Not much new for this post. Come to find out that they will allow us to upload a file to one of their systems for a fee. I may just do this next Monday when we'll be back in Yalta to pick up the court decree.
We've also been busy taking some video of the girl playing through one of my camera's. It's not the best quality but you should have seem them when they got to watch themselves on the screen. I need to see if I can get it to play on the TV so they can say the've been on TV :). I'll get some of these posted once we get home. I'll make a DVD for family afar so you can put sound to the faces until we see you all.
Moose, I hope you've been working out. Virginia says she sees a difference in my bicepts from the time we got here because of all the playing with the girls. Also, brush up on whatever Russian you can because they will not know much of any English.
For those about to travel, we have used a travel phrase translator and it has been VERY useful. Then again, our girls can spell, somewhat, and they like to use it when actions don't get their point across.
Running out of time so until next Monday,
Cheers all and enjoy life,
Chris and Virginia
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pictures of the Girls
Hi All,
Well, I've tried to post here from my site but these cafe computers are too much junk for me to use reasonably. There are three pictures posted to my photo site on the right hand link.
The first one is of the four of us on Day one shortly after we met. The other two are of them on the Yalta waterfront. The only way I got these shots posted was by pulling them from an email message I had sent awhile ago. So for now, no more pictures until I find another internet cafe. There is supposed to be one in Alupka but is run out of someone's apartment and I haven't found it yet.
What news since I last posted...
We are on day 4 of our 10 day wait. For those not in the know, it's not totally official until we pick up the papers on Monday from the court. The court has granted us these children but until the 10 days are up, we don't have the paperwork.
Both girls are doing great and want to get out of here and start their new life. It's hard for them to understand why, when the court has given us the go, for them to still be at the Internat. Each day we have to tell them they have to go back and they really don't want to.
It looks like we'll have to process the passports through Simperofol but we are looking at staying in Alupka. We haven't asked if it's alright for the girls to still go to school while we are waiting for the passports. We will have the girls in our flat and have them go to school each day, if allowed. We hope to take one day and sightsee with the girls. Also, there is supposed to be a play or something like that that we have been invited to but dont' know when.
We are haning in there. Time is dragging slowly for us and we are ready to complete this process. For travel sake, I'm in no hurry to get home but want to get the girls into a steady environment ASAP.
We showed the girls pictures of Virginia's brother's wedding. They are excited to meet the family. They use the word "Class" to refer to something cool or classy. They kept using the word when seeing all the cousins they have. So, Bill, any plans in the making for this holiday season. We know the situation and we're there ourselves.
We sent away for plane tickets for the girls today so we are hoping that the 9th will be on target. If not, this is going to get expensive real fast. I've been keeping a log on our computer for their memory book, just no way to post it here, for now.
Hope all is well with the world and all is going well here.
Once again, we wanted to say thanks for the comments and emails as they do mean a lot to us.
Cheers from Yalta...still,
Chris and Virginia
Well, I've tried to post here from my site but these cafe computers are too much junk for me to use reasonably. There are three pictures posted to my photo site on the right hand link.
The first one is of the four of us on Day one shortly after we met. The other two are of them on the Yalta waterfront. The only way I got these shots posted was by pulling them from an email message I had sent awhile ago. So for now, no more pictures until I find another internet cafe. There is supposed to be one in Alupka but is run out of someone's apartment and I haven't found it yet.
What news since I last posted...
We are on day 4 of our 10 day wait. For those not in the know, it's not totally official until we pick up the papers on Monday from the court. The court has granted us these children but until the 10 days are up, we don't have the paperwork.
Both girls are doing great and want to get out of here and start their new life. It's hard for them to understand why, when the court has given us the go, for them to still be at the Internat. Each day we have to tell them they have to go back and they really don't want to.
It looks like we'll have to process the passports through Simperofol but we are looking at staying in Alupka. We haven't asked if it's alright for the girls to still go to school while we are waiting for the passports. We will have the girls in our flat and have them go to school each day, if allowed. We hope to take one day and sightsee with the girls. Also, there is supposed to be a play or something like that that we have been invited to but dont' know when.
