Sasha's Escape Plan

"I lub oooooo"

Sasha learned this in a matter of us singing it to him a few times. By the time we left, he knew most of the words and all of the hand gestures. He loved watching himself on the video. He would stare intently and then copy himself singing and doing the motions.

Look at that girl laugh :)

Ana's Daddy is CRAZY! :)

Bad blogger :(

I know that I have let you all down by not blogging about what you really want. Partially this was due to me being way too tired to spend my time blogging, part of it is because I didn't know where to start (still don't), and the other part was us waiting for our 10 day wait to be up. We felt that we had a semi-precarious situation with Ana's mom. We had no idea if she was going to try to get custody of Ana.

But, our 10 days are up!!!!!

I do have a lot to say, and I doubt it will all make it into this post. I will start by telling you more about the kids. Sasha is so smart! If you knew nothing about him, but you observed him for a bit, you would assume he was a typical 18-24 month old. He understands a ton, but has limited speech. Like every other little boy, he loves to find mischief. And, of course, his size is that of a typical 18 month old. His facial features do not "give him away" as having DS.

Hangin' with Justus

Swinging with Mommy

Ana has never had a man in her life. She doesn't even have a father listed on her birth certificate. However, she has made up for the past three years by becoming an instant daddy's girl. Her and Gary have bonded amazingly in the few short weeks we were there. She gets very excited when she is around other active kids. She loved "chasing" our friend's daughter through the hall of the orphanage. She just laughed and smiled even though she never came close to catching her. She just has a very calm and super sweet personality. She doesn't speak, and it's hard to know exactly what she understands. But, we have been told that she is missing us right now. It makes me sad to know that she doesn't understand where we are or that we are coming back. Our friends go every day to get their daughter for visitation, and Ana tries to walk out with them, and then she cries because she can't. I am sad, but I cannot wait to see her eyes light up when we show back up in her doorway.

Laughing at her silly Daddy :)

And again!

Happy 5th, Trey!

1 year

5 years

How are you supposed to feel when your 1st born turns 5?

Trey melts my heart. He climbed in bed with me this morning and said, "I love my little sister, Ana. And I love my little brothers, Luke and Sasha."

Trey, we are excited to see who you will become, and we are proud of who you are.

Love you!

Dad & Mom

Special thank yous!

This post is for two people in particular: two women who had to do what seems like the hardest thing in the world. Tina and Maria both gave away a piece of their hearts for us. I want you both to know that our family is eternally grateful to your families for loving Sasha and Ana, for committing to adopt them, and for letting go of them out of love. It has come to my attention before that Sasha and Ana would not be a part of our family if it wasn't for these two families. Reece's Rainbow was not on my radar before Sasha, and either was special needs adoption. It was Tina and her family who brought this special little boy and this special organization into our lives. And before Ana, we were chugging along quickly toward the finish line of our adoption of Sasha. We would not have stopped long enough to see Ana's beautiful face if it was not for sweet Maria and her family following the guidance of the LORD.

Thank you to two women who I long to meet one day. I want to hug you both, and I want you to hold the children that you helped bring home.

Love from our family to yours!

This is me in Paris...

...International Airport :(

24 straight hours of travel time down. Only about 15 to go :(

6 hours on a train, a night spent in the Kyiv airport, a flight to Paris, 7 hours of layover time, a long flight to Atlanta, and a 2 hour car ride...we are on our way home!

INTRODUCING...

ALEXANDER ISAIAH HAGLER
"Sasha"

And

ANA VICTORIA HAGLER!!!

The LORD heard your prayers for our children, and court went great!!!

*I realize the pics are repeats, but I can only use the ones on the phone :(

14 hours and counting down

Court.

I haven't told this story to everyone, because I think it will earn me a "crazy" reputation, but since I think I already have that, I'll share.

About 1 year ago, God audibly spoke to me (it was the first and only time). He didn't tell me to do something silly, He simply said, "Jer 1". I waited for the rest of the verse, but it never came. I opened my Bible with my heart racing to find, underlined by my own hand,

"Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. (Jer 1:7,8)

And farther down the page:

"Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land-against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. (Jer 1:17-19)

I knew God was calling me to something big. I believe this is the moment. We will stand strong, knowing that the LORD will rescue us and His children.

We will be in court tomorrow morning at 9am (our time), please be on your knees in prayer for us. Our children need out!!!

God bless all of you for your faith!

I know this is what you have all been waiting for!

Daddy and Sasha

Mommy and Ana

"YAY!!!!!!!" (she's clapping)

"Hello!"

We paid a driver (a hilarious Ukrainian named Roman) to drive us to our friends' apartment in the city to use the Internet. We are preparing our ammo for the courtroom :) I have some extra time, and thought I would quickly post what we found out about our kids on the day we met them.

3/30/11…The day we officially decided to become a family of 6!

