air port tomorrow at around 10:30. We are coming home! We made it and so did the girls and my parents, God is God.
Love Paul, Vicki and Ivan
P.S those in the picture with Paul and I are on the left Ivan's Doctor, the right the Director of the Baby House.

It's a BOY!!

He is a wonderful four year old boy, who was chosen for us by our Heavenly Father, to become part of our family and after a long journey of learning patience and complete faith and trust it has finally happened, IVAN PAUL VAN ZALEN. Court went well, we got a late start, the judge forgot about our appointment!!!. So we started out with a laugh. We went into a room with the Judge, prosecutor, director of the Baby House, and the Director of Guardianship, Ira, Paul and Myself. We were asked questions Ira would translate, then both the ladies told about Ivan and if they thought we would be good parents…of course they said we would, after that we asked the Judge to let us adopt Ivan, there was a short recess, for the Judges decision, we went back in and the Judge granted the rights to become Ivan’s parents. After court we went back to the apartment till 4:00 and then to the baby house we presented gifts to the Director and the doctor, and then it was celebration time, Paul popped open a bottle of Champaign and we also had chocolates. We toasted to becoming Ivan’s Parents, and we talked for about an hour about Ivan, his nature how they were thankful Ivan was going to have a wonderful new family, they are all so very kind and wonderful people they make us feel so welcomed. God has surely brought us to a wonderful place to receive our son.
We also did get to play with Ivan after that, they said he was looking for us all day!! We had a great time with our son (how awesome to say that and it ‘s official) We get to see him one last time tomorrow. Then we are coming home. We will return to get Ivan in about 3 to 4 weeks.
What a great day the Lord has given us!! We will rejoice and be glad!!!! Our family was 5 now is 6!!
Love Paul, Vicki and Ivan

Blessings

A beautiful sunny day, still very windy and a bit chilly. .We had another good day with Ivan, he played well, he has a toy phone and he would run all over the playground with it sitting here sitting there answering his phone , he even pretended to take pictures of us with it. What a wonderful little boy, we are understanding each other a little more everyday, it is going to be hard saying good bye. We are going to court tomorrow, exciting and a little nervous, I’ve never been to court before. Ira say there is no reason to be nervous . After that we have a little celebration, Ivan will officially be Ivan Paul Van Zalen!!! We will be in court from 10:00 till about 11:00. We have our finally flights we are leaving on the 25th at 11:30 am and will be home in the evening on the 26th, A long travel Pray for us, me Vicki especially .I did Sheila’s hair today and it turned out really nice, it actually felt good to do someone’s hair, Patrick tried to cut Jonathon’s hair, I will not comment on how that looked. All in all we had a good day, now we are going to eat dinner, press our nice clothes for court, trim up My scruffy man’s hair and neck, and that will be about it for today.
Love Us

Chilly...is it July?

Cold day here in Kaz. I think Michigan weather is coming here. We are in jeans, and jackets. Only 13c. Which is about 55f. (global warming whatever)
We started out inside with Ivan today since it was a little chilly and windy. We had fun with Ivan he was being quite silly today Paul had to take him to the bathroom( it is so nice having him take someone to the bathroom I’ve done it for years) On their way back Ivan ran ahead of Paul and shut the door in front of Paul, he thought that was so funny. We had been playing for about an hour and one of his caregivers came in and said Ivan needed a hair cut. Hair cut…...mama’s ears perked up. So off we go to get a hair cut. We told them I cut hair, they said I was on vacation so I could sit and watch, I’ll do it next time. Watching was torture, and the end product, not what I would have done. But so special watching my son getting his hair cut. We also had to get a picture of Ivan for his Passport, that was exciting to have him stand still just right against the wall, don’t smile, put you’re your hands down….took some time but we got it done. An exciting day for us.
I also went shopping with Paul and Ira and got a new dress, they have all sorts of dresses here, when trying them on they would give me stiletto shoes to wear to get the full look of the dress. I also bought hair color for Shelia, she wants her grey out before she goes home. I hoe the color is good, Ira was there to read the box, still different wording for colors. I’ll let you know how it turns out. That’s all for know, we’ll talk later.
Love All of us.

