First Full Day With Luke and Micah

Well we did it. We have spent a full day with our boys. Man are we tired! They both slept all thru the night without waking up. Micah does not breath very well when he is sleeping. His adenoids are very big so not sure if that has something to do with it or not. We will have him checked out when we get home. He snores and talks in his sleep. When they woke up this morning we were glad to see they knew they were with Mama and Papa. Luke asked where's Papa so I took him to lay down and cuddle with Papa on the couch. They woke up around 7am and all we had to feed them was yogurt but they enjoyed it.

James went with Sasha this morning and they got Luke's birth certificate. Natalya went on to Bijornka and got Micah's birth certificate. She had to wait all day and got Micah's. We found out that Luke was actually born on January 25th and Micah was born on January 18th. They are still 11 months and 3 weeks apart but at least we want have double birthday's in December and we can hit the clearance sales after Christmas.

Since we were able to get the birth certificates today this puts us on track. We will go on Monday to apply for passports and get an appointment for their medical exams and Visas. We are praying everything goes quickly so we can be out of here on Saturday. We know that's pushing it but we serve a great God.

Well, I'm back. We just spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get them to sleep. We read to them, played music and tried rubbing their backs but nothing seemed to work. I think they finally gave up. Micah falls to sleep a lot quicker than Luke.

We played inside most of the day since James was gone. The apartment we are staying in is right on a busy road so I can't take chances with Micah until he learns English better. I fixed them cheese toast for lunch but they wanted chips. We layed down with them about 12:00 and they slept until 2pm. This has been their usual nap time at the orphanage so we are trying to keep them in their routine as much as possible. For dinner we walked down to a restaurant less than a block from here. They serve pizza, pasta and salads.The menu is in both Ukrainian and English. We got the boys a cheese pizza and Micah loved it. Luke ate a small piece after it cooled off. We also ordered them a bowl of fruit with whipped topping and they devoured it. They behaved pretty good for their 1st time eating at a restaurant.

After dinner we took them to the playground behind the apartment to swing. They did not want to go inside but it was getting dark. They played all night with their toys. James fixed a bowl of cereal and the boys got to saying palease Papa. So he gave in.

Well, I think that catches you up on our day. The boys are sleeping on the pull out couch so James and I can try to get some sleep tonight. Thanks again for all the comments.

Rick and Melissa- we miss you guys. Hang in their and get plenty of rest before Tuesday. Rick don't forget to eat your mystery meat! ha ha

We are going to the open market tomorrow so pray that the boys behave and will listen to us.

In His Love,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah



We spoke with Ben and he invited us to go to McDonald's tomorrow night for dinner. I think this time we will try chicken nuggets if they have them.

GLORY TO GOD, WE HAVE OUR BABIES!!!

Hello to everyone. God did it!! It's all for His Glory!! Praise be to our Father God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!! Without them there is no way possible this could have happened. What a wonderful Kingdom we are part of. It makes me think of a song from the Crabb Family and it goes like this, My Jesus, My Saviour, Lord there is none like You, All of my days, I want to praise, the wonder of Your mighty love. It goes on to say, My comfort, My shelther, power of refuge and strength. Wow, how true it is. Their truly is none like Jesus. We love him so much. He has been our comfort and our shelther. We have gone to Him many times during this and still have about a week left to go to him even more times. But you know what? He has always answered every prayer that we have had during this adoption of our precious babies. He has healed us. He has given us strength. He has given us rest. He has given us a shoulder to cry on. He has blessed every move we have made here. All glory and honor be to our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ. If you have never dedicated your life to him or have wondered away from him, come back now!! He is so close to you right now that he just wants to come in and bless you and give you eternal life in Heaven with Him. Just say, Jesus, I have made a mess of my life but I know now that you will save me and change my life forever if I just confess that I am a sinner and I ask you to please forgive me now. I love you and I trust you. I now give my life to You. Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to pay for my sins by dying on the cross and then on the third day rising to Heaven to make a place just for me. I love you Jesus and Thank You for saving me.

Do it now. Your life will never be the same. Just ask me, my wife, and the two precious boys laying in the other room tonight asleep. Glory and all Honor to God!

