13 Dec 2008
We made it. We've been home a little over 24 hours and it already feels like a lifetime. The girls love the house and have made themselves at home already. We did not have family or friends at the airport because we needed a bigger car to get us all home and the girls just needed a bit of rest. The jet lag and travel are brutal but the girls did pretty well by any standards. I'll try and not make this a long post because I'm also suffering from jet lag. We were up at 4 am this morning which was better than the night before but we are hoping the girls sleep in tomorrow until at least 7am.
It was an 11 hour flight from Kiev to JFK. Up early the next day for an early flight of 5.5 hours that left an hour late, 2 hour layover in Salt Lake and then another 2.5 hours to Reno. It's a 10 hour difference from Reno to Kiev so jet lag is a definite bummer...
We had family over today so they wore themselves out playing and having a good time in general. They seem to be a match all the way around, but then I knew that. I can't tell you how I knew that, but I knew it from the SDA appointment on. Ah, but I diverge.
The girls are doing great and we are slowly recovering from the long travels, but not the journey because there is nothing to recover from. Sounds silly, but this journey has changed us; all of us. Our experiences have left an everlasting positive impression of a peoples that are very foreign to us. I was asked by our landlady if their way of life was more difficult than ours. If that's all you know, then it's not any more difficult than ours, but since we know of another way of life, then yes, their lives are more difficult than ours in daily living. I can appreciate this much more now than I could before. Oh, I could keep on this topic for awhile but I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.
I'll start posting the updates that I kept on my computer when I wasn't able to get Internet access. It's going to take several days to do so as I do run on a bit and will need to edit for the blog.
For those about to travel, I salute you.
Chris
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Last update while in country.
Hi All,
Just an quick update until we get stateside. We'll be home on Friday so I'll do some updates this weekend. I'll also post more pictures this weekend when I can work them.
For Sweeta, let us know which and I'll get it to you. I assume it's one of the infrared ones.
Or passports were ready on Wednesday of last week. We then had a quick party for the girls and went to Simferop0l to pick up the docs. We stopped by their birth town and took a walk around and learned a few things about their parents. Enlightening!! After picking up the passports, we got tickets for the train to Kiev and away we went. I'll describe this whole trip in more detail once we get back.
Right now we have the girls in an Internet Cafe here in Kiev and they just don't have the patience for this and Virginia isn't feeling adventurous enough to kill an hour wadering the streets of Kiev. For those about to come here, it's cold and snowy but feeling more like Ukraine in winter than the past week.
We are all doing fine and got the visas on Monday so we are officially done with the process here and ready to go home. Once the girls hit US soil, they are officially American citizens and we just need to do some paperwork to get their SS cards.
Family, we will be making calls once we get to New York. We'll be arriving at 4pm local and may take 2 hours to get though immigration and to the hotel. Virginia's phone is not working so we'll be calling from my phone so we may not have all the numbers with us. We'll do what we can, don't hesitate to call us and leave a message if we don't answer because we'll probably be on the phone.
As mentioned, I'll do some big updates this weekend. For clients, I'm looking at catching up starting Monday so give me a call on Friday and leave a message if you have a fire. I'll prioritze from these messages.
Hope all is well with you all.
We have our Girls and this is going to be a wonderful Christmas.
Love and Miss you all,
Sasha, Olena, Virginia and Chris
Just an quick update until we get stateside. We'll be home on Friday so I'll do some updates this weekend. I'll also post more pictures this weekend when I can work them.
For Sweeta, let us know which and I'll get it to you. I assume it's one of the infrared ones.
Or passports were ready on Wednesday of last week. We then had a quick party for the girls and went to Simferop0l to pick up the docs. We stopped by their birth town and took a walk around and learned a few things about their parents. Enlightening!! After picking up the passports, we got tickets for the train to Kiev and away we went. I'll describe this whole trip in more detail once we get back.
Right now we have the girls in an Internet Cafe here in Kiev and they just don't have the patience for this and Virginia isn't feeling adventurous enough to kill an hour wadering the streets of Kiev. For those about to come here, it's cold and snowy but feeling more like Ukraine in winter than the past week.
We are all doing fine and got the visas on Monday so we are officially done with the process here and ready to go home. Once the girls hit US soil, they are officially American citizens and we just need to do some paperwork to get their SS cards.
Family, we will be making calls once we get to New York. We'll be arriving at 4pm local and may take 2 hours to get though immigration and to the hotel. Virginia's phone is not working so we'll be calling from my phone so we may not have all the numbers with us. We'll do what we can, don't hesitate to call us and leave a message if we don't answer because we'll probably be on the phone.
As mentioned, I'll do some big updates this weekend. For clients, I'm looking at catching up starting Monday so give me a call on Friday and leave a message if you have a fire. I'll prioritze from these messages.
Hope all is well with you all.
We have our Girls and this is going to be a wonderful Christmas.
Love and Miss you all,
Sasha, Olena, Virginia and Chris
Monday, December 1, 2008
At Last, another update
Hi Kaitlin and Rafaela :) from Yalta.
Hi All,
Sorry for the long absence, but we've been doing the Great Ukrainian Paperchase. First, there are new pictures I posted today, mostly of the girls.
To make a long story short (can't happen here), the court decree has some wording issues that other agencies didn't like. After getting them fixed, these other agencies were all messed up. The vital records didn't match the birth certificates and papers had to be changed, several times. Each time was a trip to Simperofol (2 hours each way) and one day was twice. We had to have the girls with us since we needed to get their passport photos done when we finished with the paperchase. Little to say that the girls didn't attend school all week except for Monday. We finally got the agencies to get their paperwork in order and got the passports ordered on Friday.
The passport paperwork is in Kiev today so we should have the passports by Thursday...God willing. Then train to Kiev and outprocess our embassy. Our original flights we set for the 9th but were cancelled by Delta so we rescheduled them for the 11th. Good thing because we can't make the 9th will all the paperwork delays.
It's been an eventful week...NOT. We've had the girls all night and all day and have somewhat a routine. Well, we did until today. They are back in school for the next three days so we get them up and ready. They go to school during the day and we'll pick them up after homework time to feed them at our place. They no longer sleep and bathe at the Internat. Legally they are ours and the director is allowing them to spend time in school while they can.
They are so eager to come home with us. There is no question that they want us as their parents and they as our children. It's a match made in heaven of which I can give numerous examples of why our setbacks led us to them. For now, each girl has laid claim to each of us. If the other girl spends too much time with their parent, it can get kind of ugly. While travelling, Olena gets car sick so we kept here in the middle seats of a Van and Sasha sat in the back (rough ride), usually with me. We would play some games or something to pass the time. This weekend it seemed that Olena had a melt down and I feel some of it was because Sasha spent a lot of time with me. Gotta find a way to keep things in balance until we can communicate better.
Sasha has gotten in the habit of just saying "Ne or Da" "Popi". I explained that this will not do and she needs to try and communicate better, even if in Russian. Now both of them go rambling on with me and I'm left bewildered half the time. We do manage to get our ideas across and they are becoming more patient with their communications. I feel good at where we are at but can't wait until this gets easier. We've been working on their English, but the environment is not overly conducive to learning English. Until recently, they were returning to the Internat every night and only spent 2 hours a day with us so we are not as far along as we had hoped. They both want to learn English but it takes time.
Last night, I worked with Sasha and Virginia worked with Olena on their English. When Sahsa had had enough, then it was time to teach Popi some Russian. I have to say I'm having a hard time with it, especially with some of their sounds. Speaking of language, Shelly, we're using an Ectaco ITravl with Russian-English. I ordered it online and they are expensive. It's supposed to speak as well as recognize both languages, but that part broke once we got here. Since I don't have real internet access, it's been a difficult process trying to get this fixed remotely. Right now, they want me to download a 300Mb file which I cannot do here so I'll wait till I get home. We decided to keep it and get it fixed because it's helping the girls spell Russian. It won't tranaslate a misspelling so they have to get it right. You can email me and I'll respond better when I get back to the US. Just a note: I've heard that there are new changes at the SDA starting today and that there has been a stop to all dossiers being accepted for the time being. I don't know the details and they may be accepting again, but just thought I'd pass that on. This info is a few days old.
Devin, we did get the first set of photos but haven't gotten any since. Please wait until we are home to send us more because we can't view them half the time. Their computers are tempermental and I never know when I can see attachments or not. We look forward to seeing more pictures and mostly getting to see you all again. When we hit our shores, we'll give you a shout.
There are so many things to say but like usual, just don't have time to say it all. Though we, as expected, have some issues with the girls (and who doesn't), they are small. We have two wonderful girls who are healthy, smart and loving. We couldn't have asked for more and are definately more (in a good way) than I had expected. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, they are really excited to meet family. We've shown them pictues of what I brought with me and they get a charge from them. Everytime they see a program on TV, they ask if it's America. Then we have to explain that America is big and there are lots of places that are not Nevada.
Grandpa, they are excited to have a grandpa. They have asked about you several times. Since these girls have only been in the Internat for 2 years, they've had a family life before here. We don't know what that life held for them, but they seem ready to move on and happy to be in our family. They know we aren't leaving Alupka yet, but they were packing their suitcase yesterday. They kept out just enough cloths to hold them over till we travel. They even packed their toys saying that they won't need them until after the travelling. It's very cute. They are adorable and I think you'll take to them quickly. We'll just have to keep Sasha from climbing all over you :). Virginia refers to her as our "Little Monkey".
We've already bonded very heavily to these girls and they are getting there with us. They also look after each other as well. Sasha was sick the other night and Olena told Papa that she would take care of her and did all the comforting. I usually like to spend the last few minutes of the evening carressing their foreheads to help them settle down and get to sleep. Not that night, Olena was playing mother hen. They do trust us which is a very important step to begin with. It's already feeling like a family and others have mentioned that we already look like a family.
Moose, are you working out. If not, keep the tylenol handy because Sasha will literally climb up you to get on your shoulders. No kidding; she's a nimble little thing and quick too.
Well, since I can't remember what I really wanted to say, I'm going to sign off which will spur the memory and I'll post it later if I have the chance.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virg
Hi All,
Sorry for the long absence, but we've been doing the Great Ukrainian Paperchase. First, there are new pictures I posted today, mostly of the girls.
To make a long story short (can't happen here), the court decree has some wording issues that other agencies didn't like. After getting them fixed, these other agencies were all messed up. The vital records didn't match the birth certificates and papers had to be changed, several times. Each time was a trip to Simperofol (2 hours each way) and one day was twice. We had to have the girls with us since we needed to get their passport photos done when we finished with the paperchase. Little to say that the girls didn't attend school all week except for Monday. We finally got the agencies to get their paperwork in order and got the passports ordered on Friday.
The passport paperwork is in Kiev today so we should have the passports by Thursday...God willing. Then train to Kiev and outprocess our embassy. Our original flights we set for the 9th but were cancelled by Delta so we rescheduled them for the 11th. Good thing because we can't make the 9th will all the paperwork delays.
It's been an eventful week...NOT. We've had the girls all night and all day and have somewhat a routine. Well, we did until today. They are back in school for the next three days so we get them up and ready. They go to school during the day and we'll pick them up after homework time to feed them at our place. They no longer sleep and bathe at the Internat. Legally they are ours and the director is allowing them to spend time in school while they can.
They are so eager to come home with us. There is no question that they want us as their parents and they as our children. It's a match made in heaven of which I can give numerous examples of why our setbacks led us to them. For now, each girl has laid claim to each of us. If the other girl spends too much time with their parent, it can get kind of ugly. While travelling, Olena gets car sick so we kept here in the middle seats of a Van and Sasha sat in the back (rough ride), usually with me. We would play some games or something to pass the time. This weekend it seemed that Olena had a melt down and I feel some of it was because Sasha spent a lot of time with me. Gotta find a way to keep things in balance until we can communicate better.
Sasha has gotten in the habit of just saying "Ne or Da" "Popi". I explained that this will not do and she needs to try and communicate better, even if in Russian. Now both of them go rambling on with me and I'm left bewildered half the time. We do manage to get our ideas across and they are becoming more patient with their communications. I feel good at where we are at but can't wait until this gets easier. We've been working on their English, but the environment is not overly conducive to learning English. Until recently, they were returning to the Internat every night and only spent 2 hours a day with us so we are not as far along as we had hoped. They both want to learn English but it takes time.
Last night, I worked with Sasha and Virginia worked with Olena on their English. When Sahsa had had enough, then it was time to teach Popi some Russian. I have to say I'm having a hard time with it, especially with some of their sounds. Speaking of language, Shelly, we're using an Ectaco ITravl with Russian-English. I ordered it online and they are expensive. It's supposed to speak as well as recognize both languages, but that part broke once we got here. Since I don't have real internet access, it's been a difficult process trying to get this fixed remotely. Right now, they want me to download a 300Mb file which I cannot do here so I'll wait till I get home. We decided to keep it and get it fixed because it's helping the girls spell Russian. It won't tranaslate a misspelling so they have to get it right. You can email me and I'll respond better when I get back to the US. Just a note: I've heard that there are new changes at the SDA starting today and that there has been a stop to all dossiers being accepted for the time being. I don't know the details and they may be accepting again, but just thought I'd pass that on. This info is a few days old.
Devin, we did get the first set of photos but haven't gotten any since. Please wait until we are home to send us more because we can't view them half the time. Their computers are tempermental and I never know when I can see attachments or not. We look forward to seeing more pictures and mostly getting to see you all again. When we hit our shores, we'll give you a shout.
There are so many things to say but like usual, just don't have time to say it all. Though we, as expected, have some issues with the girls (and who doesn't), they are small. We have two wonderful girls who are healthy, smart and loving. We couldn't have asked for more and are definately more (in a good way) than I had expected. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, they are really excited to meet family. We've shown them pictues of what I brought with me and they get a charge from them. Everytime they see a program on TV, they ask if it's America. Then we have to explain that America is big and there are lots of places that are not Nevada.
Grandpa, they are excited to have a grandpa. They have asked about you several times. Since these girls have only been in the Internat for 2 years, they've had a family life before here. We don't know what that life held for them, but they seem ready to move on and happy to be in our family. They know we aren't leaving Alupka yet, but they were packing their suitcase yesterday. They kept out just enough cloths to hold them over till we travel. They even packed their toys saying that they won't need them until after the travelling. It's very cute. They are adorable and I think you'll take to them quickly. We'll just have to keep Sasha from climbing all over you :). Virginia refers to her as our "Little Monkey".
We've already bonded very heavily to these girls and they are getting there with us. They also look after each other as well. Sasha was sick the other night and Olena told Papa that she would take care of her and did all the comforting. I usually like to spend the last few minutes of the evening carressing their foreheads to help them settle down and get to sleep. Not that night, Olena was playing mother hen. They do trust us which is a very important step to begin with. It's already feeling like a family and others have mentioned that we already look like a family.
Moose, are you working out. If not, keep the tylenol handy because Sasha will literally climb up you to get on your shoulders. No kidding; she's a nimble little thing and quick too.
Well, since I can't remember what I really wanted to say, I'm going to sign off which will spur the memory and I'll post it later if I have the chance.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virg
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Still waiting
Not much new for this post. Come to find out that they will allow us to upload a file to one of their systems for a fee. I may just do this next Monday when we'll be back in Yalta to pick up the court decree.
We've also been busy taking some video of the girl playing through one of my camera's. It's not the best quality but you should have seem them when they got to watch themselves on the screen. I need to see if I can get it to play on the TV so they can say the've been on TV :). I'll get some of these posted once we get home. I'll make a DVD for family afar so you can put sound to the faces until we see you all.
Moose, I hope you've been working out. Virginia says she sees a difference in my bicepts from the time we got here because of all the playing with the girls. Also, brush up on whatever Russian you can because they will not know much of any English.
For those about to travel, we have used a travel phrase translator and it has been VERY useful. Then again, our girls can spell, somewhat, and they like to use it when actions don't get their point across.
Running out of time so until next Monday,
Cheers all and enjoy life,
Chris and Virginia
We've also been busy taking some video of the girl playing through one of my camera's. It's not the best quality but you should have seem them when they got to watch themselves on the screen. I need to see if I can get it to play on the TV so they can say the've been on TV :). I'll get some of these posted once we get home. I'll make a DVD for family afar so you can put sound to the faces until we see you all.
Moose, I hope you've been working out. Virginia says she sees a difference in my bicepts from the time we got here because of all the playing with the girls. Also, brush up on whatever Russian you can because they will not know much of any English.
For those about to travel, we have used a travel phrase translator and it has been VERY useful. Then again, our girls can spell, somewhat, and they like to use it when actions don't get their point across.
Running out of time so until next Monday,
Cheers all and enjoy life,
Chris and Virginia
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pictures of the Girls
Hi All,
Well, I've tried to post here from my site but these cafe computers are too much junk for me to use reasonably. There are three pictures posted to my photo site on the right hand link.
The first one is of the four of us on Day one shortly after we met. The other two are of them on the Yalta waterfront. The only way I got these shots posted was by pulling them from an email message I had sent awhile ago. So for now, no more pictures until I find another internet cafe. There is supposed to be one in Alupka but is run out of someone's apartment and I haven't found it yet.
What news since I last posted...
We are on day 4 of our 10 day wait. For those not in the know, it's not totally official until we pick up the papers on Monday from the court. The court has granted us these children but until the 10 days are up, we don't have the paperwork.
Both girls are doing great and want to get out of here and start their new life. It's hard for them to understand why, when the court has given us the go, for them to still be at the Internat. Each day we have to tell them they have to go back and they really don't want to.
It looks like we'll have to process the passports through Simperofol but we are looking at staying in Alupka. We haven't asked if it's alright for the girls to still go to school while we are waiting for the passports. We will have the girls in our flat and have them go to school each day, if allowed. We hope to take one day and sightsee with the girls. Also, there is supposed to be a play or something like that that we have been invited to but dont' know when.
We are haning in there. Time is dragging slowly for us and we are ready to complete this process. For travel sake, I'm in no hurry to get home but want to get the girls into a steady environment ASAP.
