Our adventures with Ukrainian Honey Cake

I thought I'd find some Ukrainian recipes to try out while we're waiting... Borscht seemed a little overwhelming, so I thought I'd start with Ukrainian Honey Cake.  I didn't have a 7" round pan, so I tried my little individual cake pans and it turned out great.  But they looked a little boring, so Neil took it upon himself to garnish them with berries, toasted walnuts, and honey.  The cake was really dense, so a small amount went a long way, and the berries helped lighten it. 

It went really well with Sauvignon Blanc, by the way.  :)

UKRAINIAN HONEY CAKE

1 cup honey
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat the oven to 375.  Butter and flour a 7" round pan.  Microwave the honey in a large bowl until warm and thinned.  Beat with a whisk until frothy.  Beat in the eggs, and the flour and baking powder.  Pour into cake pan and bake for 15 minutes.  When done, cake will shrink away from the sides of the pan slightly and lightly brown on top.  If not yet done after 15 minutes, continue baking for 5 more minutes.  Turn out of pan while still hot, and cool on a wire rack.  Important: Store in an airtight container for at least one day before serving!  It changes the flavor of the cake. 




 

It Takes a Village

THANK YOU, Village!

We've had so much to be thanksful for during this Thanksgiving season! 

It's been 29 days since our first home study visit with our social worker, and already he is about to submit his final draft of the home study to our adoption agency.  As this part of the process draws to a close, we just have to take a minute to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped us get this far!  That includes employers who prepared documents for us, people who notarized letters and forms for us, our adoption caseworker who goes above and beyond her regular responsibilities to translate letters into Ukrainian for us, and so on... Right down to the nice post office employee who confuses Russian and Ukrainian.  He always says thank you and goodbye to me in Russian.  :)  It's the thought that counts, of course, and it always makes me smile that he remembers why I'm there... at the post office... yet again...

Most importantly, we need to thank all those people who agreed to be references for us... both the people who actually wrote letters, as well as those who were prepared to write letters if needed!  We could have never guessed just how many people - from both our past and our present - we would need to call upon to bear witness to our character!  We've been absolutely humbled by the responses that we've received.  Those of you who wrote letters truly outdid yourselves.  Our gratitute is beyond anything that words can express.   

We can't wait to someday share our adoption story with Tetyana and Margarita so that they will know just how many people in our "village" were involved in bringing them home!

IT'S A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT

Full Speed Ahead

It's been a really long month.  It's been 36 days since God first let us know that we have daughters waiting for us: two sisters in Ukraine.  We have spent each and every day praying for them and working as hard as we can through this adoption process to get to them.  Some things (most things) we have no control over, and that's tough.  We take comfort in knowing that this is all in God's hands, and everything will happen in his perfect timing.  

There are no guarantees that 8-year-old Tetyana or 4-year-old Margarita will not be adopted by someone else.  But we're doing everything we can, as quickly as we can, to get there as fast as we can!  Our concern is that they do not have to be kept together, because Tetyana has diabetes and is on Ukraine's "special needs" list.  So her younger, healthier sister could be adopted alone, separating them forever.  That's motivating us to move quickly.

In one month, we have: 

• Completed our applications for the adoption agency AND the home study agency
• Renewed our passports
• Received criminal background clearances from Johnston County, NC
• Received child abuse clearances from North Carolina
• Received criminal background clearances from York County, PA
• Received child abuse clearances from Pennsylvania
• Received certified copies of our birth certificates
• Received a certified copy of our marriage license - thanks, Mom :)
• Both of us got our physicals
• Received letters from the pediatrician that verify that Claire and Sophia are healthy
• Received employment verification letters from our employers
• Received a health coverage verification letter from our health insurance
• Gathered documention of all our assets and liabilities to attach to our financial statement
• Gathered information about adoption grants and loans
• Applied for our home equity loan
• Bought a Ukrainian phrasebook and almost cried
• Wrote our first letter to the girls to let them know about us, and mailed it along with a package of small gifts for them and the orphanage director

...and the list could keep going, and it's nowhere near finished.  It feels like we accomplished a lot, and I can't believe some of those things got back to us in just one month or less.  Our home study is set to begin next week and the ball keeps rolling.

It's exhausting though.  And although every step of the actual adoption process seems to have been blessed thus far, we're feeling the stress and it's wearing us out!  And all the while, real life goes on and we still have our two daughters HERE who need us to be mentally and physically present in their daily lives!

Please pray for us to have patience, wisdom, and the endurance to keep up the marathon!  

New Blog for the Stinsons!

Welcome to our new blog!  Please visit here for updates on our journey to grow the Stinson family!