We are haning in there. Time is dragging slowly for us and we are ready to complete this process. For travel sake, I'm in no hurry to get home but want to get the girls into a steady environment ASAP.
We showed the girls pictures of Virginia's brother's wedding. They are excited to meet the family. They use the word "Class" to refer to something cool or classy. They kept using the word when seeing all the cousins they have. So, Bill, any plans in the making for this holiday season. We know the situation and we're there ourselves.
We sent away for plane tickets for the girls today so we are hoping that the 9th will be on target. If not, this is going to get expensive real fast. I've been keeping a log on our computer for their memory book, just no way to post it here, for now.
Hope all is well with the world and all is going well here.
Once again, we wanted to say thanks for the comments and emails as they do mean a lot to us.
Cheers from Yalta...still,
Chris and Virginia
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Court Update
First, thanks for all the support, prayers and good thoughts.
We had court today and I'd like to introduce:
Olena Angela Higgins (The Older) and
Alexandra (Sasha) Cassandra Higgins (The Younger)
The girls picked their middle names from a list we supplied and they decided to keep their first names. The younger one goes by Sasha.
Court went well today and we don't expect any problems with the 10 day wait period since these girls have no family. The town we are in is Alupka which is near Yalta and is quite beautiful.
We may have a lead on an Internet Cafe in Alupka so I'll post more from there.
Moose, will you post two of the pictures I sent you to my photo site. I'll email you with the login info. The pictures I want are the four of us on our first day and the one with the two girls laughing together.
I'll post more pictures when I can get real access.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virginia...Proud Parents
We had court today and I'd like to introduce:
Olena Angela Higgins (The Older) and
Alexandra (Sasha) Cassandra Higgins (The Younger)
The girls picked their middle names from a list we supplied and they decided to keep their first names. The younger one goes by Sasha.
Court went well today and we don't expect any problems with the 10 day wait period since these girls have no family. The town we are in is Alupka which is near Yalta and is quite beautiful.
We may have a lead on an Internet Cafe in Alupka so I'll post more from there.
Moose, will you post two of the pictures I sent you to my photo site. I'll email you with the login info. The pictures I want are the four of us on our first day and the one with the two girls laughing together.
I'll post more pictures when I can get real access.
Love and miss you all,
Chris and Virginia...Proud Parents
Monday, November 10, 2008
11 Nov Update
Hi All,
My posts will be smaller and I won't be able to upload pictures until we find another internet cafe. This one no longer allows us to use thumbdrives or access to CD drives or anything. We are highly bummed out about this because we need to get access to programs and such but can't get to them now. Sigh, anyway...
We have our hearing date for this Thursday. We hope we can get our court date the same day so we can then start the 10 day wait. The 10 days ends on Sunday we we'll get the court decree on Monday the 24th. We then need the new birth certs from their town but Monday is reserved for death certificates so we won't get them till Tuesday. Tuesday the 25th we'll apply for the passport and have to wait about 5 working days +-, then off to Kiev for physicals and embassy work which could take another 3 or so days. God willing, we just may be able to make our plane itenerary on the 9th and home on the 11th. We need all the prayers and positive thoughts we can get.
We don't know if it made the news there, but the American woman who adopted a 12yr. girl made the prime time news. This was not a good thing because the girl got scared, started screaming and decided she didn't want to go jsut before boarding the plane. After checking the documents, it appears that the court decree was in error. It stated that her brother could not be found but the authorities found him on the same day this all happened. The mother then decided that she didn't want this child because she was a problem child. You have to wonder why this woman even decided to adopt this girl if she thought she was a problem child. The child is back into the shelter and the woman is still here in Ukraine. You have to wonder now what the judges are going to think when they make their final decisions. The adoption was legal and all the paperwork was in order except that the brother was easily found after the fact. We hope that this has no effect on us or those coming after. Each thing like this puts international adoption in bad light and especially Americans adopting.