We showed the girls pictures of Virginia's brother's wedding. They are excited to meet the family. They use the word "Class" to refer to something cool or classy. They kept using the word when seeing all the cousins they have. So, Bill, any plans in the making for this holiday season. We know the situation and we're there ourselves.
We sent away for plane tickets for the girls today so we are hoping that the 9th will be on target. If not, this is going to get expensive real fast. I've been keeping a log on our computer for their memory book, just no way to post it here, for now.
Hope all is well with the world and all is going well here.
Once again, we wanted to say thanks for the comments and emails as they do mean a lot to us.
Cheers from Yalta...still,
Chris and Virginia
Well, I've tried to post here from my site but these cafe computers are too much junk for me to use reasonably. There are three pictures posted to my photo site on the right hand link.
The first one is of the four of us on Day one shortly after we met. The other two are of them on the Yalta waterfront. The only way I got these shots posted was by pulling them from an email message I had sent awhile ago. So for now, no more pictures until I find another internet cafe. There is supposed to be one in Alupka but is run out of someone's apartment and I haven't found it yet.
What news since I last posted...
We are on day 4 of our 10 day wait. For those not in the know, it's not totally official until we pick up the papers on Monday from the court. The court has granted us these children but until the 10 days are up, we don't have the paperwork.
Both girls are doing great and want to get out of here and start their new life. It's hard for them to understand why, when the court has given us the go, for them to still be at the Internat. Each day we have to tell them they have to go back and they really don't want to.
It looks like we'll have to process the passports through Simperofol but we are looking at staying in Alupka. We haven't asked if it's alright for the girls to still go to school while we are waiting for the passports. We will have the girls in our flat and have them go to school each day, if allowed. We hope to take one day and sightsee with the girls. Also, there is supposed to be a play or something like that that we have been invited to but dont' know when.
We are haning in there. Time is dragging slowly for us and we are ready to complete this process. For travel sake, I'm in no hurry to get home but want to get the girls into a steady environment ASAP.
We showed the girls pictures of Virginia's brother's wedding. They are excited to meet the family. They use the word "Class" to refer to something cool or classy. They kept using the word when seeing all the cousins they have. So, Bill, any plans in the making for this holiday season. We know the situation and we're there ourselves.
We sent away for plane tickets for the girls today so we are hoping that the 9th will be on target. If not, this is going to get expensive real fast. I've been keeping a log on our computer for their memory book, just no way to post it here, for now.
Hope all is well with the world and all is going well here.
Once again, we wanted to say thanks for the comments and emails as they do mean a lot to us.
Cheers from Yalta...still,
Chris and Virginia
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Court Update
First, thanks for all the support, prayers and good thoughts.
We had court today and I'd like to introduce:
Olena Angela Higgins (The Older) and
Alexandra (Sasha) Cassandra Higgins (The Younger)
The girls picked their middle names from a list we supplied and they decided to keep their first names. The younger one goes by Sasha.
Court went well today and we don't expect any problems with the 10 day wait period since these girls have no family. The town we are in is Alupka which is near Yalta and is quite beautiful.
We may have a lead on an Internet Cafe in Alupka so I'll post more from there.
Moose, will you post two of the pictures I sent you to my photo site. I'll email you with the login info. The pictures I want are the four of us on our first day and the one with the two girls laughing together.
I'll post more pictures when I can get real access.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virginia...Proud Parents
We had court today and I'd like to introduce:
Olena Angela Higgins (The Older) and
Alexandra (Sasha) Cassandra Higgins (The Younger)
The girls picked their middle names from a list we supplied and they decided to keep their first names. The younger one goes by Sasha.
Court went well today and we don't expect any problems with the 10 day wait period since these girls have no family. The town we are in is Alupka which is near Yalta and is quite beautiful.
We may have a lead on an Internet Cafe in Alupka so I'll post more from there.
Moose, will you post two of the pictures I sent you to my photo site. I'll email you with the login info. The pictures I want are the four of us on our first day and the one with the two girls laughing together.
I'll post more pictures when I can get real access.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virginia...Proud Parents
Monday, November 10, 2008
11 Nov Update
Hi All,
My posts will be smaller and I won't be able to upload pictures until we find another internet cafe. This one no longer allows us to use thumbdrives or access to CD drives or anything. We are highly bummed out about this because we need to get access to programs and such but can't get to them now. Sigh, anyway...
We have our hearing date for this Thursday. We hope we can get our court date the same day so we can then start the 10 day wait. The 10 days ends on Sunday we we'll get the court decree on Monday the 24th. We then need the new birth certs from their town but Monday is reserved for death certificates so we won't get them till Tuesday. Tuesday the 25th we'll apply for the passport and have to wait about 5 working days +-, then off to Kiev for physicals and embassy work which could take another 3 or so days. God willing, we just may be able to make our plane itenerary on the 9th and home on the 11th. We need all the prayers and positive thoughts we can get.
We don't know if it made the news there, but the American woman who adopted a 12yr. girl made the prime time news. This was not a good thing because the girl got scared, started screaming and decided she didn't want to go jsut before boarding the plane. After checking the documents, it appears that the court decree was in error. It stated that her brother could not be found but the authorities found him on the same day this all happened. The mother then decided that she didn't want this child because she was a problem child. You have to wonder why this woman even decided to adopt this girl if she thought she was a problem child. The child is back into the shelter and the woman is still here in Ukraine. You have to wonder now what the judges are going to think when they make their final decisions. The adoption was legal and all the paperwork was in order except that the brother was easily found after the fact. We hope that this has no effect on us or those coming after. Each thing like this puts international adoption in bad light and especially Americans adopting.
It seems that where the girls are at is a standard Internat, not what we call a boarding school. Our translator was told by another American couple that is was better to use "boarding school" instead of Internat so that's where my comfusion came in. I asked our translator to explain the difference and we came to understand that Internat is the preferred use by Ukrainians and us as well. For those not familiar, this is a standard Orphanage for older children. It's a combination of true orphans such as our girls and those who can't afford their children at home so the state takes care of them.
So that's it for now. I had a much longer post of dailies but can no longer get it posted from this cafe so we'll be looking for another.
Ta-Ta for now,
Chris and Virginia
My posts will be smaller and I won't be able to upload pictures until we find another internet cafe. This one no longer allows us to use thumbdrives or access to CD drives or anything. We are highly bummed out about this because we need to get access to programs and such but can't get to them now. Sigh, anyway...
We have our hearing date for this Thursday. We hope we can get our court date the same day so we can then start the 10 day wait. The 10 days ends on Sunday we we'll get the court decree on Monday the 24th. We then need the new birth certs from their town but Monday is reserved for death certificates so we won't get them till Tuesday. Tuesday the 25th we'll apply for the passport and have to wait about 5 working days +-, then off to Kiev for physicals and embassy work which could take another 3 or so days. God willing, we just may be able to make our plane itenerary on the 9th and home on the 11th. We need all the prayers and positive thoughts we can get.
We don't know if it made the news there, but the American woman who adopted a 12yr. girl made the prime time news. This was not a good thing because the girl got scared, started screaming and decided she didn't want to go jsut before boarding the plane. After checking the documents, it appears that the court decree was in error. It stated that her brother could not be found but the authorities found him on the same day this all happened. The mother then decided that she didn't want this child because she was a problem child. You have to wonder why this woman even decided to adopt this girl if she thought she was a problem child. The child is back into the shelter and the woman is still here in Ukraine. You have to wonder now what the judges are going to think when they make their final decisions. The adoption was legal and all the paperwork was in order except that the brother was easily found after the fact. We hope that this has no effect on us or those coming after. Each thing like this puts international adoption in bad light and especially Americans adopting.
It seems that where the girls are at is a standard Internat, not what we call a boarding school. Our translator was told by another American couple that is was better to use "boarding school" instead of Internat so that's where my comfusion came in. I asked our translator to explain the difference and we came to understand that Internat is the preferred use by Ukrainians and us as well. For those not familiar, this is a standard Orphanage for older children. It's a combination of true orphans such as our girls and those who can't afford their children at home so the state takes care of them.
So that's it for now. I had a much longer post of dailies but can no longer get it posted from this cafe so we'll be looking for another.
Ta-Ta for now,
Chris and Virginia
Thursday, November 6, 2008
3 Nov - 5 Nov Update
3 Nov 2008
New Pictures Posted. Just a few more that I scraped up, nothing really new.
Today started out just as most of them do when we go to Yalta. We started the morning with a cup of java and something to eat. Nothing overly exciting, but a nice routine all the same. While we drank our coffee, we received a call from our facilitator in Kiev. It appears that the Notary made a mistake in the paperwork and we needed to have it redone. Luckily, we were across the street from the Notary and they acknowledged their mistake and redid the paperwork ASAP.
Now we had two problems. First, we needed to get the paperwork to Kiev ASAP so our facilitator can submit it to the SDA. The SDA wouldn’t accept a fax while this paper was in route so we needed to find the fastest way, which there really isn’t any from here. A courier service would take two days from here. There isn’t any railway or airport near here so everything must go though Simferopol where it can catch an overnight train or fly. The second problem was that Irina was waiting to speak to the judge so she couldn’t leave to get the paperwork to Simferopol. Kind of a catch 22; if she left to get the paper on the train, then she may miss the opportunity to speak to a judge. She was told to wait for the secretary’s call to arrange the meeting so she was stuck. To make a long story short, she paid the court fees and was told not to call the secretary, the secretary will call her. She got a ride to Simferopol and got the paper on the next flight.
As of Monday afternoon, we are on our own. Irina went home with our blessings since there is nothing more for her to do here. She’ll wait till she hears from the court secretary or until Monday when she will be here anyways to push the process. The secretary knows we want a Monday court hearing. We feel comfortable enough to not need an interpreter with us all the time. Somehow, we are able to express our intentions and we get along just fine. Irina spent a fair bit of time giving us the ins and outs of where to shop and what to expect so thanks to here for our confidence.
We got back to our little town kind of late and only had about an hour to spend with the girls. Now that the girls are back in school, we get them for only two hours a day which is better than nothing at all. There is a small store (magazine) with nearly each large building and we take the girls to the closest to the school for some juice and anything else we may need. We then go to a playground that belongs to the building (think large tenement housing) to have some play time together. I noticed that the play gear was newly painted but the older one decided to sit on the swing though I motioned for her not to. The paint felt dry to the tough but was in fact still wet underneath. She loves her emerald green velour pants which now are both green and yellow on the behind. She still wears them though.
We haven’t had much time with any of the other kids here though my intentions were different before I got here. During fall break, there weren’t many kids in the school as most have families that picked them up for the week. During that time, the girls were still insecure and didn’t want any other kids, especially girls, around us. Now that schools is back in, we don’t have that much time with them and they monopolize our time (with our blessings). We try every couple of days to give them something that they can share with their friends. It’s just something that we can do for them and some of the other children.
We spent the night watching the new Horton movie we picked up. We hadn’t seen it yet so we thought we might preview it in English to see if it is appropriate for the girls. Who am I kidding, we love these movies and have been buying them for years. It’s a cute movie and we’ll probably enjoy watching it in Russian as well. Actually, we laughed pretty hard on some of the scenes. We also bought Ratatouille but my laptop won’t decode it so I’ll have to wait till I hack the DVD drive to play all regions. I’ve found that as long as you are using a digital connection to your display (all newer laptops are this way), they’ll play PAL encoded discs just fine as long as it will play the region. We also brought along a portable DVD player that I hacked to play all regions and it plays Ratatouille just fine. At first I thought the disc might be bad but luckily it isn’t. Now I’m looking for Disney’s “Song of the South” that we can’t get in the US. I do have a copy from Japan burned from an old Laser Disc. The quality isn’t bad, but a real DVD copy would be great and I just as soon have an official copy of it. If Disney would release it in the US, I’d buy it there. Enough of this topic but I can steer adoptive parents to be into the right direction for watching DVD’s on their laptops from valid purchases.
4 Nov 2008
We spent the day relaxing in the flat. We did some laundry by hand and put the sun to use. We have a heater that looks like a fan and generates twice the heat of the sun, or so it seems. Ever since Irina left, the weather has been cold and damp with a thick marine layer all day. The cloths hang from a rack in our living room with the heater on them and they take several hours to dry, but they dry. In Kiev, we used a small heater fan to dry our cloths overnight and here we bring in the sun with us. Both ways, we have dry cloths without having to wait several days for them to dry.
We visited the girls (show surprise) but the older one was feeling a bit under the weather and the younger one was sleeping. We took the older one out for a short time to the store and then to the school play ground just for a place to visit. We had bought her and her sister a stick of artificial crab which they love. The older didn’t eat her sister’s crab, but she wanted more. She did the begging thing, looking up at me and saying “pleeeeze Papi” over and over (good thing she hasn’t learned to give puppy-dog eyes, then I’d be in trouble; Danielle and Annabelle, please don’t teach them) to no avail. Virginia stood by me and we had already told her that I’d buy two the next day for them since they were pretty small. She persisted and did the pout thing and wouldn’t get up off the ground on her own. Some of this was playing and some was because she wasn’t feeling well so I just picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and carried her up the stairs. Of course she laughed the whole way and asked me to put her down so I did. It’s hard to be pouty when you are laughing so hard. Then she decided just how long I’d hold out and turned her back to us and just stood there as we walked towards her dorm. I then explained that it was time for us to go and she came along without any problems. I find it comforting that they are testing as this is normal behavior and appropriate. Unfortunately for them (or so they will think), but Virginia and I hold similar ideas on child rearing and present a united front which we will need with these two cuties. I do have to say that the testing is a minor part of our visits and most of the time is spent cuddling, playing and overall a positive experience. These girls were loved and bonded with their bio family; that is apparent.
5 Nov 2008
Today we ventured into Yalta by ourselves. We got a late start so we were only able to do a few things, the Internet cafй was one of them only after our java and snack. I checked out a machine for 2 hours and Virginia for one hour and we still ran out of time. (Grandpa, go ahead and send your questions to my higgmeister email address as I check this one whenever I update the blog.) These machines are so slow; I type a paragraph and wait about a minute for the typing to appear on the screen. Thank goodness that I can touch type though I do have to go back and correct a few mistakes. For those getting our emails, please excuse the typos because I usually don’t have time to fix all the typos and only fix those that lose their meaning. Virginia doesn’t have this problem because she types much slower than myself (I think I’m about 70 +-words a minute) so maybe I should slow down. I could just write “Not much happened today”, but then I couldn’t waste your time reading these entries.
Today’s visit was a productive one. We brought them back to our flat and spent some time teaching them some English. Virginia worked with the younger one on nouns around the flat and she did very well. I worked with the older one on how to tell time with an analog clock, in English of course. She is sharp and picked it up very fast. We still need work but she understands the fundamentals and just needs practice. We’ll give her plenty of that. I don’t believe anyone has ever taught her how to tell time. They use a 24 hour clock here as in most of Europe but we made it though A.M and P.M. without too much problem.
As for the younger one, I thought she might have a harder time learning English than her sister, but I’m beginning to change my opinion on that. She too is picking it up very fast and both are saying phrases and words we haven’t even taught them. I think when we get to the states where mostly English is spoken, they will pick it up very fast. They want to learn and both are sponges. (Moose, have you found out anything on a Russian ESL for the girls yet, I don’t want their second language to be Spanish!) What’s funny is if they say a word in Russian and we don’t understand, they will try it in Ukrainian thinking we might understand. We were working on numbers today with the younger one and someone said three and she said quarto. Virginia asked if she spoke Russian or Italian and she giggled up a storm, then said Russian. They know I struggle with my Russian but you should have seen their eyes light up when I started counting very fast in Spanish. That’s nearly all I remember from my Spanish classes from many years ago.
After about an hour of English lessons, we ticked each other for quite a spell. From what we’ve seen so far, we think the girls are good natured and kind. They like their quiet time and they like their play time. As mentioned before, the younger one likes to be thrown into the air and rough-housed in general. When she’s tired Papi out she stops and well all calm down and do something quiet. In case I haven’t mentioned it in this post, we have a wonderful time with the girls and really enjoy their company. We all like each others company and it must show because the caregivers are always commenting on how we already look like a family. It’s probably because we already feel like a family even if the paperwork doesn’t say so. We’ve all become very close already.
We get calls each day from our stateside facilitator (Victoria) and our translator (Irina). Irina was a little surprised that we ventured into Yalta on our own. I would think it criminal to not venture out into this beautiful country and see some sights, with our without a translator. Our Ukrainian facilitator provided us a phone for our use so in a pinch we can call someone. I don’t feel threatened here and am feeling quite comfortable though I wish I could speak the language. It would make things a bit easier (i.e. We won’t take the girls into Yalta by ourselves even if we had permission just in case something goes awry). I’ve had times when I’ve been with one of the girls without the translator at hand, but that’s usually when we had to find a bathroom for one of the girls.
Some Observations:
For PAP, at least learn the alphabet so you can pronounce Russian or Ukrainian. I find that once I pronounce the word, it’s sound is similar to our English word. I couldn’t tell you what it is in the Cyrillic alphabet, but know what it is when sounded out. Russian/Ukrainian is hard for me to learn, but worth every bit of time spent. Now that we are here, It’s easier to pick it up since we are immersed in the language. I knew the alphabet before I came here and am glad I had gotten at least that far.
The people on the outside aren’t apparently friendly, but when engaged are very helpful. This is actually quite nice when one doesn’t know their language. As you pass people, they don’t expect you to acknowledge them or even make eye contact. I’ll hold open doors as I’m accustomed to and some people will make a low level Pazalus but usually if they do say something I can barely make it out. They aren’t rude, just guarded of strangers.
The women are petite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tiny women in my life. They aren’t tiny by their standards but are by ours. I’d say many are 5’0” – 5’3” and thin. Thin is definitely in, more so in Kiev than here. Looks play an important part here, I just don’t know how much. Most people are better dressed than our counterparts in the US. I dress in nice khakis and a nice shirt and I’ve been mistake for a local several times. I don’t feel like I stand out and Virginia wears nice slacks with a nice top and she doesn’t stand out either.
