Update on K's Progress

Hello Everyone!

Ok...so I know I said I would update the blog when we returned home, but in my defense, I didn't really how busy I would be as a new Mom with a very eager 13 year old.  Two hours after we landed (on October 23rd), she was asking when she could start school.  Naturally, we just assumed it was because we are just another pair of boring parents!  :*)  Actually, it was more about wanting to start her English lessons as soon as possible.  I think she is growing tired of not knowing what everyone is talking about!

So...she started her first day of school last week, after getting several more vaccinations that weren't fun for her.  G-d, I am so happy that we live in such an amazing school district.  K's school is awesome & the teachers there are very patient & accepting.  Of course, we're not too happy about all the Math homework we're having to help with now...I forgot how much I hated 7th grade Math.

Her vocabulary is growing more every day and we always celebrate those little moments when she/we realize she's remembered a specific word or phrase.  It's all about small victories!  But we are also having to be more cautious about what we discuss because she also understands a lot more now as well.  She still talks to our animals in Russian, and I have to admit that it's pretty cute to hear "baby talk" in Russian; it's a nice change, and the dog's have no clue, but they love her very much & they are now getting much more hugs & kisses than ever!

Halloween was a blast this year!  R & I dressed up, along with K who was a cute little Vampire girl (minus the complicated fangs).  R was a mexican who looked more like Juan Valdez than Juan himself, and I was going for the Lilly Munster look, but wound up looking more like Elvira!  Nevertheless, K had so much fun celebrating her 1st Halloween!  She came home with a bag full of candy (my waist line hates me for it), and I think we all slept in the day after.

Now, we're looking forward to Thanksgiving, as this will be her 1st with the entire family.  We will be hosting the festivities at our house, so I'm a busy bee these days trying to get things ready for the big event.  This year, we have so much more to be thankful for!

Well, that's a rough overview of the past 2 weeks, but stay tuned because there will be much more to come!

PS:  We'd like to say Thank You to our wonderful friends who came to meet us at the airport with lots of hugs, kisses, flowers, and other awesome presents!  We love you guys & we cannot tell you how thankful we are to have such a great  group of friends!  Also, thanks to Mark & Linda who hosted a very fun "Welcome Home" party for us, and to Suzanne who is hosting a "Welcome Home Shower" for us this coming weekend!  You guys ROCK!!!

The Final Countdown....

We are finally starting to see the finish line.  Today, we applied for K's U.S. Immigrant Visa and completed the medical checkup.  Unfortunately, she had to have one vaccination for Measels, Mumps, & Rhubella (MMR).  Not an inexpensive injection, I might add. So, tomorrow we will return to the US Embassy to pick up her new Visa & then, we'll be ready to head home!!!  Of course, with only 2 flights out of Kiev every day, we wouldn't be able to make the late flight, so we'll be leaving Friday morning.  We should arrive in Houston after lunch time.  It will be a long day, but much celebrated (at least by me)!!!

So, this will be my last post until after we arrive in Houston.  I will continue to update this site with K's status & progression to American life.  So, stay tuned....

Thanks to everyone for all of your love, support, friendship, guidance, advice, patience, and many other adjectives I might be leaving out.  You are all wonderful & we value you more than you could ever know!

See you on the flip-side!

A tough day for K & me

Today started out as normal as the rest of our days here.  Got to the orphanage around 12:30 and it was a very busy place today.  Today is Thanksgiving Day in Ukraine.  There is no turkey, not even a football game to watch. What’s up with that? Here in Ukraine, people do not celebrate with turkeys or football. The only group of people who really celebrate this holiday is the church. Kids do not get out of school early for the holiday because it is not a national holiday.  There is no specific day when they celebrate Thanksgiving. Normally, individual churches decide when they are going to celebrate Thanksgiving. This special celebration is called Zhatva. On the Sunday that the church celebrates Zhatva, everyone tries to make that Sunday special. The entire day centers on the theme of thankfulness. This is done in many different ways, from showing people what they should be thankful for, to a strong message about the meaning of thankfulness. There is no turkey or pumpkin pie on the table. Instead, there are cakes, sandwiches, and, sometimes, different kinds of soft drinks. No matter how much or how little there is, the people all have a great time because they are together.  I can honestly say that being in another country makes you really think about what we should be thankful for.  

Anyway, a group of children from a local church came to the orphanage & sand songs of Thanksgiving & then the children at the house participated in several games of giving thanks.  It was an interesting event!  They stayed for about 4 hours with the children.  It was very sweet.