It seems that where the girls are at is a standard Internat, not what we call a boarding school. Our translator was told by another American couple that is was better to use "boarding school" instead of Internat so that's where my comfusion came in. I asked our translator to explain the difference and we came to understand that Internat is the preferred use by Ukrainians and us as well. For those not familiar, this is a standard Orphanage for older children. It's a combination of true orphans such as our girls and those who can't afford their children at home so the state takes care of them.
So that's it for now. I had a much longer post of dailies but can no longer get it posted from this cafe so we'll be looking for another.
Ta-Ta for now,
Chris and Virginia
My posts will be smaller and I won't be able to upload pictures until we find another internet cafe. This one no longer allows us to use thumbdrives or access to CD drives or anything. We are highly bummed out about this because we need to get access to programs and such but can't get to them now. Sigh, anyway...
We have our hearing date for this Thursday. We hope we can get our court date the same day so we can then start the 10 day wait. The 10 days ends on Sunday we we'll get the court decree on Monday the 24th. We then need the new birth certs from their town but Monday is reserved for death certificates so we won't get them till Tuesday. Tuesday the 25th we'll apply for the passport and have to wait about 5 working days +-, then off to Kiev for physicals and embassy work which could take another 3 or so days. God willing, we just may be able to make our plane itenerary on the 9th and home on the 11th. We need all the prayers and positive thoughts we can get.
We don't know if it made the news there, but the American woman who adopted a 12yr. girl made the prime time news. This was not a good thing because the girl got scared, started screaming and decided she didn't want to go jsut before boarding the plane. After checking the documents, it appears that the court decree was in error. It stated that her brother could not be found but the authorities found him on the same day this all happened. The mother then decided that she didn't want this child because she was a problem child. You have to wonder why this woman even decided to adopt this girl if she thought she was a problem child. The child is back into the shelter and the woman is still here in Ukraine. You have to wonder now what the judges are going to think when they make their final decisions. The adoption was legal and all the paperwork was in order except that the brother was easily found after the fact. We hope that this has no effect on us or those coming after. Each thing like this puts international adoption in bad light and especially Americans adopting.
It seems that where the girls are at is a standard Internat, not what we call a boarding school. Our translator was told by another American couple that is was better to use "boarding school" instead of Internat so that's where my comfusion came in. I asked our translator to explain the difference and we came to understand that Internat is the preferred use by Ukrainians and us as well. For those not familiar, this is a standard Orphanage for older children. It's a combination of true orphans such as our girls and those who can't afford their children at home so the state takes care of them.
So that's it for now. I had a much longer post of dailies but can no longer get it posted from this cafe so we'll be looking for another.
Ta-Ta for now,
Chris and Virginia
Thursday, November 6, 2008
3 Nov - 5 Nov Update
3 Nov 2008
New Pictures Posted. Just a few more that I scraped up, nothing really new.
Today started out just as most of them do when we go to Yalta. We started the morning with a cup of java and something to eat. Nothing overly exciting, but a nice routine all the same. While we drank our coffee, we received a call from our facilitator in Kiev. It appears that the Notary made a mistake in the paperwork and we needed to have it redone. Luckily, we were across the street from the Notary and they acknowledged their mistake and redid the paperwork ASAP.
Now we had two problems. First, we needed to get the paperwork to Kiev ASAP so our facilitator can submit it to the SDA. The SDA wouldn’t accept a fax while this paper was in route so we needed to find the fastest way, which there really isn’t any from here. A courier service would take two days from here. There isn’t any railway or airport near here so everything must go though Simferopol where it can catch an overnight train or fly. The second problem was that Irina was waiting to speak to the judge so she couldn’t leave to get the paperwork to Simferopol. Kind of a catch 22; if she left to get the paper on the train, then she may miss the opportunity to speak to a judge. She was told to wait for the secretary’s call to arrange the meeting so she was stuck. To make a long story short, she paid the court fees and was told not to call the secretary, the secretary will call her. She got a ride to Simferopol and got the paper on the next flight.
