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)