Then, we had more visitors...S's boss, who is the head of the Department of Ministry & Youth, and one of her coworkers & spouse.  They said their goodbye's to Karolina after having tea & cake, along with a lot of different fruits.  After they left, K's brother & his father came to visit.  Unfortunately, they only stayed for a few minutes & were not very supportive of K's decision to live in America.  This upset her very much.  We didn't even get to take a picture of K with her brother.  This made me very sad.  Fortunately, her brother's grandmother came soon after & was very happy for K.  She was dressed in traditional 'babushka' attire, and was the picture of a Ukrainian grandmother.  She presented K with two small pictures of Mother Mary with baby Jesus & another of Jesus for her room.  It is Ukrainian tradition to have these by your bed to watch over & keep you safe.  She also gave us two pieces of "Holy Bread" to take with us to America & to have communication in a traditional Ukrainian Orthodox church.  Guess I'll be needing to research that one.  Upon leaving, she gave us both hugs & kisses, and left us.  This was a highlight of our day.  

After all of this activity, we talked to Pappi on Skype (we miss him very much), and decided it was time to say goodbye to everyone.  This was heartbreaking for me to see her so upset & not be able to do anything to make it better for her.  I guess this is my first lesson in motherhood teaching me about how to help your children through life's hurts & disappointments.  It was not an easy lesson for me, but one I know I will learn many times in my life as K's mother.

Tonight, we are back at the apartment.  She is now sound asleep, as all of those emotions put her out pretty quickly.  I am praying for a passport tomorrow, but according to our facilitator, that would indeed be a miracle.  So, tomorrow we are planning a day of packing & just being together.  We hope to be home on Friday, God willing!  If you do not see a post from me tomorrow, you will know that we got the passport & are heading to Kiev & you'll hear from me soon.  If you see me here again tomorrow, you'll know I'm probably going crazy!  :0)

Until then...

A Long Day

I tried to sleep in this morning since R has left & K routinely sleeps 12 hours every night (we need to change this), but I could not sleep.  It seems that I am now missing more than just home...I miss R also.  Today is his birthday, so it is especially difficult to be separated from him. I think this is the first year since we have been together that we've not celebrated together.  Fortunately, some very good friends of ours, L & M, have taken him in for the evening & are preparing his favorite meal...fajitas!

So, once I was finally able to wake K this morning, we got ready to spend another day at the orphanage.  The days seem to be getting longer as we wait for her passport.  We are hoping to receive it on Monday or Tuesday, but we will be saying our goodbye's to everyone tomorrow, in hopes for a Monday delivery, so I thought that it would be a good idea for K to spend one last night at the orphanage with her friends; I needed an evening to myself anyway.  Of course, she was very concerned about me staying by myself...that I would be lonely, scared, or bored.  She even called me as soon as they returned to the house after dropping me off; she wanted to make sure I was ok.  (This scenario seems backward....isn't the parent the one that should be concerned when the child stays alone?)  She is most precious!

Several of the caretakers thought that today we would be saying goodbye to everyone, so even though they were not on the schedule to work, they all came anyway to see us off & give K her special presents.  Once they found out that she is staying the night there & I will be back tomorrow, they gave us hugs & kisses & promised to return tomorrow.  One of the caretakers started crying, which was like a domino effect; another started crying, then me, then a couple of the children.  It was time to leave.

I have no idea how to say goodbye to these most special souls.  Even though we're only bringing one of them home with us, we cannot help but to feel like 'mother & father' to all of them.  We have come to love them all in different ways.  One little girl told me tonight that K is getting a very special family.  It was too much for me. I started crying again.  This trip has changed me in ways I cannot explain and I almost feel guilty for leaving the rest of them behind.  Before we left on our journey, we were given the following piece of advice: "Enjoy every moment".  I can honestly say that what we have enjoyed most are these children!  When people have asked us if we like Ukraine, our first thought is of them & how much we have come to love them & enjoy their company. So tomorrow will be a difficult day for us, especially K.  Being her mom, my heart will be doubly sad...for myself, and for her.

Missing Papi...

Ok, so you will get two posts in one day since I've been slacking the past few days.

Today, Papi has been in the fore-front of our minds as we have been without him for two days now & are missing him as he travels back to America today.  We are hoping to talk to him in the next couple of hours, provided his flight arrives in Houston on time (it's actually scheduled to arrive about 17 minutes late).

