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!