I almost forgot this little tidbit. When reading other blogs, they mentioned that people would try on cloths right there in the market street. They’ve taken their kids shopping for cloths and they’ll strip right there and try on the cloths. It’s even been written where women will try on tops right there. Now, I haven’t seen this, but I’ve experienced it. I need some blue jeans for playing with the girls. We weren’t sure of the size so I needed to try them on. I did step into the booth somewhat hidden by the table with jeans on them, but something I wouldn’t do in the states. Actually, I didn’t feel too out of place since it is quite normal here to do that. While I was changing, there were others coming up to the table looking for jeans and paid me no attention. Just another unique experience while here, one of many.
Another observation and then off to bed with me since it’s late. It’s all too common to see kids running around without any adults around, many by themselves. When I say kids, I’m talking about 7 years and up (maybe even younger but I’m being conservative). They are going about their business as is everyone else. With all the hype in the US, this would be considered child endangerment but it’s very passй here. Both girls and boys are dressed well. Boys as well as men wear their hair short and girls like their hair long, usually braided. Women wear both long and short hair here, all well kept. Our girls hair is getting long which makes me happy as I like long hair. I talked Virginia into letting her hair grow our and it’s beautiful.
Virginia is waiting for me to go to bed so I’m off. I’ll work some photos for posting before I go to sleep. I hope I can get them posted tomorrow. Not much new since we’ve fallen into this routine.
From a little town out of Yalta,
Chris and Virginia.
New Pictures Posted. Just a few more that I scraped up, nothing really new.
Today started out just as most of them do when we go to Yalta. We started the morning with a cup of java and something to eat. Nothing overly exciting, but a nice routine all the same. While we drank our coffee, we received a call from our facilitator in Kiev. It appears that the Notary made a mistake in the paperwork and we needed to have it redone. Luckily, we were across the street from the Notary and they acknowledged their mistake and redid the paperwork ASAP.
Now we had two problems. First, we needed to get the paperwork to Kiev ASAP so our facilitator can submit it to the SDA. The SDA wouldn’t accept a fax while this paper was in route so we needed to find the fastest way, which there really isn’t any from here. A courier service would take two days from here. There isn’t any railway or airport near here so everything must go though Simferopol where it can catch an overnight train or fly. The second problem was that Irina was waiting to speak to the judge so she couldn’t leave to get the paperwork to Simferopol. Kind of a catch 22; if she left to get the paper on the train, then she may miss the opportunity to speak to a judge. She was told to wait for the secretary’s call to arrange the meeting so she was stuck. To make a long story short, she paid the court fees and was told not to call the secretary, the secretary will call her. She got a ride to Simferopol and got the paper on the next flight.
As of Monday afternoon, we are on our own. Irina went home with our blessings since there is nothing more for her to do here. She’ll wait till she hears from the court secretary or until Monday when she will be here anyways to push the process. The secretary knows we want a Monday court hearing. We feel comfortable enough to not need an interpreter with us all the time. Somehow, we are able to express our intentions and we get along just fine. Irina spent a fair bit of time giving us the ins and outs of where to shop and what to expect so thanks to here for our confidence.
We got back to our little town kind of late and only had about an hour to spend with the girls. Now that the girls are back in school, we get them for only two hours a day which is better than nothing at all. There is a small store (magazine) with nearly each large building and we take the girls to the closest to the school for some juice and anything else we may need. We then go to a playground that belongs to the building (think large tenement housing) to have some play time together. I noticed that the play gear was newly painted but the older one decided to sit on the swing though I motioned for her not to. The paint felt dry to the tough but was in fact still wet underneath. She loves her emerald green velour pants which now are both green and yellow on the behind. She still wears them though.
We haven’t had much time with any of the other kids here though my intentions were different before I got here. During fall break, there weren’t many kids in the school as most have families that picked them up for the week. During that time, the girls were still insecure and didn’t want any other kids, especially girls, around us. Now that schools is back in, we don’t have that much time with them and they monopolize our time (with our blessings). We try every couple of days to give them something that they can share with their friends. It’s just something that we can do for them and some of the other children.
We spent the night watching the new Horton movie we picked up. We hadn’t seen it yet so we thought we might preview it in English to see if it is appropriate for the girls. Who am I kidding, we love these movies and have been buying them for years. It’s a cute movie and we’ll probably enjoy watching it in Russian as well. Actually, we laughed pretty hard on some of the scenes. We also bought Ratatouille but my laptop won’t decode it so I’ll have to wait till I hack the DVD drive to play all regions. I’ve found that as long as you are using a digital connection to your display (all newer laptops are this way), they’ll play PAL encoded discs just fine as long as it will play the region. We also brought along a portable DVD player that I hacked to play all regions and it plays Ratatouille just fine. At first I thought the disc might be bad but luckily it isn’t. Now I’m looking for Disney’s “Song of the South” that we can’t get in the US. I do have a copy from Japan burned from an old Laser Disc. The quality isn’t bad, but a real DVD copy would be great and I just as soon have an official copy of it. If Disney would release it in the US, I’d buy it there. Enough of this topic but I can steer adoptive parents to be into the right direction for watching DVD’s on their laptops from valid purchases.
4 Nov 2008
We spent the day relaxing in the flat. We did some laundry by hand and put the sun to use. We have a heater that looks like a fan and generates twice the heat of the sun, or so it seems. Ever since Irina left, the weather has been cold and damp with a thick marine layer all day. The cloths hang from a rack in our living room with the heater on them and they take several hours to dry, but they dry. In Kiev, we used a small heater fan to dry our cloths overnight and here we bring in the sun with us. Both ways, we have dry cloths without having to wait several days for them to dry.
We visited the girls (show surprise) but the older one was feeling a bit under the weather and the younger one was sleeping. We took the older one out for a short time to the store and then to the school play ground just for a place to visit. We had bought her and her sister a stick of artificial crab which they love. The older didn’t eat her sister’s crab, but she wanted more. She did the begging thing, looking up at me and saying “pleeeeze Papi” over and over (good thing she hasn’t learned to give puppy-dog eyes, then I’d be in trouble; Danielle and Annabelle, please don’t teach them) to no avail. Virginia stood by me and we had already told her that I’d buy two the next day for them since they were pretty small. She persisted and did the pout thing and wouldn’t get up off the ground on her own. Some of this was playing and some was because she wasn’t feeling well so I just picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and carried her up the stairs. Of course she laughed the whole way and asked me to put her down so I did. It’s hard to be pouty when you are laughing so hard. Then she decided just how long I’d hold out and turned her back to us and just stood there as we walked towards her dorm. I then explained that it was time for us to go and she came along without any problems. I find it comforting that they are testing as this is normal behavior and appropriate. Unfortunately for them (or so they will think), but Virginia and I hold similar ideas on child rearing and present a united front which we will need with these two cuties. I do have to say that the testing is a minor part of our visits and most of the time is spent cuddling, playing and overall a positive experience. These girls were loved and bonded with their bio family; that is apparent.
5 Nov 2008
Today we ventured into Yalta by ourselves. We got a late start so we were only able to do a few things, the Internet cafй was one of them only after our java and snack. I checked out a machine for 2 hours and Virginia for one hour and we still ran out of time. (Grandpa, go ahead and send your questions to my higgmeister email address as I check this one whenever I update the blog.) These machines are so slow; I type a paragraph and wait about a minute for the typing to appear on the screen. Thank goodness that I can touch type though I do have to go back and correct a few mistakes. For those getting our emails, please excuse the typos because I usually don’t have time to fix all the typos and only fix those that lose their meaning. Virginia doesn’t have this problem because she types much slower than myself (I think I’m about 70 +-words a minute) so maybe I should slow down. I could just write “Not much happened today”, but then I couldn’t waste your time reading these entries.
Today’s visit was a productive one. We brought them back to our flat and spent some time teaching them some English. Virginia worked with the younger one on nouns around the flat and she did very well. I worked with the older one on how to tell time with an analog clock, in English of course. She is sharp and picked it up very fast. We still need work but she understands the fundamentals and just needs practice. We’ll give her plenty of that. I don’t believe anyone has ever taught her how to tell time. They use a 24 hour clock here as in most of Europe but we made it though A.M and P.M. without too much problem.
As for the younger one, I thought she might have a harder time learning English than her sister, but I’m beginning to change my opinion on that. She too is picking it up very fast and both are saying phrases and words we haven’t even taught them. I think when we get to the states where mostly English is spoken, they will pick it up very fast. They want to learn and both are sponges. (Moose, have you found out anything on a Russian ESL for the girls yet, I don’t want their second language to be Spanish!) What’s funny is if they say a word in Russian and we don’t understand, they will try it in Ukrainian thinking we might understand. We were working on numbers today with the younger one and someone said three and she said quarto. Virginia asked if she spoke Russian or Italian and she giggled up a storm, then said Russian. They know I struggle with my Russian but you should have seen their eyes light up when I started counting very fast in Spanish. That’s nearly all I remember from my Spanish classes from many years ago.
After about an hour of English lessons, we ticked each other for quite a spell. From what we’ve seen so far, we think the girls are good natured and kind. They like their quiet time and they like their play time. As mentioned before, the younger one likes to be thrown into the air and rough-housed in general. When she’s tired Papi out she stops and well all calm down and do something quiet. In case I haven’t mentioned it in this post, we have a wonderful time with the girls and really enjoy their company. We all like each others company and it must show because the caregivers are always commenting on how we already look like a family. It’s probably because we already feel like a family even if the paperwork doesn’t say so. We’ve all become very close already.
We get calls each day from our stateside facilitator (Victoria) and our translator (Irina). Irina was a little surprised that we ventured into Yalta on our own. I would think it criminal to not venture out into this beautiful country and see some sights, with our without a translator. Our Ukrainian facilitator provided us a phone for our use so in a pinch we can call someone. I don’t feel threatened here and am feeling quite comfortable though I wish I could speak the language. It would make things a bit easier (i.e. We won’t take the girls into Yalta by ourselves even if we had permission just in case something goes awry). I’ve had times when I’ve been with one of the girls without the translator at hand, but that’s usually when we had to find a bathroom for one of the girls.
Some Observations:
For PAP, at least learn the alphabet so you can pronounce Russian or Ukrainian. I find that once I pronounce the word, it’s sound is similar to our English word. I couldn’t tell you what it is in the Cyrillic alphabet, but know what it is when sounded out. Russian/Ukrainian is hard for me to learn, but worth every bit of time spent. Now that we are here, It’s easier to pick it up since we are immersed in the language. I knew the alphabet before I came here and am glad I had gotten at least that far.
The people on the outside aren’t apparently friendly, but when engaged are very helpful. This is actually quite nice when one doesn’t know their language. As you pass people, they don’t expect you to acknowledge them or even make eye contact. I’ll hold open doors as I’m accustomed to and some people will make a low level Pazalus but usually if they do say something I can barely make it out. They aren’t rude, just guarded of strangers.
The women are petite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tiny women in my life. They aren’t tiny by their standards but are by ours. I’d say many are 5’0” – 5’3” and thin. Thin is definitely in, more so in Kiev than here. Looks play an important part here, I just don’t know how much. Most people are better dressed than our counterparts in the US. I dress in nice khakis and a nice shirt and I’ve been mistake for a local several times. I don’t feel like I stand out and Virginia wears nice slacks with a nice top and she doesn’t stand out either.
I almost forgot this little tidbit. When reading other blogs, they mentioned that people would try on cloths right there in the market street. They’ve taken their kids shopping for cloths and they’ll strip right there and try on the cloths. It’s even been written where women will try on tops right there. Now, I haven’t seen this, but I’ve experienced it. I need some blue jeans for playing with the girls. We weren’t sure of the size so I needed to try them on. I did step into the booth somewhat hidden by the table with jeans on them, but something I wouldn’t do in the states. Actually, I didn’t feel too out of place since it is quite normal here to do that. While I was changing, there were others coming up to the table looking for jeans and paid me no attention. Just another unique experience while here, one of many.
Another observation and then off to bed with me since it’s late. It’s all too common to see kids running around without any adults around, many by themselves. When I say kids, I’m talking about 7 years and up (maybe even younger but I’m being conservative). They are going about their business as is everyone else. With all the hype in the US, this would be considered child endangerment but it’s very passй here. Both girls and boys are dressed well. Boys as well as men wear their hair short and girls like their hair long, usually braided. Women wear both long and short hair here, all well kept. Our girls hair is getting long which makes me happy as I like long hair. I talked Virginia into letting her hair grow our and it’s beautiful.
Virginia is waiting for me to go to bed so I’m off. I’ll work some photos for posting before I go to sleep. I hope I can get them posted tomorrow. Not much new since we’ve fallen into this routine.
From a little town out of Yalta,
Chris and Virginia.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Short update
5 Nov 2008
I'm behind again so I'll do a longer detailed post when next I can visit the Internet Cafe.
We still don't have a court date. The gatekeeper to the judges will not allow anyone, including other contacts and facilitators to see a judge. She'll contact Irina this week but told Irina not to call her till next week. Our papers are in Kiev and should be ready for court this week; we hope we can get an early court date next week. We've been in this process now for 2 weeks and thought the people are helpful, they do things on their own timetable. No white envelopes helping here. Our driver has contacts as well and he was shut down just as we were. The 10 day wait period is almost never waived here so we aren't holding our breaths for that, but I really want to try for the waiver. We've been with the girls now for 2 weeks going on three once we have court so I hope the judge takes that into account.
As for names and pictures, we will be waiting until after the wait period. Once I explain, it will all become clear, but that's for later.
Our spirits are up though Virginia really wants to be home. I want this part of the process over so we can move forward. We're bonding well and the longer we stay here, the tougher it gets. The honeymoon is over but the girls still are not ours so it's hard to start parenting with the current situation. We do what we can, but our hands are tied and there are still so many influences here that get in the way.
Gotta run so cheers for now.
Chris
I'm behind again so I'll do a longer detailed post when next I can visit the Internet Cafe.
We still don't have a court date. The gatekeeper to the judges will not allow anyone, including other contacts and facilitators to see a judge. She'll contact Irina this week but told Irina not to call her till next week. Our papers are in Kiev and should be ready for court this week; we hope we can get an early court date next week. We've been in this process now for 2 weeks and thought the people are helpful, they do things on their own timetable. No white envelopes helping here. Our driver has contacts as well and he was shut down just as we were. The 10 day wait period is almost never waived here so we aren't holding our breaths for that, but I really want to try for the waiver. We've been with the girls now for 2 weeks going on three once we have court so I hope the judge takes that into account.
As for names and pictures, we will be waiting until after the wait period. Once I explain, it will all become clear, but that's for later.
Our spirits are up though Virginia really wants to be home. I want this part of the process over so we can move forward. We're bonding well and the longer we stay here, the tougher it gets. The honeymoon is over but the girls still are not ours so it's hard to start parenting with the current situation. We do what we can, but our hands are tied and there are still so many influences here that get in the way.
Gotta run so cheers for now.
Chris
1 Nov - 2 Nov Update
1 Nov 2008
We picked up the girls at 9am to have breakfast with us before we headed for Yalta. Another beautiful day on the Black Sea, sunny and warm. We had to make the girls take a sweater because they thought it was too warm to wear them, and it was; they were carried most of the day. Virginia and Irina took the girls to get jackets and some more socks and I went to the Internet cafй to post yesterday’s blog.
It’s too expensive to take a cab to and from Yalta all the time so we took the bus today. It cost us 18 rph ($2.50) for four of us to go to Yalta and it’s about a 40 minute ride; not too bad for the price. The girls were busy identifying places they’ve been along the way. I guess they weren’t restricted to home their entire lives. They travel well and behave themselves.
Actually, I think we are definitely in a honeymoon period as they are still watching their own behavior. We’ve had them many days for all day and they still haven’t had a fight. For sisters living together I find this either incredibly amazing or more likely on their best behavior. We’ve seen them when they are tired and they still haven’t been at each other. Oh, sure they pick on each other a little, but nothing dramatic. Not sure how long this will last, but we’ll take as much of it as we can. They’re pretty comfortable with us now so I would assume we should start seeing some behaviors from them. The younger one will keep us busy trying to keep up with her, but nothing out of the ordinary for girls their age. The older one has her “stuff” together and helps keep her younger sister in line. It appears it’s been this way for quite some time.
One of the older ones friends met us when we picked them up this morning. She brought a few candies with her and gave them to the older one to give to us. (Note: I hope we get fast court date because I’m tired of having to write older or younger one all the time.) We bought some candy for the girls to give to their friends. Each day we take them back or pick them up, it’s hard to not take some of the others with us. It breaks our hearts seeing these kids there and their prospects are rather slim. We’re only the second family this school year to adopt so it’s not a regular one. The last family was Italian so a lot of the kids like to say Ciao. We also gave some beanie babies to the girls for their special friends. They’ll have several opportunities to give these to their special friends.
We did get a good laugh in today. Earlier, they asked Irina if all the games and such in our flat are going to stay with the school when we all leave. Irina said yes and then they asked if there were any more games where they were going. It seems that they thought all the games we have were there and there wasn’t any back home. Irina told them that there were plenty of games at home that they will be able to play with and they gave a sigh of relief. It’s sad to think that they would think this, their world is definitely smaller than those reading this.
It still amazes me how much these kids share with so little to call their own. They like to share with each other as well as with us. The older one has some insight into bonding and is always sharing her food with us. She’ll offer up her last bite, sweets, meat, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotten to the point where we are sharing all our foods and drinks. Neither of them tries to hog the food. It’s getting to the point where we feel like we’ve been a family for quite awhile. It all seems too good to be true but God put these girls in our hands and us in theirs so we feel it’s meant to be. Virginia and I waited 10 years for the “other shoe to fall” because things were just too good between us for it to be real and after 18 years it’s still all good. We’re not going to count on the “shoe to fall” since we both feel this is right.
The girls keep asking when they are leaving and coming home with us. Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure and the last post has the projected time.
Tonight, we got invited to go to a wedding tomorrow. All of us are invited and quite excited to see this first hand. The girls don’t know about it yet but they’ll find our first thing in the morning. I hope I can get some nice pictures of the wedding and the girls all decked out for this.
This was supposed to be a short post since today was a rather uneventful day (compared with the others). Until tomorrow.