Today, on the way to the orphanage, the director was stopped by the Police for not allowing a pedestrian cross when they had the right-of-way.  This was total crap since there was no one in the crosswalk when we turned, but because someone showed up at the corner AS we turned, they stopped us.  This took about 30 minutes.  Poor S is not having a good week with the local government.

Today was a pretty normal day at the orphanage, with one exception.  One of the older girls gave me a note that she had written in English for me. Now, this wouldn't normally seem like a big deal, but this girl, who is 17, very standoff-ish and quite shy, who paid us little attention in the beginning, cannot even say 'Thank You' in English...took the time to write me a note in English.  Upon her request, I will not divulge the contents of the letter except to say that it was very kind & it really touched my heart!  After she gave it to me, she kissed my cheek & gave me a big hug!  I cannot say it enough...these kids are amazing!!!!

Tomorrow, the children are having a celebration in honor of R's birthday & K's departure to America soon. It won't be the same without R here with us, but he will be here in spirit, I am certain of that!  R, if you are reading this, we love you & miss you!  K has said this at least 4 times today.  It's precious!

That's all for now.  I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow!

We've finally applied for the Passport!!!

Thankfully, we went yesterday morning to get K's photo & application for her new passport with her new name.  We hope we will receive her passport on Monday afternoon, but it is more likely to be on Tuesday.  Either way, we won't be home now until Thursday or Friday.  R left Kg yesterday to head back to Kiev.  He had to go to the US Embassy & sign a couple of documents before heading home today.  He should be in the air now somewhere over Europe heading to Amsterdam & then on to Houston.  I feel horrible that he will be alone for his birthday on Saturday, but very jealous he will be spending it in America.  As for me & K, we'll just be visiting the orphanage every day this weekend, up until we get her passport.  We will try to see her brother (he lives with his biological father here) before we depart.

R went to the orphanage by himself on Wednesday evening to say 'Good Bye' to all the children.  According to both he & the director, it was just awful.  All of the children were very upset & crying because he was leaving & they stayed awake until 2:00am crying even still & talking about us and how much they are going to miss us. Several of the children gave R presents for his upcoming birthday.  I cannot even imagine how hard it will be for me & K to say good bye to them, but especially for her because these children have been her family for so long.  Last night, one of the girls, whom I've become extremely fond of, asked me to spend the night there with them before we leave.  Maybe....

Anyway...back to yesterday.  After completeing our passport application, our attorney's asst (who helped us there) drove me & K to the orphanage.  When we arrived, there were several inspectors there from the Kg. Prosecutor's Office. This was the first time that they have ever showed up there, but they were asking lots of questions about our adoption proceeding, along with the adoption proceeding of one of the other children.  Hopefully, they will not throw a monkey-wrench into anything.  The director must go to their office on Tuesday to give them a written explanation for both adoption proceedings.  (Hopefully, we'll be outta here by then & heading to Kiev.)   This was the first time since we have been here that there was tension in the air at the orphanage.  It was quite un-nerving.  K & I, along with several other girls (& one boy) heading to her room to sort through her things to decide what she will bring back to America.  It was amazing to watch how this...it was like being at an Auction, but the price wasn't money, but 'need' (which one needs this more).

After the ladies from the PO left, it was back to normal.  All of the children had arrived home from school by this time and went directly to the kitchen and started cooking.  We had some mini-pancakes, scrambled eggs with wieners in it (they call that 'sausage' here), mashed potatoes, and salad.  I know...weird combination, but trust me; you eat whatever you've got access to here.

After getting back to the apartment last night, K & I spent the evening at the computer, talking (via online translator).  Of course, we called dad first to make sure he was ok...we won't be able to talk to him again until Saturday afternoon...we're missing him so much already.  Today, back to the orphanage for another long day of waiting.

WE FINALLY HAVE A DAUGHTER!!!

Well, it is official...we are now the proud parents of a wonderful 13 year old girl!!!  Today was the best day of our lives!  Court was interesting.  We were slotted for a noon court time, but I think it was about 40 minutes late getting started.  Of course, the official language of the hearing was Ukrainian (not Russian, even though that's what everyone here speaks) because the Judge is an official for the Ukrainian government & that is the official language.  So, his first question to us was, "Do you know Ukrainian?".  Well, kind of....  From there, he asked us questions from our paperwork that we submitted, about our family, our home, jobs, pets, etc.  Then, he asked K some questions about her decision to live with us, whether she was sure, if she was going to change her mind, etc... Then, the city inspector (social worker) gave a short speech on why we should be her parents, followed by the orphanage director, then our lawyer made her closing statements.  It lasted about an hour.  Mainly because the judge reviewed every document between his 5 cell phone calls (keep in mind that we were asked 3 times to make sure ours were turned off). After the hearing, we left the room for maybe 3 minutes, then they called us back in & read the court decree to us.  It's 5 pages, so this took a while also.

