Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Attack of the Killer Lice!
We were worried last week, that with the departure of Ruslan (Patrick Krebs) and Misha, that the “Baby House” as we have come to call the building for the 4,5,6 year olds would be down to 4 children. Sweet, polite, sharing Olya (the only little girl, who will not be registered because her Grandma visits her regularly –shortsighted we feel on Grandma’s part as Olya will be placed with the bigger kids in a year or two and out of the Baby House – which is the best facility at the Orphanage), Piotr (also sweet and an underdog when it comes to getting the best toys), Nazar (largest of the boys and one of the “alphas”), and Alyosha (the little boy with his hair cut out in patches because he had gum stuck in it – no peanut butter or ice cubes = haircut!).
Last Wednesday, however, three new brothers were dropped off. We are not sure of their situation or if they are adoptable – but they are cute. The littlest one, around 2-1/2, is still in diapers. We are sure that they wanted to keep him with his siblings and that is why he is not in another orphanage for younger children. Where the building is safe for the pre-schoolers, it has not been baby proofed, and I spent Wednesday, putting the smaller potted plants up higher in the window sills as he was pulling on them, moving the hamster cage (with 2 small male Siberian hamsters) out of reach, etc.
What we didn’t know about the three new boys is that they brought more visitors with them – lice! Within a few days one of the new boys was shaved and a lice comb and lice medicine appeared up on top of their lockers. The next day, the oldest new boy was shaved … and finally the baby. Yesterday, Nazar appeared shaved. Misha sits with the three new boys during meals and sleeps next to one of them. We so worry that any day when we show up that he will be a cue ball! Misha has a big head and a knot on his forehead – hair helps soften his looks! We hope we can get him out before this becomes a necessity for him or any of us!
Our ten day wait will be over Monday, 10/6, and we count the days down. We heard in the last few days that one major hold-up may be the woman who runs the Ukrainian passport office for our district (Chernihiv). Just when there was light at the end of tunnel! The US Embassy website for Ukraine says to allow up to 10 days for Ukrainian passport issuance (you must have one of these, with a Visa issued by the US Embassy inside, to get the children out of Ukraine and into the US). This woman is threatening a 20 day wait unless an expediting fee comes her way – a hefty expediting fee. Even after paying the hefty fee, the wait was only taken down to 7 days, for the last American family who darkened her door.
We will jump this hurdle when the time comes. We knew this process was rocky. We have heard that China has the process down to 10 days. It would be nice if Ukraine figured out a way to do this – although it would only benefit the children and the adoptive families (and not the National GNP) so why bother?
Yesterday, we found a coat to take Mari home in – we were planning to return home, but with the pace of things, we have opted to stay (we may re-think this if the passport wait if truly 20 days), and some bouncy, smushy, spikey ball people (like yo-yos) that light up! (see photos) The kids loved them, but with how rough the kids are, the lights should be out soon! When nothing truly belongs to you, and you have not been taught the pride of ownership, you don’t take care of your toys.
We moved to the larger room in the hotel, the one with the double bed and a couch! We don't know how Bill slept on the couch as even to sit on it is hard! The extra space, 3'x 5' as John says, is a welcome addition and we are not so on top of each other!
We hope everyone is doing great - we appreciate all of your prayers and comments!
Last Wednesday, however, three new brothers were dropped off. We are not sure of their situation or if they are adoptable – but they are cute. The littlest one, around 2-1/2, is still in diapers. We are sure that they wanted to keep him with his siblings and that is why he is not in another orphanage for younger children. Where the building is safe for the pre-schoolers, it has not been baby proofed, and I spent Wednesday, putting the smaller potted plants up higher in the window sills as he was pulling on them, moving the hamster cage (with 2 small male Siberian hamsters) out of reach, etc.
What we didn’t know about the three new boys is that they brought more visitors with them – lice! Within a few days one of the new boys was shaved and a lice comb and lice medicine appeared up on top of their lockers. The next day, the oldest new boy was shaved … and finally the baby. Yesterday, Nazar appeared shaved. Misha sits with the three new boys during meals and sleeps next to one of them. We so worry that any day when we show up that he will be a cue ball! Misha has a big head and a knot on his forehead – hair helps soften his looks! We hope we can get him out before this becomes a necessity for him or any of us!
Our ten day wait will be over Monday, 10/6, and we count the days down. We heard in the last few days that one major hold-up may be the woman who runs the Ukrainian passport office for our district (Chernihiv). Just when there was light at the end of tunnel! The US Embassy website for Ukraine says to allow up to 10 days for Ukrainian passport issuance (you must have one of these, with a Visa issued by the US Embassy inside, to get the children out of Ukraine and into the US). This woman is threatening a 20 day wait unless an expediting fee comes her way – a hefty expediting fee. Even after paying the hefty fee, the wait was only taken down to 7 days, for the last American family who darkened her door.
We will jump this hurdle when the time comes. We knew this process was rocky. We have heard that China has the process down to 10 days. It would be nice if Ukraine figured out a way to do this – although it would only benefit the children and the adoptive families (and not the National GNP) so why bother?
Yesterday, we found a coat to take Mari home in – we were planning to return home, but with the pace of things, we have opted to stay (we may re-think this if the passport wait if truly 20 days), and some bouncy, smushy, spikey ball people (like yo-yos) that light up! (see photos) The kids loved them, but with how rough the kids are, the lights should be out soon! When nothing truly belongs to you, and you have not been taught the pride of ownership, you don’t take care of your toys.
We moved to the larger room in the hotel, the one with the double bed and a couch! We don't know how Bill slept on the couch as even to sit on it is hard! The extra space, 3'x 5' as John says, is a welcome addition and we are not so on top of each other!
We hope everyone is doing great - we appreciate all of your prayers and comments!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Court Hearing Went Great
The Court Hearing was at 4:00 on Thursday. Instead of just the Judge, there were two jurors (local upstanding residents who were nominated and approved by the populace), a young female prosecutor, the Regional Inspector for Children's Rights, a Representative for the Orphanage, the Court Reporter who was recording everything on a microphone and typing, and Mari!
We again gave our names, address, we were both asked if we work, we were read our rights for the court hearing, and they got down to business. The Regional Inspector spoke for a while about Mari's time in Colorado during the hosting program. John was asked what his job is and where he works and how much he makes per year. He was also asked to confirm that the children will be each given their own room. John was asked why we selected Ukraine when choosing where to adopt a child from. I was asked if I knew how much extra work this is going to entail ... as I imagined teaching Misha about the entire household rules, and sharing, and being gentle to the pets, and the extra laundry and ironing ... I said yes!
