Grinn Life

Well, after sixteen months, I'm not sure if anyone still wants to hear the details of our adoption... But for those of you who are still hanging on with us, here it goes.
Fountains, smiles, moods, and finally hope.

Fountains.
After our first session of court last week (Monday, September 24th) we took the boys and the Orphanage lady out for pizza to wind down.  Everyone was so tense that morning.  I sat in the back seat of the car with the boys on the way to the court while Galina (from the Orphanage) sat up front with Matt driving.  The boys were very nervous.  I told them I was anxious too but everything would be okay.  Galina just got back from a three week trip to the states (hosting program for orphans) and talked non-stop about how wonderful America was.  Thank the Lord for that!  Anyways, I digress... We get to court, it was mainly uneventful.  The Judge looked at us and said in Russian that he can not make a decision without all the final paperwork from Kiev.  We said we understood and are working on getting all the necessary documents for Tanya.  He then listened to the Social Worker's summary of the boys and of us and then asked when we could meet again.  The boys and Galina sat outside the whole time.
Whew. They didn't even have to talk!  Plus the Judge said that they did not need to come in again because it would be too stressful for them, just Galina will need to be there next time.  Wow, that was a huge answer to prayer!  I had heard how they have to hear several times how nobody in Ukraine wants them so that the American couple can adopt them, etc. and this can be hard to hear once, let alone three times in one day.  So, happy day, our boys did not hear it even once!  Love how God worked that one out.
So, back to the pizza.  There are a few nice places to eat in Simferopol and one in particular, that plays 80's and 90's American music, has very western deco, great pizza and even a fooz ball table!  Let's just say that when we are homesick, we like to go to this pizza joint.  So, of course, we had to take the boys and Galina there to celebrate!
On the way, we walked through a park that had recently been remodeled over the summer. (This last summer Ukraine hosted the Euro Cup Soccer Tournament and Crimea saw a ton of new tourists).  They added three fountains and they actually work!  You see, normally in post soviet parks, fountains do not work.  I mean, there is no water or anything.  In fact it wasn't until this day that I realized that I had never seen a working fountain in Ukraine in all of our 7.5 years of living here.  But the only reason this dawned on me is because of how the boys reacted.  I say 'boys' and not 'young teenagers' because they acted like little children at Disney World when they saw those fountains!  Even Galina was excited.  Here I am focused and on a mission "get to the pizza place...need to wind down" and not realizing that on the way these kids just saw something magical.  I mean, they were really fascinated.
So I start to think.  Oh boy, these kids have no idea how much their lives are about to change.

Smiles.
We have seen and talked with Tanya four times now.  And the main consistent character trait that I see each time is her desire to smile.  This may not make much sense to my American friends and family since smiles are part of our DNA.  Let's just say that when someone smiles in a former soviet country there are usually a few reasons:  1.  They are an airhead.  2.  They are laughing at you or mocking you in some way.  3.  You have reached the inner circle of their trust of friendship and they are genuinely smiling.  It's just weird for people to smile when they are out and about at the market or on the street.  It is just not a 'hug and howdy' kind of culture.  Seriousness is a virtue and smiles do not lend to seriousness.  Kids are no exception to following this rule.
But Tanya breaks the mold.  She has been smiling since day one and I am convinced that it is just pure and sincere joy overflowing from her heart onto her precious face.  She wants to hug us, introduce us to her friends and just smile at us.
It's a good thing her last name is going to be Grinn. =)

Moods.
As most of you know we have had to deal with lots of different 'personality types' in this process of paperwork.  Many of these personalities happen to be on the 'moody' side.  Since day one of our investigation and research (back in April of 2011) we had started meeting with one such personality.  From meeting to meeting we never knew what type of 'mood' would surface.  We would pray specifically that she would be in a wonderful mood before we entered the room because her mood would set the tone for the whole next phase of paperwork.  Out of all 20+ meetings I can honestly say that 99% of the time there was a 'we're walking on egg shells here' kind of mood.
Except for today.
Apparently yesterday was 'Day of Adoption' for the whole country.  Leave it to us to be oblivious to such a holiday as we're rushing around in our own adoption 'festivities' of trying to complete paperwork.  The irony.
So flowers filled the office, there was pleasant small talk exchange (never, ever, ever happens), and genuine kindness.  Plus, the paperwork that took her 35 days last time to complete, she decided to finish in one business day.  No joke.  So from all the times that I felt anxious, frustrated, scared, depressed, tired, exhausted, weepy, and just plain angry at this woman from these meetings I guess it was time that she left us feeling well... happy.  Who knew.

Hope.
Adoption has been kind of like Dominos.  If this person finishes her documents and stamps and signs them, staples an sews it just right, then the next person has so much time, then the next person, then you can hop on a train and run them up to Kiev.... then finally you're ready for court. Can you imagine how big and cool the domino experiment would look if you spent over sixteen months of time and patience into the design across two countries?  Can you feel the tension of someone just running in and messing it all up now that it is about to finally begin the beautiful domino effect?
Then you have tasted a little bit of what we are feeling.  Everything is perfect, each domino is setting up straight and tall and perfectly placed in line so that when it falls it hits the next one just right.  And we just have that feeling that if we can just hold our breaths for a little longer and nobody messes anything up, then maybe, just maybe the time will come to start the Domino effect.
Matt is taking Tanya's documents to Kiev tomorrow.  The Department will have seven full days to review the document and write a one page letter of agreement to the decision of us adopting all three children.  Then, Lord willing, we will have our final session of court on October 12th, 2012.
And then...
Just don't breathe for two weeks and we'll start the design together.