7/18/05 - We're busy packing and preparing to leave for Ukraine on July 26, 2005 from Atlanta, arriving in Kiev, Ukraine on July 27.We are traveling with the entire family this time as the chance to go during the summer seemed like a good time for all the children to visit Ukraine Elizabeth is the only one not going as she has been to Ukraine one time before and didn't want to chance missing the start of school here. She sends her love with us. We hope to update our page as much as possible so all who want to can follow along as we bring home our newest blessing from Ukraine.  Thanks to all for your prayers and well wishes.
Monday, 8/1/2005, 5:00 p.m.  Well we made it into Kiev late Wednesday, 7/27, & hit the ground running. Our appointment at the NAC was Thursday morning, 7/28, & it went great. We got the referrals for (Christine) Yelena & (Nathan) Viktor about noon on Friday, 7/29, & headed to the region (forget spelling) by car & van. We got to the orphanage about 10:30 that evening & was able to spent about an hour with Yelena & Viktor, what a great meeting. All went well, we were all excited, everyone was very kind. What precious children we have. Lyuda began our paperwork Saturday morning & over the weekend meet with the Director of the orphanage & region, & the Judge - & we drove to Simferopol today, Monday, 8/1, & shipped the completed documents by train to Kiev for NAC approval. So Far So Good. We head back to the orphanage this evening but have not been able to find an internet cafe in the region. Will keep looking & update later. Thanks again for all your prayers & be in touch soon. Heeter Family in Ukraine
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - this has been an incredible adventure for our family with the best possible outcome - two more sweet, beautiful children to have the privilege of sharing love with as God folds them into our family.  Nathan and Christine are wonderful additions to our gang of sweeties and are fitting right in.  THey seem to be more and more comfortable with us every day and we can tell they are excited and looking forward to their new life.
   Some highlights,we got to Dzanhkoi late Friday night and met the children at 11 pm.  Half the boarding school had stayed up to greet us so we were met by a gang of kids out front.  I guess it's not too often that a car and van full of Americans drives up in the middle of the night.  It was about 80 degrees outside at 11pm and about 95 inside when we went into the director's office to talk to the children.
We are so thankful we got the details straightened out about Nathan's age and availability for adoption so we could adopt him also.  We would have had a hard time leaving him if he had been legally too old to adopt.  Thankfully we came in time to also be able to adopt him.  He is a sweetheart and loves his sisters very much.  All little girls should have a big brother like this.
   Christine held Morgan's hand for about the first 3 days we were here.  She barely let her out of her sight.  THey are going to be very close.  Nathan fits in well with all my other sweet boys as he is very tender hearted and kind like they all are.  We are so incredibly blessed.
We have met many wonderful children at their boarding school who are availble for adoption, about 200 availble out of 270 there.  This is their first adoption from this boarding school.  We hope it will be the first of many as we spread the word about all the wonderful children there.  Many people do not realize the blessing they are missing out on by leaving these children in these institutions.  I hope there will be some who will follow us to Dzankoi and bring some of these kids out of there. The conditions at their boarding school I guess are pretty typical for Ukraine; for me as someone who can't stand to see a child in need, well, I have been overwhelmed by the needs I've seen there for these kids, just the simple things like a bath and clean clothes and someone to give direction to their life.  I haven't been able to spend as much time there with all the children as we have when we've visited other orphanages, but it's honestly been too heartbreaking to try to meet all their needs with our limited amount of time and resources while we're here.  We hope we've brigtened their lives a little with the toys and other goodies we've passed out.  We have loved meeting them and will remember many of them and pray for them always.
We are thankful to have an apartment to stay in while here in Dzankoi so at least the whole family is together and not spread out in different hotel rooms with no kitchen.  Our apartment is very small and basic but we are managing.  David and I feel like we are in full survival mode just trying to care for our kids in these conditions but somehow we are getting it done.  After handwashing all our clothes all this time, doing laundry at home will never ever be hard again.  Also we have only a trickle of cold running water, no hot water at all.  Keeping everyone clean and food cooked for all of us has been a challenge.  Nathan and Christine have been allowed to stay here with us during the day and I have gotten to cook for them and take care of them some here so that has been good.  That has helped them to feel like part of the family much quicker I'm sure than if they had only had to visit with us at their boarding school like we did the first few days.
It is very hot here and we have to leave our doors open at night to get air in.  THe mosquitoes are trying to take us off in our sleep but thankfully we are all too heavy.  Mitchell is covered in mosquito bites and I'm really concerned most about him.  We can't find any mosquito spray here.  We will check tomorrow in a bigger city 2 hours away.  We are all going to be covered in sores by the time we get home from scratching mosquito bites.  THis is the first time we've had any problem with mosquitoes on any of our trips here so we weren't prepared for it at all.
We should be finishing up the actual adoption process very soon as we have wonderful help with all the legal stuff that has to be done.  It is all going very well, especially considering they have never had an adoption in this area.  We thought it might go slower because of that but everyone here has gone out of their way to help us and we have seen God's hand at work all around us as he has paved the way for us.  Thank you Lord and to our team here in Ukraine who have knocked themselves out to make everything go as well as possible and it has.
We will update again soon after we have court and these kids are really ours.  Hard to believe GOd is going to entrust us with 2 more and we are very thankful to Him for leading us to them at just the right time. We can't wait to get them home and show them all about their new life. It is going to be so much fun to see them experience so many things for the first time.  They both really love kicking a soccer ball around and are very good at it, so we hope they can both play on a soccer team when we get home.  We will be working hard on english and trying to decide what grade they should enter school in.  We won't decide for a while.  THe main things at first will be eating, sleeping, learning english, and getting to know their family.
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