The local Prosecutor had a few questions - we did not expect her and did our best to answer. The Representative from the Orphanage then spoke about how much fun Mari had in Colorado and the photo albums that she shared with her friends upon her return. She said that Mari wanted to be adopted by us and cared for us. She also mentioned how Misha spoke to his caregivers just a few days before we arrived, during one of the visits with the Kreb's Family, and told them that he wanted a Mommy and Daddy like Ruslan was getting. Then we showed up ... Heavenly Father heard one little guy's prayers and answered quite quickly apparently! Mari was then asked by the Judge to approach the bench, stated her name, and that she would like to be adopted.
The Judge then asked us to officially make our request to the court. We asked to have the children's names formally changed, and to have their patronymics removed (their father's first name which is their middle name Mikailovich in Misha's case and Mikailovna in Mari's), to have passports issued, and not to change their birthdates. The Judge then proceeded to read how the children's mother is deceased, and that their father had lost his parental rights, that no relative has had any contact, and that no one in Ukraine wants these children. It was hard for me to hear and I know it must have been really hard for Mari to listen to ... I reached back and held her hand as she sat in the bench behind us with the Attorney for the Orphanage. The Judge then went through every page of our Dossier and the titles of each document ... this part was painfully slow and the Regional Inspector was doing all she could to not drift off (I can imagine how many hearings she has sat through). The Judge and the Jurors then adjourned to discuss the case.
They returned in less than 10 minutes and approved our request ... now the 10 consecutive days of waiting! We took pictures at the end, including one of the jail cell within the courtroom, and of the blonde Regional Inspector and the brunette Atty. for the Orphanage. Our Facilitator said the Judge would not appreciate a photo - but he was blonde, around 40, in blue robes with a beautiful thick blue and yellow gold ribbon (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) with a medallion on it (he reminded me of my little brother Wally). He was serious the entire time and honorable - just what one would want in a judge! The entire hearing took an hour and 10 minutes and we were pretty emotionally exhausted - so we returned Mari and did not visit Misha.
That evening, after our successful court hearing, we decided to celebrate by going out for pizza (we had heard of a restaurant) with the Kreb's Family. They had little Joseph (2) already and were picking up William and Patrick early in the morning and heading out with all 4 boys back to Kyiv to wait for their Tax ID’s and their passports to be processed. At the "Pizza Bistro", we had a hard time explaining that we wanted tomato sauce on all of our pizzas (it was offered only on one or two of the ten types of pizza) and NO mayonnaise. She tried to get us to put just a little bit on. "No, thank you, tomato sauce".
The waitress was dumbfounded that we would want pizza without mayo ... what would it be like? "Good" John muttered under his breath! The guys enjoyed the local beer, the girls Pepsi and Coke, and Peter a Sprite! I had the Hawaiian ... complete with pineapple, just like home! It was a fun, relaxing evening and our last hurrah (for now) with the Krebs' Family! Looking forward to sharing some real NY pizza with them sometime in the future when all the little ones are speaking English!
We hope everyone is fine. We have kept up on the financial news as this is primarily what we get. After I drew a picture for one of the locals at the pizza restaurant, we confirmed Joe and Lisa's careful research that the instrument is a bandura! Thanks for the research - I don't realize how much I rely on the computer until I haven't had it.
Stay tuned ... "Attack of the Lice" tomorrow...
We again gave our names, address, we were both asked if we work, we were read our rights for the court hearing, and they got down to business. The Regional Inspector spoke for a while about Mari's time in Colorado during the hosting program. John was asked what his job is and where he works and how much he makes per year. He was also asked to confirm that the children will be each given their own room. John was asked why we selected Ukraine when choosing where to adopt a child from. I was asked if I knew how much extra work this is going to entail ... as I imagined teaching Misha about the entire household rules, and sharing, and being gentle to the pets, and the extra laundry and ironing ... I said yes!
The local Prosecutor had a few questions - we did not expect her and did our best to answer. The Representative from the Orphanage then spoke about how much fun Mari had in Colorado and the photo albums that she shared with her friends upon her return. She said that Mari wanted to be adopted by us and cared for us. She also mentioned how Misha spoke to his caregivers just a few days before we arrived, during one of the visits with the Kreb's Family, and told them that he wanted a Mommy and Daddy like Ruslan was getting. Then we showed up ... Heavenly Father heard one little guy's prayers and answered quite quickly apparently! Mari was then asked by the Judge to approach the bench, stated her name, and that she would like to be adopted.
The Judge then asked us to officially make our request to the court. We asked to have the children's names formally changed, and to have their patronymics removed (their father's first name which is their middle name Mikailovich in Misha's case and Mikailovna in Mari's), to have passports issued, and not to change their birthdates. The Judge then proceeded to read how the children's mother is deceased, and that their father had lost his parental rights, that no relative has had any contact, and that no one in Ukraine wants these children. It was hard for me to hear and I know it must have been really hard for Mari to listen to ... I reached back and held her hand as she sat in the bench behind us with the Attorney for the Orphanage. The Judge then went through every page of our Dossier and the titles of each document ... this part was painfully slow and the Regional Inspector was doing all she could to not drift off (I can imagine how many hearings she has sat through). The Judge and the Jurors then adjourned to discuss the case.
They returned in less than 10 minutes and approved our request ... now the 10 consecutive days of waiting! We took pictures at the end, including one of the jail cell within the courtroom, and of the blonde Regional Inspector and the brunette Atty. for the Orphanage. Our Facilitator said the Judge would not appreciate a photo - but he was blonde, around 40, in blue robes with a beautiful thick blue and yellow gold ribbon (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) with a medallion on it (he reminded me of my little brother Wally). He was serious the entire time and honorable - just what one would want in a judge! The entire hearing took an hour and 10 minutes and we were pretty emotionally exhausted - so we returned Mari and did not visit Misha.
That evening, after our successful court hearing, we decided to celebrate by going out for pizza (we had heard of a restaurant) with the Kreb's Family. They had little Joseph (2) already and were picking up William and Patrick early in the morning and heading out with all 4 boys back to Kyiv to wait for their Tax ID’s and their passports to be processed. At the "Pizza Bistro", we had a hard time explaining that we wanted tomato sauce on all of our pizzas (it was offered only on one or two of the ten types of pizza) and NO mayonnaise. She tried to get us to put just a little bit on. "No, thank you, tomato sauce".
The waitress was dumbfounded that we would want pizza without mayo ... what would it be like? "Good" John muttered under his breath! The guys enjoyed the local beer, the girls Pepsi and Coke, and Peter a Sprite! I had the Hawaiian ... complete with pineapple, just like home! It was a fun, relaxing evening and our last hurrah (for now) with the Krebs' Family! Looking forward to sharing some real NY pizza with them sometime in the future when all the little ones are speaking English!
We hope everyone is fine. We have kept up on the financial news as this is primarily what we get. After I drew a picture for one of the locals at the pizza restaurant, we confirmed Joe and Lisa's careful research that the instrument is a bandura! Thanks for the research - I don't realize how much I rely on the computer until I haven't had it.
