February 18, 2009 
Here’s our little Matthew Isaiah Malone. Matthew means: “gift of the Lord”
Isaiah means: “salvation of God” “the Lord helps me” Both names are of Hebrew origin. So yesterday’s news will continue at the end of this post… We got to Novograd-Valinski at about 11:00 p.m. last night on the train. Andre and Valentine met us and got us to our apartment. Andre is a local pastor, a former drug addict and has an amazing passion for Jesus Christ. What a blessing to our lives already. Valentine is going to be driving us. Very reasonable rate. They both said it is an honor to serve fellow servants of the Lord. I want to cry as I write this because it is such a humbling thing. Here are these young guys who have nothing. And here we are…compared to them we have everything and more. Excess even. And they are wanting to serve us. Words can’t come to my mind to express my thankfulness to them and gratefulness to God. Slava Bohu (Praise God). Okay…so we got the apartment and it’s quite lovely actually. It’s just been remodeled and is very nice. It has a water boiler so we will have hot water. YES! We have not had any towels so no bath yet. Usually you just have a shower, but God knows how I like my hot baths! So he gave us a big tub. So we slept all night, which was nice. This morning, we went to the Inspector’s office at 8:30 a.m. 
Her name is Ludmilla. She was very nice. At first, she was ALL BUSINESS and we honestly thought she was going to say no. You can’t adopt him. But, you always have to keep in mind that you can’t read Ukrainians easily, probably because we can’t understand the language. Finally she said that she was happy that we were willing to adopt children with Down syndrome. What a relief. As we were telling her about Eli, she signed the papers and put the seal on it. We then went to the baby home (after piling into the Ford escort). 🙂 We got there to the office and the chief medical doctor recounted what we already knew about him (that he has Down syndrome). She also told us he has an Open Window in his heart but it’s closing. (We’ll get that checked out, of course.) They also said he was deeply mentally delayed. All he was interested in is food, supposedly. There was more, but that’s enough about that for now. We honestly were expecting a despondent, scrawny little guy. George (our facilitator) at one point said, the order has been given to bring the child. We talked a little more and then… 
In he walked. It’s out of focus, because the door swung open and there he was so I just swung the camera and snapped. I really had thought that I would melt into the floor in tears when I saw him. But it happened so fast and unexpectedly that I think I went into some emotion I’ve never experienced. It was VERY similar to seeing our other 5 kids right after they were born. Joy, elation, surprised at love at first sight, happiness, fear of the future, afraid to let him out of my sight. There were tears in my eyes, of course, but I was not the blubbering idiot that I had feared. Mary’s first thoughts when she saw him…
The meaning of Matthew’s name: “gift from God” kept rushing through her mind. What a precious gift. She was surprised how tall he was. Surprised that he was on his feet walking (even though he needed help). I wish we could describe all we felt. But that’s impossible. I hope the feeling stays in our memories forever. Here’s the deal…
He immediately began examining everything in the room. Trying to touch everything he could. He touched us, but wouldn’t look at us, because he was too busy checking literally everything and everyone out. He was taking it in. From the bald spot on the back of his head, we’d say that he lays in his bed all the time. The kids who show a spark of self-start get the attention for sure. He was written off a long time ago as deeply mentally delayed. I think I held him first because I was closest to door, but quickly handed him off to Mary. After a few minutes he stretched over and gave me a long, hard hug around the neck. I was breathless. That’s when the tears started to come. But thankfully, I never did the ugly cry. 🙂 We played peek-a-boo, some clapping games, handed him stuff and let him throw it (he just laughed and laughed after throwing something. It was VERY cute!!) But we’ll put a stop to that throwing stuff (in a few years 🙂 ). It was so precious. He was so pleased with himself to throw it. He is not deeply mentally delayed. He speaks some, is almost walking, USES A SPOON TO FEED HIMSELF food, SOUP, and whatever else they feed him. Come on…Eli won’t even use a spoon. (YET). All that to say, he is full of potential and will thrive quickly. We had to leave him in about 30 minutes. We’ll go see him again today at 4:30 until 6:00 this evening. We can’t wait to get him alone in the play room. We’ll post pics/videos later (maybe tomorrow). Now, we are sitting in a pizzeria. We finally met John & Tracy (and Emma and Aiden). We shared a few stories, a few laughs and they taught us how to use the internet cards. We had a great time fellowshipping and sharing the prayer needs we have. We heard last night from the Dickinson family that they got their appointment date. It’s March 3. They still have a lot of financial need to make it happen. So pray for them. Prayer needs today:
- There is a paper work problem with Matthew’s documents. There is information missing about the father. The director is trying to track down what we need, but the documents were “stolen” from the file, whatever that means. God knows all about this. Please pray for a QUICK resolution. If they don’t find the papers, we can’t bring Matthew home. I don’t want to think about that.
- We go to Romaniv tomorrow to meet Misha (his name to be announced tomorrow or Thursday). Pray for favor with officials. And that they will allow us to adopt him. We’ll be the first there.
- Pray that the paperwork for Misha can go QUICKLY so we can get the court date QUICKLY.
- Pray for John and Tracie. They are more than 2 weeks behind in the process and may not get a court date til the first week of March. It’s a paperwork problem from SDA. Their experience will make it easier for all the rest of us, but that doesn’t make it any easier for them. Pray for them to get the rest of the papers QUICKLY and a QUICK court date.
- Apparently, it’s not a good idea to request the 10 day period be waived so none of our people will be asking for it. BUT now I’m asking you to pray that the judge will just do it on his own.
- Pray for the Dickinson family. They have SO MUCH to do before they can leave and still need quite a lot of money. God can handle it. Pray for peace for them and provision from God.
Here’s the rest of the pictures today. I can’t blessed the Name of the Lord enough. Praise Him!!!!!!!!! 
This is right after he through a book to the ground. He was so pleased. He would just laugh out loud with his whole body! (the scabs are leftovers from chicken pox) 
I don’t offer commentary on the pics. They are self explanatory. He’s beautiful. He’s our dream and more. We can’t wait to take him home. Thanks for praying. Be blessed. Proverbs 18. Psalm 139. Romans 12.