Written at 5:30 on Tue. Sorry a little late took a nap…..I’m still on vacation!!!

A good day!!!

Thanks,
for all your prayers for Ivan. We had a good visit with him today. No tears, one little fit…someone was playing with his toys that we gave him. We seen his smile a lot more today. He still isn’t to interested in his Mama…so many mama’s. But He did say yes to me when I said that I loved him. I also got to help him when he couldn’t hang up his Jacket in his room, when he comes in from play he needs to change out of his play clothes into his inside clothes. I got to see his locker and his little bed where he sleeps. .All little beds all lined up…how sweet. He gave us hugs and kisses goodbye. We’ll see him again tomorrow.
Paul and I did get to sightsee some today Ira and Alexander took us to the lake and to the river. The lake is a very popular spot very busy during the weekend and nights. The river is a river, they do swim in their river, not full of sewage. We are going out o dinner at the café in or building, they have very good food but expensive…going on a hot date tonight, then walking down to constitution Ave for Ice cream and people watching.
Keep praying, your prayers are holding us up!!
Love ya all,
Vicki

Day of rest

Boy do we miss church!!! And our church family. Always wondered how much I would miss church and boy do I ever. We didn't do much today, we did go for a walk, and finished the last of our gift buying.Then back to the apartment, one more week I keep telling myself. We are still waiting on final flight itinerary,we have to wait till Monday. Please pray for Ivan, we haven't seen him all weekend and are looking forward to spending a few more days with him before we leave,we are praying we get a good greeting from him, hugs again would be nice,and his sweet smile. That's all for today.
Vicki
written at 4:40
P.S is our entrance to the apartment

Saturday

Today started out as a lazy day. I slept in for the first time since we've been here. It was 9:00 when I got up. We don't see Ivan at all this weekend.
But we will see him again on Monday.We did meet Patrick and Sheila and their little guy at the amusement park. It's more like our Hudsonville fair. But Jonathon seemed to like it. After that we are back at the apt. Time for supper.
We are still waiting on our final time s that we fly home, the way it looks now is we will leave here on Saturday afternoon, and be home on Sunday the 26Th. Pray that everything gets arranged and flights are set. That's all for today
Vicki
written at 6:00 pm on Sunday

Friday

Good day to you all. We had an interesting visit with Ivan. He was a stinker. He cried when we came and got him. We think now we are nothing special to him and all we do is take him from his regular routine and he doesn’t like it. We took him outside and we were ok for awhile then his groupa came and that was the end of that, he wanted nothing to do with Paul or I, only wanted his care giver. We also saw how Ivan gets his way with them, he throws a fit, and gets what he wants or doesn’t want.
I just want the little mans love, it’s just going to take awhile, we are disrupting the world as he knows it. So pray that the time we have left with him will be better, that he will enjoy it.
Paul and I had a fun experience last night. We went out for dinner down Constitution Ave. After dinner we were just ready to leave and it started to rain, not just a little but in buckets, and then it got really windy, knocking tree limbs down, blowing over peoples ice cream stands, everyone walks around here, so you could hear people screaming running for any kind of cover, Paul and I were in the entrance to the restaurant and two moms came running in with their kids and strollers all soaking wet the one little boy was crying. We waited about 15min and the rain let up so we decided to make our way back. They don’t have good drainage systems here so there was water everywhere, In the streets, on the sidewalks, no getting around it. There was also a power line down in the road. We had fun walking home, our feet were soaking wet, our pants were wet, but we did get to see a double rainbow, Gods promise even to the people in Kaz. Then when we got home we were talking to the girls and the power went out. Fixing the downed wire. The girls thought it was funny, that we had no power, no hot water, how fun and exciting it must be!! We did get our power back on, and we also have hot water. We are still waiting on a flight our travel agent is trying to get us the best rate, Pray she can do all this and it won’t be to costly.
That is all,
Love Paul, Vicki, and Ivan
Written at

news from Kaz

We do have a court date, it is on the 23rd. of July, a week from today, at 10:00. We are very happy with that news,and we need no extra paperwork,everything is in order,another praise. We do ask for prayers concerning our flight home, we do have to change are original flights that were planned for the 24Th. we can't make it on time after all the court stuff,plus there are only a few flights out of Petro.where we are staying. as of right now there are no seats available on the planes for the 25 or 26. So we are asking our prayer warriors at home to pray seats open up for us,we have seen your prayers answered thus far God is good and he can make this happen to.