We are very lucky; we will have K's new birth certificate tomorrow & we will be applying for her new passport, with her new name.  We have a hiccup with getting her passport, as there was a clerical error on a previous passport that had her listed as 'male' instead of 'female'.  I mean really...how many boys would have such a girl-y name?  Anyway, this will delay her passport for 1 day, but luckily, not our trip home (we hope).  Once we receive her new passport, we'll be off to Kiev to complete everything here.

Tonight was a big celebration at the orphanage.  In Ukraine, it is tradition that when a child finds a family, the other children will celebrate this day, as if it were his/her day of birth with the new parents, so from that day onward, the child will celebrate 2 birthdays.  It is a great celebration for the children.  So, from now on, K will have two birthdays that we celebrate each year.  Also, the new family buys a plant/tree for the orphanage & they name the tree after the child that found their family, so tomorrow, we will be shopping for a plant/tree for K to give to the orphanage in her honor.

Today was also the (natural) birthday of one of the other girls in the house, who was 15 today.  Presents were given, and a big feast of mashed potatoes, potato salad, crab salad, pizza, fish, bread, & regular salad was served for all the children, followed by cake & ice cream.  (We missed out on the ice cream because we needed to leave the festivities to head home, but they are saving some for us to have tomorrow.)

So, tonight we are back at the apartment with our new daughter & still cannot believe it is now official and that she is finally ours!

We hope to be seeing you all very soon!

K's transition to family life

Great news today!!!  We finally have our court date....Monday at 12:00pm (4:00am Houston time).  If all goes well, we will become 1st-time parents of a beautiful 13 year old girl!  (And, whoever said labor pains were just for pregnant expecting mothers are full of it!)  Ok....so maybe a little explanation is needed here.

Since we discussed the adoption of a potential 2nd girl from the house, K has been very insecure about our feelings for her.  And, unfortunately, due to the language barrier, there is no way for us to effectively reassure her of how certain we are in our love for her.  I think that much gets lost in translation...  Tonight, she is back with us, but this time, forever!  We will do our best to reassure her as best we can, even though she doesn't understand that our hearts are big enough to love more than just one child.  We will take things slowly with this situation & pray for guidance.  Of course, those of you who really know us understand that our belief is such that whatever happens is meant to be.  Nevertheless, we are getting one amazing little girl and we feel very fortunate to have found her!

So tomorrow, the 3 of us will spend the day alone together, away from the orphanage & all the distractions.   Today was K's last day of school & the rest of the children must attend school tomorrow & on Sunday a few of the children will be taking a "field trip" to go & see some 100 year old tree.  I think we'll probably hang out around the apartment & spend some quality family time together.

So, court on Monday...hopefully we'll be outta here by the 21st or 22nd at the latest!  Man, we can't wait to get home!!!

A relaxing day.

Well, thankfully we woke up with water this morning (we actually had it last night so we were squeaky clean before bedtime).  We slept in a little & laid around most of the morning.  S picked us up around 2:00pm & took us to the orphanage (the children get out of school at 1:30pm here), where we found K in a circle of 6 boys from her school that had come to shower her with gifts & attention before she leaves for America.  Boy, are we in trouble, or what?  R asked me if I thought she had any idea why they were all really there.... She mostly hung out with her friends tonight, so we got to visit with the other children & watch them make something similar to popcorn balls.  They were pretty tasty.

So, not much to report today, except that we are ready to go to court & finally have our K with us for good so we can get the heck outta here!  

That's all for today, folks. Sorry for the short post.  :^(

Our Visit today

Well, I would like to say that we woke up this morning to great news, but.....no water!!!  Apparently, the city shuts off the water supply to certain "districts" to do "repairs". Normally, this wouldn't have been such a big deal, but we were going to K's school today for "show & tell" in her English class, which meant that we could not take a bath beforehand.  Fortunately, we had some bottled water, so we could at least brush our teeth & our faces, but not our rear-ends! FRIGHTENING, we know!!!  I'm sure you will all get a big laugh out of this, and we'll probably not hear the end of it.

Actually, the director told us that because their government doesn't have enough money, sometimes, they shut off the water, electricity, etc... to save costs.  Sometimes it is off for a week or more.   He told us, "this is very bad"!  Obviously!  We are horrified to be without it for even 30 minutes.  We should all remeber how very fortunate we are to live in America!