As of Monday afternoon, we are on our own. Irina went home with our blessings since there is nothing more for her to do here. She’ll wait till she hears from the court secretary or until Monday when she will be here anyways to push the process. The secretary knows we want a Monday court hearing. We feel comfortable enough to not need an interpreter with us all the time. Somehow, we are able to express our intentions and we get along just fine. Irina spent a fair bit of time giving us the ins and outs of where to shop and what to expect so thanks to here for our confidence.
We got back to our little town kind of late and only had about an hour to spend with the girls. Now that the girls are back in school, we get them for only two hours a day which is better than nothing at all. There is a small store (magazine) with nearly each large building and we take the girls to the closest to the school for some juice and anything else we may need. We then go to a playground that belongs to the building (think large tenement housing) to have some play time together. I noticed that the play gear was newly painted but the older one decided to sit on the swing though I motioned for her not to. The paint felt dry to the tough but was in fact still wet underneath. She loves her emerald green velour pants which now are both green and yellow on the behind. She still wears them though.
We haven’t had much time with any of the other kids here though my intentions were different before I got here. During fall break, there weren’t many kids in the school as most have families that picked them up for the week. During that time, the girls were still insecure and didn’t want any other kids, especially girls, around us. Now that schools is back in, we don’t have that much time with them and they monopolize our time (with our blessings). We try every couple of days to give them something that they can share with their friends. It’s just something that we can do for them and some of the other children.
We spent the night watching the new Horton movie we picked up. We hadn’t seen it yet so we thought we might preview it in English to see if it is appropriate for the girls. Who am I kidding, we love these movies and have been buying them for years. It’s a cute movie and we’ll probably enjoy watching it in Russian as well. Actually, we laughed pretty hard on some of the scenes. We also bought Ratatouille but my laptop won’t decode it so I’ll have to wait till I hack the DVD drive to play all regions. I’ve found that as long as you are using a digital connection to your display (all newer laptops are this way), they’ll play PAL encoded discs just fine as long as it will play the region. We also brought along a portable DVD player that I hacked to play all regions and it plays Ratatouille just fine. At first I thought the disc might be bad but luckily it isn’t. Now I’m looking for Disney’s “Song of the South” that we can’t get in the US. I do have a copy from Japan burned from an old Laser Disc. The quality isn’t bad, but a real DVD copy would be great and I just as soon have an official copy of it. If Disney would release it in the US, I’d buy it there. Enough of this topic but I can steer adoptive parents to be into the right direction for watching DVD’s on their laptops from valid purchases.
4 Nov 2008
We spent the day relaxing in the flat. We did some laundry by hand and put the sun to use. We have a heater that looks like a fan and generates twice the heat of the sun, or so it seems. Ever since Irina left, the weather has been cold and damp with a thick marine layer all day. The cloths hang from a rack in our living room with the heater on them and they take several hours to dry, but they dry. In Kiev, we used a small heater fan to dry our cloths overnight and here we bring in the sun with us. Both ways, we have dry cloths without having to wait several days for them to dry.
We visited the girls (show surprise) but the older one was feeling a bit under the weather and the younger one was sleeping. We took the older one out for a short time to the store and then to the school play ground just for a place to visit. We had bought her and her sister a stick of artificial crab which they love. The older didn’t eat her sister’s crab, but she wanted more. She did the begging thing, looking up at me and saying “pleeeeze Papi” over and over (good thing she hasn’t learned to give puppy-dog eyes, then I’d be in trouble; Danielle and Annabelle, please don’t teach them) to no avail. Virginia stood by me and we had already told her that I’d buy two the next day for them since they were pretty small. She persisted and did the pout thing and wouldn’t get up off the ground on her own. Some of this was playing and some was because she wasn’t feeling well so I just picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and carried her up the stairs. Of course she laughed the whole way and asked me to put her down so I did. It’s hard to be pouty when you are laughing so hard. Then she decided just how long I’d hold out and turned her back to us and just stood there as we walked towards her dorm. I then explained that it was time for us to go and she came along without any problems. I find it comforting that they are testing as this is normal behavior and appropriate. Unfortunately for them (or so they will think), but Virginia and I hold similar ideas on child rearing and present a united front which we will need with these two cuties. I do have to say that the testing is a minor part of our visits and most of the time is spent cuddling, playing and overall a positive experience. These girls were loved and bonded with their bio family; that is apparent.