One other bit of news, we have no hot water, we have been boiling water for mini-mini baths. "there's no place like home....." Boy, do we take things for granted there in America. Our Internet hasn't been working the best,it work then it doesn't,I'm writ ting you and it is working!!!Enough complaining...We are really doing OK, just getting ready to go home, but we see the end. We did not get to see Ivan today,Irena was out of town at another court for Patric and Shelia. We are hoping to go tomorrow. Love ya all
Vicki

P.S the picture is Paul getting produce from across the street from our apt.

just another day

A day like all the rest. we went and saw Ivan today we had a good time, we were all getting a little board running out of things to keep his attention. But one good thing , the slide that I broke is fixed and boy was Ivan happy about that.We are still waiting on a call from Irena an the court date. We'll let you know as soon as we know. We are still not able to get on our home page on the internet in our apartment so if I don't respond to e-mail know I'm not ignoring you, I am reading them and love to do so. Thanks agian for your prayers.
Love Vicki
3:45 PM on Wed.

we are back

sorry for missing a day our internet connection for our home page for some reason doesn't work in the appartment so I am writting you all in the mall were thet have wireless. Hope it gets working soon.Our 14 days are done,tomorrow the judge will give us a date she told Irena it would be around the 23 of July.We are praying for a few days earlier so we don't have to make new flight arrangments.We are schudule to leave on the 24 and we need one day after court to sign the last of the papaers. So lets do some serious praying God is good!!
Well Ivan was better today we went outside then went inside because of the rain, it has been raining the last two days. I asked him a few times for a kiss and each time he gave me one. we played with him today all by ouselves, little scary but it went really well we all seemed to understand eachother for the most part. Well i'm going to go Paul is patiantly waiting. Love you all thanks for all your prayer,
Vicki
Written at 1:45pm Tues

13 day almost there!

Our beautiful porch

Our apartment building,with a little store

Today was not the best day for Ivan, he was not his smiley self all he wanted to do was swing, he wouldn't even smile at us or Irena. After awhile of wondering what has changed we noticed he kept looking over at the slide where we mostly play. See yesterday his mama broke the slide when I was holding on to Ivan....I'm a little heavy I suppose. The slide has a platform made out of wood and my foot went right through it, Paul commented the other day that the wood looked rotten and it probably wouldn't last much longer, well it didn't. We think Ivan remembered that and felt like he would get in trouble or something, He wouldn't even walk by the slide. What a sensitive little man we have, we told someone about the slide they said they would try and fix it tomorrow, I hope so, I want my little man back, I wanted to fix what was bothering him and tell him it was OK, but I couldn't. Pray tomorrow will be a better day!!

Paul took a picture of the outside of our apartment building so you can all see where we have been living for the past two weeks. You'll all be jealous! We get into our building through the back alley, that's where all the doors are for all the apartment building, we climb 4 flights of stairs..We're getting a good workout every day since we go up and down quite a few times in one day. Today we are going to SKYPE our church, that ought to be interesting, my face on the big screen in church..Yuk. Hopefully it will work and we don't get disconnected. It will be nice to see church since we haven't been to church since we left, no churches here ,unless your Muslim or Russian Orthodox.That's all for today, we'll talk to you all again tomorrow.

Written at 4:45 pm Sunday

12th day

We are almost there, two more days of required bonding and we are done and we will be one step further to adding Ivan to our family. On Tuesday Irena will bring our papers to court and we will wait for our court date...Pray that the date is set quickly and we can come home one the 24th of July as scheduled.

