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.