Well now that I have said whats on my heart I want to tell you what happened today. As you may have already figured out. We picked up Luke and Micah from the orphanage today. I was a very busy day from the start. Nothing goes easy here in Ukraine. First we had to get the court decree and then regisiter it at the local registry office in Billa Servka. Well what would have taken about 30 minutes in the States took over 3 hours. We have to go to 2 other building that they sent us to. Its such a mess here. In every process you have to go to sooooooo many building to have everyone sign or notorize something. I told Penny one time that I was gonna line all the old folks at the hotel we were staying at and all the kids there and just let them start signing also. I mean by the time we were finished I just knew they would ask them anyway. LOL But to get back to the day. After that we went to the orphanage and met with the director there and of course, signed mooooore papers. But the wonderful news is that we did get to change the boys into their new clothes, lead them down the stairs and out the front door and into the car. Wow. They were soooooo happy and amazed about everything they saw. It was like they had been in prison for 2 years and just got out. They never stopped smiling and every car or truck we pasted it was, Machina (vehicle)!!!!!! They were soooooo excited. It just was like Penny and I had entered the twilight zone or something. It just didn't seem real to us and even tonight as I type this its still that way. Well we left Billa Serva coming back to Kiev which is were all this started when we flew in. It is the capital here in Ukraine. We didn't get to get the birth certificates today. We were stuck in traffic for over 2 hours. But the good news is that tomorrow the places we need to go to get them will be opened. So there again, Praise be to God.

Well after we got dropped off by our facilitator Natalia to get in Sasha's car (the director here for Lifeline adoptions) we went to were else, McDonald's and the boys got there first Happy Meal. They loved the toy the most of course. Penny and I got a burger and fries. Those were the best fries I think I have ever ate. We have ate just about the same thing every day at the hotel we were staying in, but praise be to God that we were fed every day and well taken care of.

After Micky D's we came to the same apartment we were in when we first go to Ukraine.
Its a nice apartment with a kitchen and plenty of HOT water. We have gone the past five day until today without any hot water. Well as you can see by the pics, the boys went absolutely crazy. Jumping on couches, chairs, and mostly the bed. They were completely unstoppable. Well then I was on the phone with Jana from Lifeline (she is truly family to us. Lifeline has been so wonderful to us, we love them all) and the boys decide to jump in the tub and start a bath and in went Penny, ALONE, and she messed up. They got crazy in the tub and she decided she was gonna give them both a bath without me and she realized what 2 wild boys on there first night in a tub together can muster up. LOL They were sooooooo funny and enjoyed it very much. As you can see in the pics, Micah looooooved having his hair dryed with a hair dryer. It was his first time with one. But Luke was afraid of it. You know, these boys have never experienced any of the things we take for granted. They have never had anything and everything is exciting to them. Well after all that we finally laid them down on the queen sized bed in the bedroom with us to get them to go to sleep. Well, here we go again. Try to get a 4 and a 5 year old to go to sleep when they are wound up like Pastor Mark on a Sunday morning and you got a job on your hands. Let me tell you, finally after a while they decide that sleep was good and now they are asleep with their mama in the bed and now im in the living room typing this. I think I will sleep out here. The couch folds out into a bed and their is enough room on the bed to maybe get one of my legs on it. We will try to get them to sleep in here tomorrow night but tonight was their first night away from the ophanage and their friends and we want to make them as comfortable as possible.

Well, it is almost 1am in the morning here and I have got to get some sleep. I did sneak in and get some pictures of them sleeping, I hope you enjoy them. Thanks and God Bless you all tonight for all you have done. Keep praying and talking to our Lord because dreams do come true. Here we are tonight.....The Holcombe Family. Love you all. James @--)------

Party Day!

Well today was the big party day and tomorrow we pick up the boys. We will have a lot of running around to do tomorrow. Natalya picked up the court decree today and got copies so that's one less thing we have to do tomorrow. We will go to the registry office in the morning at 9am. That will stamp everything. After we leave there we will go to the orphanage to pick up the boys. We are hoping to get them before 2pm so we can get back to Kiev to get one birth certificate. Natalya will go on to Boryanka to get Micah's. Sasha has already set us up in the apartment we stayed at before and that is a blessing because we are familiar with that area and it is the cheapest apartment. There is a park behind the building and a pizza place within walking distance. Please pray for our safety tomorrow as we travel these busy roads. There are no laws in Ukraine that children must be buckled in or sit in a car seat. Luke is ready to go. He asked Natalya tonight when is Mama and Papa coming in the macheena and I go to America? We had her ask him again and he said I am ready to go in the macheena (car) and on the airplane. Micah is oblivious to what is taking place. He just goes with the flow. It will be more real to him after we pick him up. Enjoy the pics of all the kids. The picture of them mobbing me is for chewing gum. They loved the cookies. (Leah stop crying)

We love you all and next time we blog will be from Kiev. We have our airline tickets for Saturday the 11th so pray everything gets done in time and their passports go thru quick!