I feel like I wright the same things all the time but our days are mostly all the same. We are getting alittle bored now and then, but we know what we came to do and we are going to see it through, but it's not always easy, missing home and the girls sometimes.

Had a good time with Ivan again he was alittle tired today we asked if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, Irena thought that was funny, she also laughed when Paul was pushing Ivan on the swing and Paul said "Ivan would you like an under dog?" she looked at us and said "what is that "we showed her and she want to remember that word. She also thinks it funny when we say "It's taking a while" As she say," us Americans have funny words sometimes." Ivan gave us hugs and kisses good bye, waved and said "PaKa" (BYE) mama and papa.

We are heading out for supper to the pizza house with Patrick,Shelia, and Jonathon. This will be interesting. They got Jonathon on Wed. night. We'll talk tomorrow.

Paul, Vicki, and Ivan

Written at 3:45pm on Sat.

11TH day of bonding

A great day here in Kaz. nice weather, good visit with Ivan, and a good day with my man.( can you believe we are not sick of each other yet?)

We thought our time with Ivan was going to be interesting, when we came in to get him he was crying and not to happy.He didn't want to wear his jacket. But once we got out side he was fine.

We did lots of things today swinging, play kitchen, road car, ate snacks, picked some weeds...lovely flowers to kids. And his favorite is daddy giving him a piggy-back ride. He loves it. It is awesome watching him giggle and smile. My favorite part was the kisses I got from him, that was the first time we got kisses on the lips. We had to carry him today not all the time but when he needed some love...can't say no to that. One thing that touched Paul's and my heart was one of Ivan's caretakers with the help of our translator Irena, told us that she has seen a change in Ivan he is talking more and just a better kid, she said some kids do this and Ivan is an awesome example to what can happen to children who get parents and the love they need. How blessed we were to hear that. God has made it clear this little man is ours and we love him!!!

Paul and I went down to what we would call a flee market, wow what alot of stuff, it seemed to never end and shoes I never seen so many shoes...Paul had to hold me back. One teenage boy who was working said to us "English" we said "yes English" he got a big smile because he could say the word and we understood him. We were buying a car sticker that say KAZ on it and the lady said "no pay, Present" How sweet is that. We are going back again, so cool to see, and walk through.

Love ya all, Paul,Vick and Ivan Paul Van Zalen

Written at 4:20 pm.

10 th day of bonding

It is a very nice day, not as hot as the past few days, the sun is shining and it rained last night so not as much dirt blowing around today. We had a good time with Ivan, he was very cuddly today wanting us to carry him places and we gave lots of hugs, one thing he does with me that I love, he gets really close, his face to mine with a great big smile and we rub noses he thinks that is so funny...we call that an Eskimo kiss. He sure is a happy boy, especially when we take out the snacks, he loves his goldfish, smarties or m&m's, and he also gets a drink of water,but not to much....you remember what happened before. Almost forgot we know he understands two English words..swing and more.

We had to go to the Immigration Police....sounds worse than it is. To extend our Visa's, we waited one hour. Then we went out for lunch with Irena and her boyfriend to a new restaurant, a fondue place. Irena has never had this before. she really liked it. Then back to the apartment. We will eat supper in tonight, Paul is going to cook up some fish. We may go to Patrick and Sheila's and meet their son.They just got him from the orphanage yesterday.

Write to you all again tomorrow.

Love Paul,Vicki , and Ivan

Written at 4:50pm on Thurs.

9th day of bonding

All is good here in Kaz. another warm day, but not as sunny,the wind is blowing and the dirt is flying every where.

We had a good day again with Ivan, he ran and gave me a hug first today, I've been waiting for that first hug. Paul bought him little play kitchen stuff yesterday and boy did he love it. We we had the best pretend food and drink. He was very lovable today I gave him lots of hugs and kisses and he seemed to love the love. Irena says he is better every day with us because he realises that we are not going anywhere and will stay and play with him and when we leave for the day he is OK with that because he know we will be there tomorrow. I don't want to think about leaving him later. But he will be covered in prayer.