5 Nov 2008
Today we ventured into Yalta by ourselves. We got a late start so we were only able to do a few things, the Internet cafй was one of them only after our java and snack. I checked out a machine for 2 hours and Virginia for one hour and we still ran out of time. (Grandpa, go ahead and send your questions to my higgmeister email address as I check this one whenever I update the blog.) These machines are so slow; I type a paragraph and wait about a minute for the typing to appear on the screen. Thank goodness that I can touch type though I do have to go back and correct a few mistakes. For those getting our emails, please excuse the typos because I usually don’t have time to fix all the typos and only fix those that lose their meaning. Virginia doesn’t have this problem because she types much slower than myself (I think I’m about 70 +-words a minute) so maybe I should slow down. I could just write “Not much happened today”, but then I couldn’t waste your time reading these entries.
Today’s visit was a productive one. We brought them back to our flat and spent some time teaching them some English. Virginia worked with the younger one on nouns around the flat and she did very well. I worked with the older one on how to tell time with an analog clock, in English of course. She is sharp and picked it up very fast. We still need work but she understands the fundamentals and just needs practice. We’ll give her plenty of that. I don’t believe anyone has ever taught her how to tell time. They use a 24 hour clock here as in most of Europe but we made it though A.M and P.M. without too much problem.
As for the younger one, I thought she might have a harder time learning English than her sister, but I’m beginning to change my opinion on that. She too is picking it up very fast and both are saying phrases and words we haven’t even taught them. I think when we get to the states where mostly English is spoken, they will pick it up very fast. They want to learn and both are sponges. (Moose, have you found out anything on a Russian ESL for the girls yet, I don’t want their second language to be Spanish!) What’s funny is if they say a word in Russian and we don’t understand, they will try it in Ukrainian thinking we might understand. We were working on numbers today with the younger one and someone said three and she said quarto. Virginia asked if she spoke Russian or Italian and she giggled up a storm, then said Russian. They know I struggle with my Russian but you should have seen their eyes light up when I started counting very fast in Spanish. That’s nearly all I remember from my Spanish classes from many years ago.
After about an hour of English lessons, we ticked each other for quite a spell. From what we’ve seen so far, we think the girls are good natured and kind. They like their quiet time and they like their play time. As mentioned before, the younger one likes to be thrown into the air and rough-housed in general. When she’s tired Papi out she stops and well all calm down and do something quiet. In case I haven’t mentioned it in this post, we have a wonderful time with the girls and really enjoy their company. We all like each others company and it must show because the caregivers are always commenting on how we already look like a family. It’s probably because we already feel like a family even if the paperwork doesn’t say so. We’ve all become very close already.
We get calls each day from our stateside facilitator (Victoria) and our translator (Irina). Irina was a little surprised that we ventured into Yalta on our own. I would think it criminal to not venture out into this beautiful country and see some sights, with our without a translator. Our Ukrainian facilitator provided us a phone for our use so in a pinch we can call someone. I don’t feel threatened here and am feeling quite comfortable though I wish I could speak the language. It would make things a bit easier (i.e. We won’t take the girls into Yalta by ourselves even if we had permission just in case something goes awry). I’ve had times when I’ve been with one of the girls without the translator at hand, but that’s usually when we had to find a bathroom for one of the girls.
Some Observations:
For PAP, at least learn the alphabet so you can pronounce Russian or Ukrainian. I find that once I pronounce the word, it’s sound is similar to our English word. I couldn’t tell you what it is in the Cyrillic alphabet, but know what it is when sounded out. Russian/Ukrainian is hard for me to learn, but worth every bit of time spent. Now that we are here, It’s easier to pick it up since we are immersed in the language. I knew the alphabet before I came here and am glad I had gotten at least that far.