So, before we went to K's school, we had to make a stop at our lawyer's office to sign our petition to adopt for the court proceeding.  Our facilitator received all of our documents last night to submit for the final stamp of approval in Kiev.  He should get these documents by Friday, which means that our court date will be Monday afternoon.  We are praying for this!  If court is on Monday, we should have her passport & birth certificate by Friday, which means we can finally go to Kiev for the end of our process, which involves more medical exams & our Embassy appointment.  Then HOME!!!!  But, we'll be updating this information as it changes frequently!

So, after the lawyer's office, we headed to the orphanage to pick up one of the caretakers who escorted us to K's school.  We stopped at the little store/market to pick up candy & snacks for the children in the class.  It was a wonderful experience!  This was a class where they teach the children to speak English.  There were 27 students in the class & about 6 of them spoke English very well.  Of course, they only asked us questions in English, so it was mostly the same children doing the asking.  There were some basic questions about where we live, how many cars we have, how many pets...but there were also some serious questions about our plans for K's future, her education, etc..., but the most serious question we got was "can you tell us about what the "American Dream" means?".  We told them that we were living it (in much more detail than this, of course).

One child even asked if the Terminator was our mayor.  (Paul, I'm sure you appreciate this, yeah?)  The children & their teachers were very gracious hosts.  K even gave a short speech on how great it has been to go to school with these children & that she will miss them. One girl cried like a baby.  They all wished us good luck, great health, and much happiness.  It was precious.  Then, we were off to buy gifts for all the children at the orphanage & their caretakers.  S & one of our favorite caretakers took us to the central market, which is where everyone in town goes to shop.  It resembled an American flea market, but with better merchandise.  We found these really beautiful compact mirrors that had beautiful decorations on the case.  We bought a different design for each girl in the house.  I also got one for myself.  For the boys, we purchased a soccer ball & posters for their bedroom walls.  The caretakers all got different items based on their personality.  I also managed to pick up a refrigerator magnet, made in Ukraine, with many beautiful colors & the country name in Cyrillic.  R got to be "Santa" and give the gifts to everyone while I took pictures.  He LOVED it!!!

And, as usual, we had dinner with the children and conversation surrounding more questions that the children had for us.  Tonight was a bit more serious questions.  K asked about college & how long children in America live at home with their parents.  Of course, our answer was "for as long as they like".  We feel like we have a lot of catching up to do since we missed her first 12 years.  Also, the children wanted to know how R & I met, about our childhoods, our family, our friends, our school years.  We do a lot of talking considering that we do not speak their language.  S, the director, will probably be very happy when we leave so his phone, his car, and his lips can have a break...not to mention getting his apartment back.

One last bit of information....

On our way to the school today, we noticed a baby kitten next to a dumpster by the orphanage.  (There are too many stray/homeless animals here; it will break your heart.) When we returned, two of the girls from the orphanage took it some milk & raw chicken.  Tonight, we were at the supermarket buying cat food for it because it has since been bathed, blow-dried, and made a permanent resident.  These children are amazing, how much compassion & love they have for other people & animals.  You would think that they would be "jaded", but their hearts are bigger than anyone's I could name.  It is heart-warming & wonderful to spend so much time with such amazing souls!

Tomorrow's post may be a bit shorter; we do not have big plans.  Maybe just some time with K after school.

Until tomorrow.

Our meeting with "The Guardians"

Whew...what a day!  We awoke very early today even though we had no idea if/what time we would be going before this "tutorial panel" today, but we wanted to make sure we were ready to go at a moments notice.  Of course, they were calling us before we were ready saying, "be ready in 15 minutes".  We panicked a little; but then, no panel for 3 hours. But, apparently, they wanted more paperwork for K, so the director took us back to the orphanage with him while they completed the documents they requested.  K was not there because she had an appointment with the doctors today for some medical tests.  We visited with one of the caretakers for a couple of hours, had some coffee & cookies.  (These cookies are hilarious.  They are 2"x4" and have multiplication tables imprinted on them.  But, they are delicious!)  The caretaker told us more about K's birth mother (K doesn't really talk about her a lot).  Apparently, she does not "live" anywhere, but is homeless & the last time that she saw her mother, she was rummaging through the garbage, looking for food.  Unfortunately, this is the reality for many people here, and sometimes, children become the "innocent by-stander in the drive-by".  But, we must remember that G-d has a plan for every person & for K, she is destined to be our daughter.

So, back to "panel"...