Paul and I had lazy day today had lunch, took a nap, went to the market, wrote the blog, make supper, watch a movie, call home and go to bed. So there is our day.

God bless you all

Paul, Vick and Ivan

P.S thank again for responding to the blog and the e-mails

Written at 4:55pm o Wed.

8th day of bonding

The time with Ivan was good....Very hot...the play ground is mostly all in the sun except a few places, we try to keep him in the shade but he is a busy body and loves to move around. Paul blew up a punching balloon, Ivan threw it and it popped he thought that was very funny, Ivan tried to blow up a punching balloon and we thought that was very funny. What a sweet little boy, may God touch this little mans heart to love us as his family!!!

I spent most of the day with Shelia while Paul and Patrick went to a flee market...glad we didn't go Paul said I would have been crabby it was to hot, I'm going to wait for a cooler day.

We went out to dinner, you'll never guess what I ate?........Horse, and it was pretty good once you got over the idea of the horse part. We didn't get any good pictures yesterday, since all the cool things were being put away when we got there..4:30...Who takes things down at 4:30?.

That's all for today. By the way the time it says I blog is wrong and I don't know how to fix it. So I'll try to remember to tell you myself.

Love Paul,Vicki and Ivan

Written at 7:50 pm Tuesday

7TH Day of bonding half way there

We are half way done with our bonding with Ivan, and we are learning every day new things about each other. He is more comfortable to play by himself, not so scared we will leave, we play more things. And today we said we loved him and he shock his head that he loved us to. We also got some good hugs, he puts his cheek right on your cheek and wraps his arms around you and squeezes.It's hard to put into words the emotions that go through us in a visit with Ivan.

Paul and I are going to walk to Constitution Ave. the have a Holiday today with lots of things going on there. We are meeting Patrick and Shelia there and going out for supper. I hope to get some col pics for the blog tomorrow. It is very warm still and going to be warmer tomorrow. To bad there are no beaches to go to.( we are spoiled in Michigan)

Thanks for all the notes and e-mails we love to receive them. Pray that the next week of bonding goes well, and that the court date will be made soon after that.

God bless you all, Paul and Vicki

6TH day of bonding

We already wrote this blog once but it didn't work so I'm going to make it short. we pay for dial up and we've been on it a long time. The visit with Ivan went well it gets better every day. He is less hyper and plays better with us. The little guy is sneaking his way into our hearts. We went out for lunch with Patrick and Shelia, they are adopting a little boy also he is 4 1/2. We had a good day it is hot 90 with no humidity.
Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement.
God bless, Paul and Vicki.
sorry is no new picture, dial up really stinks!!!!

Happy 4TH of July

What a day, Paul and I woke up early 5:00am couldn't fall back to sleep. Read at breakfast, tried to sleep again, couldn't took a shower and went for a walk. We went to the store and bought balloons, cakes, banana's, and juice for Ivan's Birthday Party. Then at 4:00 we went to the baby house. We set up the food Ivan came in and seen the candy and food and wanted to eat right away but the groupa had to sing and dance for His birthday. Ivan didn't want to dance he wanted to eat. He likes to eat, two pieces of cake fruit, candy, and some other snacks. He new how old he was he held up 4 fingers. Paul and I got to have tea at the table with the kids, and have cake. After that we went outside, swinging, riding the car, sliding, he actually gave his mama lots of love today, melts my heart. Everyday gets a little easier.

Paul and I went bowling with the other American couple and Irena, we had a great time, there was even a little spat between two ladies in the bowling alley. Not much else going on.

Love all of you. Have a Happy 4TH of July

Vicki and Paul

Friday July 3

Today was another beautiful day sunny and about 80 we are guessing. We had a good day with Ivan the shoes fit great(he liked them) and the dump truck he loved we actually only had to swing a few times but could get him off without a fit. The funniest thing, we take a water bottle with us when we go and he loves to drink out of it.....well he had a little to much water and he had to go potty.....NOW....he points to the bushes....what a boy!!! Well needless to say we didn't get the pants down quick enough and you an guess the rest.Irena says maybe just a little water in the water bottle tomorrow.