The people on the outside aren’t apparently friendly, but when engaged are very helpful. This is actually quite nice when one doesn’t know their language. As you pass people, they don’t expect you to acknowledge them or even make eye contact. I’ll hold open doors as I’m accustomed to and some people will make a low level Pazalus but usually if they do say something I can barely make it out. They aren’t rude, just guarded of strangers.
The women are petite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tiny women in my life. They aren’t tiny by their standards but are by ours. I’d say many are 5’0” – 5’3” and thin. Thin is definitely in, more so in Kiev than here. Looks play an important part here, I just don’t know how much. Most people are better dressed than our counterparts in the US. I dress in nice khakis and a nice shirt and I’ve been mistake for a local several times. I don’t feel like I stand out and Virginia wears nice slacks with a nice top and she doesn’t stand out either.
I almost forgot this little tidbit. When reading other blogs, they mentioned that people would try on cloths right there in the market street. They’ve taken their kids shopping for cloths and they’ll strip right there and try on the cloths. It’s even been written where women will try on tops right there. Now, I haven’t seen this, but I’ve experienced it. I need some blue jeans for playing with the girls. We weren’t sure of the size so I needed to try them on. I did step into the booth somewhat hidden by the table with jeans on them, but something I wouldn’t do in the states. Actually, I didn’t feel too out of place since it is quite normal here to do that. While I was changing, there were others coming up to the table looking for jeans and paid me no attention. Just another unique experience while here, one of many.
Another observation and then off to bed with me since it’s late. It’s all too common to see kids running around without any adults around, many by themselves. When I say kids, I’m talking about 7 years and up (maybe even younger but I’m being conservative). They are going about their business as is everyone else. With all the hype in the US, this would be considered child endangerment but it’s very passй here. Both girls and boys are dressed well. Boys as well as men wear their hair short and girls like their hair long, usually braided. Women wear both long and short hair here, all well kept. Our girls hair is getting long which makes me happy as I like long hair. I talked Virginia into letting her hair grow our and it’s beautiful.
Virginia is waiting for me to go to bed so I’m off. I’ll work some photos for posting before I go to sleep. I hope I can get them posted tomorrow. Not much new since we’ve fallen into this routine.
From a little town out of Yalta,
Chris and Virginia.
New Pictures Posted. Just a few more that I scraped up, nothing really new.
Today started out just as most of them do when we go to Yalta. We started the morning with a cup of java and something to eat. Nothing overly exciting, but a nice routine all the same. While we drank our coffee, we received a call from our facilitator in Kiev. It appears that the Notary made a mistake in the paperwork and we needed to have it redone. Luckily, we were across the street from the Notary and they acknowledged their mistake and redid the paperwork ASAP.
Now we had two problems. First, we needed to get the paperwork to Kiev ASAP so our facilitator can submit it to the SDA. The SDA wouldn’t accept a fax while this paper was in route so we needed to find the fastest way, which there really isn’t any from here. A courier service would take two days from here. There isn’t any railway or airport near here so everything must go though Simferopol where it can catch an overnight train or fly. The second problem was that Irina was waiting to speak to the judge so she couldn’t leave to get the paperwork to Simferopol. Kind of a catch 22; if she left to get the paper on the train, then she may miss the opportunity to speak to a judge. She was told to wait for the secretary’s call to arrange the meeting so she was stuck. To make a long story short, she paid the court fees and was told not to call the secretary, the secretary will call her. She got a ride to Simferopol and got the paper on the next flight.
As of Monday afternoon, we are on our own. Irina went home with our blessings since there is nothing more for her to do here. She’ll wait till she hears from the court secretary or until Monday when she will be here anyways to push the process. The secretary knows we want a Monday court hearing. We feel comfortable enough to not need an interpreter with us all the time. Somehow, we are able to express our intentions and we get along just fine. Irina spent a fair bit of time giving us the ins and outs of where to shop and what to expect so thanks to here for our confidence.