Stay tuned ... "Attack of the Lice" tomorrow...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The sun is shining today + no Internet until next week...
Just a quick note to say that the sun is shining today, first time since we have been here. Court is at 4PM, should be a non-event today. We will be going dark until next week on the Internet as I could not get time on Friday and the lab is closed on the weekend to allow the modem to cool down from all the words and pictures that have been uploaded. (just kidding, there is no high school on the weekend!).
We will honker down for the next ten days...trying not to go nuts around here. I am happy that the other families that have been have not had to be in such a small town, however it has been a positive experience!
We will honker down for the next ten days...trying not to go nuts around here. I am happy that the other families that have been have not had to be in such a small town, however it has been a positive experience!
Court Hearing Tomorrow Afternoon + Kyiv Road Trip
We have heard through the grapevine that various regions have different practices, some have preliminary court hearings and others do not. This region has preliminary court hearings, which we attended this morning. The judge asked us several questions, our names, address, whether we worked, and if we wanted to withdraw our request. He also read to us our rights in the Ukrainian court system - all of which our Facilitator quickly translated for us. I only had to dress up a little bit for this hearing - tomorrow will be more dressy. The Regional Inspector for Children's Rights attended, as did the Legal Advocat for the Orphange. The courtroom has a jail cage welded from rebar in it, common from what we have read on blogs - I will try to get a photo tomorrow. Only Mari will be attending court tomorrow - we all agreed that Michael is too young and would just be confused and possibly frightened.
After the court hearing tomorow at 4:00 pm, our ten business day wait begins on Friday to allow for any family member to contest our request. We think this is the process after the wait is completed: we will travel to the children's birthplace, Bachtmach (sp?), to pick up their birth certificates, return to Gorodnya to take possession of the kids, apply for tax id's (like social security numbers) and wait for them a few days, apply for passports and wait for them for up to ten days, and then head to Kyiv to finish up with the medical exam and application for the U.S. Visa in their Ukrainian passports. We have not seen the sun since we have been here - over 12 days. We long for some sunshine! I talked to Mom today and she said Denver will be around 90' tomorrow - we are so jealous! It was wonderful talking to her, although Duncan was in school and we couldn't hear his chipper little voice. He did ask Mom a few days ago if we would be home tomorrow. He has no sense of how long we are going to be gone! We have several pictures of him up in the room, but we miss him so much!
After the hearing today, we "ran" to Kyiv (3 hours down and 3 hours back) to pick up permission from the SDA for the court hearing to be held tomorrow and several other errands. There was a lovely older man with grey hair and grey handle-bar moustache, dressed in the twisted wool grey tall hat and overcoat, playing a stringed instrument in front of the SDA. I listened for a while and enjoyed his beautiful music. It was not a triangular balalaika, but oval shaped with a large number of strings. I will not be able to look this up until we get home, so if someone could look it up and write to us that would be great! John tends to hog the internet time as he has to do something as frivoulous as work! John now has me blogging on his offline computer, then copying everything on to the High School's Computer Lab's computer via a memory stick. (did I mention that John is a geek?) We have to do it this way as his computer does not have the special software required to interchange with the DSL Modem.
We visited a huge grocery store, inside a mall, on the outskirts of Kyiv (on the way back northeast to Chernihiv) called Mega Market. It was about the 1/2 the size of one of our grocery stores (huge for here) and also had clothing and some housewares. We picked up new toothbrushes for the "Baby House" - where Misha eats, sleeps, plays, and bathes - and toothpaste (the kids did not have any). We bought bath sponges for the kids, shampoo (again, no shampoo - only bar soap), laundry detergent (none in sight, we already picked up dishwashing liquid), coloring books, construction paper, M&Ms, and Pringles for Mari. I forgot to pick up carrots as a snack - in Gorodnya we have fruits, cookies, cereal, milk, chocolate mix (reminds me of ovaltine) to make hot chocolate with their microwave (stove/oven doesn't work in the Baby House and there is no fridge), and juice. The carrots, in our small town grocery stores (called magazeens or gastronomes), are huge softball-sized monsters that look very old and tough!
The kids love potato chips, but the "drill sergeant caregiver who also plays the piano and has the kids dance" (we have named them) balled us out last night for bringing two small packages for them. She said no more chips and cookies! Is life worth living without a few pieces of contraband every now and then over the next 15 days? Last night was the first night we met her. She wouldn't let us in at 4:00 (4:00-6:00 is our night visit time, but the kids don't wake from nap until 4:30 so she didn't want us in until 5:00, so we sat outside in the cold and made friends with the little white cat (not named, so we are going to give her one). She loved eating the bread that I brought from the hotel with our leftover butter smeared on it and afterward climbed up into John's lap! I told him he had made a friend, he probably more correctly noted that as it was 50' outside she was sitting on him for his heat! When Misha saw John today he cried "Poppi" in a really happy voice! He is smiling more and the Krebs family say he is a different child now that we are here and he has someone who cares for him and him alone. He has to be reminded to share the new toys that we have brought as he thinks they should only be for him (we told the caregiver about the scene in Finding Nemo where the seagulls are all fighting over the fish and saying "Mine, mine, mine"! They remind me of Misha and his pals! The thermometer inside read 14' C, around 56'-57' F, a degree colder than yesterday! The kids wear two shirts and a sweater, long underwear and pants. Some keep their hats on. We are asked to remove our shoes at the door, a common practice here, so my feet are frozen by the time we get back to the hotel!
We also picked up a few necessities for us at the store today - Barilla Pasta Sauce (apparently the Ukrainian pasta sauce tastes like canned Campbell's tomato soup) to have the Cafe downstairs heat and top pelmeni with (they are little meatballs covered in pasta shells). After eating pelmeni topped with butter, we decided this would be a huge improvement. We also picked up tea (Ahmad Brand - we bought some years ago in the UK and it is ithe same kind they brew for us downstairs). We have yet to find the great Ukrainian pastries/baked goods in this small town. If you love Italian, they have tons of pasta products on the shelves, but no decent spaghetti sauce, I would bring some tomato paste (we can't find) and some packets of dried spaghetti sauce mix. We were longing for pizza, but ran out of time today so we went to McDonald's instead in Kyiv.
Sidenote: McDonald's is the only business in Ukraine from the US, and it is not a franchise, rather a corporate owned stores. Have counted three in Kyiv.
Our Facilitator showed us a pizza place tonight when we returned. We walk right past it, but we had missed as it is closed during the day and doesn't say "pizza" anywhere on it. We don't go out at night (unless John has an internet slot and the driver takes him) as they are crazy drivers enough during the day! Maybe we will celebrate with pizza tomorrow night!