2 Nov 2008
Today is the last day of the girls fall break. We’ve fallen into a pattern of picking up the girls in the morning, having something to eat and then doing something for the day. Today, we went to a wedding and then to a local land mark (Palace).
The wedding was of close friends of our landlady and was held in a Russian Orthodox church. The ceremony had many elements of familiar symbolism that I’ve seen before, though not sure where. It was a small ceremony, quite solemn for a wedding and very interesting to see. We feel privileged and thankful to have been a part of the ceremony. At the end, the priest blessed our adoption.
Since Papi wasn’t feeling good, I stayed in our flat while all the girls went to a palace and park for the day. I guess the girls have finally felt comfortable around Virginia and Irina that they finally started acting like I would have expected. They’ve spent so much time together that I could see it building for several days, but I wasn’t there when it finally came forth. The girls got into a fight with each other and were cranky most of the afternoon. I didn’t see any of this and they watched their P’s and Q’s when they finally got home to where Papi is. I don’t know if they’re still on their guard with me or whether it’s a cultural thing. Virginia had to tell me all about it and I could see their tiredness and restlessness.
They are now at the point of testing the boundaries which is what I’ve been waiting for. I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen but now is as good as any. I feel this is the beginning of us fitting in together as a whole family and they will learn the roles each of us plays. They are already trying to go around one of us to the other when we say no but we are united and stand together. They grumble a bit then move on. This is progress and they’ll learn that what one says, the other will back up. Today was the roughest so far and I expect there to be many more when all they have is us and themselves without all these other distractions.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Yalta while the girls are in school. We have a few things we want to shop for and Irina is going to try and speak with our Judge and get a court date. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow (Nov 3) we’ll been in this process for 2 weeks and we still don’t have a court date. Irina keeps us posted whenever she knows something and I can tell you that it’s not the fault of our team. This region is hard and probably a bit harder right now with world affairs being what they are. Crimea is Russian by their standards, need I say more.
We picked up the girls at 9am to have breakfast with us before we headed for Yalta. Another beautiful day on the Black Sea, sunny and warm. We had to make the girls take a sweater because they thought it was too warm to wear them, and it was; they were carried most of the day. Virginia and Irina took the girls to get jackets and some more socks and I went to the Internet cafй to post yesterday’s blog.
It’s too expensive to take a cab to and from Yalta all the time so we took the bus today. It cost us 18 rph ($2.50) for four of us to go to Yalta and it’s about a 40 minute ride; not too bad for the price. The girls were busy identifying places they’ve been along the way. I guess they weren’t restricted to home their entire lives. They travel well and behave themselves.
Actually, I think we are definitely in a honeymoon period as they are still watching their own behavior. We’ve had them many days for all day and they still haven’t had a fight. For sisters living together I find this either incredibly amazing or more likely on their best behavior. We’ve seen them when they are tired and they still haven’t been at each other. Oh, sure they pick on each other a little, but nothing dramatic. Not sure how long this will last, but we’ll take as much of it as we can. They’re pretty comfortable with us now so I would assume we should start seeing some behaviors from them. The younger one will keep us busy trying to keep up with her, but nothing out of the ordinary for girls their age. The older one has her “stuff” together and helps keep her younger sister in line. It appears it’s been this way for quite some time.
One of the older ones friends met us when we picked them up this morning. She brought a few candies with her and gave them to the older one to give to us. (Note: I hope we get fast court date because I’m tired of having to write older or younger one all the time.) We bought some candy for the girls to give to their friends. Each day we take them back or pick them up, it’s hard to not take some of the others with us. It breaks our hearts seeing these kids there and their prospects are rather slim. We’re only the second family this school year to adopt so it’s not a regular one. The last family was Italian so a lot of the kids like to say Ciao. We also gave some beanie babies to the girls for their special friends. They’ll have several opportunities to give these to their special friends.
We did get a good laugh in today. Earlier, they asked Irina if all the games and such in our flat are going to stay with the school when we all leave. Irina said yes and then they asked if there were any more games where they were going. It seems that they thought all the games we have were there and there wasn’t any back home. Irina told them that there were plenty of games at home that they will be able to play with and they gave a sigh of relief. It’s sad to think that they would think this, their world is definitely smaller than those reading this.
It still amazes me how much these kids share with so little to call their own. They like to share with each other as well as with us. The older one has some insight into bonding and is always sharing her food with us. She’ll offer up her last bite, sweets, meat, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotten to the point where we are sharing all our foods and drinks. Neither of them tries to hog the food. It’s getting to the point where we feel like we’ve been a family for quite awhile. It all seems too good to be true but God put these girls in our hands and us in theirs so we feel it’s meant to be. Virginia and I waited 10 years for the “other shoe to fall” because things were just too good between us for it to be real and after 18 years it’s still all good. We’re not going to count on the “shoe to fall” since we both feel this is right.
The girls keep asking when they are leaving and coming home with us. Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure and the last post has the projected time.
Tonight, we got invited to go to a wedding tomorrow. All of us are invited and quite excited to see this first hand. The girls don’t know about it yet but they’ll find our first thing in the morning. I hope I can get some nice pictures of the wedding and the girls all decked out for this.
This was supposed to be a short post since today was a rather uneventful day (compared with the others). Until tomorrow.
2 Nov 2008
Today is the last day of the girls fall break. We’ve fallen into a pattern of picking up the girls in the morning, having something to eat and then doing something for the day. Today, we went to a wedding and then to a local land mark (Palace).
The wedding was of close friends of our landlady and was held in a Russian Orthodox church. The ceremony had many elements of familiar symbolism that I’ve seen before, though not sure where. It was a small ceremony, quite solemn for a wedding and very interesting to see. We feel privileged and thankful to have been a part of the ceremony. At the end, the priest blessed our adoption.
Since Papi wasn’t feeling good, I stayed in our flat while all the girls went to a palace and park for the day. I guess the girls have finally felt comfortable around Virginia and Irina that they finally started acting like I would have expected. They’ve spent so much time together that I could see it building for several days, but I wasn’t there when it finally came forth. The girls got into a fight with each other and were cranky most of the afternoon. I didn’t see any of this and they watched their P’s and Q’s when they finally got home to where Papi is. I don’t know if they’re still on their guard with me or whether it’s a cultural thing. Virginia had to tell me all about it and I could see their tiredness and restlessness.
They are now at the point of testing the boundaries which is what I’ve been waiting for. I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen but now is as good as any. I feel this is the beginning of us fitting in together as a whole family and they will learn the roles each of us plays. They are already trying to go around one of us to the other when we say no but we are united and stand together. They grumble a bit then move on. This is progress and they’ll learn that what one says, the other will back up. Today was the roughest so far and I expect there to be many more when all they have is us and themselves without all these other distractions.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Yalta while the girls are in school. We have a few things we want to shop for and Irina is going to try and speak with our Judge and get a court date. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow (Nov 3) we’ll been in this process for 2 weeks and we still don’t have a court date. Irina keeps us posted whenever she knows something and I can tell you that it’s not the fault of our team. This region is hard and probably a bit harder right now with world affairs being what they are. Crimea is Russian by their standards, need I say more.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
31Oct Update
31 Oct 2008
Today was another wonderful day spent with the girls. We’ve now spent 1 week, nearly all day every day with the girls and it’s going great. They are still on their guest behavior but are defiantly feeling comfortable with us as we are with them. It’s hard to think that we, as well as them, were so nervous when we met them for the first time. We already feel like a family and our time together is quite natural. I can also tell you we are acting like proud parents and think they are the most wonderful girls we could have hoped to get. Laura, if the offer for Annabelle still stands, we’ll take her also as she’d fit right in (inside family joke).
Today was a leisurely day for us. We picked up the girls and walked to the local store for some supplies. It only takes about 5 minutes to get from the school to our flat so we were home by 11am. We had them work in some grade appropriate math books so I can get an idea as to where they’re at; I still need to work with them to really find out. When we handed them the books, they just dove in and started working on their own for quite some time. We also picked up some books on learning English and show’s them how to make letters and such.
We watched “Emperors New Groove” in Russian. Since this is one of our favorites, we were able to follow along. Speaking of movies, these are not pirated, have the Disney seals and were from a video store and were only 10 Dollars each. We’re headed back to Yalta tomorrow and I’m going to pick up some more movies for that price. We brought some of our movies along but don’t hold the girls attention when there is a lot of talking. We fully understand. These movies are region 5 so since I don’t have a hack for my computer DVD player, I use a program to copy the DVD to my hard drive, another program to remove the region code and then we can watch these with a DVD player on the computer. Works great and I don’t have to have the DVD in the drive to watch them.
Today was a milestone day for me. While watching the movie, the older one sat next to me and snuggle up with me. What a wonderful feeling. They’re bonding with Virginia very quickly and just slower with me. The culture here is different (duh!) and I believe they were close to their mother and not so much to their step father. I haven’t trust myself at them and figure they will come around in their own time. I always showed them small signs of affection like putting my hand briefly on their shoulder or kissing them on the head. After a couple of days, they quit pulling away and accepted these gestures of affection. Of course I would want my hug on greetings and goodbye’s, but those are expected by both parties. My biggest fear was a severe case of Reactive Attachment Disorder but I can say that these girls have no signs of it and are already attaching, strongly. They are no longer overtly worried about their peers stealing us. The younger one which had a larger issue about this asked us if she could bring her friend to our flat and play. As much as we would’ve liked to, it’s prohibited. We felt bad for the little girl who probably didn’t understand why she couldn’t come along. I no longer worry about any bonding issues with these girls as we’ll all strongly bond; that I have no doubt.
We played a few games here in the flat. Twister was a challenge at first since we didn’t know the words for right and left; hand and foot were easy to find out. It’s quite interesting trying to communicate rules when you can’t even say right or left. We have plenty of music on the laptop so they love to dance and horse around while it’s playing. We feel the younger one will always be young at heart and reminds me so much of my youngest niece. She loves to play rough and is always laughing. I have this one picture of her and Virginia together (the older was being the dedicated photographer as was I) on the waterfront in Yalta. They were playing model for us and the younger one busted herself up with her antics. When she goes into a full blown laugh, her eyes are close and she has an ear-to-ear grin; she laughs with her whole face. Every time we see the picture, it crack us up. The older one doesn’t play nearly as rough and not very often. She prefers to make up Virginia or herself or to play calmly (much like my nieces her age). We’ll have our hands full with these two, but in a good way.
Our paperwork is also moving forward. Irina was in Yalta all day waiting for the conclusion to be signed. I guess there is no mayor in Yalta right now so the standin has to sign the paperwork. At first he wasn’t going to since he doesn’t know anything about these matters and was going to make us wait until Dec. 7th for the newly elected official to sign. ARGHH!! But he relented and yesterday Irina came home with the signed documents. She also applied to the court and hopefully get our court date on Monday. As mentioned before, this area is difficult so we don’t expect to get a court hearing until the following Monday. Our return tickets were originally booked for Dec. 9th and it looks like we just might make it if we only encounter small glitches. These are all if’s.
Back to Yalta on Saturday with the girls. Irina needs to mail the documents to Kiev and she found jackets for 100rgh ($20).
On many travel blogs, I read where the prospective parents were glad they brought lots of books and movies to kill the boredom of waiting. We may have had paperwork/officials problems, but we haven’t had any time to read of watch our movies. Last night, we went to be by 9pm because both of us were wore out. I usually have to sneak in some time for these updates because we are so busy. We’ve been blessed in our process because we get to spend so much time with our girls and thankfully it doesn’t look like it’ll slow any. Their normal school resumes on Monday so we will have time during the day till about 3pm when their classes end. Maybe only then will be have time for these things, but I just as soon have the girls and be all worn out instead.
We think we may have to build a playground in our back yard. They love the seesaw and swings not to mention the big spinning thing. They may look old (which they are) and decrepit, but they are built solidly and are holding out just fine. Virginia and I play most times on this gear with the girls. You should see the looks we get from the locals as though we must be insane to play like that. I’ve yet to see any fathers actually engaging their children in play so I’m thinking it’s another one of those cultural things; but that’s not going to stop us from playing with the girls because we’re just having too much fun.
It’s going to feel wonderful to hear children’s laughter in the house again. The only time we heard this was when Virginia’s brothers family visited (they have younger kids) and it always made me feel like it was a home. When they left, it always got quiet again and I went through withdrawals afterward (I came from a large, noisy family). I can’t wait to hear it again with our girls and especially when we ALL get together there again. Some of you may say it’ll get old for me, but I never tire of the sound of laughter. There’s truth in the saying “Laughter is good medicine”. It’s good for the heart and soul. Just think of how good you felt after a good laugh and think what a better place the world would be if people laughed a lot more. I don’t think I’ve heard any laugher on the streets here and that is SAD!
Virginia’s input:
Although I don’t now the name of most of the food items as they are written, I have tried many things and enjoyed them all. I worry that the tastiness of much of the things I have eaten might have long term consequences (weight gain), but our companion Irena tells me that we are so busy and active that not a chance. All the people we have had to deal with directly in regards to the adoption have been very helpful. Some things are slower and harder in this region for adoption, but it is the nature here. The girls are bonding well with us and vice-versa. They were on fall break this last week and contrary to usual practices at our stage of the process we were permitted to take them on outings off property for the day, each day. This has definitely put us further along in respects to bonding with each other. We have also been quite fortunate that they weather here in Crimea has been extraordinarily warm and sunny. We have gone into Yalta many days with no jacket on and just a light sweater, shed half way through the day. We don’t expect this may last much longer, but will take it for as long as it lasts. Chris even had to buy a couple of short sleeve shirts to wear, hard to find this time of year. It was + 28 Celsius yesterday and our landlady’s mother was going for a swim in the ocean, (the water is pretty warm it was + 17 Celsius yesterday), and the ocean is perhaps a ten minute or so walk from here, (rough life, I know).
Cheers for now so I can finish getting ready for Yalta to post this.
Chris and Virginia
Note: The girls are 9 and 10. FYI for those about to travel, the dollar got as high as 7:1 the other day and is hovering around 6 right now.
Today was another wonderful day spent with the girls. We’ve now spent 1 week, nearly all day every day with the girls and it’s going great. They are still on their guest behavior but are defiantly feeling comfortable with us as we are with them. It’s hard to think that we, as well as them, were so nervous when we met them for the first time. We already feel like a family and our time together is quite natural. I can also tell you we are acting like proud parents and think they are the most wonderful girls we could have hoped to get. Laura, if the offer for Annabelle still stands, we’ll take her also as she’d fit right in (inside family joke).
Today was a leisurely day for us. We picked up the girls and walked to the local store for some supplies. It only takes about 5 minutes to get from the school to our flat so we were home by 11am. We had them work in some grade appropriate math books so I can get an idea as to where they’re at; I still need to work with them to really find out. When we handed them the books, they just dove in and started working on their own for quite some time. We also picked up some books on learning English and show’s them how to make letters and such.
We watched “Emperors New Groove” in Russian. Since this is one of our favorites, we were able to follow along. Speaking of movies, these are not pirated, have the Disney seals and were from a video store and were only 10 Dollars each. We’re headed back to Yalta tomorrow and I’m going to pick up some more movies for that price. We brought some of our movies along but don’t hold the girls attention when there is a lot of talking. We fully understand. These movies are region 5 so since I don’t have a hack for my computer DVD player, I use a program to copy the DVD to my hard drive, another program to remove the region code and then we can watch these with a DVD player on the computer. Works great and I don’t have to have the DVD in the drive to watch them.
Today was a milestone day for me. While watching the movie, the older one sat next to me and snuggle up with me. What a wonderful feeling. They’re bonding with Virginia very quickly and just slower with me. The culture here is different (duh!) and I believe they were close to their mother and not so much to their step father. I haven’t trust myself at them and figure they will come around in their own time. I always showed them small signs of affection like putting my hand briefly on their shoulder or kissing them on the head. After a couple of days, they quit pulling away and accepted these gestures of affection. Of course I would want my hug on greetings and goodbye’s, but those are expected by both parties. My biggest fear was a severe case of Reactive Attachment Disorder but I can say that these girls have no signs of it and are already attaching, strongly. They are no longer overtly worried about their peers stealing us. The younger one which had a larger issue about this asked us if she could bring her friend to our flat and play. As much as we would’ve liked to, it’s prohibited. We felt bad for the little girl who probably didn’t understand why she couldn’t come along. I no longer worry about any bonding issues with these girls as we’ll all strongly bond; that I have no doubt.
We played a few games here in the flat. Twister was a challenge at first since we didn’t know the words for right and left; hand and foot were easy to find out. It’s quite interesting trying to communicate rules when you can’t even say right or left. We have plenty of music on the laptop so they love to dance and horse around while it’s playing. We feel the younger one will always be young at heart and reminds me so much of my youngest niece. She loves to play rough and is always laughing. I have this one picture of her and Virginia together (the older was being the dedicated photographer as was I) on the waterfront in Yalta. They were playing model for us and the younger one busted herself up with her antics. When she goes into a full blown laugh, her eyes are close and she has an ear-to-ear grin; she laughs with her whole face. Every time we see the picture, it crack us up. The older one doesn’t play nearly as rough and not very often. She prefers to make up Virginia or herself or to play calmly (much like my nieces her age). We’ll have our hands full with these two, but in a good way.
Our paperwork is also moving forward. Irina was in Yalta all day waiting for the conclusion to be signed. I guess there is no mayor in Yalta right now so the standin has to sign the paperwork. At first he wasn’t going to since he doesn’t know anything about these matters and was going to make us wait until Dec. 7th for the newly elected official to sign. ARGHH!! But he relented and yesterday Irina came home with the signed documents. She also applied to the court and hopefully get our court date on Monday. As mentioned before, this area is difficult so we don’t expect to get a court hearing until the following Monday. Our return tickets were originally booked for Dec. 9th and it looks like we just might make it if we only encounter small glitches. These are all if’s.
Back to Yalta on Saturday with the girls. Irina needs to mail the documents to Kiev and she found jackets for 100rgh ($20).