We got back to our little town kind of late and only had about an hour to spend with the girls. Now that the girls are back in school, we get them for only two hours a day which is better than nothing at all. There is a small store (magazine) with nearly each large building and we take the girls to the closest to the school for some juice and anything else we may need. We then go to a playground that belongs to the building (think large tenement housing) to have some play time together. I noticed that the play gear was newly painted but the older one decided to sit on the swing though I motioned for her not to. The paint felt dry to the tough but was in fact still wet underneath. She loves her emerald green velour pants which now are both green and yellow on the behind. She still wears them though.
We haven’t had much time with any of the other kids here though my intentions were different before I got here. During fall break, there weren’t many kids in the school as most have families that picked them up for the week. During that time, the girls were still insecure and didn’t want any other kids, especially girls, around us. Now that schools is back in, we don’t have that much time with them and they monopolize our time (with our blessings). We try every couple of days to give them something that they can share with their friends. It’s just something that we can do for them and some of the other children.
We spent the night watching the new Horton movie we picked up. We hadn’t seen it yet so we thought we might preview it in English to see if it is appropriate for the girls. Who am I kidding, we love these movies and have been buying them for years. It’s a cute movie and we’ll probably enjoy watching it in Russian as well. Actually, we laughed pretty hard on some of the scenes. We also bought Ratatouille but my laptop won’t decode it so I’ll have to wait till I hack the DVD drive to play all regions. I’ve found that as long as you are using a digital connection to your display (all newer laptops are this way), they’ll play PAL encoded discs just fine as long as it will play the region. We also brought along a portable DVD player that I hacked to play all regions and it plays Ratatouille just fine. At first I thought the disc might be bad but luckily it isn’t. Now I’m looking for Disney’s “Song of the South” that we can’t get in the US. I do have a copy from Japan burned from an old Laser Disc. The quality isn’t bad, but a real DVD copy would be great and I just as soon have an official copy of it. If Disney would release it in the US, I’d buy it there. Enough of this topic but I can steer adoptive parents to be into the right direction for watching DVD’s on their laptops from valid purchases.
4 Nov 2008
We spent the day relaxing in the flat. We did some laundry by hand and put the sun to use. We have a heater that looks like a fan and generates twice the heat of the sun, or so it seems. Ever since Irina left, the weather has been cold and damp with a thick marine layer all day. The cloths hang from a rack in our living room with the heater on them and they take several hours to dry, but they dry. In Kiev, we used a small heater fan to dry our cloths overnight and here we bring in the sun with us. Both ways, we have dry cloths without having to wait several days for them to dry.
We visited the girls (show surprise) but the older one was feeling a bit under the weather and the younger one was sleeping. We took the older one out for a short time to the store and then to the school play ground just for a place to visit. We had bought her and her sister a stick of artificial crab which they love. The older didn’t eat her sister’s crab, but she wanted more. She did the begging thing, looking up at me and saying “pleeeeze Papi” over and over (good thing she hasn’t learned to give puppy-dog eyes, then I’d be in trouble; Danielle and Annabelle, please don’t teach them) to no avail. Virginia stood by me and we had already told her that I’d buy two the next day for them since they were pretty small. She persisted and did the pout thing and wouldn’t get up off the ground on her own. Some of this was playing and some was because she wasn’t feeling well so I just picked her up and threw her over my shoulder and carried her up the stairs. Of course she laughed the whole way and asked me to put her down so I did. It’s hard to be pouty when you are laughing so hard. Then she decided just how long I’d hold out and turned her back to us and just stood there as we walked towards her dorm. I then explained that it was time for us to go and she came along without any problems. I find it comforting that they are testing as this is normal behavior and appropriate. Unfortunately for them (or so they will think), but Virginia and I hold similar ideas on child rearing and present a united front which we will need with these two cuties. I do have to say that the testing is a minor part of our visits and most of the time is spent cuddling, playing and overall a positive experience. These girls were loved and bonded with their bio family; that is apparent.