We have been watching BBC World News when we can. What a mess back home - $700B to shore up the mortgage banks - what a huge amount of debt to saddle our children with. Hopefully heads will roll! John spent part of last night scrolling through 1400 channels on our Satellite TV - he found 3-4 channels in English (BBC, Bloomberg, a kids channel, and a Christian music channel). We are going to go nuts when the Krebs family leaves in the next few days and we only have each other to talk to, watching the few DVDs we brought (the HBO miniseries on John Adams was excellent), and reading.
We hope everyone at home is happy and healthy!
After the court hearing tomorow at 4:00 pm, our ten business day wait begins on Friday to allow for any family member to contest our request. We think this is the process after the wait is completed: we will travel to the children's birthplace, Bachtmach (sp?), to pick up their birth certificates, return to Gorodnya to take possession of the kids, apply for tax id's (like social security numbers) and wait for them a few days, apply for passports and wait for them for up to ten days, and then head to Kyiv to finish up with the medical exam and application for the U.S. Visa in their Ukrainian passports. We have not seen the sun since we have been here - over 12 days. We long for some sunshine! I talked to Mom today and she said Denver will be around 90' tomorrow - we are so jealous! It was wonderful talking to her, although Duncan was in school and we couldn't hear his chipper little voice. He did ask Mom a few days ago if we would be home tomorrow. He has no sense of how long we are going to be gone! We have several pictures of him up in the room, but we miss him so much!
After the hearing today, we "ran" to Kyiv (3 hours down and 3 hours back) to pick up permission from the SDA for the court hearing to be held tomorrow and several other errands. There was a lovely older man with grey hair and grey handle-bar moustache, dressed in the twisted wool grey tall hat and overcoat, playing a stringed instrument in front of the SDA. I listened for a while and enjoyed his beautiful music. It was not a triangular balalaika, but oval shaped with a large number of strings. I will not be able to look this up until we get home, so if someone could look it up and write to us that would be great! John tends to hog the internet time as he has to do something as frivoulous as work! John now has me blogging on his offline computer, then copying everything on to the High School's Computer Lab's computer via a memory stick. (did I mention that John is a geek?) We have to do it this way as his computer does not have the special software required to interchange with the DSL Modem.
We visited a huge grocery store, inside a mall, on the outskirts of Kyiv (on the way back northeast to Chernihiv) called Mega Market. It was about the 1/2 the size of one of our grocery stores (huge for here) and also had clothing and some housewares. We picked up new toothbrushes for the "Baby House" - where Misha eats, sleeps, plays, and bathes - and toothpaste (the kids did not have any). We bought bath sponges for the kids, shampoo (again, no shampoo - only bar soap), laundry detergent (none in sight, we already picked up dishwashing liquid), coloring books, construction paper, M&Ms, and Pringles for Mari. I forgot to pick up carrots as a snack - in Gorodnya we have fruits, cookies, cereal, milk, chocolate mix (reminds me of ovaltine) to make hot chocolate with their microwave (stove/oven doesn't work in the Baby House and there is no fridge), and juice. The carrots, in our small town grocery stores (called magazeens or gastronomes), are huge softball-sized monsters that look very old and tough!
The kids love potato chips, but the "drill sergeant caregiver who also plays the piano and has the kids dance" (we have named them) balled us out last night for bringing two small packages for them. She said no more chips and cookies! Is life worth living without a few pieces of contraband every now and then over the next 15 days? Last night was the first night we met her. She wouldn't let us in at 4:00 (4:00-6:00 is our night visit time, but the kids don't wake from nap until 4:30 so she didn't want us in until 5:00, so we sat outside in the cold and made friends with the little white cat (not named, so we are going to give her one). She loved eating the bread that I brought from the hotel with our leftover butter smeared on it and afterward climbed up into John's lap! I told him he had made a friend, he probably more correctly noted that as it was 50' outside she was sitting on him for his heat! When Misha saw John today he cried "Poppi" in a really happy voice! He is smiling more and the Krebs family say he is a different child now that we are here and he has someone who cares for him and him alone. He has to be reminded to share the new toys that we have brought as he thinks they should only be for him (we told the caregiver about the scene in Finding Nemo where the seagulls are all fighting over the fish and saying "Mine, mine, mine"! They remind me of Misha and his pals! The thermometer inside read 14' C, around 56'-57' F, a degree colder than yesterday! The kids wear two shirts and a sweater, long underwear and pants. Some keep their hats on. We are asked to remove our shoes at the door, a common practice here, so my feet are frozen by the time we get back to the hotel!
We also picked up a few necessities for us at the store today - Barilla Pasta Sauce (apparently the Ukrainian pasta sauce tastes like canned Campbell's tomato soup) to have the Cafe downstairs heat and top pelmeni with (they are little meatballs covered in pasta shells). After eating pelmeni topped with butter, we decided this would be a huge improvement. We also picked up tea (Ahmad Brand - we bought some years ago in the UK and it is ithe same kind they brew for us downstairs). We have yet to find the great Ukrainian pastries/baked goods in this small town. If you love Italian, they have tons of pasta products on the shelves, but no decent spaghetti sauce, I would bring some tomato paste (we can't find) and some packets of dried spaghetti sauce mix. We were longing for pizza, but ran out of time today so we went to McDonald's instead in Kyiv.
Sidenote: McDonald's is the only business in Ukraine from the US, and it is not a franchise, rather a corporate owned stores. Have counted three in Kyiv.
Our Facilitator showed us a pizza place tonight when we returned. We walk right past it, but we had missed as it is closed during the day and doesn't say "pizza" anywhere on it. We don't go out at night (unless John has an internet slot and the driver takes him) as they are crazy drivers enough during the day! Maybe we will celebrate with pizza tomorrow night!
We have been watching BBC World News when we can. What a mess back home - $700B to shore up the mortgage banks - what a huge amount of debt to saddle our children with. Hopefully heads will roll! John spent part of last night scrolling through 1400 channels on our Satellite TV - he found 3-4 channels in English (BBC, Bloomberg, a kids channel, and a Christian music channel). We are going to go nuts when the Krebs family leaves in the next few days and we only have each other to talk to, watching the few DVDs we brought (the HBO miniseries on John Adams was excellent), and reading.
We hope everyone at home is happy and healthy!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Please Stand By – Experiencing Technical Difficulties
Sorry for not blogging the last few days, but we have lost our internet connection cards capabilities on John's laptop. You could hear the keening for miles when John realized he was in a boat without a paddle! Luckily the American family staying at The Pooh Hotel (as in Winnie apparently) with us, Stefanie, Bill, and Peter Krebs showed us where they have found an internet connection at the computer lab of the local Ministry of Culture and Tourism. There is no internet cafe as we are in Mayberry. The high school students in town also use the computer lab, so you have to reserve time on one of the four computers in hour-and-a half slots, during the times that the lab is open. John was going nuts until yesterday when he could get in and get several hours of work done. Living in a “non-techno” area for a geek is going to be a real challenge.