On many travel blogs, I read where the prospective parents were glad they brought lots of books and movies to kill the boredom of waiting. We may have had paperwork/officials problems, but we haven’t had any time to read of watch our movies. Last night, we went to be by 9pm because both of us were wore out. I usually have to sneak in some time for these updates because we are so busy. We’ve been blessed in our process because we get to spend so much time with our girls and thankfully it doesn’t look like it’ll slow any. Their normal school resumes on Monday so we will have time during the day till about 3pm when their classes end. Maybe only then will be have time for these things, but I just as soon have the girls and be all worn out instead.
We think we may have to build a playground in our back yard. They love the seesaw and swings not to mention the big spinning thing. They may look old (which they are) and decrepit, but they are built solidly and are holding out just fine. Virginia and I play most times on this gear with the girls. You should see the looks we get from the locals as though we must be insane to play like that. I’ve yet to see any fathers actually engaging their children in play so I’m thinking it’s another one of those cultural things; but that’s not going to stop us from playing with the girls because we’re just having too much fun.
It’s going to feel wonderful to hear children’s laughter in the house again. The only time we heard this was when Virginia’s brothers family visited (they have younger kids) and it always made me feel like it was a home. When they left, it always got quiet again and I went through withdrawals afterward (I came from a large, noisy family). I can’t wait to hear it again with our girls and especially when we ALL get together there again. Some of you may say it’ll get old for me, but I never tire of the sound of laughter. There’s truth in the saying “Laughter is good medicine”. It’s good for the heart and soul. Just think of how good you felt after a good laugh and think what a better place the world would be if people laughed a lot more. I don’t think I’ve heard any laugher on the streets here and that is SAD!
Virginia’s input:
Although I don’t now the name of most of the food items as they are written, I have tried many things and enjoyed them all. I worry that the tastiness of much of the things I have eaten might have long term consequences (weight gain), but our companion Irena tells me that we are so busy and active that not a chance. All the people we have had to deal with directly in regards to the adoption have been very helpful. Some things are slower and harder in this region for adoption, but it is the nature here. The girls are bonding well with us and vice-versa. They were on fall break this last week and contrary to usual practices at our stage of the process we were permitted to take them on outings off property for the day, each day. This has definitely put us further along in respects to bonding with each other. We have also been quite fortunate that they weather here in Crimea has been extraordinarily warm and sunny. We have gone into Yalta many days with no jacket on and just a light sweater, shed half way through the day. We don’t expect this may last much longer, but will take it for as long as it lasts. Chris even had to buy a couple of short sleeve shirts to wear, hard to find this time of year. It was + 28 Celsius yesterday and our landlady’s mother was going for a swim in the ocean, (the water is pretty warm it was + 17 Celsius yesterday), and the ocean is perhaps a ten minute or so walk from here, (rough life, I know).
Cheers for now so I can finish getting ready for Yalta to post this.
Chris and Virginia
Note: The girls are 9 and 10. FYI for those about to travel, the dollar got as high as 7:1 the other day and is hovering around 6 right now.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
30 Oct Update
First, Happy Birthday John.
I didn't expect to be posting today so I didn't prepare any more photos. I posted a link to the right for where the photos are and here is the link: http://www.pbase.com/higgmeister/adoption
Thank you MamaPoRuski for the insight.
We are waiting for the Mayor of Yalta to sign the conclusion so we can apply to the court for our hearing. We're hoping it's this morning but I'm not holding my breath. Irina showed us how to get into Yalta on the bus from our small town. It's larger than a village by my standards and would call it a small town of about 8K +- people. We haven't had an opportunity to check out this town yet.
As mentioned before, this region is beautiful with high mountains on the North strongly sloping to the sea to the South. Our flat is on the North most side of the town so it's a walk to reach the beach which we'll explore once the girls are off fall break. Our bedroom window looks into the forrest with a stream flowing gently below the house. It's quiet except for all the animals and leaves rustling. It's a bit rustic for most but we are fine with the conditions. The stove is outside because these flats are mostly used during the summer tourist season. This morning, I awoke to see a dark blue sky behind a golden crown of mountains shimmering through the trees. I'm glad we moved and Virginia will be glad too once we remove all the spiders in the flat (she's arachniphobic (sp)).
We feel very lucky, not paperwork wise, but people wise. The director in charge of the orphans and the helpers like us so we've had opportunities that I'v not read about with other families. Other than the first meeting, we've been able to spend plenty of time with our girls. Last Friday was the end of school for a week so on Saturday, we were able to pick up the girls and take them to Yalta for the day. Same with Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Now that we are here, they allow the girls to come over to our flat so we can play, eat or whatever. We're nearly done shopping for the girls and have most of what we will need for them while here. For those who've adopted from Ukraine know, a family usually can't get the kids off the grounds until after the court hearing and only then with a representative. The paperwork may be going slower than anticipated, but the bonding is happening really quickly because we spend so much time with them. They now only call us Mama and Papa/i and Irina is Ira, not Mama any more.
Yesterday, we did several things at our flat. One was to show the older one (almost user her name, oops) how to spell her name in our latin alphabet which she did as well as Mama and Papa. She drew our family and made some comments. What a sweetheart. She wants so much to learn and is like a sponge. Actually, both are like sponges. I'll humm a diddy to myself and next thing I know I'm hearing it back from them. The younger one is very curious about everything and is always asking Irina questions about whatever, almost as though she likes hearing herself. Typical girl...:). The other thing we did was view some of the pictures the girls had taken. They remember who took what and where so it reiforced those memories they created. I feel that when they view these pictues in the future, they will hold positive memories.
I must also once again apologize for my bad spelling. Virginia usually proofs my work but her and Irina are out shopping for groceries and whatever they shop for.
I could keep typing but I must check my business email since I haven't had time to lately. The ladies get impatient with me regarding posting. They have no idea as to why it takes so long to post and check email. Then, they've never worked on these systems before either.
Cheers for now,
Chris and Virginia
I didn't expect to be posting today so I didn't prepare any more photos. I posted a link to the right for where the photos are and here is the link: http://www.pbase.com/higgmeister/adoption
Thank you MamaPoRuski for the insight.
We are waiting for the Mayor of Yalta to sign the conclusion so we can apply to the court for our hearing. We're hoping it's this morning but I'm not holding my breath. Irina showed us how to get into Yalta on the bus from our small town. It's larger than a village by my standards and would call it a small town of about 8K +- people. We haven't had an opportunity to check out this town yet.
As mentioned before, this region is beautiful with high mountains on the North strongly sloping to the sea to the South. Our flat is on the North most side of the town so it's a walk to reach the beach which we'll explore once the girls are off fall break. Our bedroom window looks into the forrest with a stream flowing gently below the house. It's quiet except for all the animals and leaves rustling. It's a bit rustic for most but we are fine with the conditions. The stove is outside because these flats are mostly used during the summer tourist season. This morning, I awoke to see a dark blue sky behind a golden crown of mountains shimmering through the trees. I'm glad we moved and Virginia will be glad too once we remove all the spiders in the flat (she's arachniphobic (sp)).
We feel very lucky, not paperwork wise, but people wise. The director in charge of the orphans and the helpers like us so we've had opportunities that I'v not read about with other families. Other than the first meeting, we've been able to spend plenty of time with our girls. Last Friday was the end of school for a week so on Saturday, we were able to pick up the girls and take them to Yalta for the day. Same with Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Now that we are here, they allow the girls to come over to our flat so we can play, eat or whatever. We're nearly done shopping for the girls and have most of what we will need for them while here. For those who've adopted from Ukraine know, a family usually can't get the kids off the grounds until after the court hearing and only then with a representative. The paperwork may be going slower than anticipated, but the bonding is happening really quickly because we spend so much time with them. They now only call us Mama and Papa/i and Irina is Ira, not Mama any more.
Yesterday, we did several things at our flat. One was to show the older one (almost user her name, oops) how to spell her name in our latin alphabet which she did as well as Mama and Papa. She drew our family and made some comments. What a sweetheart. She wants so much to learn and is like a sponge. Actually, both are like sponges. I'll humm a diddy to myself and next thing I know I'm hearing it back from them. The younger one is very curious about everything and is always asking Irina questions about whatever, almost as though she likes hearing herself. Typical girl...:). The other thing we did was view some of the pictures the girls had taken. They remember who took what and where so it reiforced those memories they created. I feel that when they view these pictues in the future, they will hold positive memories.
I must also once again apologize for my bad spelling. Virginia usually proofs my work but her and Irina are out shopping for groceries and whatever they shop for.
I could keep typing but I must check my business email since I haven't had time to lately. The ladies get impatient with me regarding posting. They have no idea as to why it takes so long to post and check email. Then, they've never worked on these systems before either.
Cheers for now,
Chris and Virginia
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
29Oct update
I've posted new pictues of Yalta and some more of Kiev. Hopfully I can post some pictures of the girls by the end of next week. I will make a special trip if I have to so I can post and update. I've already taken a few hundred pixs and the girls are at about 200 themselves.
Paperwork is starting to move but there is not definate end in sight. We are guestimating 3-4 weeks still but could be less. In Ukraine, the only certain thing is uncertainty itself.
We move in a few hours so it's time for me to sign out. We're loving all the positive thoughts coming though and enjoy reading your comments. Virginia is ready to come home right now but there is so much more for me to learn about this place. We'll make the best of our stay.
We haven't been able to find a battery for Virginia's phone is if you need to message us, use my phone.
Cheers and miss you all. Actually, wish you all could be here :)
Paperwork is starting to move but there is not definate end in sight. We are guestimating 3-4 weeks still but could be less. In Ukraine, the only certain thing is uncertainty itself.
We move in a few hours so it's time for me to sign out. We're loving all the positive thoughts coming though and enjoy reading your comments. Virginia is ready to come home right now but there is so much more for me to learn about this place. We'll make the best of our stay.
We haven't been able to find a battery for Virginia's phone is if you need to message us, use my phone.
Cheers and miss you all. Actually, wish you all could be here :)
27-28 Oct Update
27Oct2008
No paperwork action today since it’s fall break and the principle is out. Maybe tomorrow. The one advantage of this is we get the girls all day again to our delight. Update on paperwork. We did need to go to the Notary at 9am for some paperwork. They told us they couldn’t find 3 pieces including both copies of the girl’s birth certificates. Also, most everyone was out sick so it was looking grim but they came through and we got our papers.
We did a bit of shopping today for the girls. We picked up a top each and an over-sweater type thing. We are trying to spread out the purchases so we have something to get them every few days. This is all stuff they will need since they will not leave with anything from the school; that includes the cloths. We haven’t been told this but it’s usual practice since most of the cloths are community property.
We spent most of the day in the apartment playing games and just having fun. We found out that the kids at this school watch a fair bit of TV. A benefactor donated a large screen TV so they all like to watch it. We’ve been trying to keep the TV to a minimum and spend time together instead.
While out shopping, the girls asked who was cooking tonight and Irina said I was. The older one chucked and didn’t did Papa had it in him to cook anything. Actually, I was only cooking the appetizer and Virginia was cooking spaghetti carbinara (sp.). I sautйed mushrooms in butter and garlic and then melted cheese in the mushroom bowl. Not much left of either dish and they were impressed that Papa could use a knife. Irina remarked that the girls have been taught to cook amongst other things which leads her to believe the Mother took car of her children. I would love to believe that. We won’t know for sure till they open up with us.
The other night I was washing dishes after others made the meal. The girls asked if I always did the dishes and we explained that Virginia and I share the duties around the house (they will have to as well). When these girls get older, if the boys make it past my shotgun, then they’ll be in for a surprise because our girls will expect much from them.
The language progress is coming along slowly. I think I’m learning more Russian than they are English…for now. They are a little scared about the language problem and we are trying not to scare them too much. We use an English phrase or word and follow it by the Russian term. They are catching on. I think their favorite phrase is “Let’s go”. They know exactly what it means. We wanted to spend some time on the Alphabet but couldn’t find enough time to fit it in.
Some of the pictures just updated contain some women’s fashion shots as requested. Kiev is much more fashionable than here in Yalta. Kiev is pretty much Ukrainian and Yalta is pretty much Russian. Most of the people we’ve talked to..OK, everyone we’ve talked to here claims to be Russian, not Ukrainian and wants to be a part of Russia.
28Oct2008
Hurray, we have movement on our paperwork. The principle called in sick so the paperwork was done by someone else, I guess. There are so many confusing twists to this adoption that I can’t keep track, but who cares when the process is finally moving forward. The children and school paperwork make it to the inspector’s office today so they can write the conclusion. With that and some more paperwork from the school, we can send it to Kiev. It’ll still be later this week before that happens. Seems that is no direct route for paperwork to Kiev from here so Irina is finding out the best way to get the docs to Kiev. If things flowed perfectly, court is still more than a week away so we’ll be here for quite a spell (20 or so days +-). Then we have to wait for passports before we can go to Kiev so maybe early to mid December we can be on a plane.
And, we had the girls again today. They don’t share shoes so we went ahead and bought them new shoes, socks and stockings. Their shoes were either falling apart or were way too big for their feet. This family thing is going to get expensive because they need new of everything. For the most part, they are good about not wanting everything they see. We buy some small things and not others, but the buying will need to stop for awhile since the money burn rate is rather high. Irina is helping us keep the costs down but it still costs a fair bit for these things.
Tomorrow we move into a flat near the school. We’ll lose our cloths washer so it’ll be done by hand. We should be able to see the girls on a more regular basis (though we’ve seen them every day for the max time) and they should be able to eat in the evenings with us. We can have them bathe more often and start working on better hygiene like clean socks every day, or every few days, or even once a week. New shoes, clean socks and feet should keep some of the French Perfume down to a minimum.
We can’t wait to post some pictures of them after court. The older one is a little camera shy but I’m working on that. I got some really good pictures of her today and I seem to always get good pictures of the younger one. It usually take me at least 1 hour in the evenings to look at the pictures and transfer them to the computer. I have my DSlr I use and sometimes let the girls use. I brought another digital camera for Virginia, but the girls use it and they also love to use Virginia’s cell phone. We’re letting them use the cameras so they can record what they see and will remember. We’re having a good time with it and they are getting some really wonderful pictures. They put their hands together and open them like a clam to tell us they want to use Virginia’s flip phone. The younger one will make camera click sounds to tell us she want to use the other digital camera. It’s quite effective at getting their points across.
Speaking of language, both are doing a little better. The older one will have no problem with language and want to go to school ASAP when we get back. The younger one has the cutest accent which is quite thick and endearing. I’m thinking she’ll learn much from her older sister, language wise. On the ride from Yalta to the school, I worked with the older one on please, thank you and you’re welcome. She knew the first two but not the last. Russian has the same word for please and you’re welcome so I had to convey this in English. I handed her my pocket knife and motioned for her to give it to me. When she did, I said “Thank You” and followed it with the Russian. When she repeated what I said I knew she didn’t understand so we did it again. This time she didn’t repeat what I said and then made it understood about “Your Welcome”. #3’s the charm because she understood about this communication transaction and even said “Your Welcome” when appropriate. “Your Welcome” is a pretty large word to start out on but she’s sharp…they both are.
Jerry, could you email us a picture of Virginia when she was young. You have some from the disk you made about your Mom.
There’s an uncanny resemblance between the girls and Virginia when Virginia was young. The school admin even commented that Virginia looks a lot like them. Virginia is European by birth and Mother so this makes sense.
****Note: Virginia’s phone has died a painless death. It seems to have died in it’s sleep so she will not be able to receive any more text messages. We can’t get this thing to charge at all, even from various different chargers. We’ll see if we can breathe some life into it by replacing the battery if we can find one.
I have no idea if there is any Internet connectivity or cafй in the village we are off to. If not, it may be awhile before we can update again. I’m hoping they have something. Also, for those waiting to travel and intend on bringing a laptop, make sure you have a very good antivirus always running. I use a USB drive to upload these updates and pictures. I don’t write to the stick but always come back with several viruses/trogons on it.
Last post from Yalta…Cheers
Chris and Virginia
Almost feels like we’re heading into a black hole or something. It’s really not that bad here, actually it’s very nice and we’re enjoying ourselves. It’s a major tourist destination and quite beautiful so we’re not complaining.
No paperwork action today since it’s fall break and the principle is out. Maybe tomorrow. The one advantage of this is we get the girls all day again to our delight. Update on paperwork. We did need to go to the Notary at 9am for some paperwork. They told us they couldn’t find 3 pieces including both copies of the girl’s birth certificates. Also, most everyone was out sick so it was looking grim but they came through and we got our papers.
We did a bit of shopping today for the girls. We picked up a top each and an over-sweater type thing. We are trying to spread out the purchases so we have something to get them every few days. This is all stuff they will need since they will not leave with anything from the school; that includes the cloths. We haven’t been told this but it’s usual practice since most of the cloths are community property.
We spent most of the day in the apartment playing games and just having fun. We found out that the kids at this school watch a fair bit of TV. A benefactor donated a large screen TV so they all like to watch it. We’ve been trying to keep the TV to a minimum and spend time together instead.
While out shopping, the girls asked who was cooking tonight and Irina said I was. The older one chucked and didn’t did Papa had it in him to cook anything. Actually, I was only cooking the appetizer and Virginia was cooking spaghetti carbinara (sp.). I sautйed mushrooms in butter and garlic and then melted cheese in the mushroom bowl. Not much left of either dish and they were impressed that Papa could use a knife. Irina remarked that the girls have been taught to cook amongst other things which leads her to believe the Mother took car of her children. I would love to believe that. We won’t know for sure till they open up with us.
The other night I was washing dishes after others made the meal. The girls asked if I always did the dishes and we explained that Virginia and I share the duties around the house (they will have to as well). When these girls get older, if the boys make it past my shotgun, then they’ll be in for a surprise because our girls will expect much from them.
The language progress is coming along slowly. I think I’m learning more Russian than they are English…for now. They are a little scared about the language problem and we are trying not to scare them too much. We use an English phrase or word and follow it by the Russian term. They are catching on. I think their favorite phrase is “Let’s go”. They know exactly what it means. We wanted to spend some time on the Alphabet but couldn’t find enough time to fit it in.
Some of the pictures just updated contain some women’s fashion shots as requested. Kiev is much more fashionable than here in Yalta. Kiev is pretty much Ukrainian and Yalta is pretty much Russian. Most of the people we’ve talked to..OK, everyone we’ve talked to here claims to be Russian, not Ukrainian and wants to be a part of Russia.