Part 1: Ana

Shortly after our long, overnight train ride through the countryside of Ukraine, our facilitator, Marina, took us to meet with the Social Worker. We were asked a few simple questions, like “tell me about your family,” “why are you interested in adopting children with Down syndrome when you have your own beautiful, biological children?” …things like that. After answering these questions and showing off our photo album, we piled into the car: Gary and myself, Marina, the Social Worker, and our driver. We were taken to the orphanage to meet with the Director. She began by giving us all of the information they have about Ana.

Hanna Alexandria (pronounced like Ana with an H) was born in Jan of 2008, and she weighed about 6lbs 9oz. She was born to a “young, beautiful and intelligent” single mother. Hanna’s grandmother forced her mother to abandon her at the hospital. Hanna’s mother did, but I believe she always regretted the decision. She came to visit Hanna frequently at the orphanage at first. When she was informed that Hanna would be made available for adoption, she begged and pleaded for this not to be so. She said she would come back for Hanna one day. However, time passed, and a new man entered the picture. Hanna’s mother signed off on her rights allowing for Hanna to be adopted. Her mother was married last year and has not been back to see Hanna since. Her new husband is unaware that Hanna exists, and as we are told, it must remain that way. Really makes you want to cry, doesn’t it?

Hanna is the name on the birth certificate, but the staff calls her Anya. We cannot call her Anya because amazingly enough, we have a niece named Anya Victoria! So, she will be Ana Victoria. Ana had heart surgery late last year to correct a heart murmur. She did fantastic, and follow-ups with the cardiologist have concluded that the problem has been fixed. We came here believing that she had strabismus (crossed-eyes), but we were told that she has been checked and found to have good vision. It is common in children w/ DS for their eyes to appear crossed sometimes due to the creases near their eyes. For Ana this is a mild problem and she only appears to have crossed-eyes occasionally. Other than that, she is a basically healthy child, although the staff referred to her as a “puffy” child J This seems to be due to a few things, low muscle tone and the fact that she is not a real steady walker yet.

Now for the fun stuff, we were informed, “the child is here”. The door opened and in walked Ana with one of her nannies. She had a giant bow in her hair; she had clearly been “dolled up”. She came in with a toy in one hand, and she had a death grip on that toy! She walked around the room, and tried to climb up onto a chair. Gary helped her up. We tried to get her attention to take pictures, but she seemed less than interested. She got on and off the chair with a bit of help a few times, spun in circles a few times in the middle of the room, and then walked back to her nanny, with whom she was familiar. They took her out and began giving us Sasha’s information. Before we left the orphanage we went to see where each of the children’s rooms were so that when we came back for visiting hours we would know where to go. We opened the door to Ana’s room to find her standing next to another child’s crib. Her little arm was pushed through the bars, hand placed on his belly in an effort to calm him down as he cried. The staff told us this is common for her, she is a very compassionate child. She is always trying to help the other children.

Part 2: Sasha

Next we were given Sasha’s history. He was abandoned at the hospital at birth. He does have an older sister, but she knows nothing about him. It seems as though she is a “normal” child and is still living with her parents. Sasha’s birth certificate states his name as Alexander Igor. But he is called Sasha. We will name him Alexander Isaiah, and call him Sasha. We were not given info on his birth weight. He had open-heart surgery before coming to the orphanage to correct a major heart murmur. They corrected what they could, but he still has minor problems. He will be seen by a cardiologist once home. We don’t have as much info on Sasha, because he was not placed in the orphanage until he was almost 1. Marina will have access to the legal documents that will give us more information on his life prior to that. We should be receiving that information soon.

We were told that Sasha is an orphanage favorite. EVERYONE told us that, and they were not kidding! This boy is a ham!!!! He LOVES attention.

Before we could complete the rundown of the medical history, we were told, “the child is here”. The door opened and Sasha walked in, looked straight at me and said, “mama!” He ran over and hugged me, and then walked to Gary and hugged him. He sat and played peek-a-boo with a book we brought for awhile. He made lots of silly faces (especially whenever we tried to take a picture). He blew some kisses, laughed at everything, and stuck his tongue out a lot!

After Sasha was escorted out of the room, we were asked if we wanted to proceed with the adoption of both children. Of course, we said yes! We were slightly concerned at the beginning that Ana did not seem as easy to bond with. But, we were able to go back in the evening for visiting hours, and within 1 hour of visitation with her she was trying to walk out the door with us. She loves her Daddy! She hugs him a lot, and turns to him to be picked up. He can make her laugh probably more than she has laughed in her life. Sasha is an attention seeker. He loves to be silly. If you tell him not to do something, he will try to find another way. He tires us out to be honest J We cannot wait to get him home and see what kind of trouble he gets into with his brothers!

Truths

I know that my last blog post seemed a bit depressing, and the truth is that I was depressed when I wrote it. We have been here for 2 weeks, anxiously awaiting the good news of a court date, but when it came it was not surrounded by joy.