We are planning on a Birthday party for Ivan tomorrow at around 4pm. We are bringing cake, balloons and presents. How awesome it is to celebrate this day with him!!!

Paul and I had another good day, didn't do to much, we did have to go and renew our Visa's that was uneventfull...we like that. Keep praying we can feel them every day!.

God bless all of you!!

Third day

We are now ending the day here in Kaz it is 8:30 pm. We seen Ivan today and he was glad to see us, more Paul then me. But I did get a hug. We went on the play ground and again had to go on the swings...that boy likes to swing, we need to find something else to interest him. We did by a new dump truck today so hopefully that may take his mind off the swings. We did buy him some new shoes because his always come off when he's swinging.

Paul and I took a walk down to Constitution Ave. where no cars are allowed,very neat part of town. Then we met a couple from Louisiana and had dinner at a little Restaurant the food was good the conversation really nice. We plan on getting together again soon.

Prayer requests: That the girls have fun camping this weekend with Paul's side of the family

That my parents have a good weekend of rest.

That we will be able to communicate and bond with Ivan.

That Paul and I will handle being away and the stress of the unknown.

God bless you all.Paul and Vicki

Second day done!!!

Today we went to the baby house at 10:00 (that is the time we go everyday) Ivan was by his groupa we walked into the room and he ran to Papa wanted nothing to do with me...sad mama. We then went outside holding only Papa's hand. He wanted to swing and only Papa could push him. He loves to swing that is about all we did for 2 hrs. He did let me push him some, and he asked me for some crackers when I took them out he sat on my lap, we did get him to do a little sidewalk chalk,but then back to the swings. We had a good time today so neat to see Paul with the little man, Ivan likes to wear a hat, he'll fit right in with his dad

I bought a coat today quite chilly, our interpreter Irena came with to help, she also helped us find some cheese, we liked the cheese and had tasty grilled cheese sandwich's for lunch. We are hopefully going to meet another American couple tonight and maybe go out for dinner, we'll let you know how that goes. It will be nice to talk to other people who speak English.

Prayers: that Ivan bonds with us and us with him, the days go by fast for the girls and my parents at home, and for Paul and I here. And that all things go quickly and smoothly and we can be home on the 24Th.

God bless you all pa-KUH (Bye)

First day of bonding done

What a day we went to the babyhouse at 10:00am. We had to wait about 15:oo min. when we got there because Ivan was in music class, we could hear them all singing(wish we knew what they were singing) Then we went into a big room and a little boy came running up to me with a great big hug saying Mama and did the same to Paul and you can guess it was Ivan(they call him Vanna) He loved the gifts,but soon after he opened them and realized he was along with us he started to cry but not for long, Mom knows, we took out gold fish and he came and sat on my lap. We have a photo album for him and that was a big hit he loved looking at the pictures and wouldn't put it down. At the end of our time with him he grabbed both our hands on his own and brought us to his room where his groupa was, they were getting ready for lunch, he gave us both hugs and kisses before we left, I love his hugs already. So we go agian tomorrow.

As for Paul and I we went to the market today bought more food and a coffee press can't believe we communicated what we wanted. As for the food we are still trying to find things we like, dairy is tricky not liking much of it. Paul just laughs as I make him try everything first. All in all we are doing good, I'm a little home sick, feel so out of place. But every day gets a little easier. are ya wanting to see pictures ok here is Ivan with us today!!

Love ya all, 8:25 pm Tuesday

met him at last

Yes we waited all day!!!! finally at 4:30 for interview, after that we went to the baby house, for another interview, and to meet Ivan. He was sitting on the doctors lap, looking at us not to sure of it all, Paul says he was checking me out. He did smile at us but didn't want to sit by us. We have to go back tomorrow(Tues.) at 10:00am. We will bring toys to warm him up. Pray all goes well at the visit, and he will warm up to us.
What did we do while we waited? We went to the store and the Market all by ourselves. Hopefully we like what we bought. Everyone was quite friendly, trying to understand our Russian. It was an adventure, that will be an outing we do every day to pass time. There is not much to do here when you can't read anything. So please send us messages. Talk to ya tomorrow.
Paul and Vicki