28Oct2008
Hurray, we have movement on our paperwork. The principle called in sick so the paperwork was done by someone else, I guess. There are so many confusing twists to this adoption that I can’t keep track, but who cares when the process is finally moving forward. The children and school paperwork make it to the inspector’s office today so they can write the conclusion. With that and some more paperwork from the school, we can send it to Kiev. It’ll still be later this week before that happens. Seems that is no direct route for paperwork to Kiev from here so Irina is finding out the best way to get the docs to Kiev. If things flowed perfectly, court is still more than a week away so we’ll be here for quite a spell (20 or so days +-). Then we have to wait for passports before we can go to Kiev so maybe early to mid December we can be on a plane.
And, we had the girls again today. They don’t share shoes so we went ahead and bought them new shoes, socks and stockings. Their shoes were either falling apart or were way too big for their feet. This family thing is going to get expensive because they need new of everything. For the most part, they are good about not wanting everything they see. We buy some small things and not others, but the buying will need to stop for awhile since the money burn rate is rather high. Irina is helping us keep the costs down but it still costs a fair bit for these things.
Tomorrow we move into a flat near the school. We’ll lose our cloths washer so it’ll be done by hand. We should be able to see the girls on a more regular basis (though we’ve seen them every day for the max time) and they should be able to eat in the evenings with us. We can have them bathe more often and start working on better hygiene like clean socks every day, or every few days, or even once a week. New shoes, clean socks and feet should keep some of the French Perfume down to a minimum.
We can’t wait to post some pictures of them after court. The older one is a little camera shy but I’m working on that. I got some really good pictures of her today and I seem to always get good pictures of the younger one. It usually take me at least 1 hour in the evenings to look at the pictures and transfer them to the computer. I have my DSlr I use and sometimes let the girls use. I brought another digital camera for Virginia, but the girls use it and they also love to use Virginia’s cell phone. We’re letting them use the cameras so they can record what they see and will remember. We’re having a good time with it and they are getting some really wonderful pictures. They put their hands together and open them like a clam to tell us they want to use Virginia’s flip phone. The younger one will make camera click sounds to tell us she want to use the other digital camera. It’s quite effective at getting their points across.
Speaking of language, both are doing a little better. The older one will have no problem with language and want to go to school ASAP when we get back. The younger one has the cutest accent which is quite thick and endearing. I’m thinking she’ll learn much from her older sister, language wise. On the ride from Yalta to the school, I worked with the older one on please, thank you and you’re welcome. She knew the first two but not the last. Russian has the same word for please and you’re welcome so I had to convey this in English. I handed her my pocket knife and motioned for her to give it to me. When she did, I said “Thank You” and followed it with the Russian. When she repeated what I said I knew she didn’t understand so we did it again. This time she didn’t repeat what I said and then made it understood about “Your Welcome”. #3’s the charm because she understood about this communication transaction and even said “Your Welcome” when appropriate. “Your Welcome” is a pretty large word to start out on but she’s sharp…they both are.
Jerry, could you email us a picture of Virginia when she was young. You have some from the disk you made about your Mom.
There’s an uncanny resemblance between the girls and Virginia when Virginia was young. The school admin even commented that Virginia looks a lot like them. Virginia is European by birth and Mother so this makes sense.
****Note: Virginia’s phone has died a painless death. It seems to have died in it’s sleep so she will not be able to receive any more text messages. We can’t get this thing to charge at all, even from various different chargers. We’ll see if we can breathe some life into it by replacing the battery if we can find one.
I have no idea if there is any Internet connectivity or cafй in the village we are off to. If not, it may be awhile before we can update again. I’m hoping they have something. Also, for those waiting to travel and intend on bringing a laptop, make sure you have a very good antivirus always running. I use a USB drive to upload these updates and pictures. I don’t write to the stick but always come back with several viruses/trogons on it.
Last post from Yalta…Cheers
Chris and Virginia
Almost feels like we’re heading into a black hole or something. It’s really not that bad here, actually it’s very nice and we’re enjoying ourselves. It’s a major tourist destination and quite beautiful so we’re not complaining.
Monday, October 27, 2008
26 Oct Update
26Oct2008
We had the girls again all day and had a blast. We decided to do some touristy stuff. The highest peak in Crimea is just outside of Yalta which has a cable car from bottom to the top. We had our driver take us to the top with a few stops along the way. Most stops were unplanned because the older one was getting car sick. The roads are windey, rough and these drivers think they’re in a rally race (Moose, they run a rally each year from top to bottom; check it out).
We stopped at a Tartar village on the way up to eat some real kabob. We had meat, rice, mountain tea, vegetables and local bread. Talk about good eats!! We got a few pictures of all the girls on horses. I think we are making some wonderful memories of the girls home for them to keep close to their heart since this is their first home. We finished the trip to the top and did quite a hike to reach the peak where we got some wonderful pictures. I was even able to take a few aerial shots of the town where their school is. The girls did some shopping and I tagged along looking for picture opportunities. We then took the cable car down to the bottom; all this taking most of the day.
When we got to the apartment, the girls played some cards and then they all made a salad that they make in the school. Both girls like to help in the kitchen and know how to prepare some dishes. They cut the meat, pealed cooked carrots and sliced them (I panicked each time they were using knives but it’s normal for them at their age). They did much of the preparing and did much of the eating. The salad was scrumptious and we all ate plenty of it. What should have easily fed 6 people fed the 4 of us with just a tiny bit left over.
We played for the next hour before we had to take them back. We’ve been lucky in that we were able to have the girls all day for the last two days. We’re still trying to get the paperwork from the school principle to we can get this process going. We can’t do anything till the principle does her part; then we can apply to the court for a hearing and get the paperwork to the SDA. Until then, we’ve been waiting for a week without any paperwork progress. Our team can’t do anything till the principle does hers. The gal in charge of the orphans has wanted us to get the paperwork last week so we go move forward, but she doesn’t have the power to do that since the principle has to sign it.
If anyone wants to know more about the area, just ask and I can give descriptions of what I’ve seen. This place isn’t as fashionable as Kiev. Not nearly as many short skirts and spiked heals. These streets plus spiked heals = broken shoe or busted leg. It can be hard enough in flat shoes to walk around here.
I did record the girls talking and playing and even made a short movie of them playing a card game. We also worked on their names. In the end, they decided to keep their original names and we gave them American middle names. The older one picked Angela and the younger one picked Cassandra. Gotta run so I can post this before they get back from picking up the girls (it’s Monday morning so I’ll have to catch up today tomorrow). I’ll have to get some pictures formatted and get them posted tomorrow since I don’t know if there’s any place in the village for Internet access.
Signing off from Yalta for now J.
We had the girls again all day and had a blast. We decided to do some touristy stuff. The highest peak in Crimea is just outside of Yalta which has a cable car from bottom to the top. We had our driver take us to the top with a few stops along the way. Most stops were unplanned because the older one was getting car sick. The roads are windey, rough and these drivers think they’re in a rally race (Moose, they run a rally each year from top to bottom; check it out).
We stopped at a Tartar village on the way up to eat some real kabob. We had meat, rice, mountain tea, vegetables and local bread. Talk about good eats!! We got a few pictures of all the girls on horses. I think we are making some wonderful memories of the girls home for them to keep close to their heart since this is their first home. We finished the trip to the top and did quite a hike to reach the peak where we got some wonderful pictures. I was even able to take a few aerial shots of the town where their school is. The girls did some shopping and I tagged along looking for picture opportunities. We then took the cable car down to the bottom; all this taking most of the day.
When we got to the apartment, the girls played some cards and then they all made a salad that they make in the school. Both girls like to help in the kitchen and know how to prepare some dishes. They cut the meat, pealed cooked carrots and sliced them (I panicked each time they were using knives but it’s normal for them at their age). They did much of the preparing and did much of the eating. The salad was scrumptious and we all ate plenty of it. What should have easily fed 6 people fed the 4 of us with just a tiny bit left over.
We played for the next hour before we had to take them back. We’ve been lucky in that we were able to have the girls all day for the last two days. We’re still trying to get the paperwork from the school principle to we can get this process going. We can’t do anything till the principle does her part; then we can apply to the court for a hearing and get the paperwork to the SDA. Until then, we’ve been waiting for a week without any paperwork progress. Our team can’t do anything till the principle does hers. The gal in charge of the orphans has wanted us to get the paperwork last week so we go move forward, but she doesn’t have the power to do that since the principle has to sign it.
If anyone wants to know more about the area, just ask and I can give descriptions of what I’ve seen. This place isn’t as fashionable as Kiev. Not nearly as many short skirts and spiked heals. These streets plus spiked heals = broken shoe or busted leg. It can be hard enough in flat shoes to walk around here.
I did record the girls talking and playing and even made a short movie of them playing a card game. We also worked on their names. In the end, they decided to keep their original names and we gave them American middle names. The older one picked Angela and the younger one picked Cassandra. Gotta run so I can post this before they get back from picking up the girls (it’s Monday morning so I’ll have to catch up today tomorrow). I’ll have to get some pictures formatted and get them posted tomorrow since I don’t know if there’s any place in the village for Internet access.
Signing off from Yalta for now J.
25Oct Update
25Oct2008
We made a decision to vacate Yalta on Wednesday…Just so we can move into the village and be closer to the girls. We have a place right across the street from the school and the owner is a worker there. What this means is that the girls will be able to stay with us on the weekends and we’ll have much more time with them. We won’t have to commute each day from Yalta, but when there is paperwork to be done we’ll have to travel there. Not a problem and it’ll probably save money in the end. Though the Internet is rare, but we did find one here in Yalta, it may be even sparser in the village. We’ll have to explore some.
We had the girls all day today. They allowed us to take them from the school until late evening (up to 8pm if we fed them at least twice, NP). When asked where they wanted to go, they said Yalta in synchronous. When we arrived at the school, all the children were working outside cleaning the drives, whitewashing the walls and general cleaning. They make their own brooms from branches from local trees. It seems to work pretty well from what I could see.
The Taxi dropped us off along the ocean front. The younger one got Virginia’s cell phone camera and I introduced the older one to a real digital camera. They are both sharp as a tack which I think I mentioned before. I showed them once how to use the camera, how to view the pictures just taken and how to delete a photo they don’t want. Only once and they were good to go. The menus are in English but that didn’t slow them down and they’ve even found a shortcut that we didn’t know about. They are teaching me some Russian and we’re teaching them some English. Until further in the process, we’re not going to push the English until after court. (I felt strongly when I first saw their dossier and still feel the same that God meant us to have these girls. We both understand why we had all the previous problems; it’s because these girls were not ready.).
They wanted to go to McDonalds even though they had never eaten it before. Neither the translator (Irina) nor us had any intention on eating at Mc’s but the girls convinced us otherwise. I’m glad we went because I know I won’t have to worry about them with Mc’s later; they said the food at school was better then Mc’s. We’re so happy. The Mc’s is very similar to ours but there’s a slight difference which I attribute to the bun (I had a Big Mac) which was flatter with less taste. My curiosity has been satiated and I have no need to ever eat Mc’s anywhere else in the world let alone the US.
We spent the day coloring, stickers and the girls (including the big ones) doing hair and makeup. They watched a little TV and I got the Russian laptop keyboard working properly. They can spell so I have them spell the word and I enter it into a bidirectional dictionary. I oopsed and brought our Ukrainian phrase/dictionary book and left the Russian one so this is what I have.
While we played, Irina went shopping for dinner and the ladies all made dinner together while I worked on my Russian. The dinner was all local fare and was scrumptious. We had two types of sausage, mashed potatoes and three types of salad. I pigged out but wasn’t the only one. The older one takes her time and eats deliberately like all things she does. The younger one devoured her dinner and many more helpings. Virginia is one of the fastest eaters I’ve ever seen (or not seen), but the younger one is going to give her a run for her money. They eat similarly, 3-4 chews and then swallow it. I can’t see how they can even taste their food. They’re not finicky eaters though; they like meat, fruit, vegetables and even drink water.
A little more about the girls.
The older one is methodical, calculating and observant. It takes her a bit longer to try something but then it’s usually done correctly the first time. She’s not slow, just more calculating. When they were learning our last name, the younger one was going at it brute force, over and over till she got it. The older one waited and listened. When she was ready to say it, it barley had any accent pronounced perfectly (Slavic adults have a hard time with pronouncing our familial name). She’s more cautious than her sister about most things. She is our thinker; in this respect much like her Mama to be. She is a girly-girl (Annabelle’s age) X10 and is absolutely fascinated by Virginia’s nails. Sharing with others is always on the top of her list. She is also a mother hen type always trying to take care of everyone else especially her sister. No doubt she looked after her sister when things were tough at home. It appears she is already bonding with Virginia and has really taken to her; she cuddles to Virginia on a regular, unprompted basis. Reading and spelling are already grade level from next to nothing before entering the orphanage not that long ago and she likes to read. Our translator mentioned that she speaks in full, grammatically correct sentences without the usual shortcuts which impressed Irina. I suspect language will not be a problem for her.
The younger one is spontaneous, adventurous and fearless. I forgot to mention funny as she’s going to be the class clown, that’s for sure. She’s almost a complete opposite of her sister in many respects. When learning our familial name, she tries it one way, then another till she gets it. In this way, she is like her Papa to be. She’s not afraid to try and jumps in with both feet. Her accent is absolutely adorable and it’ll be a shame when she looses it. It was agreed that they would help us learn Russian which she is taking to heart with me. She is always giving me the correct pronunciation of my butchered Russian. Her name for me is Papi (Poppy in like the poppy seed) instead of Papa and I hope she never stops calling me that. Like her sister, she mostly hangs with Virginia but is not a girly-girl. (Connie, she’s older than you by one day and much the same as you, both of you should get along great.) She can read but I haven’t seen her try to write anything. She’s most always ready with a smile which is very contagious for all of us.
They are both girls and like to do girl things like shopping. I’ve already had to play the heavy and said "Nyet" to several things. They didn’t get very mad but did go to Virginia on the next want. Speaking for myself, I’m bonding quickly to these girls and I firmly believe Virginia is too. I also feel the girls are bonding to us as well. Moose (my teenage nephew), you’re going to be puddy in their hands; you are so ill prepared for their girly ways.
It’s really late but I wanted to get caught up. Tomorrow we have the girls from 10-7 again and looking forward to it. Time for me to go pass out now as I’ve had a busy day; everyone else has been out for hours now. I’ll usually pass the last few minutes of consciousness looking at a picture of the four of us, very reassuring. Now to just get them officially and that will make our decade.
We made a decision to vacate Yalta on Wednesday…Just so we can move into the village and be closer to the girls. We have a place right across the street from the school and the owner is a worker there. What this means is that the girls will be able to stay with us on the weekends and we’ll have much more time with them. We won’t have to commute each day from Yalta, but when there is paperwork to be done we’ll have to travel there. Not a problem and it’ll probably save money in the end. Though the Internet is rare, but we did find one here in Yalta, it may be even sparser in the village. We’ll have to explore some.
We had the girls all day today. They allowed us to take them from the school until late evening (up to 8pm if we fed them at least twice, NP). When asked where they wanted to go, they said Yalta in synchronous. When we arrived at the school, all the children were working outside cleaning the drives, whitewashing the walls and general cleaning. They make their own brooms from branches from local trees. It seems to work pretty well from what I could see.
The Taxi dropped us off along the ocean front. The younger one got Virginia’s cell phone camera and I introduced the older one to a real digital camera. They are both sharp as a tack which I think I mentioned before. I showed them once how to use the camera, how to view the pictures just taken and how to delete a photo they don’t want. Only once and they were good to go. The menus are in English but that didn’t slow them down and they’ve even found a shortcut that we didn’t know about. They are teaching me some Russian and we’re teaching them some English. Until further in the process, we’re not going to push the English until after court. (I felt strongly when I first saw their dossier and still feel the same that God meant us to have these girls. We both understand why we had all the previous problems; it’s because these girls were not ready.).
They wanted to go to McDonalds even though they had never eaten it before. Neither the translator (Irina) nor us had any intention on eating at Mc’s but the girls convinced us otherwise. I’m glad we went because I know I won’t have to worry about them with Mc’s later; they said the food at school was better then Mc’s. We’re so happy. The Mc’s is very similar to ours but there’s a slight difference which I attribute to the bun (I had a Big Mac) which was flatter with less taste. My curiosity has been satiated and I have no need to ever eat Mc’s anywhere else in the world let alone the US.
We spent the day coloring, stickers and the girls (including the big ones) doing hair and makeup. They watched a little TV and I got the Russian laptop keyboard working properly. They can spell so I have them spell the word and I enter it into a bidirectional dictionary. I oopsed and brought our Ukrainian phrase/dictionary book and left the Russian one so this is what I have.
While we played, Irina went shopping for dinner and the ladies all made dinner together while I worked on my Russian. The dinner was all local fare and was scrumptious. We had two types of sausage, mashed potatoes and three types of salad. I pigged out but wasn’t the only one. The older one takes her time and eats deliberately like all things she does. The younger one devoured her dinner and many more helpings. Virginia is one of the fastest eaters I’ve ever seen (or not seen), but the younger one is going to give her a run for her money. They eat similarly, 3-4 chews and then swallow it. I can’t see how they can even taste their food. They’re not finicky eaters though; they like meat, fruit, vegetables and even drink water.
A little more about the girls.
The older one is methodical, calculating and observant. It takes her a bit longer to try something but then it’s usually done correctly the first time. She’s not slow, just more calculating. When they were learning our last name, the younger one was going at it brute force, over and over till she got it. The older one waited and listened. When she was ready to say it, it barley had any accent pronounced perfectly (Slavic adults have a hard time with pronouncing our familial name). She’s more cautious than her sister about most things. She is our thinker; in this respect much like her Mama to be. She is a girly-girl (Annabelle’s age) X10 and is absolutely fascinated by Virginia’s nails. Sharing with others is always on the top of her list. She is also a mother hen type always trying to take care of everyone else especially her sister. No doubt she looked after her sister when things were tough at home. It appears she is already bonding with Virginia and has really taken to her; she cuddles to Virginia on a regular, unprompted basis. Reading and spelling are already grade level from next to nothing before entering the orphanage not that long ago and she likes to read. Our translator mentioned that she speaks in full, grammatically correct sentences without the usual shortcuts which impressed Irina. I suspect language will not be a problem for her.
