More info on "Candles for kids"

We are planning to take many of our candles with us when we fly into Minneapolis for a week with our family. One nice thing about these candles is that the room can have the fragrance of a Christmas tree just by lighting one of the candles...even before one puts up a fresh tree in the living room. Kinda nice and SO SPECIAL for the children who will benefit from the proceeds in one of the orphanges in Ukraine.

Greg and I will mail these to any address in the United States via First Class mail unless requested otherwise. Each candle (as the flyer shows on this blog)is made in Alaska and comes in a secure case with twist-off top suitable for travel.

The American Legion in Seward presented the Toys for Tots Auction this past weekend and we were able to have the winning bid on a Carhart childs jacket so that will be used by one of the chldren, I am sure, when we return home from Ukraine. Most of the children are smaller for their age so if it is too big they will hopefully grow into it after I get a chance to try out my favorite recipees on them!

Only 9 more days until December and for the families waiting for their Dec-Jan letter to arrive from the NAC; this is when we all start 'stalking' the mailman, so to speak...The next letters we recieve give the ACTUAL appointment date in Ukraine.
Hey....everyone....please feel free to leave a comment or two on this blog; we would love to hear from ya all!

Our Fundraising Candles

 
 

CANDLES FOR KIDS

“CANDLES FOR KIDS”
A fundraising program by Greg and Arlene Carpenter to assist kids in an orphanage in Ukraine.

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THE CANDLES ARE:

HAND CRAFTED IN ALASKA

MADE OF NATURAL SOY WAX

SCENTED WITH ALASKAN WHITE PINE FRAGRANCE (SMELLS JUST LIKE A FRESHLY CUT CHRISTMAS TREE!)

PACKAGED IN UNBREAKABLE TINS

DESIGNED TO BURN FOR ABOUT 20 HOURS

GREAT AS PORTABLE AIR FRESHENERS


PRICE IS $10 EACH


THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Another email from our Translator, Inna!

Well gang....Inna made it thru the line at the NAC and was able to speak directly to the NAC director and discussed the February appointment instead of after March and now it looks like the AC is going to try to get us in during February...but then we know that what really will take place will be in the infamous 'Dec-Jan letter' many of us are waiting for. Those of us who made the deadline before Sept 20th cut-off with our dossiers get to have our appointments now it seems after March 2006 but luckily Inna knows that we would have to shut our business down completely to be in Ukraine after June so we are very grateful the NAC director took this in to account.
NOW we will continue to pray and keep busy with all the planning.

We are going to take time out and burn up a few of our west coast airmiles and visit the folks for a week in early December back in Minneapolis. Hard to get flights out of Alaska at holiday time so will have an early Christmas with them. Luckily, it only will cost us $10 each to fly on our AlaskaAirlines award miles - so can't beat that deal. Wish we could have used it toward the adoption fares but Alaska Airlines doesn't offer that opportunity...so we are grateful in any case to see the folks.

"ONLY YOU"

Greg and I have been trying to keep busy enjoying some of our hobbies while we await the A-C-T-U-A-L date of our travel to Ukraine. Yup, that's us singing a tune titled "Only You" at a local get-together here in our hometown. Actually, Greg has a great singing voice (although very modest about it) so he really can make an amateur duet partner sound somewhat acceptable. I would rather stick with playing piano most of the time but it's very hard to 'pack' one around with us!

Our translator in Ukraine is spending a lot of time at the NAC (National Adoption Center)on our behalf lately trying to provide the Adoption Center with all the various paperwork needed. Many of her hours are spent in 'line' waiting to speak to officials regarding her various clients' options for appointment times. We last heard from her 5 days ago as she had to have more important information from us for an early Friday trip to the NAC....so as we have said before; we are pleased that she is there for us as neither Greg or I would get too far with our Russian/Ukrainian-Minnesota/Alaska drawls about now. Yes, we are both reading and trying to say enough Russian/Ukraine words in order to at least find our way back and forth to the most important places we have to be in Ukraine....How am I ever going to get Greg past the McDonalds in Kiev...I think he will always be able to say,"HAMBURGER" in any language he ever learns. Yes, I know I am picking on him but he can handle it! I, however, am looking forward to all the vegetables and soups which are popular there.

So as this day closes, we are hoping to hear from Inna (our translator) soon and yes we are awaiting any email from Ukraine with great excitement. All for this time.

"Singing for Friends"

 
 

MORE GREAT NEWS!

Today we heard from our translator, Inna, in Ukraine. Things are getting narrowed down a bit as to our actual, real, bonafide date for travel. The NAC is allowing the families who returned from Ukraine last Fall without children to reschedule and come back to Ukraine during the months of January, February and March. Now that the NAC is in the midst of reorganization; we will know most likely in a few days WHICH
date they have secured for us. We acknowledged their request to have even later travel dates available so hope now it is in April. It looks like Inna is moving right along on things at this very moment and we even heard from Dr. Carol Albers saying they are getting sooooo excited for us....so things are moving toward our goal again.....Whew! More news in 48 hours.

Greg and Arlene with young Isaac on a visit

 
 

Word from Dr. Yuri in Ukraine

A nice way to enter the month of November indeed. This morning we had email from Dr. Yuri Bezdverny, MD.;Ph.D who will accept us as his client for our child/children as soon as we are in Ukraine. Dr. 'Yuri' speaks fluent English; will travel with us to exam our children in the orphange and comes with the highest credentials within the American and Ukraine Embassies. This is truly one of our major steps forward in being able to have the assistance of such a respected Ukrainian doctor who is very familiar with medical or psychological concerns involving children adopted from the orphanages. As soon as our children are located; they will become his patients and they will be given complete exams before leaving the orphanage. Later they will be again be examined by American doctors in Ukraine as required by US Immigration and Citizenship. When the children step off the plane on to American soil; they are immediately American citizens and will not have to go thru anything else to beome Americans. They will already have as their last names, "Carpenter"...the middle names most likely will be their Ukrainian first names and their first names will be of their choosing to most likely be more 'user-friendly' as Americans. They will have dual citizenship (lucky, eh?) Most likely they will speak Russian (ya bettcha, Greg and I are 'boning' up on the language....thanks for computer translators).....

This is the month to be 'thankful' and....for that...we are. Back to our daily list of things to do. More later..."Do pobachennya/Dasvidanya" (These are our two token words....first in Ukrainian then Russian....translated means "Goodbye") Greg & Arlene