We are here

yes we have finally arrived!!!Wow that was a long flight!!!!I thought we would never get here.But we are here our apartment is nice, our translater Irina is also very nice.We already went to the store to buy some food.....nothing tastes like our food...I'm already struggling with that(Paul says just eat it!!!)Tomarrow we meet with some people that will ask us some questions and then off to the baby house to meet our SON!!!(it's right by our apartment) and let the bonding process begin.Thanks for all your prayers it got us through a tough part now prayers for the meeting and bonding of our son to go well.and for us and the girls as we miss each other alot!!!
Love Vicki

in one week!!!

Yes, we will be leaving in one week, our plane is scheduled to leave at 4:13pm on June 26 out of Grand Rapids. We are getting ready, preparing the girls, ourselves, and my parents, who are going to be staying with the girls while we are gone. Please pray for all of us, the girls as they are starting to get a little anxious,and mom and dad. For Grandparents as they hold the fort for us here, that the Lord to go ahead of us and prepare for us the road we will be going down,for little Ivan as he gets ready to meet us. Thank you all for your words of encouragements, prayers we are so very blessed to be surround by a wonderful support group. Keep on reading the blog, I will try to update it everyday while we are there.
God bless all of you.
Vicki

We have a travel date!!!

We are now scheduled to travel on Friday June 26. We are so excited we feel really ready to go and meet our son. I have not told everyone but we do have a little one that is going to be presented to us his name is Ivan and he will be 4 on July 4. The girls are ready for us to go no tears from them this time, only smiles, they really want to have their little brother home with them. So pray that we will have no more bumps in the road and that we will leave as planned. Thanks for all your prayers.
Vicki

still waiting

Well, we are still here in Michigan and not going the end of May.The little guy that was going to be ready for adoption has alot of medical conditions and We feel he is not right for our family. So we wait. There is a little boy that hopefully will be ready some time in June. We are disappointed, but our little boy just isn't ready yet... we sure are ready....any time would be good.God is sure teaching us that his timing is not our timing and that we need to have complete faith and trust in him... God never makes mistakes!!! So pray for patiance for us once again and that this little guy will be ready soon. God bless you all!!!
vicki

Still waiting

We are still waiting....the news is that there is a little boy who is waiting for his paperwork to be finished so he will become available for adoption. They are thinking it will be done by the end of May. So we are waiting on that little guy to become available so we can leave. Pray for the paperwork to be done in a swift manner and that we can leave soon. Patience we need lots of patience...and our spirits lifted up, we are getting a little down with this waiting processes.
God bless, the Van Zalen Family

On hold once more

Yes you read right. We got a call from Bethany that more then likely we will not be traveling on the 21st of April. There is not a child that fits our criterea there right now. They are looking into the situation a little more this weekend and will get back to us by Monday morning. Pray for us as are hearts are breaking as we were so ready to meet our son. and that on Monday we will get a clear direction of what to do next. We will keep in touch.
Gods blessings.

Well it is finally here!!! We have our travel date, April 21,2009. It's quick we have alot to do and think about before we leave. We are very excited...can't believe it is really happening, we can't wait to meet the son that the Lord has chosen to be part of our family. Please pray for us while we get ready, and for a safe travel.
God bless you all

Recieved a call

We got the call from our case worker that our LOI is on it's way. we could be traveling to meet our son as soon as April 10 when we recieve or LOI we will have about two weeks to get ready. Please pray for patience as we wait, for Paul and I to get everything in order before we go. So much to do. And for all the anxiety that comes with it.
God bless.

Waiting

Hi to everyone. We are in the 6Th month of when our papers went to Kazakhstan they say it's anywhere from a 6 month wait to a year from that. So we are asking for prayers that it will be soon and we will get the LOI (letter of invitation) We do know some families that were a few months ahead of us in the process, are now in Kaz. So on a positive note,things are moving.
We will keep in touch, God willing soon!!!