The younger one is spontaneous, adventurous and fearless. I forgot to mention funny as she’s going to be the class clown, that’s for sure. She’s almost a complete opposite of her sister in many respects. When learning our familial name, she tries it one way, then another till she gets it. In this way, she is like her Papa to be. She’s not afraid to try and jumps in with both feet. Her accent is absolutely adorable and it’ll be a shame when she looses it. It was agreed that they would help us learn Russian which she is taking to heart with me. She is always giving me the correct pronunciation of my butchered Russian. Her name for me is Papi (Poppy in like the poppy seed) instead of Papa and I hope she never stops calling me that. Like her sister, she mostly hangs with Virginia but is not a girly-girl. (Connie, she’s older than you by one day and much the same as you, both of you should get along great.) She can read but I haven’t seen her try to write anything. She’s most always ready with a smile which is very contagious for all of us.
They are both girls and like to do girl things like shopping. I’ve already had to play the heavy and said "Nyet" to several things. They didn’t get very mad but did go to Virginia on the next want. Speaking for myself, I’m bonding quickly to these girls and I firmly believe Virginia is too. I also feel the girls are bonding to us as well. Moose (my teenage nephew), you’re going to be puddy in their hands; you are so ill prepared for their girly ways.
It’s really late but I wanted to get caught up. Tomorrow we have the girls from 10-7 again and looking forward to it. Time for me to go pass out now as I’ve had a busy day; everyone else has been out for hours now. I’ll usually pass the last few minutes of consciousness looking at a picture of the four of us, very reassuring. Now to just get them officially and that will make our decade.
21Oct - 24Oct update
Much of the following is written in hindsight since I haven’t had Internet access to update. It’s more to create a log and update the followers. I’m trying to recall the events since it’s already the 25th.
21Oct08
Not much to report. We had to wait all day for the paperwork from the SDA. We decided to fly to Simferopol to try and get the process going quickly. Also, it just might mean that we could possibly have the paperwork for the court date in Kiev by Friday.
The flight from Kiev to Simferopol was uneventful and took 2 hours. They offered us a hard candy before flight and we didn’t see another attendant until we landed. Of course they went through the standard seatbelt thing and if we go down, you’re not going to make it. OK, not quite that bad, but the jet was older and creaked a lot. The seats were very tight but we survived…I think…Yep, we did.
After flying to Simferopol, we had to find a reasonable hotel at 11pm. We tried two hotels and they were either expensive or didn’t have any hot water. The third one verified that they had hot water so we stayed there the night. Not as pricey as Kiev, but we had a long way to go and didn’t want to waste our money so early on.
I took lots of pictures of one of the churches in downtown and got a few fashion shots as well. Just have to find a system to post them from now. Some Internet cafés will allow you to connect your system, just not if you have Vista. Guess the word has even made it over here.
22Oct08
The drive from Simferopol to Yalta was beautiful. The season is changing and the trees are in full color. The drive is over a mountain chain and took 2 hours. The temp go to 2 Celsius on the way over some passes and only averaged 9 C while traveling through the mountains.
Yalta is a beautiful little city of about 300K nested between the Black Sea on the south and mountainous cliffs surrounding the city. I can see why many people want to come here to see the sights; I’ll want to come back and visit some day. They have a small port that takes small cruise liners which were coming in. OK, I know this isn’t why your reading the blog so I’ll get to the adoption process.
We visited the inspector first thing in the morning and they were running late so we waited. Then we waited some more. Did I mention that we waited but more on that later. We did speak to an inspector but there was only two on duty (others were either sick, vacation, or just didn’t show up) so we waited some more because an inspector is supposed to go to the orphanage with you on your first visit to meet the child/ren. So, did I mention that we waited and waited some more. We were there at 8:30 am and finally got to visit the orphanage after 3pm. And then we waited…just kidding. We spoke with the school principle, doctor and others. I’d be more specific but there could be some hiccups here so mums the word for now. No info on where or whom until later.
We did visit two older girls. They’re quiet, polite and cute as a button and definitely sisters. We brought some Kinder Surprises and a few other chocolates for the adults (all were eaten before we left). After talking will all but the children’s teachers, the girls took us on a tour of the playground and surrounding area. They were playful and friendly. I did think that their eyes were going to bug out when I climbed up on some of their bars to play. They looked at me on the bars, looked at each other, giggled and kept playing. (Note: I may have to grow old, but that doesn’t mean I have to grow up). We had roughly an hour to spend with them and we did just that. Later we learned that we made a very positive impression on all concerned, even the girls.
The one thing I can tell you is that the inspector that helped us is going on study starting Monday so the only person that can sight the conclusion is the Mayor of Yalta. This may be a problem. But then, this is why we have facilitators and hope he can work some magic through the SDA or wherever. But if there is no one, then there is no one. We’re not sure how long this will slow the process but it could add another week or so. But this isn’t the whole story…
23Oct2008
Now, the rest of the story…
The school principle will not give her consent for 10 days, OUCH! That's official policy here and she wasn’t in the mood to negotiate. Our facilitator got the SDA involved and now it may be less, but definitely not this week. Hmmm, add a few more days to the process.
We got to visit the girls again. We brought them a large pear, some grapes and dried apricot. They shared the pear and ate some grapes. I’m not sure they knew what the dried apricots were and don’t think they even tried them. Then again, it was a huge pear.
We brought some Playdough and a friendship bracelet craft book with us. We played with the Playdough for awhile outside since it was warm and clear. We then went inside to view a picture book we made and make some bracelets. All was going well until some other children came into the room and became curious about us and what the girls had. Their mood immediately changed and they wanted to get out of there. We weren’t exactly sure what was going on but got the message. We wrapped up the day a little earlier than we had to but had a good visit just the same. It appeared that the girls were being possessive of our time and didn’t want to share us; fully understandable.
24Oct2008
We’re only allowed to visit the girls after 3pm because of class and only until 5pm so they have time for their homework. It’s not much time be we all try to make the best of it. Today we didn’t bring any other toys since Virginia played the softy and let them keep the goods from the previous day. I wasn’t going to leave them so that way we had them to use on another day. It turns out that this isn’t a problem there.
We took a walk and we gave them some Oreo cookies and pineapple juice. You would think that they would devour them but were pleasantly surprised. The older one offered her first cookie to Virginia and the second one to me. The younger girl saved two cookies, unbeknownst to us, until the end of our visit and shared them with us. I’ll go out on a limb and say they either have hearts of gold or know how to work us already. Either way, they’re doing a great job.
The girls wanted to play outside instead of inside so off to a playground we went. You’ll see this playground in pictures when I post the girls. The equipment is old and pretty dilapidated, but not so much that they couldn’t be used. Virginia and I even got on some of them and didn’t worry about our lives.
Of course language can be a problem, but not so much that we can’t communicate. It took a few tries before the girls ended up on the same side of the teeter-totter and I on the other side. We had the girls howling with laughter; it was the greatest thing to them. Then I didn’t just go up and down but would stop quickly half way and change directions when they weren’t expecting it. Up until then, we hadn’t heard them laugh. Plenty of smiles but no laughter. That’s all changed now. We played together on several other pieces of equipment and loved it.
By now, they had discovered Virginia’s cell phone camera. Oh my goodness!! The older girl would pose us or her sister, compose the shot with one knee on the ground for a different perspective. She looked like she was a professional photographer and actually does very well with picture taking. Guess she’ll need a camera of her own eventually. Both girls love taking pictures, especially of the wild kittens.
These girls are so gently with the kittens and they just love them. Whenever they see one, they have to go pick it up and cuddle it. Let’s not forget about the girls taking pictures of all these kittens. I prefer that they take lots of pictures because they’re old enough to remember this place and we hope their later memories won’t be bad memories.
There were some older children on the playground and some other younger boys. Everything was fine until….some of their peers, especially girls their own age showed up and they wanted to leave. I think that they know we’re interested in daughters and not sons so boys are not a threat as other girls are. We’ll play this game for awhile till they are more secure about us and we are more secure in the process.
They play a game here called knots. Several kids will all hold hands in a circle facing each other while one child stands away and doesn’t look. The children (in our case adults and child) will then move around, up and under other’s arms, to create a knot. The hands cannot be broken. The one out then has to figure out how to untangle the group without breaking any holds. It’s definitely harder than you think if you’ve never played it before.
We all had a good time. The girls called us Mama and Papa for the first time on the playground, probably because they didn’t remember our names. Just before leaving we were all standing around the taxi and having a good chat. The girls said that they wanted to be a part of our family and that feeling is mutual. We would love to get this process going so we can officially be a family sooner than later. They also mentioned that they want to take on American names which is kind of a bummer because they both have beautiful names. One of their names is actually one that we would have chosen to change it to if they had had an unacceptable name (for the U.S.). It’s a name that is a derivative of Virginia’s dearly departed Mom’s name. We need to see what the girls come up with.
Lastly, they even said they still had the toys we had left with them the previous day. As for the process, we’re still waiting. We have a Notary on Monday morning and still need everything else to get this process going.
One last thing. This area is known to have some problems with US adoptions. If the caretakers don’t like the parents to be, they’ll tell the children that we’re adopting them to sell their organs when we get to the states. You may laugh, but that’s enough for the children to decide they don’t want to be adopted and then the process stops. Luckily for us, everyone likes us.
Sorry for the long, long, long post. I had to play catch-up. There are two uses for this blog, only one of those being for you, the reader. The main reason is for a log of events in our journey to our daughters. And yes, we have found them. We can’t wait to post pictures and more info on the girls.
21Oct08
Not much to report. We had to wait all day for the paperwork from the SDA. We decided to fly to Simferopol to try and get the process going quickly. Also, it just might mean that we could possibly have the paperwork for the court date in Kiev by Friday.
The flight from Kiev to Simferopol was uneventful and took 2 hours. They offered us a hard candy before flight and we didn’t see another attendant until we landed. Of course they went through the standard seatbelt thing and if we go down, you’re not going to make it. OK, not quite that bad, but the jet was older and creaked a lot. The seats were very tight but we survived…I think…Yep, we did.
After flying to Simferopol, we had to find a reasonable hotel at 11pm. We tried two hotels and they were either expensive or didn’t have any hot water. The third one verified that they had hot water so we stayed there the night. Not as pricey as Kiev, but we had a long way to go and didn’t want to waste our money so early on.
I took lots of pictures of one of the churches in downtown and got a few fashion shots as well. Just have to find a system to post them from now. Some Internet cafés will allow you to connect your system, just not if you have Vista. Guess the word has even made it over here.
22Oct08
The drive from Simferopol to Yalta was beautiful. The season is changing and the trees are in full color. The drive is over a mountain chain and took 2 hours. The temp go to 2 Celsius on the way over some passes and only averaged 9 C while traveling through the mountains.
Yalta is a beautiful little city of about 300K nested between the Black Sea on the south and mountainous cliffs surrounding the city. I can see why many people want to come here to see the sights; I’ll want to come back and visit some day. They have a small port that takes small cruise liners which were coming in. OK, I know this isn’t why your reading the blog so I’ll get to the adoption process.
We visited the inspector first thing in the morning and they were running late so we waited. Then we waited some more. Did I mention that we waited but more on that later. We did speak to an inspector but there was only two on duty (others were either sick, vacation, or just didn’t show up) so we waited some more because an inspector is supposed to go to the orphanage with you on your first visit to meet the child/ren. So, did I mention that we waited and waited some more. We were there at 8:30 am and finally got to visit the orphanage after 3pm. And then we waited…just kidding. We spoke with the school principle, doctor and others. I’d be more specific but there could be some hiccups here so mums the word for now. No info on where or whom until later.
We did visit two older girls. They’re quiet, polite and cute as a button and definitely sisters. We brought some Kinder Surprises and a few other chocolates for the adults (all were eaten before we left). After talking will all but the children’s teachers, the girls took us on a tour of the playground and surrounding area. They were playful and friendly. I did think that their eyes were going to bug out when I climbed up on some of their bars to play. They looked at me on the bars, looked at each other, giggled and kept playing. (Note: I may have to grow old, but that doesn’t mean I have to grow up). We had roughly an hour to spend with them and we did just that. Later we learned that we made a very positive impression on all concerned, even the girls.
The one thing I can tell you is that the inspector that helped us is going on study starting Monday so the only person that can sight the conclusion is the Mayor of Yalta. This may be a problem. But then, this is why we have facilitators and hope he can work some magic through the SDA or wherever. But if there is no one, then there is no one. We’re not sure how long this will slow the process but it could add another week or so. But this isn’t the whole story…
23Oct2008
Now, the rest of the story…
The school principle will not give her consent for 10 days, OUCH! That's official policy here and she wasn’t in the mood to negotiate. Our facilitator got the SDA involved and now it may be less, but definitely not this week. Hmmm, add a few more days to the process.
We got to visit the girls again. We brought them a large pear, some grapes and dried apricot. They shared the pear and ate some grapes. I’m not sure they knew what the dried apricots were and don’t think they even tried them. Then again, it was a huge pear.
We brought some Playdough and a friendship bracelet craft book with us. We played with the Playdough for awhile outside since it was warm and clear. We then went inside to view a picture book we made and make some bracelets. All was going well until some other children came into the room and became curious about us and what the girls had. Their mood immediately changed and they wanted to get out of there. We weren’t exactly sure what was going on but got the message. We wrapped up the day a little earlier than we had to but had a good visit just the same. It appeared that the girls were being possessive of our time and didn’t want to share us; fully understandable.
24Oct2008
We’re only allowed to visit the girls after 3pm because of class and only until 5pm so they have time for their homework. It’s not much time be we all try to make the best of it. Today we didn’t bring any other toys since Virginia played the softy and let them keep the goods from the previous day. I wasn’t going to leave them so that way we had them to use on another day. It turns out that this isn’t a problem there.
We took a walk and we gave them some Oreo cookies and pineapple juice. You would think that they would devour them but were pleasantly surprised. The older one offered her first cookie to Virginia and the second one to me. The younger girl saved two cookies, unbeknownst to us, until the end of our visit and shared them with us. I’ll go out on a limb and say they either have hearts of gold or know how to work us already. Either way, they’re doing a great job.
The girls wanted to play outside instead of inside so off to a playground we went. You’ll see this playground in pictures when I post the girls. The equipment is old and pretty dilapidated, but not so much that they couldn’t be used. Virginia and I even got on some of them and didn’t worry about our lives.
Of course language can be a problem, but not so much that we can’t communicate. It took a few tries before the girls ended up on the same side of the teeter-totter and I on the other side. We had the girls howling with laughter; it was the greatest thing to them. Then I didn’t just go up and down but would stop quickly half way and change directions when they weren’t expecting it. Up until then, we hadn’t heard them laugh. Plenty of smiles but no laughter. That’s all changed now. We played together on several other pieces of equipment and loved it.
By now, they had discovered Virginia’s cell phone camera. Oh my goodness!! The older girl would pose us or her sister, compose the shot with one knee on the ground for a different perspective. She looked like she was a professional photographer and actually does very well with picture taking. Guess she’ll need a camera of her own eventually. Both girls love taking pictures, especially of the wild kittens.
These girls are so gently with the kittens and they just love them. Whenever they see one, they have to go pick it up and cuddle it. Let’s not forget about the girls taking pictures of all these kittens. I prefer that they take lots of pictures because they’re old enough to remember this place and we hope their later memories won’t be bad memories.
There were some older children on the playground and some other younger boys. Everything was fine until….some of their peers, especially girls their own age showed up and they wanted to leave. I think that they know we’re interested in daughters and not sons so boys are not a threat as other girls are. We’ll play this game for awhile till they are more secure about us and we are more secure in the process.
They play a game here called knots. Several kids will all hold hands in a circle facing each other while one child stands away and doesn’t look. The children (in our case adults and child) will then move around, up and under other’s arms, to create a knot. The hands cannot be broken. The one out then has to figure out how to untangle the group without breaking any holds. It’s definitely harder than you think if you’ve never played it before.
We all had a good time. The girls called us Mama and Papa for the first time on the playground, probably because they didn’t remember our names. Just before leaving we were all standing around the taxi and having a good chat. The girls said that they wanted to be a part of our family and that feeling is mutual. We would love to get this process going so we can officially be a family sooner than later. They also mentioned that they want to take on American names which is kind of a bummer because they both have beautiful names. One of their names is actually one that we would have chosen to change it to if they had had an unacceptable name (for the U.S.). It’s a name that is a derivative of Virginia’s dearly departed Mom’s name. We need to see what the girls come up with.
Lastly, they even said they still had the toys we had left with them the previous day. As for the process, we’re still waiting. We have a Notary on Monday morning and still need everything else to get this process going.
One last thing. This area is known to have some problems with US adoptions. If the caretakers don’t like the parents to be, they’ll tell the children that we’re adopting them to sell their organs when we get to the states. You may laugh, but that’s enough for the children to decide they don’t want to be adopted and then the process stops. Luckily for us, everyone likes us.
Sorry for the long, long, long post. I had to play catch-up. There are two uses for this blog, only one of those being for you, the reader. The main reason is for a log of events in our journey to our daughters. And yes, we have found them. We can’t wait to post pictures and more info on the girls.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Yalta
Just a quick note since I only have 5 minutes left to update.
We have visited two beautiful older girls outside of Yalta. I'll give more details and pictures of the girls after we have our court date. They are definitely healthy and on track; we couldn't be happier.
Yalta is beautiful but internet access is really hard to find. I'll give a longer update on another day when I have time to pretype it. This area is a difficult one so we are not really sure of how long we will be here. In a few days, we will move out of Yalta to a place near the girls. I reckon that if finding internet access here is tough, then it will be really tough when we are staying in the village.
Gotta run but hope to give a long update before we leave Yalta. This place is worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
We have visited two beautiful older girls outside of Yalta. I'll give more details and pictures of the girls after we have our court date. They are definitely healthy and on track; we couldn't be happier.
