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
Thursday, October 30, 2008
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.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
It's 3 am, do you know where your kids are?
OK, I just couldn't help myself.
It's nearly 3 am and I'm still not asleep. Just got done looking thought about 4000 photos (digital) to pick a few for a photo book/scrapbook that we can show the children. We still need to take a few pictures around the house for them as well. We picked up a scrapbooking program and it looks like it will do a nice job of putting our digital pictures into a format that is interesting. Of course it will take some nudges from us to get it looking the way we want it.
We have two days to go and still have a house to clean, clothes to wash and loads of junk to move from the garage to our now completed shed so we can park our car in the garage while we are gone.
We are nearly done collecting goods for the trip. Tonight, we went shopping for a few items and picked up 3 jars of peanut butter (not for us, but to give away while there), a playdough kit with plenty of extra playdough and some other little toys. We figure whatever toys/games we take, we will leave with the kids that have to stay behind; just a little something for them.
It's hard to believe that the time has actually come, or nearly so. We've been working towards this for quite some time. In the mid 90's, we were stationed in Germany and looked into adoption while there, but couldn't even come close to affording it on military pay. When we got settled into civilian life in 2000, we started a local adoption. To make a long story short, we got lost in the paper shuffle as did many others which made us look overseas for children. After looking at many different countries, Ukraine tugged at our hearts the most; we also liked the process of Ukraine over any of the other countries. I know, it sounds wierd that someone would want to go blind, but after the failed local adoption, we didn't want to attach to a piece of paper and video just to have the children possibly not be adoptable. With Ukraine, we will see and learn about our children a day or so before we meet them. Emotionally, we both feel it's easier on us this way. And now, all the waiting is nearly done; the waiting has to be some of the hardest parts of this journey.
We've been pretty open about our adoption and most people react very positivily to it. We've had numerous individuals and businesses help us in getting things done. I believe that being open about the adoption has helped us get things done quicker and easier. If we were to ever do this again, I think we would be just as open as we've been about this adoption.
Yes, we have preconceptions of some of the things we would like to see. We openly discuss these with family and friends and of course their responses are as varied as there are colors in a rainbow. We might not always agree with their suggestions, but we listen and keep them in mind because at this point we just don't know... We're on a train that has no track; it'll be interesting to see where we end up at the end of the day. We are both positive and excited about the impending changes to our lives.
It's now well after 3 am and it's time to close these tired eyes. Sorry for the lack of information in this post, it's just the musings of a tired and excited PAP. Good Night :)
It's nearly 3 am and I'm still not asleep. Just got done looking thought about 4000 photos (digital) to pick a few for a photo book/scrapbook that we can show the children. We still need to take a few pictures around the house for them as well. We picked up a scrapbooking program and it looks like it will do a nice job of putting our digital pictures into a format that is interesting. Of course it will take some nudges from us to get it looking the way we want it.
We have two days to go and still have a house to clean, clothes to wash and loads of junk to move from the garage to our now completed shed so we can park our car in the garage while we are gone.
We are nearly done collecting goods for the trip. Tonight, we went shopping for a few items and picked up 3 jars of peanut butter (not for us, but to give away while there), a playdough kit with plenty of extra playdough and some other little toys. We figure whatever toys/games we take, we will leave with the kids that have to stay behind; just a little something for them.
It's hard to believe that the time has actually come, or nearly so. We've been working towards this for quite some time. In the mid 90's, we were stationed in Germany and looked into adoption while there, but couldn't even come close to affording it on military pay. When we got settled into civilian life in 2000, we started a local adoption. To make a long story short, we got lost in the paper shuffle as did many others which made us look overseas for children. After looking at many different countries, Ukraine tugged at our hearts the most; we also liked the process of Ukraine over any of the other countries. I know, it sounds wierd that someone would want to go blind, but after the failed local adoption, we didn't want to attach to a piece of paper and video just to have the children possibly not be adoptable. With Ukraine, we will see and learn about our children a day or so before we meet them. Emotionally, we both feel it's easier on us this way. And now, all the waiting is nearly done; the waiting has to be some of the hardest parts of this journey.
We've been pretty open about our adoption and most people react very positivily to it. We've had numerous individuals and businesses help us in getting things done. I believe that being open about the adoption has helped us get things done quicker and easier. If we were to ever do this again, I think we would be just as open as we've been about this adoption.
Yes, we have preconceptions of some of the things we would like to see. We openly discuss these with family and friends and of course their responses are as varied as there are colors in a rainbow. We might not always agree with their suggestions, but we listen and keep them in mind because at this point we just don't know... We're on a train that has no track; it'll be interesting to see where we end up at the end of the day. We are both positive and excited about the impending changes to our lives.
It's now well after 3 am and it's time to close these tired eyes. Sorry for the lack of information in this post, it's just the musings of a tired and excited PAP. Good Night :)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Stressed to the MAX
Less than a week to go and we are nearly there. We're leaving on the 16th and will arrive in Kiev on the morning of the 18th. There are so many small things to put into place when the length of travel is this long. It seems like as we get some things checked off our list, new ones crop up.
As for the actual trip, we have most of what we need (and then some) but just need to organize it and get it packed. It took me several weeks to acquire all the monies in clean bills. We back with a small credit union and they don't have control over what bills they receive from other institutions. They were helpful in that they would order the money for us and presort through it for the good 100's, but it still took longer than expected to get all that we were going to take.
Though other couples didn't have any problems carrying all that cash, we feel very uncomfortable about it. I'm not sure what other options we have so we'll do what everyone else has done.
So, with the 20th nearly upon us, do we feel ready? No...and YES!! Could we spend more time with the minute details here, sure, but then again they never end. It's been a long time in coming and we are more than ready to get into this. We are very excited, not only with the adoption, but the travel as well. I would love to have more time to work on our Russian, but I figure we'll get along fine. As a last minute purchase, we picked up an iTravl translator from Ectaco. We'll let you all know if the purchase was worth it. We're hoping it will be of use with the children once we get home as well as our travels. Knowing the luck we've had so far, we'll probably end up in a Ukrainian speaking region :).
Not much else to report on but just going crazy with excitement and stressing over the small stuff. I do promise to update this on a near daily basis while we are travelling. It's our link to family and friends. I hope to post lots of pictues.
Until next post, have a wonderful day.
Chris and Virginia
As for the actual trip, we have most of what we need (and then some) but just need to organize it and get it packed. It took me several weeks to acquire all the monies in clean bills. We back with a small credit union and they don't have control over what bills they receive from other institutions. They were helpful in that they would order the money for us and presort through it for the good 100's, but it still took longer than expected to get all that we were going to take.
Though other couples didn't have any problems carrying all that cash, we feel very uncomfortable about it. I'm not sure what other options we have so we'll do what everyone else has done.
So, with the 20th nearly upon us, do we feel ready? No...and YES!! Could we spend more time with the minute details here, sure, but then again they never end. It's been a long time in coming and we are more than ready to get into this. We are very excited, not only with the adoption, but the travel as well. I would love to have more time to work on our Russian, but I figure we'll get along fine. As a last minute purchase, we picked up an iTravl translator from Ectaco. We'll let you all know if the purchase was worth it. We're hoping it will be of use with the children once we get home as well as our travels. Knowing the luck we've had so far, we'll probably end up in a Ukrainian speaking region :).
Not much else to report on but just going crazy with excitement and stressing over the small stuff. I do promise to update this on a near daily basis while we are travelling. It's our link to family and friends. I hope to post lots of pictues.
Until next post, have a wonderful day.
Chris and Virginia
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