We were told to be at the SDA office at 1:00pm for our "tutorial".  It was more like the "Spanish Inquisition".  There were a panel of 9 people (1 came in late, making it 10), me & R, and our translator.  The translator had prepared us prior to the proceeding, saying that they were going to ask us 5 questions, mainly about why we want to adopt K, why Ukraine, why an older child, etc... Roughly 10 questions into this, they asked R about how much we pay for water in America (keep in mind that we had to submit this information in our paperwork, so they know how much we pay in one year).  There must have been 6 questions surrounding this one subject.  It had nothing to do with adoption, but more because the questioner was curious.  Bottom line, he wanted us to tell him how much we pay per gallon of water. How the heck should we know?

After all of this, they all start talking to each other for maybe 45 seconds, then say that they are happy to APPROVE us to proceed to court for the adoption of K!!!  Whoo-Hoo!!!

After that, the Inspector-lady kissed my cheek & congratulated us.  It was very nice.  We were just happy to have passed.  Our dream could have stopped here, but it did not!  We asked our translator, "do they normally ask so many questions?", she said, "No...I don't know why they ask you so many. This is not normal." I guess we look like suspicious people.  ^_^

Anyway, we left & went to the orphanage, where we spent the remainder of our day with the children.  They always ask us many questions about America, and how we like Ukraine or do not like Ukraine. Sometimes, they ask about schools, sometimes about food, and other times about silly stuff.  But, no matter what they ask, we are very interested & we know that it is very important if they are asking.

Also, we have figured out why the process takes so long to adopt here.  I think that secretly they hope the more time we spend at the orphanage, the more we will take home with us.  It's already working on us!

So, that's about it for today.  "The Guardians" approved us to move forward & we're hoping to be in court next Tuesday, the 13th, and maybe heading home by the 22nd.  And, at this point, please let me say "Thank You" for all the support & prayers...they are definitely working!

Tomorrow, we go to K's school, where we will be "on display" for all the children.  We are looking forward to it!  Then, we will go shopping to buy gifts for all the children at the orphanage & their caretakers.

Until tomorrow.

Moving ahead...

Well, today was definitely different than the previous days...it was very busy.  We left at 8:15am to meet with our translator and our lawyer who is acting as our local facilitator for the adoption.  Both very beautiful, very smart women...very professional.  Our lawyer submitted our referral paperwork to the local SDA office for approval to meet with K.  We left & went to the orphanage, where K was already filling out her letter stating that she wants to be adopted by us.  Also, the orphanage had to submit some paperwork regarding K.  We all left the orphanage & went back to the SDA office where they read K's letter of approval & other pertinent information, asked her if she wrote it willingly : ) and then off to eat lunch after that.

We ate at a local cafe, which was very interesting. It had maybe 8 pre-made side-item-type meals, and since we didn't know what any of it was, we ordered a pizza.  We thought we were ordering a 1/2 pepperoni, 1/2 cheese & what we got was 1 full cheese pizza & another full cheese pizza with peppers on it (banana peppers, at that).  But, it was pretty good!

Then, back to the orphanage for about 30 minutes, and we got a call saying we needed to come to the notary's office to complete our paperwork for the SDA application for adoption, passport requests, and power of attorney forms.  It was pretty cool to see all of our names & address in Russian.  Of course, our translator had to read every document, word for word, before we could sign & then had to translate our signatures back to Russian.

Then, back to the orphanage.  We spent the rest of the evening there, laughing & talking with the children. The director and one of the caretakers, along with 2 of the children went to the grocery store & when they returned, it was amazing to watch everyone file out of the house & help bring in all the bags.  We even pitched in as well.  Of course, they make dinner for us every night.  Tonight was a tomato & cucumber salad with a tomato-y based rice dish with some kind of beef (I didn't eat that part, but the rice was ok once you salted it down).  We also had "fried" bread.  They slice a loaf of something like french bread, dip it in eggs, and fry it in oil (similar to french toast, but without the cinnamon).  It was good, but tasted more like an omelet than bread.

So now we are back at the apartment, without K tonight.  She must go to the doctor tomorrow for some medical exams, which will save us an extra day at the end of our process & we will be appearing before a panel of 7-10 people who work for the local government.  We will make our appeal for approval to adopt K, they will ask us many questions regarding why we want to adopt & then, if they agree to allow us to adopt her, they will give our lawyer all the paperwork which will be sent to Kiev tomorrow afternoon to be filed with the SDA office there.  They will then review everything & sign off & send it back to Kg. for our court hearing, which should be next Tuesday (keep your fingers crossed & pray for us).