It has been overcast and rainy since we arrived in Ukraine over a week ago. Rain in the city is manageable, but in the countryside we are bogged down in mud when we walk to the Orphanage. It is about a forty-five minute walk each way. We walk facing traffic, which travels far too fast, so that we can hopefully anticipate anyone driving off the road at us. We have a local driver, named Viktor, who drives us every day in the afternoon and picks us up – but it is nice to head over in the morning also. This morning Misha’s group was at speech therapy working on phonetics. You have to learn to trill those “r’s” somewhere! He was excited that we were inside when he arrived, instead of him being inside. He promptly ran to me to have me undo his coat and help him off with his boots. They quickly learn the advantages of having a Mommy! I helped him wash his hands yesterday, before lunch, by pulling his sleeves up soaping up in the freezing cold water myself and then taking his little hands. I could tell that he has no memory of anyone doing this for him and his little body relaxed into mine behind him. He is very possessive when he sits on my lap. When little Olya, the only girl in the group, wanted to snuggle next to me on the couch and have some attention - he pushed her away. He is learning to share ... a quality our household will be working on in the new few months!
The heat, for both residences and businesses, is not turned on by the Ukraine Government/Heating Company until 15 October here – so people use electric heaters to keep warm. That is one of the reasons we chose a hotel instead of an apartment – we have an excellent electric heater and hot water all day (in town it is turned on 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon). John checked the thermostat in Misha’s building today and it was 15' C (59' F). No wonder all of the kids are sick and have runny, goopey, noses! The caregiver has a small electric heater for their bedroom (30 ft. x 20 ft.) that chugs away valiantly trying to heat the cavernous space during their naps and at night. With 6 children in the “Baby House” as we affectionately call it, we are unsure why they don’t put curtains up, divide the space, keep 6 or 8 beds in one area and heat just that area.
This morning, I walked over with the Kreb’s family, who are adopting two boys from Gorodnya and their younger brother from Prylouki (sp?). Roma (William) is 7, Ruslan (Patrick) is 5 and in Misha’s group, and baby Joseph is 2. Their blog is http://www.krebskids.blogspot.com They are just finishing their ten day wait after court and are looking forward to finishing up and heading home. They have been a tremendous blessing to us on a daily basis. They have given us a detailed tour of town and all of the stores, restaurants (including the infamous Vega Disko-Bar that we have yet to visit), and the fruit market. Often stores and unmarked other than a name outside, so you have to peek your head in to see what they sell!
The Krebs have become good friends and someone to talk with other than each other. They have remembered to pack things that we have forgotten and are happy to share! Bill has given us a list of his favorites on the menu and the translations so that we have something familiar to eat. It doesn’t hurt that he is an Irish-American New Yorker – so he and John are like two peas in a pod. Their son Peter (4) is a sweetheart and wonderful to have around. He has taken the trip in stride and is a real trooper when it comes to food and slogging through the process. He is Ukrainian and was adopted when he was 2 from Dnipropetrovsk. At home, he is blessed with a Ukrainian babysitter – Baba Leysha (sp?), who is like a grandmother and only speaks Ukrainian to him. After visiting the Orphanage in the afternoon, Peter walks in from market and plops his bag of macaroni on the counter and asks the waitresses to please boil it, put butter on it, and top it with cheese – all in Ukrainian! The waitresses, all in their 20’s, dote on him. He definitely rules the roost around here and we will miss them all when they leave in a day or two!
Today as we walked to town we passed several of the many town wells. Most of the houses are now plumbed, but the wells remain. Peter fed the white nanny goat a wormy apple from a nearby tree, some old concord grapes on a stem that someone had dropped onto the path from their garden, and a piece of bread from the hotel. The goat loved everything, stems and all! We passed under a huge oak tree (my Grandmother’s tree is 20 years old and I know its size, this one is huge and has to be 100 years old or more) and a walnut tree the same size by the beautiful Eastern Orthodox Church.
We stopped at the outdoor market and admired the meat sitting unwrapped on the side of the steps under an umbrella to keep the heat off. We spotted the roll of raw pig fat that Ukrainian men apparently love to snack on! Yum! Stefanie bought a small watermelon for the kids. It was a beautiful red inside and one of the best tasting watermelons I have ever eaten! The fruit here still tastes like fruit. It may be smaller, and have seeds, but it actually has taste – much like my strawberries outside my kitchen door at home. By the time we returned for the afternoon visit, after the little ones' nap, most of the watermelon was devoured!
We have enjoyed living here in the village the past week. The food is excellent, although the choices are limited, and we have a routine. Our room is 10x12, separate beds (smaller than twin size). We eat downstairs everyday, the same few food choices, we have heat and hot water 24/7 which is a luxury, and it is safe. In the evenings, the local Police like to frequent the "Kafe" downstairs and they are not hesitant to try their rudimentary English on us and ask us to join them for a shot of vodka, which leads to more shots of vodka. I was able to fake a group out the other night by filling my glass with water, shooting it down (sipping is an insult), making a face, and chasing it with a drink of juice. I then beg off and head up to bed, leaving John and Bill to defend American male masculinity. This has happened twice and now John says if he sees the police, or the ambulance driver, or even the firemen coming in, he is headed up to bed!
Yesterday, we heard from our Facilitator, that our “preliminary” court hearing is early Wednesday morning and then we are headed to Kyiv, with the children, for the rest of the day (3 hours down and 3 hours back) to have the children’s medical exam and blood tested. I did not bring Dramamine on this trip (it is in the pile for now non-existant trip no. 2) for Misha, and I worry that he will be carsick!
We should know when our real court hearing is by Friday and then we start the ten business day waiting period (to allow any family member time to contest the adoption). After the waiting period is over, we will travel several hours south-east to where the children were born, Bakhmakhti, to pick up their birth certificates, change names, and get a tax id for each child (similar to our Social Security Number). After we have these in hand, we will apply for Ukrainian passports in region (which could take another 10 days), and then off to Kyiv to finish things up with the US Embassy to get the kids their official US Visa pasted into their new passports!
We were happy to hear that our friends from Colorado, Aimee and Matt, have arrived in Kyiv (pronounced "Keeve" by the locals) safely and are starting the process. They will travel to the deep south of this country, near the Azov Sea, and should run into warmer weather. We are so far north, 30 minutes from the Russian border, we are worried that as the nights get colder the rain will turn to snow.
We were planning on coming home for the ten day waiting period after court, but the pace has quickened and we padded our airline reservations to allow for difficulties (which we are still waiting for with bated breath) so we are now staying here. We will try to write as often as possible!