You get so far, and you feel like you are so close to bringing your children home only to have another mountain spring up between you and the finish line. Homesickness begins to take over, and then the tears come. The thought crosses your mind, "what if the judge says no". You begin to think about what a truly broken heart feels like, but you also weep for the possibility that your children might never know a family. Neither Sasha nor Ana would survive an institution for very long. Sasha's health would not hold up and Ana would give up. It's easy to forget God when it feels like you are being overtaken by grief.

I know this may all seem dramatic to you, I mean these are all "what ifs". I know that, but sometimes I am guilty of playing the "what if" game...I bet you are too :)

It took some time to regain my perspective, but I did. These are the truths in this situation:

1. God has carried us this far. There has not been one part of this adoption that we have done alone. And in His Word He promises to never forsake us.

2. The Lord loves Sasha and Ana more than we ever could.

3. Our purpose in this life is to glorify Him, and He will do everything possible to help us glorify His Name the way He sees fit.

We will be fasting a praying on Wednesday and into Thursday morning (of course, by the time you wake up on Thursday court should be over).

We are asking for boldness and courage before the judge. We are praying that we will be Spirit-filled, and we will not speak our own words, but instead be given the truths of God. We ask for the judges eyes and heart to be opened, for the sake of our children and those who will come after us.

Please join with us!

Love,
Lindsay

Court date...major prayer requests!!!

Hello everyone,

We have a court date...April 14th at 9am (1am central time if you are wondering).

We will be fighting an uphill battle all the way. We were initially assigned a brand new judge who wanted to hear our case in JULY!!! But our awesome, and super hard working facilitator, Marina, went to the head judge and begged on her knees for us to be allowed to have a different judge. He reluctantly agreed. The judge we will have has only done one other adoption case so far, and it was a local adoption of a healthy child. He is unfamiliar with international adoption, and unfortunately buys into the mentality that special needs children are a detriment to society. He has already voiced his concern that we might be adopting Sasha and Ana simply to harvest their organs! No, I am not joking!!! We were told to expect to be in court for a long time, and warned that we will be asked many offensive questions. We must prove that we are truly "good people". Now there's a challenge!

This is all heartbreaking to hear, but worse than that, our friends the Thumanns (who arrived only 3 days after us), have been given a court date of April 29th!!! With the same judge!!! Our hearts go out to them. Being away from home is so challenging, and they are probably going to have to split up for awhile. Josh cannot miss so much work, so he will have to leave Crystal and the kids here until court.

Please be on your knees for our families. Only God can move these mountains. Our hope comes from the Lord, and we are trusting in Him.

Sarah and Jennifer, I really need to hear from you both right now. I cannot view comments posted to this, so if you have some encouragement, please e-mail us at garyhagler@imsready.com

Bible verses, wise words from veterans, or even just e-hugs would be so appreciated right now!

God bless all of you who are lifting us and our children up to the Lord!!!

I love you all so much!
Lindsay

Hope this works...

Our friends, the Thumann's, showed us how to post to our blog via e-mail. If this works, I will keep posting periodically.

Paka!
Linds

Updates from Ukraine

Hey everyone,

This is Melina, Lindsay's sister, posting on behalf of Gary and Lindsay. They have asked that I post an update since they are without internet access. I know this won't compare to Lindsay's avid blogging skills but here goes my best attempt:

First off when I spoke to Lindsay this morning it sounded as though she and Gary are keeping themselves very busy. It seems as though they have gotten quite a few opportunities to spend with Ana and Sasha and they are learning the ins and outs of the orphanage. That being said, I have learned that the orphanage has some, for lack of a better word, irritating rules. Gary and Lindsay can only see Ana and Sasha during visiting hours. They are limited in the activities they can do with the kids and are constantly monitored. Also, from the way the kids are dressed in the pictures I had assumed it was winter in the Ukraine (I'm oblivious to weather outside of Florida) but, in reality the orphanage stipulates how the kids are dressed which meant Ana had to wear a snow suit in 60 degree weather the other day. While I'm on the topic of clothes, for those of you who have been wondering, Sasha and Ana are both tiny little munchkins. Sasha wears a 2T and Ana a 3T.

Aside from a few hiccups, things seem to be going rather well but, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE continue to pray for them. They have not yet made it to the finish line and they are still half a world away from the other half of their family.

I plan on attaching some pictures that have been sent from Gary's phone but before I do (this will most likely be the part where I completely fail at blogging) I need to get some contact info out. Gary and Lindsay have been sending e-mail updates from Gary's phone. However, there have been some issues with some of the e-mail addresses. If you would like to be added to their e-mail list or need to get in contact with them feel free to e-mail: garyhagler@imsready.com

Sending lots of love from Gary and Lindsay

Gary and Lindsay's Ukraine Neighborhood

City Life

Feeding Sasha

Sasha's Escape Plan

Ana Swinging

Momma, Ana & Sasha

Daddy and Sasha

Lindsay and Ana hugging

Apparently the only thing Ukraine has on America