We'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

Another good day!

Today we went to visit all the children at the orphanage again.  K spent the night with us, so her director picked us up around 1:00pm & we spent the rest of the day with the kids. We began this trip with open hearts & today, made a pretty difficult decision regarding this.  When we started our journey, we were not prepared to be "approved for 3", but our American social worker put that on our Home Study...so, we were open to one more.  K was also very excited about this possibility....until today.  After spending the day together with K & her house-mate, K decided that she no longer wanted this.  Since she has a 9 year old half-brother (who lives with his bio father), she remembered her dream of wanting a 6 year old brother (this was the last time the two of them were together, so she remembers him at this age).  She no longer wants us to adopt a sister for her.  This is ok.  We are very sad about this (especially R, who has grown really fond of N), but we are glad to know this early in the Ukrainian process of adoption. Although, now, I will be on a mission to find a family for the other 13 year old girl that we had been considering.

Tomorrow, we will meet with our local translator, who will work with us through the remainder of the process in this region, then  meet with the Inspector (social worker), who will accompany us to the orphanage to view our meeting with K (tomorrow is our "official" first meeting since she returned to Ukraine).

Tonight, we will spend the evening together & she is happy because she gets to skip school tomorrow. So, gotta go so we can do some reassuring.  Until tomorrow.

Our 1st visit to the Orphanage....

Today was a good day.  Firstly, because I slept for about 6 hours last night.  I guess my body finally decided it needed some rest.  S (the director) came to pick us up around 11:30am and we spent the day at the orphanage.  It was great to finally meet all the children & their caretakers.  Even a couple that were not working today made an effort to come by to meet us.  I guess you could say that we were the "main event".  The only time we were alone was in the restroom & for a few minutes to talk to our friends in Humble on Skype.  (G-d, I LOVE technology!!!)  All the children were so happy to see us.  Of course, we brought some presents for everyone, but the biggest hit was the Halloween Hair Spray dye.  I think the boys liked it as much as the girls.

We thought we would be bored to tears, but we were taken care of very well & entertained beyond our expectations.  We got to tour the orphanage, look at everyone's photo albums, along with other personal prized items.  Around lunch time, the kitchen was the center of all the action.  All the children & caretakers gathered around & started preparing our meal.  Some were peeling potatoes, others were chopping onions, some were making these really good little snack-like sandwiches (the bread here is the best).  After an hour or so, we finally got to try our first bowl of Ukrainian Borsht, along with some sort of chicken/corn/pineapple/mayo concoction....the pineapple part was pretty good, but of course, I didn't eat the other part.  We also sampled some sweets...I have no idea what they were, but were pretty good.

We ended our day at the local grocery store, where we bought some much needed items...soft toilet paper, some washcloths (for some reason, they don't use them here), towels, paper towels, coke, chips, bread, and most importantly, bottled water & Ukrainian beer, which is way too awesome!!!

Now, we're getting ready for bed, as it is almost 10:00pm.  Until tomorrow....

We are finally with our girl!

Well, we had our appointment with the Ukrainian gov't yesterday & thought that we were going to be able to get our paperwork to leave last night for K's city....of course, that didn't happen. Apparently, the lady that had to sign our papers was out all afternoon & never made it back until today.  So, we picked up our papers at 3:00pm (local time) and headed south.  I'm amazed that I am alive to be writing this to you.  It was 4 hours of torturous driving, again with no seatbelts.  Crazy!!!

Anyway, it was worth it when we arrived about an hour ago.  K & her friend, along with their director, met us on the outskirts of town.  Our driver followed him to his apartment, where we lugged 4 bags of our American crap up 9 flights of stairs.  Yes, I said 9 flights of stairs...the elevator was broken.  Thankfully, we are settled in for a while.

It was worth every ounce of lost sleep, aggrevation, crazy driving....  K was more beautiful than we remembered!  She was as happy to see us as we were to see her!  Now, it's time for some PB&J's for the 3 of us & then visiting with our baby!  Da Zaftra!  (That means...Until tomorrow.)

We're finally in Kiev!

Well, this is interesting...I am at an internet cafe, using a computer that is all in Russian, so if you see any typo's, please forgive me.  (I never realized how much those typing classes would come in handy...thank G-d I know the keyboard layout.)