It has been overcast and rainy since we arrived in Ukraine over a week ago. Rain in the city is manageable, but in the countryside we are bogged down in mud when we walk to the Orphanage. It is about a forty-five minute walk each way. We walk facing traffic, which travels far too fast, so that we can hopefully anticipate anyone driving off the road at us. We have a local driver, named Viktor, who drives us every day in the afternoon and picks us up – but it is nice to head over in the morning also. This morning Misha’s group was at speech therapy working on phonetics. You have to learn to trill those “r’s” somewhere! He was excited that we were inside when he arrived, instead of him being inside. He promptly ran to me to have me undo his coat and help him off with his boots. They quickly learn the advantages of having a Mommy! I helped him wash his hands yesterday, before lunch, by pulling his sleeves up soaping up in the freezing cold water myself and then taking his little hands. I could tell that he has no memory of anyone doing this for him and his little body relaxed into mine behind him. He is very possessive when he sits on my lap. When little Olya, the only girl in the group, wanted to snuggle next to me on the couch and have some attention - he pushed her away. He is learning to share ... a quality our household will be working on in the new few months!
The heat, for both residences and businesses, is not turned on by the Ukraine Government/Heating Company until 15 October here – so people use electric heaters to keep warm. That is one of the reasons we chose a hotel instead of an apartment – we have an excellent electric heater and hot water all day (in town it is turned on 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon). John checked the thermostat in Misha’s building today and it was 15' C (59' F). No wonder all of the kids are sick and have runny, goopey, noses! The caregiver has a small electric heater for their bedroom (30 ft. x 20 ft.) that chugs away valiantly trying to heat the cavernous space during their naps and at night. With 6 children in the “Baby House” as we affectionately call it, we are unsure why they don’t put curtains up, divide the space, keep 6 or 8 beds in one area and heat just that area.
This morning, I walked over with the Kreb’s family, who are adopting two boys from Gorodnya and their younger brother from Prylouki (sp?). Roma (William) is 7, Ruslan (Patrick) is 5 and in Misha’s group, and baby Joseph is 2. Their blog is http://www.krebskids.blogspot.com They are just finishing their ten day wait after court and are looking forward to finishing up and heading home. They have been a tremendous blessing to us on a daily basis. They have given us a detailed tour of town and all of the stores, restaurants (including the infamous Vega Disko-Bar that we have yet to visit), and the fruit market. Often stores and unmarked other than a name outside, so you have to peek your head in to see what they sell!
The Krebs have become good friends and someone to talk with other than each other. They have remembered to pack things that we have forgotten and are happy to share! Bill has given us a list of his favorites on the menu and the translations so that we have something familiar to eat. It doesn’t hurt that he is an Irish-American New Yorker – so he and John are like two peas in a pod. Their son Peter (4) is a sweetheart and wonderful to have around. He has taken the trip in stride and is a real trooper when it comes to food and slogging through the process. He is Ukrainian and was adopted when he was 2 from Dnipropetrovsk. At home, he is blessed with a Ukrainian babysitter – Baba Leysha (sp?), who is like a grandmother and only speaks Ukrainian to him. After visiting the Orphanage in the afternoon, Peter walks in from market and plops his bag of macaroni on the counter and asks the waitresses to please boil it, put butter on it, and top it with cheese – all in Ukrainian! The waitresses, all in their 20’s, dote on him. He definitely rules the roost around here and we will miss them all when they leave in a day or two!
Today as we walked to town we passed several of the many town wells. Most of the houses are now plumbed, but the wells remain. Peter fed the white nanny goat a wormy apple from a nearby tree, some old concord grapes on a stem that someone had dropped onto the path from their garden, and a piece of bread from the hotel. The goat loved everything, stems and all! We passed under a huge oak tree (my Grandmother’s tree is 20 years old and I know its size, this one is huge and has to be 100 years old or more) and a walnut tree the same size by the beautiful Eastern Orthodox Church.
We stopped at the outdoor market and admired the meat sitting unwrapped on the side of the steps under an umbrella to keep the heat off. We spotted the roll of raw pig fat that Ukrainian men apparently love to snack on! Yum! Stefanie bought a small watermelon for the kids. It was a beautiful red inside and one of the best tasting watermelons I have ever eaten! The fruit here still tastes like fruit. It may be smaller, and have seeds, but it actually has taste – much like my strawberries outside my kitchen door at home. By the time we returned for the afternoon visit, after the little ones' nap, most of the watermelon was devoured!
We have enjoyed living here in the village the past week. The food is excellent, although the choices are limited, and we have a routine. Our room is 10x12, separate beds (smaller than twin size). We eat downstairs everyday, the same few food choices, we have heat and hot water 24/7 which is a luxury, and it is safe. In the evenings, the local Police like to frequent the "Kafe" downstairs and they are not hesitant to try their rudimentary English on us and ask us to join them for a shot of vodka, which leads to more shots of vodka. I was able to fake a group out the other night by filling my glass with water, shooting it down (sipping is an insult), making a face, and chasing it with a drink of juice. I then beg off and head up to bed, leaving John and Bill to defend American male masculinity. This has happened twice and now John says if he sees the police, or the ambulance driver, or even the firemen coming in, he is headed up to bed!
Yesterday, we heard from our Facilitator, that our “preliminary” court hearing is early Wednesday morning and then we are headed to Kyiv, with the children, for the rest of the day (3 hours down and 3 hours back) to have the children’s medical exam and blood tested. I did not bring Dramamine on this trip (it is in the pile for now non-existant trip no. 2) for Misha, and I worry that he will be carsick!
We should know when our real court hearing is by Friday and then we start the ten business day waiting period (to allow any family member time to contest the adoption). After the waiting period is over, we will travel several hours south-east to where the children were born, Bakhmakhti, to pick up their birth certificates, change names, and get a tax id for each child (similar to our Social Security Number). After we have these in hand, we will apply for Ukrainian passports in region (which could take another 10 days), and then off to Kyiv to finish things up with the US Embassy to get the kids their official US Visa pasted into their new passports!
We were happy to hear that our friends from Colorado, Aimee and Matt, have arrived in Kyiv (pronounced "Keeve" by the locals) safely and are starting the process. They will travel to the deep south of this country, near the Azov Sea, and should run into warmer weather. We are so far north, 30 minutes from the Russian border, we are worried that as the nights get colder the rain will turn to snow.
We were planning on coming home for the ten day waiting period after court, but the pace has quickened and we padded our airline reservations to allow for difficulties (which we are still waiting for with bated breath) so we are now staying here. We will try to write as often as possible!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Meeting the Mayor and the Regional Inspector
We had just ordered breakfast in the cafe downstairs this morning, when our Facilitator called and said that the driver would be back to get us at the Motel in a few minutes. Apparently the Regional Inspector had a break in her appointment schedule and could see us. I tried to explain to the waitresses to "stop making us breakfast and that we would be back" while rushing upstairs to grab our coats. Oleg, our driver, explained the situation so that the girls understood and John paid for the food so that they knew we were honest. I ran down with everything and we ran for the car.