Yalta is beautiful but internet access is really hard to find. I'll give a longer update on another day when I have time to pretype it. This area is a difficult one so we are not really sure of how long we will be here. In a few days, we will move out of Yalta to a place near the girls. I reckon that if finding internet access here is tough, then it will be really tough when we are staying in the village.
Gotta run but hope to give a long update before we leave Yalta. This place is worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Leaving Kiev
We are done for now here in Kiev. We are going to fly to Simperfol this evening and be in region tomorrow; we hope to then meet the children. This region isn't an easy one for foreign adoption. They never waive the 10 days and passports take awhile. We'll see if we have inet access once we are in region.
We also wanted to say thanks for all the comments and suggestions, they truly are appreciated.
We also wanted to say thanks for all the comments and suggestions, they truly are appreciated.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Appointment Time
19Oct2008
12 Hours and Counting
Just under 12 hours till our appointment at the SDA. Only those that have been here know how this feels. The realization keeps peeking in its head every now and then. For Virginia, think the big moment will come during the appointment when we actually will meet our children on paper (today at the SDA). For me, it’s been sneaking in at various times, ie just as we were taxing down the runway, I became overpowered by good emotions. Though I’ve known all along that this was going to happen, it’s taken a long time and sometime despair rears hi ugly head. Now, there is no despair, no question as to if our kids are here. FYI, it’s now only 2 hours and counting; I fell asleep at the keyboard last night when I started this update.
We spent the day wandering old Kiev. This is a beautiful town with lots of old, ornate buildings. We finally walked through the underground mall so I could look for an adapter for our computer. It’s just another mall, just very high priced by Ukraine standards. I’m sure that will be our last mall visit till we have our children, then very limited with them if we do go. We walked past the presidents residence, Chimera house (see pictures when I can post them) and then down to the Dnipro river. It was a leisurely day.
They close the street down in front of Independence Square on the weekends for various events. We were walking along and Irina pointed out a large bronze horse and asked if I was going to get a picture while on it. I asked her twice if I would get arrested and she said no, so up I climbed onto the statue for a picture. She didn’t think that I was serious and that I would actually climb up there. It did draw a number of chuckles from the crowd. I wasn’t too worried because you could see where quite a few people had actually been up there before.
As I mentioned before, we mostly eat at these Ukrainian cafeteria style places and we’ve been trying nearly everything. We’ve enjoyed most of what we’ve tried with few exceptions. The price is always right as well. We’ve been eating out 2 meals a day and it’s costing us about $12US per meal. And, of course, my eyes are always larger than my stomach and I’ve been eating way too much but enjoying all the new flavors. For those liking American fare, there are lots of McDonalds around. TGIF’s is right in Independence Square and they have a Papa John’s pizza in the food court of the mall.
We met the other couple that is trying to get out of here. We hope their passport comes today so they can finish the process. We had a wonderful time with them. We took their adorable little boy down to a park by the river and let him play while we talked up a storm. It’s always a pleasure to finally meet the people that you’ve been in communication with. We hope they have a quick and safe return to home.
20Oct2008
I gotta stop this now so I can get ready for our appointment.
Were back from our appointment and we made a selection of siblings from the Crimea region that we are going to visit. I won’t say much so we don’t jinx the process, but we feel good. We were shown several sets of siblings, most were healthy and older. The gal helping us in the SDA was very nice and helpful. Though I’ve read lots of blogs on the process, I was surprised by the process. I expected that they would have pulled several files of children and we would have selected from those. Instead, we got there and explained what we were looking for and she went through the books pulling files as we talked. We liked the first set she showed us but wanted to look at more. It seemed that she continued to show us files until our hour was running out and then we had to pick from those that were pulled. We selected the first set of siblings we were shown. This is just an observation on our process and it may be different for many families.
We may be leaving either tomorrow (Tuesday) evening or Wednesday morning for region. We’ll then spend some time with the children before the final decision is made. We’ll give more information once we know that the process is going to go through.
We found out that the orphanage is in a village. We don’t know yet whether we’ll be staying there or in a nearby city and drive back and forth each day. What this means is that we may not have internet access for periods of time. As it is, we probably won’t have access after today for a couple of days so don’t think we fallen off the face of Ukraine. We’ll update as soon as we can. We’ll be writing each day to track the events and then post all we have when we can.
My apologies for the possible lack of updating. I know when I was following other families during their travels, I was always waiting for their updates. I won’t post pictures of the kids until after the court date; at least that’s my intention.
Virginia wants to add that if you have problems sleeping on pillows other than your own, bring your own. She sleeps with a tempurpedic pillow at home and is having problems with the apartment pillows. Be prepared to do lots of walking. High heels are definitely the norm, but can be quite treacherous on the old cobblestone streets.
We spent the day today seeing some sites of sites of the city again. We visited one of the large churches here. Quite magnificent!! We took the underground and metro trains around town. The underground is quite deep and quite crowded. We also took some busses topside which weren’t nearly as crowded as the trains. The underground (subway) is quite clean as is Kiev at large. Overall, I’m quite impressed with Kiev and would like to spend more time here as a tourist. The driving is pretty fast for a city, but not as bad as I thought it would be. They don’t like to stop for pedestrians, but will when push comes to shove and you walk in front of them.
I now need some time to format the pictures for posting so I’m signing off for now. We’ll catch as catch can.
Some of our pictures can be viewed here:
http://www.pbase.com/higgmeister/adoption
We were hoping to check email from here but can't. We'll keep trying from another location. They won't let Vista systems connect in this cafe.
12 Hours and Counting
Just under 12 hours till our appointment at the SDA. Only those that have been here know how this feels. The realization keeps peeking in its head every now and then. For Virginia, think the big moment will come during the appointment when we actually will meet our children on paper (today at the SDA). For me, it’s been sneaking in at various times, ie just as we were taxing down the runway, I became overpowered by good emotions. Though I’ve known all along that this was going to happen, it’s taken a long time and sometime despair rears hi ugly head. Now, there is no despair, no question as to if our kids are here. FYI, it’s now only 2 hours and counting; I fell asleep at the keyboard last night when I started this update.
We spent the day wandering old Kiev. This is a beautiful town with lots of old, ornate buildings. We finally walked through the underground mall so I could look for an adapter for our computer. It’s just another mall, just very high priced by Ukraine standards. I’m sure that will be our last mall visit till we have our children, then very limited with them if we do go. We walked past the presidents residence, Chimera house (see pictures when I can post them) and then down to the Dnipro river. It was a leisurely day.
They close the street down in front of Independence Square on the weekends for various events. We were walking along and Irina pointed out a large bronze horse and asked if I was going to get a picture while on it. I asked her twice if I would get arrested and she said no, so up I climbed onto the statue for a picture. She didn’t think that I was serious and that I would actually climb up there. It did draw a number of chuckles from the crowd. I wasn’t too worried because you could see where quite a few people had actually been up there before.
As I mentioned before, we mostly eat at these Ukrainian cafeteria style places and we’ve been trying nearly everything. We’ve enjoyed most of what we’ve tried with few exceptions. The price is always right as well. We’ve been eating out 2 meals a day and it’s costing us about $12US per meal. And, of course, my eyes are always larger than my stomach and I’ve been eating way too much but enjoying all the new flavors. For those liking American fare, there are lots of McDonalds around. TGIF’s is right in Independence Square and they have a Papa John’s pizza in the food court of the mall.
We met the other couple that is trying to get out of here. We hope their passport comes today so they can finish the process. We had a wonderful time with them. We took their adorable little boy down to a park by the river and let him play while we talked up a storm. It’s always a pleasure to finally meet the people that you’ve been in communication with. We hope they have a quick and safe return to home.
20Oct2008
I gotta stop this now so I can get ready for our appointment.
Were back from our appointment and we made a selection of siblings from the Crimea region that we are going to visit. I won’t say much so we don’t jinx the process, but we feel good. We were shown several sets of siblings, most were healthy and older. The gal helping us in the SDA was very nice and helpful. Though I’ve read lots of blogs on the process, I was surprised by the process. I expected that they would have pulled several files of children and we would have selected from those. Instead, we got there and explained what we were looking for and she went through the books pulling files as we talked. We liked the first set she showed us but wanted to look at more. It seemed that she continued to show us files until our hour was running out and then we had to pick from those that were pulled. We selected the first set of siblings we were shown. This is just an observation on our process and it may be different for many families.
We may be leaving either tomorrow (Tuesday) evening or Wednesday morning for region. We’ll then spend some time with the children before the final decision is made. We’ll give more information once we know that the process is going to go through.
We found out that the orphanage is in a village. We don’t know yet whether we’ll be staying there or in a nearby city and drive back and forth each day. What this means is that we may not have internet access for periods of time. As it is, we probably won’t have access after today for a couple of days so don’t think we fallen off the face of Ukraine. We’ll update as soon as we can. We’ll be writing each day to track the events and then post all we have when we can.
My apologies for the possible lack of updating. I know when I was following other families during their travels, I was always waiting for their updates. I won’t post pictures of the kids until after the court date; at least that’s my intention.
Virginia wants to add that if you have problems sleeping on pillows other than your own, bring your own. She sleeps with a tempurpedic pillow at home and is having problems with the apartment pillows. Be prepared to do lots of walking. High heels are definitely the norm, but can be quite treacherous on the old cobblestone streets.
We spent the day today seeing some sites of sites of the city again. We visited one of the large churches here. Quite magnificent!! We took the underground and metro trains around town. The underground is quite deep and quite crowded. We also took some busses topside which weren’t nearly as crowded as the trains. The underground (subway) is quite clean as is Kiev at large. Overall, I’m quite impressed with Kiev and would like to spend more time here as a tourist. The driving is pretty fast for a city, but not as bad as I thought it would be. They don’t like to stop for pedestrians, but will when push comes to shove and you walk in front of them.
I now need some time to format the pictures for posting so I’m signing off for now. We’ll catch as catch can.
Some of our pictures can be viewed here:
http://www.pbase.com/higgmeister/adoption
We were hoping to check email from here but can't. We'll keep trying from another location. They won't let Vista systems connect in this cafe.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
First Impressions
18Oct2008
We are here!!!!
We don’t have any internet connectivity at our apartment so we'll be posting these from an Internet cafe. I’m not sure how I’m going to get photos into the blog, but I’ll do what I can to get you access to them.
Can you believe we were late for our flight. We arrived at JFK 3 hours early because we had to check out of our room by 1pm. We were working on our Russian in the food court and decided to get to the gate about 50 minutes before takeoff. We were thinking that boarding would be about Ѕ hours before takeoff but we were wrong. When we got to the gate, it was nearly deserted and they rushed us onto the plane. We finally got off the ground 45 minutes late, but not due to us leaving the gate early. The flight itinerary said it was a 10.5 hour flight and the pilot said it was only an 8 hour flight. We got to Kiev 1 hour early so no worries. FYI, we flew Delta.
Customs note for those waiting to travel: The limit for undeclared cash is now 10,000 Euros, not US dollars.
Anatoliy (our facilitator) and Irina (translator) met us at the airport and brought us to our apartment. There’s a convention in town so many of the apartments were already occupied. We’re in a studio apartment but we have a kitchen, washing machine and microwave. The price was quite reasonable for being several blocks from Independence square (Moose, google earth it).
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting the layout of downtown Kiev. Anatoliy stopped by the SDA and found out our appointment is at 10am on Monday (YEAH!!!!). (For family, Monday morning is an ideal time for the appointment because new children become available). We had breakfast at a cafeteria style Ukraine restaurant. Yum-Yum. I can tell borscht is going to be a regular with me because I really like the stuff. Even Virginia enjoyed the borscht which she didn’t like at our hometown Moscow Deli. Then again, this was much better (not just accounting for the location). OK, I went on too much about the food, but it’s nearly always about the food.
Irina and us then spent a few hours walking to Independence Square, the underground mall and showed us a few sights. We walked in a large circle to do a little shopping. I brought a heavy jacket which is too warm for Kiev right now so I needed to pick up a lightweight jacket. It seems my lack of a jacket on a rather cool, overcast day was making our hosts a bit cold. Good news for us is that Irina will be with us throughout the journey. Both she and Anatoliy are very hospitable and we’re glad we have them both.
Since I didn’t think to bring my camera on our shopping trip, I’ll be a shutterbug tomorrow. We’re going to meet another couple that we’ve been in contact with as they process out. We’ll make more observations of Kiev when we have some pictures to go with it. This is already a bit long since we can’t even post it till tomorrow (Sunday) so I’ll sign off for now. Just imagine that this was just a quick update. Wait till I actually have something important to say…
We are here!!!!
We don’t have any internet connectivity at our apartment so we'll be posting these from an Internet cafe. I’m not sure how I’m going to get photos into the blog, but I’ll do what I can to get you access to them.
Can you believe we were late for our flight. We arrived at JFK 3 hours early because we had to check out of our room by 1pm. We were working on our Russian in the food court and decided to get to the gate about 50 minutes before takeoff. We were thinking that boarding would be about Ѕ hours before takeoff but we were wrong. When we got to the gate, it was nearly deserted and they rushed us onto the plane. We finally got off the ground 45 minutes late, but not due to us leaving the gate early. The flight itinerary said it was a 10.5 hour flight and the pilot said it was only an 8 hour flight. We got to Kiev 1 hour early so no worries. FYI, we flew Delta.
Customs note for those waiting to travel: The limit for undeclared cash is now 10,000 Euros, not US dollars.
Anatoliy (our facilitator) and Irina (translator) met us at the airport and brought us to our apartment. There’s a convention in town so many of the apartments were already occupied. We’re in a studio apartment but we have a kitchen, washing machine and microwave. The price was quite reasonable for being several blocks from Independence square (Moose, google earth it).
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting the layout of downtown Kiev. Anatoliy stopped by the SDA and found out our appointment is at 10am on Monday (YEAH!!!!). (For family, Monday morning is an ideal time for the appointment because new children become available). We had breakfast at a cafeteria style Ukraine restaurant. Yum-Yum. I can tell borscht is going to be a regular with me because I really like the stuff. Even Virginia enjoyed the borscht which she didn’t like at our hometown Moscow Deli. Then again, this was much better (not just accounting for the location). OK, I went on too much about the food, but it’s nearly always about the food.
Irina and us then spent a few hours walking to Independence Square, the underground mall and showed us a few sights. We walked in a large circle to do a little shopping. I brought a heavy jacket which is too warm for Kiev right now so I needed to pick up a lightweight jacket. It seems my lack of a jacket on a rather cool, overcast day was making our hosts a bit cold. Good news for us is that Irina will be with us throughout the journey. Both she and Anatoliy are very hospitable and we’re glad we have them both.
Since I didn’t think to bring my camera on our shopping trip, I’ll be a shutterbug tomorrow. We’re going to meet another couple that we’ve been in contact with as they process out. We’ll make more observations of Kiev when we have some pictures to go with it. This is already a bit long since we can’t even post it till tomorrow (Sunday) so I’ll sign off for now. Just imagine that this was just a quick update. Wait till I actually have something important to say…
Friday, October 17, 2008
On our way :)
Just a note for new readers. Here begins our travels to adopt our two children awaiting us in Ukraine. The previous portion of our blog is geared more towards pre-adoptive parents and contains our journey just to get to this part.
Well, our first segment of the trip was uneventful. We arrived in NYC at 11pm, baggage carousel was broken down for a spell and we finally got to our hotel at 1am. Two very tired people, even this morning.
There’s no time for any sightseeing and we even got a late checkout so we could rest a bit longer. Rest wouldn’t be so critical, but we didn’t get to bed till after 4am with only a few hours sleep before we had to be up and ready to travel. Yawn!!!
OK, so there isn’t much to report at this stage. I have to say we weren’t impressed with JFK. It took us awhile for Virginia to figure out where we needed to be for catching the hotel shuttle. We’re not looking forward to bringing two tired children as well as a couple of tired adults through here again, but that’s what we’ll do.
We take off today on a 4:20 flight from JFK to Kiev and will arrive Kiev at 9:05 Saturday morning. We are not going to use the VIP service because that would have run us $130 and figured well just hoof it. Our facilitator and an interpreter will meet us at the airport, from there we really don’t know what to expect. They’ll get us into an apartment, hopefully by Independence Square so we can do some shopping.
We did take others advice about packing light…well, kind of. Our necessities take up a carryon, small suitcase and light garment bag. We have a large, heavy suitcase filled with kid’s cloths (thanks Claudia) and toys. Luckily, most this stuff will stay in Ukraine at the orphanage.
Again, we hope to update the blog daily, but that will depend on our Internet access.
Cheers All.
Thanks Sis, Sis and Moose for helping us get ready.
Well, our first segment of the trip was uneventful. We arrived in NYC at 11pm, baggage carousel was broken down for a spell and we finally got to our hotel at 1am. Two very tired people, even this morning.
There’s no time for any sightseeing and we even got a late checkout so we could rest a bit longer. Rest wouldn’t be so critical, but we didn’t get to bed till after 4am with only a few hours sleep before we had to be up and ready to travel. Yawn!!!
OK, so there isn’t much to report at this stage. I have to say we weren’t impressed with JFK. It took us awhile for Virginia to figure out where we needed to be for catching the hotel shuttle. We’re not looking forward to bringing two tired children as well as a couple of tired adults through here again, but that’s what we’ll do.
We take off today on a 4:20 flight from JFK to Kiev and will arrive Kiev at 9:05 Saturday morning. We are not going to use the VIP service because that would have run us $130 and figured well just hoof it. Our facilitator and an interpreter will meet us at the airport, from there we really don’t know what to expect. They’ll get us into an apartment, hopefully by Independence Square so we can do some shopping.
We did take others advice about packing light…well, kind of. Our necessities take up a carryon, small suitcase and light garment bag. We have a large, heavy suitcase filled with kid’s cloths (thanks Claudia) and toys. Luckily, most this stuff will stay in Ukraine at the orphanage.
Again, we hope to update the blog daily, but that will depend on our Internet access.
Cheers All.
Thanks Sis, Sis and Moose for helping us get ready.
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