Ok...so we finally arrived in Kiev yesterday afternoon at 4:30pm, local time (Kiev is 8 hours ahead of Houston). I am glad that we were wise enough to pay for the VIP service offered by our travel agent.  The VIP package consists of a person meeting you at the airport, assisting you through Immigration & Customs.  Let me just say...WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!  Our VIP guy, Alex, met us at Immigration, took our passports from us, told us to go wait for our luggage & he would be back for us (I must admit it was quite scary to be giving our passports to a complete stranger).  A few minutes later, he brought our passports back to us, already stamped, and this was before our 1st piece of luggage actually appeared.  Now, why was this worth it you ask?  Because there were at least 200 people in line at the Immigration spot.  Also, we didn't even go through Customs at all.  Our facilitator was waiting for us at the checkpoint (they are not allowed in the baggage claim area).  Then, we felt better.  So, we were off to the center of Kiev with our facilitator & the driver he had hired to take us there.  Let me just say that we are definitely lucky to be alive today.  Take every American road rule & throw it out the window here.  No rules apply.  People drive 60 mph in the city & maybe 90 on the highway.  Did I mention that the van we were in had no seatbelts?  Very scary.

When we made it to our hotel/apartment, we were very pleasantly surprised.  They had to upgrade our room because the one we had reserved did not have hot water.  We had a 2 room suite.  It was very nice.  We actually ran into a few Americans there also.

Today, we decided to stroll out into the city to do some sightseeing since we have a free day today.  Wow!  I am very proud of us.  We can't speak or read their language, so at least I can say that we haven't gotten lost.  The city is quite beautiful.  Very old!  They have an underground mall that we haven't toured yet, but will probably do a little later.  I've been trying to find an internet cafe for the past hour.

So, tomorrow we have our appointment with the SDA office & they will give us our papers to travel to Kd, where K's orphanage is.  She & her director, S, are driving up tomorrow to meet us and take us back.  She will stay with us through the weekend & will have to return to the orphanage on Sunday night so she can go to school on Monday.  Apparently, she has to continue this until she becomes ours.

Our facilitator did say that we may be able to get a court date as soon as next week.  We are hoping so.  Pray for us!

Well, gotta run so I can check email.

Until Friday.

Our Time in Amsterdam

Well, we arrived in Amsterdam yesterday morning at 7:00am. Of course, we only cat-napped on the plane, so we were very tired, but also very determined to stay awake as long as we could to adjust to this new time zone (Amsterdam is 7 hours ahead of Houston). We were very proud of ourselves...we stayed awake until 5:00pm (this means that we were awake for about 30 hours). 

We took the train from the airport into the city center & walked around Amsterdam looking at all the amazing architecture, among a sea of people.  It really is beautiful!  The weather was quite nice, about 65 degrees...perfect for walking. Although, you really must be careful of bike riders & cars here.  They only stop for you if they absolutely have to & that generally means they are slamming on brakes at the last minute. Did I mention that they drive really fast?  So, that's pretty interesting...

Well, I only have a few minutes left on my "internet time", so I must close for now.  Will write more later.

Tomorrow we Fly!

Well, we'll be hoping on a flight in 24 hours, heading to Amsterdam for a couple of days, then on to Ukraine.  Today, we're trying to get everything together & figuring out where everything is going to go in our luggage (fun times, indeed)!

We're waiting on K to call us, as this will be the last time we talk to her on Skype before we arrive in Kiev next week.  Actually, with any luck, this will be the last time we ever have to talk to her on Skype, at least from thousands of miles away.  We are getting pretty nervous now, but not about actually getting her, but more about the things standing between us & our court decree.  Truth be told, we are actually more nervous about leaving our pets for a month (my fellow animal-lovers will understand this).

Well, that's all for now.  We'll see you on the flip-side!

The Final Countdown

It was a pleasant surprise to get a call from K this morning at 8:15 (4:15pm Ukraine time)...she misses us (thank G-d)!  We only got to talk for about 30 minutes because it was dinner time and she had kitchen duty, but she wanted to call us as soon as she arrived home from school!

So, we leave in 5 days...so much to do, so little time.  Of course, R is working every day until we leave, so I'm in charge of getting things ready for our trip.  Thankfully, we are blessed to have such amazing friends who have gone through this process and have given us much advice and guidance, as well as "stuff" to take along with us to make our trip easier.  And then, of course, we also have our neighbors who support us in ways we never imagined & we really feel that our community is part of our family.  And I certainly cannot leave out our family, because they are wonderfully supportive as well.  It's amazing how a child can bring people together!

Well, that's about all I wanted to say this morning.  It'll be a busy week, but keep checking back with us...you never know what we'll be posting!