We were ushered in to ante-chamber of the Mayor's office by a nice middle-aged blond woman. I was admiring the violets (reminded me of Mom and Grandma) as we were asked to enter a huge office. A middle-aged gentleman in a business suit came from behind his desk to meet us and asked us to sit at a long conference table. Apparently the woman that I had mistaken for a secretary was the Regional Inspector for Children's Rights and the man was the Mayor. She presented a complete list of who we are, how we had met Mari, that we have a son in Colorado, and that we had met Mari and Michael yesterday. All from memory. She mentioned that we have a large home and that each child will have a bedroom. The Mayor then asked us if we had hosted Mari. He asked us to confirm that indeed, each child would have a bedroom. He asked if we would continue to keep the children close to Ukraine as even though they are far their country it is in their souls. We agreed and explained that we have several friends with Ukrainian children, that there is a large Ukrainian culture camp held in the mountains of Colorado each summer, and that we were planning to return with the children (when they are all older) for a Heritage Trip. This information seemed to please him. He noted that we would have our hands full with three children. We agreed. He mentioned that a village provides for all of its children and we are part of a global village and he commends us for taking care of these children. We all stood and he moved to his desk where he signed the paperwork approving our submission for a court hearing.
We then moved to the Regional Inspector's Office and she and our Facilitator completed the paperwork for the court hearing. We have decided to name the children Mariya Renee Barrett (Mari for short) and Michael Joseph Barrett. This information was added to the forms. We signed the paperwork which will now proceed to the SDA. We then traveled to the Orphanage so that our Facilitator could drop off paperwork. Back to the Motel for lunch (in this case brunch as we got to eat our eggs) and the Facilitator helped John explain how to make American coffee (2 shots of espresso and then fill the tea cup up to the rim with hot water makes very similar coffee). I enjoyed my first Ukrainian hot tea, loose black tea in a beautiful teapot, that tasted incredible
Our Facilitator and Driver, Oleg, then packed and left for Kyiv. They will see us in a week. They have arranged for a local gentleman, with a green car, to take us to see the children. His name is Viktor. John spent the afternoon working and I spent the afternoon cleaning the room, unpacking, and doing laundry in the shower basin (I call it my new front loading washing machine)! We are a little apprehensive and will resort to drawing pictures if necessary when ordering food!
We have met a wonderful couple from White Plains, NY, Bill and Stefanie Krebs and their son Peter (krebskids.blogspot.com). They are in process to adopt 3 brothers, two from our Orphanage and one from the nursery orphange for this region a few hours away. One of the boys is in Michael's group. They are all so cute playing. It is going to be wonderful to have Americans to talk to during this next week. We have TV, but only in Ukrainian, so even speaking English to someone is a treat! They have been here longer and are happy to show us the ropes! Heavenly Father certainly puts the right people in your path when you need them! We are so thankful that all-in-all we can handle everything and that we are in a beautiful, quaint, village for all of this. It should be safe as long as we watch out for the maniac drivers and the geese.
Thanks for the comments and hugs to all!
It is time to head back over to the Orphanage. We will include photos later.
We were ushered in to ante-chamber of the Mayor's office by a nice middle-aged blond woman. I was admiring the violets (reminded me of Mom and Grandma) as we were asked to enter a huge office. A middle-aged gentleman in a business suit came from behind his desk to meet us and asked us to sit at a long conference table. Apparently the woman that I had mistaken for a secretary was the Regional Inspector for Children's Rights and the man was the Mayor. She presented a complete list of who we are, how we had met Mari, that we have a son in Colorado, and that we had met Mari and Michael yesterday. All from memory. She mentioned that we have a large home and that each child will have a bedroom. The Mayor then asked us if we had hosted Mari. He asked us to confirm that indeed, each child would have a bedroom. He asked if we would continue to keep the children close to Ukraine as even though they are far their country it is in their souls. We agreed and explained that we have several friends with Ukrainian children, that there is a large Ukrainian culture camp held in the mountains of Colorado each summer, and that we were planning to return with the children (when they are all older) for a Heritage Trip. This information seemed to please him. He noted that we would have our hands full with three children. We agreed. He mentioned that a village provides for all of its children and we are part of a global village and he commends us for taking care of these children. We all stood and he moved to his desk where he signed the paperwork approving our submission for a court hearing.
We then moved to the Regional Inspector's Office and she and our Facilitator completed the paperwork for the court hearing. We have decided to name the children Mariya Renee Barrett (Mari for short) and Michael Joseph Barrett. This information was added to the forms. We signed the paperwork which will now proceed to the SDA. We then traveled to the Orphanage so that our Facilitator could drop off paperwork. Back to the Motel for lunch (in this case brunch as we got to eat our eggs) and the Facilitator helped John explain how to make American coffee (2 shots of espresso and then fill the tea cup up to the rim with hot water makes very similar coffee). I enjoyed my first Ukrainian hot tea, loose black tea in a beautiful teapot, that tasted incredible
Our Facilitator and Driver, Oleg, then packed and left for Kyiv. They will see us in a week. They have arranged for a local gentleman, with a green car, to take us to see the children. His name is Viktor. John spent the afternoon working and I spent the afternoon cleaning the room, unpacking, and doing laundry in the shower basin (I call it my new front loading washing machine)! We are a little apprehensive and will resort to drawing pictures if necessary when ordering food!
We have met a wonderful couple from White Plains, NY, Bill and Stefanie Krebs and their son Peter (krebskids.blogspot.com). They are in process to adopt 3 brothers, two from our Orphanage and one from the nursery orphange for this region a few hours away. One of the boys is in Michael's group. They are all so cute playing. It is going to be wonderful to have Americans to talk to during this next week. We have TV, but only in Ukrainian, so even speaking English to someone is a treat! They have been here longer and are happy to show us the ropes! Heavenly Father certainly puts the right people in your path when you need them! We are so thankful that all-in-all we can handle everything and that we are in a beautiful, quaint, village for all of this. It should be safe as long as we watch out for the maniac drivers and the geese.
Thanks for the comments and hugs to all!
It is time to head back over to the Orphanage. We will include photos later.
Gorodnya - Day 1
Our morning started off at Winnie’s Place with an omelets and French Fries for breakfast. Yes, it is a whole new twist on the Atkin’s Diet here. First stop was to the Regional Inspector’s Office to pick-up the paperwork that introduces us to the Orphanage, along with all the paperwork which was picked up the prior night from Ukraine’s State Department of Adoption (SDA). We had our first meeting with the Orphanage’s Director, more meetings and paperwork with the Advocator (legal interface to the Court). Then we “officially” got to meet Mariya and Michael! It was a great sense of moving forward in the entire process. We wished that Duncan could have been here, but the trip would have been far too long and too hard. Besides…isn’t school more fun anyway?