In His Love,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah

Partying With The Sabaka's Today and The Kids Tomorrow

Another day down and 1 more days to go. We had a good-bye party for the dogs at the orphanage today. All 3 came over to the playground we were on and what started with throwing a few bagel bites to the puppy and Rin Tin Tin brought out the other dog. The kids threw them all the bagel bites and then started giving them cereal. Before you knew it, the bag broke and cereal was everywhere. The dogs loved it! Melissa and Rick joined us with Vysa and Alona. They started feeding the dogs bread. Luke is very frightened of dogs so it was a chance for us to get him closer to them and let him feed them. We finally got more smiles than tears out of him. These orphan animals have been comfort to us while visiting with our boys everyday.

Micah was his usual self today. He has had a runny nose so I think he is a little more irritable than usual. We finally got all the kids running and sliding so he joined in. It's always difficult when you give them something and then have to take it back and try explaining you will bring it the next day. All we have to do with Luke is point to his hat and say zatra (tomorrow) and he understands. With Micah it's a little tougher getting him to agree.The weather was beautiful and we had a good day playing outside for what may be the last time.

Before we got to the orphanage we had Tola take us to the local toy store to pick up some toys to leave at the orphanage tomorrow. Oh, by the way Tola got a new hair-do. He had all of his hair shaved off. He said he went to get a haircut and they cut it too short so he got it buzzed off. We started calling him "Richard". Rick's full name is Richard and that is what he calls him. We had a really good laugh. Tola gave us all an ink pens from the Pro Credit Bank here in Bila Tservka so we would have something from Ukraine. He is so sweet. Also, when he picked us up from the orphanage he brought us a bag of walnuts from his farm. We plan on putting them in a bowl at Christmas.

Tola took us to the open market so we could get some cookies and juice for the party we will have for the kids tomorrow. We had to go to 2 different stands to get the juice and we found 1 box of the cookies we wanted but had to go from vendor to vendor looking for another box. The cookies are decorated really pretty and are very popular. While we were walking and looking the lady we bought the 1st box from came and let me know she found another box for us. That's the 2nd time something like that has happened there. That's God's favor!! While we were paying for them a man walked up and told the woman he wanted a box of them (pointing at mine). James said let's get out of here before he tries to get our cookies. I think he was going to offer to buy them from us. All in all everything cost us about 15.00 USD to throw the party. That's pretty cheap.

While we were cookie shopping Tola took Rick and Melissa to buy sunflower seeds. They roast the seeds and sell them in the market. You can sample the different ones. I could not tell a difference in the flavor except they have no salt. He also took Rick into one of the places that sells meat. He got Rick to try silo. This is pork fat but is a delicacy here in Ukraine. We did not get to witness this so when we got back in the taxi Tola said Rick silo and then he made a funny face and started laughing. We just all cracked up.

This was our last time to get to ride with Tola. I think we will miss him the most. He is a very sweet, kind and gentle man. James gave him a $1.00 bill and he loved it. He understood that we will be going back to Kiev on Friday so we said our good-byes and gave hugs. Sorry ladies, Tola is not single. He is married and has 2 grandchildren. He is 56 years old. Bila Tservka is a better place with Tola in it.

We bought 6 balls and 24 plastic Slinky's. We also brought some stuffed animals with us to give out. We will be leaving some of the toys we bought the boys like the bag of army men and the sand toys.

Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. We can't wait to get our boys and get to Kiev but also we will miss all the little faces we see everyday. Their smiles, the look in their precious eyes and hearing them all call us Mama and Papa will forever be in our memories. We plan on praying for each and everyone of them as we go around the room and give out hugs tomorrow. Rick and Melissa will be there and they plan on taking pictures and running the video camera for us. Thanks guys for all your help! We will never forget the place that raised our children for 2 years.

We will blog tomorrow night and let everyone know how it went. Keep us in your prayers as you are all in ours.

Mom's it's getting closer and we can't wait to see your faces.

In His Love,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah