Today the SDA in Ukraine officially suspended all visits to children in institutions due to the H1N1 scare. That means the SDA will give no referrals to anyone wanting to go to orphanages to get their kids. No one knows how long the suspension will be. The guess is three to four weeks. The SDA has promised to revisit the issue in nine days.

So do we buy plane tickets? Do we wait for nine days to see what happens? What if the suspension were lifted in nine days? That would give us three days to buy tickets and get a million things done in order to be in Ukraine on November 17. I must be on Candid Camera to see how far someone can be pushed before they crack. I'm just about to the edge. I hope we get better news soon.

SDA Closing?

We got word today that thousands of people are sick and in hospitals in Ukraine because of flu/swine flu. Some parts of western Ukraine are quarantined. People are being told to stay in their homes if possible. Tomorrow the SDA will be deciding whether to shut down or conduct business as usual. If they shut down, SDA dates will be cancelled and reassigned. Noooooooooo!!!!!

Costume Party, Gage's Farewell, Eric, SDA Date

It was a busy but great week. Marissa and Zack went to a costume party. Zack grabbed this goofy wig out of our Halloween box and went as a punk rocker dude. Too bad we didn't have a fake tongue ring to complete the look. Marissa went as a porcelain doll, which I thought was very original. She was really hoping to win the cash prize but did not. Oh, well. I thought the effort was great.


Here's a close-up of Marissa. Notice the crack in her face. Pay no heed to the crazy dude behind her.

Gage's mission "farewell" was Sunday, October 25. He did a nice job on his talk, and we had great family support. We had over 50 family members for dinner at our house and lots of ward members and neighbors that evening. It was a great day. Below are a few pictures from the day. My apologies for not getting everyone in the pictures. It was sort of hit and miss.

My Mom and Dad have made a cute sign like this every time one of their grandkids have left on a mission. They told us to take it down carefully and store it away for the next seven years until Quinn/Sasha leave on their missions. They said they might not be around to make another sign. I don't want to think about that, but I did as they instructed and have rolled it up under my bed. Will someone please remind me in seven years where the sign is?

Eric e-mailed us some beautiful pictures of Guam. I'm ready to pack up my bags right now and head out to this beautiful island. This is the best picture, and my program will not transfer the whole picture for some reason, so here is the sky and the top of Eric's head!

Eric bought this car in Guam.

Another picture of the island and coastline. They had a tsunami warning and hurricane warning a few weeks ago. Eric says it was quite exciting around there. It sounds terrifying to me. His house has big metal shutters on it to pull down over the windows in case of a hurricane. Ultimately they were never hit by either a tsunami or hurricane, but I guess the air force base and the whole island comes alive with preparation activity. All the aircraft had to be flown to Japan for safekeeping. People hoarded gasoline. Eric said there was not a gas pump to be found with fuel in it.

We plan on visiting this island in about December of 2011 after Gage gets home. We'll see what the next two years bring. Maybe Eric will be somewhere else by then.

But for now, we'll have to be happy with visiting Ukraine. We received word yesterday that our dossier had once again been approved, and we were invited to be at the State Department of Adoptions in Kiev at noon on November 17! It looks like Michael and I will be spending Thanksgiving in Ukraine. (Let's hope not Christmas also!) We are so excited to go get Sasha and add him to our family! We hope three trips to Ukraine in one year is quite enough.

Looks like I need to post for a whole month gone by. Yesterday, October 19th, Michael and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! Wow, how is that possible? We went out to dinner and then came home to our children. I think we've forgotten how to have fun together without having our children along. The two of us need to go out without our children more often. Michael spoiled me with a beautiful diamond necklace, which I'm wearing in the picture. I'm pleased to inform everyone that Michael finally has gray hair on his temples. I've been coloring my hair for years to hide the gray. It's just really not fair. Twenty-five years ago on our wedding day, it snowed like crazy. This year the weather was much kinder. I am loving this beautiful autumn weather.

I kept bugging Gage to get his car on KSL so we could get it sold. I didn't want it hanging around here for months after he leaves on his mission, knowing Michael and I would be in Ukraine and it would just be sitting in the driveway out in the snow. So we put it on KSL, and about two hours later it was sold! OOPS! I had no idea it would sell that fast. Obviously the price may have been too low? Now Gage is without a car for the next two weeks. OOPS, OOPS! Now he has to borrow my car. He really hates not having his independence. He's a bit upset with me. I snapped this picture right before the new owners drove it away. It's alway kind of sad to see one of our cars go. They become a part of the family. I will not miss paying the insurance, however.

Every October we celebrate my mom's birthday by going to the Logan Temple together and then out to dinner. This year we celebrated her 81st birthday. Here is the clan at the Copper Mill in Logan. I hope we can all do this for many, many years to come.

Last week we called Sasha again. At 11 p.m. sharp we got Riley, our translator, on the line and then placed the call to Ukraine. No one answered after about ten rings, so we decided to wait ten minutes and try again. Maybe the staff was late getting to work.

On the second try, a woman answered and said, "Please call back in ten minutes." I'm sure she needed to go find Sasha and bring him to the office.

Ten minutes later, we placed the third call to Ukraine. This time a man answered. When Riley asked for Sasha, the man said, "Do you know you've called an orphanage?" Riley said, "Yes, we do." Then we heard a click, and the call ended.

Fourth call, the woman answered again. Riley asked for Sasha, and she said, "Just a minute." Then Sasha got on the line! Yahoo! We had a nice conversation with him. Of course, one of the first things he asked was, "When are you coming?" We told him hopefully in November. "We're waiting for Ukraine to invite us to come." We asked him if he was waiting for us to come. "Yes." We asked him if he had been riding bikes. "Yes." He sounded very excited about this. Maybe the orphanage always had bikes; he just didn't know how to ride before he came to our house. We asked him if he had been working on his English. He said, "Yes, every day." We asked him if he got the package we sent. He said, "Yes," but he seemed unsure. I asked him if he would write us a letter. He said, "No. How could I do that?" We told him we sent paper and envelopes in the package. He said he didn't get them. Now I'm wondering what else he didn't get in his package. I asked him if he liked the gum. He seemed unsure again of what I was asking. Did he get the package at all? Did he get my long computer-translated letter that took me two hours to write? Who knows?

He was anxious to tell Marissa, "Sister, I love you." He said, "Mom, I miss you." We told him Quinn was in bed; Gage was at work. We told him Gage was leaving soon, that the next time he saw Gage, he (Sasha) would be fourteen years old. We asked him if he was being a good boy. "Yes." We asked him how school was. "Fine." I told him to pray to Heavenly Father that everything would work out okay and we would be able to come soon. He said, "Okay." I don't know if he knows how to pray, but at least I tried.

Each time we talk to Sasha, we become more excited to go get him. We received word on October 17 that our dossier had been successfully submitted to the SDA and to expect to receive our invitation in one to two weeks, with the travel date being most likely the middle of November. It looks like Michael and I will be spending Thanksgiving in Ukraine. I think the Carrs were in Ukraine last year for Thanksgiving.

The host 2009 Ukrainian children arrived on Saturday, October 17th, at the Salt Lake Airport. The whole thing made me a little sad. I kept thinking about Bogdan and about greeting him a whole year ago. I wonder if he ever thinks of us. I hope he is happy, whatever he is doing. This year we will be hosting a 14-year-old girl for the second half of the time they are here. We met her at the airport on Saturday. She was shy and very tired. We will see what the next couple of weeks bring.

Telephone Conversation with Sasha

Last night at 11:00 p.m. we called Sasha, with the help of Marissa's friend Riley, who went to Ukraine on his mission. We all didn't realize how much we miss him until we heard his cute little voice.

"Mama Lori? Papa Michael? Mawissa?" (Quinn was fast asleep, and Gage was at work.)
"Yes, it's us. How are you? Are you fine?"
"Dah." Then in English, "How are you?"
"We're all fine. We miss you."
Then in English again, "Please come."

Those two words about brought tears to our eyes. We then had to break the news to him that Ukraine would not let us come on the dates we had requested, Sept. 7, 8, 9, or 10, because it was too close to our dossier expiring. We told him we had to start all over again on the paperwork, and we could hear the terrible disappointment in his voice. He got very quiet. We told him we were working as fast as we could and that we would try so, so, so hard to be there in November. He said "Okay."

We then asked him if he was being a good boy. He said yes. We asked him if school had started. He said yes. We told him Quinn misses him and that his bed misses him and is waiting for him. He giggled. Marissa told him she couldn't wait to ride bikes with him, and he giggled and said, "Okay."
We said, "We love you." He said in English, "I love you."
And that was it.

So now I can't wait for two months to pass to go get him, but now I'm dreading two months to pass because Gage leaves November 4. Gage will not see Sasha again before he leaves for his mission, and that makes me sad, and Gage will not see Eric again before his mission, and that makes me sad.

I have decided being a mom of big kids sucks. All you do is say good-bye all the time and then spend your days missing them and wondering about them. I liked it better when they were all little.

Marissa Accepted into Respiratory Therapy Program

I forgot to mention previously that Marissa received the great news that she was accepted into the Respiratory Therapy Program at Weber State in conjunction with the Intermountain Medical Center. Yahoo! This means free tuition and books for the next two years. We're very proud of her. Getting into the program was quite competitive, and she has worked very hard to get to this point. So she's finishing up her prereqs this quarter at Weber. She gets up very early to catch TRAX and then transfer to a bus downtown. She doesn't want to put the miles on her car. The Respiratory Therapy Program will begin in January.

Temple Day for Gage

Gage received his temple endowments Saturday, August 29, four days after he turned 19. It was a very special day. He chose the Draper Temple, and it is just beautiful. We had a small turnout of family members: My mom and dad, Bruce and Janet, and Linda. But we had a very large turnout for the family dinner at Sweet Tomatoes! (Shoot. I forgot to take pictures at the restaurant.) Eldon and Susan Hjorth, Gage's YM leader, also came to the temple. It was so nice of them. Thanks so much to everyone who came and supported us. Some drove very long distances to be with us.
Dad, Mom, me, Gage, Michael, Janet, Bruce, Linda

Eldon and Susan Hjorth