We were able to spend some time with Mari and Michael, but they needed to get to class. We too needed to join our Facilitator back on the paperwork trail. Another visit to the Regional Inspector and then a trip to the Notary (in Ukraine, this is an attorney they handles the paperwork side of the process – not just signature verification) to get our official paperwork which will be submitted back to the SDA. Paperwork is turned into the SDA on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It normally takes three days to turn-around the paperwork which then allows us to go to court. All-in-all, things have moved much faster than initially expected on many fronts. We are hoping to get our day in Court maybe late next week. There are still many variables in the process though.
We have opted to stay at Winnie’s place rather than moving to a much larger apartment. Heat is officially turned on for the country on October 15th and this local place has electric heat which when it is cold outside…toasty. In addition, we have a 24hour kitchen downstairs with many unknown items on the menu to choose from. Given that I don’t speak or read Ukrainian it is always a real treat to see what the heck we ordered. Actually, Twyla is a help with this given some of her prior language background.
Our facilitator and driver leaves us in the morning to depart back to Kyiv and the mothership. We will be able to see the kids in the PM, mostly after school. Twyla took many photos today, actually she averages about 120…130 per day, so be lucky that this is just a few of the shots taken in a day.
It has been a very full and stressful schedule. Stressful in that you are never really sure of what might jump out to hamper this process. Thank you all for your love, your thoughts, prayers and support during this truly life changing part of all of our lives. We went back at the end of today to say good-bye to Mari and Michael it did indeed feel like we were so much further down the road from just a few days ago. Ukraine is a very beautiful country, a very proud country which we many emotions about. We love the United States, but we must confess, it is good to get out and see the rest of the real world…especially in this election year.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Kyiv at Last!
We have arrived safely in Kyiv! We had an overnight layover in London, which was wonderful for breaking up the trip and gave us some time to combat jet lag. We then traveled to Warsaw, which looks like Germany from the air (lots of white stucco houses with red tile roofs). We would have preferred to overnight in Poland to allow us to see some of that country. The flight into Kyiv as on LOT Poland – they are still serving food and on a flight that was less than an hour! Unfortunately, they did not have any Ukrainian Customs forms on board, so they directed us to a kiosk in the center of the Customs area in the Kyiv Borispol Airport.
Helpful hint for Americans coming over … while completing our forms at the counter and using our dark blue passports for the required passport number entry, we were “accosted” by a helpful customs agent in uniform. He offered to help us quickly through Customs – the line was about 6 people long – for only $40 US each. We told him we were fine, but he was persistent. I retreated to the restroom hoping he would disappear while I was gone, but no luck. He then alluded to us having difficulties, okay maybe it was a threat, if we did not use his services. We promptly agreed and were whisked right past immigration, he took our passports and had them stamped, and found us a luggage cart (we were the only ones on the entire flight who had a luggage cart). Ukraine now allows cash up to the equivalent of 10,000 EURO. We had nothing to declare and could have walked through the empty “ Green Line” but he lead us through with a flourish. The whole time he was insisting we were here for adoption, we had written "Pleasure" on our form and kept responding that "No, we were here to visit a good friend who was meeting us".
Thank goodness we had our Facilitator right outside of Customs with a large sign – otherwise Mr. Crocodile would have gotten a friend to materialize and drive us to downtown. If you are flying in and your air carrier does not have the forms to complete, then write your passport number down on a separate piece of paper and keep your dark blue (American) passports hidden until when you are called. Proceed quickly into the Customs area and grab a blank form at the round kiosk straight ahead and proceed quickly to the line down the stairs where you can fill it out safely in the crowd. Hopefully this will keep a few of you from being culled out of the pack!
Our Facilitator and Driver helped us to the Apartment Agency and we picked up the key. We are staying just down the hill from the infamous TGI Fridays, right near Mandarin Plaza (high end boutique stores, with a great grocery store called The Gourmand in the basement). Our apartment is in a beautiful turn-of-the-century building from Kyiv’s sugar boom days. We have a bedroom, a bathroom, and a tiny kitchen plus internet, a tv, and hot running water in the bathroom (but not the kitchen – it isn’t plumbed for it). The apartment was quiet last night except for the neighbors, who are related to rabbits, and the trash men who came to dump the trash (sounded more like the vodka-bottle recycling men) at 1:45 in the morning. Doing dishes in the bathroom sink is different, but makes me appreciate my kitchen all the more! We overlook a courtyard with huge willow trees and a cluster of pigeons that congregate on one woman’s windowsill. I saw her feeding them early this morning – just a hand reaching out and wondered if she was birdnapping one? Our Facilitator assured us that unlike the French, Ukrainian’s do not have pigeon on the menu (at least not that she knows).
After lunch at Fridays, we headed to a great department store called Jacob’s. John found a great pair of shoes that look more European than what he was wearing. We encountered the hole-in-the floor toilets at the department store, including a cashier with a register in the doorway charging 1 grivna for using the facilities. I had to walk to the other end of the store to find John to get a grivna. Now I carry a bunch in my purse! After checking out all five floors, we then headed to the grocery store and stocked up on foodstuffs! Milk is called MOLOKO – packaged the same as something called KAFIR – be careful what you buy! The only thing we didn’t see was peanut butter – thanks to Wendy we brought some! One of the cool things we saw was live fish in huge tanks in the seafood area. I was told I could not take a photo or we would have shared this. The first tank was catfish of some sort – all at least 12” long, the other three tanks held fish even larger. I’m sure the children love shopping over here if you get to see such big fish!
We headed home for dinner. Our appointment with the SDA is at 9:00 in the morning. Hopefully everything will go well. We called Mariya today to let her know we are in Kyiv and should be able to visit her, and meet Michael, by the end of the week. She said she was sad from missing us. She wanted to know if Duncan was with us and if Babushka came – we told her no. The Orphanage does not allow outside children in and we were told it was better if we left him at home. Someday we will all be back for a heritage trip!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Counting Down the Days
We can't believe it is less than a week until we leave for Ukraine! Mari arrived safely back at her orphanage with her group. We are looking forward to calling her in the morning and wonder if they will let us talk with her.
We have been involved in this process since April 1, 2007. Time has moved so slowly until this last week! Now I can't catch my breath and my lists have lists! We have been talking with families who have recently returned with their children for any and all helpful hints!
We have read the recent NY Times article about the de-stabilization of the Ukrainian Government and hope that it is just political posturing and nothing more. We just want to slip in, move smoothly through the process, and return home!
Please keep us in your prayers! Thank you!
We have been involved in this process since April 1, 2007. Time has moved so slowly until this last week! Now I can't catch my breath and my lists have lists! We have been talking with families who have recently returned with their children for any and all helpful hints!
We have read the recent NY Times article about the de-stabilization of the Ukrainian Government and hope that it is just political posturing and nothing more. We just want to slip in, move smoothly through the process, and return home!
Please keep us in your prayers! Thank you!
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