5 Nov 2008
Today we ventured into Yalta by ourselves. We got a late start so we were only able to do a few things, the Internet cafй was one of them only after our java and snack. I checked out a machine for 2 hours and Virginia for one hour and we still ran out of time. (Grandpa, go ahead and send your questions to my higgmeister email address as I check this one whenever I update the blog.) These machines are so slow; I type a paragraph and wait about a minute for the typing to appear on the screen. Thank goodness that I can touch type though I do have to go back and correct a few mistakes. For those getting our emails, please excuse the typos because I usually don’t have time to fix all the typos and only fix those that lose their meaning. Virginia doesn’t have this problem because she types much slower than myself (I think I’m about 70 +-words a minute) so maybe I should slow down. I could just write “Not much happened today”, but then I couldn’t waste your time reading these entries.
Today’s visit was a productive one. We brought them back to our flat and spent some time teaching them some English. Virginia worked with the younger one on nouns around the flat and she did very well. I worked with the older one on how to tell time with an analog clock, in English of course. She is sharp and picked it up very fast. We still need work but she understands the fundamentals and just needs practice. We’ll give her plenty of that. I don’t believe anyone has ever taught her how to tell time. They use a 24 hour clock here as in most of Europe but we made it though A.M and P.M. without too much problem.
As for the younger one, I thought she might have a harder time learning English than her sister, but I’m beginning to change my opinion on that. She too is picking it up very fast and both are saying phrases and words we haven’t even taught them. I think when we get to the states where mostly English is spoken, they will pick it up very fast. They want to learn and both are sponges. (Moose, have you found out anything on a Russian ESL for the girls yet, I don’t want their second language to be Spanish!) What’s funny is if they say a word in Russian and we don’t understand, they will try it in Ukrainian thinking we might understand. We were working on numbers today with the younger one and someone said three and she said quarto. Virginia asked if she spoke Russian or Italian and she giggled up a storm, then said Russian. They know I struggle with my Russian but you should have seen their eyes light up when I started counting very fast in Spanish. That’s nearly all I remember from my Spanish classes from many years ago.
After about an hour of English lessons, we ticked each other for quite a spell. From what we’ve seen so far, we think the girls are good natured and kind. They like their quiet time and they like their play time. As mentioned before, the younger one likes to be thrown into the air and rough-housed in general. When she’s tired Papi out she stops and well all calm down and do something quiet. In case I haven’t mentioned it in this post, we have a wonderful time with the girls and really enjoy their company. We all like each others company and it must show because the caregivers are always commenting on how we already look like a family. It’s probably because we already feel like a family even if the paperwork doesn’t say so. We’ve all become very close already.
We get calls each day from our stateside facilitator (Victoria) and our translator (Irina). Irina was a little surprised that we ventured into Yalta on our own. I would think it criminal to not venture out into this beautiful country and see some sights, with our without a translator. Our Ukrainian facilitator provided us a phone for our use so in a pinch we can call someone. I don’t feel threatened here and am feeling quite comfortable though I wish I could speak the language. It would make things a bit easier (i.e. We won’t take the girls into Yalta by ourselves even if we had permission just in case something goes awry). I’ve had times when I’ve been with one of the girls without the translator at hand, but that’s usually when we had to find a bathroom for one of the girls.
Some Observations:
For PAP, at least learn the alphabet so you can pronounce Russian or Ukrainian. I find that once I pronounce the word, it’s sound is similar to our English word. I couldn’t tell you what it is in the Cyrillic alphabet, but know what it is when sounded out. Russian/Ukrainian is hard for me to learn, but worth every bit of time spent. Now that we are here, It’s easier to pick it up since we are immersed in the language. I knew the alphabet before I came here and am glad I had gotten at least that far.
The people on the outside aren’t apparently friendly, but when engaged are very helpful. This is actually quite nice when one doesn’t know their language. As you pass people, they don’t expect you to acknowledge them or even make eye contact. I’ll hold open doors as I’m accustomed to and some people will make a low level Pazalus but usually if they do say something I can barely make it out. They aren’t rude, just guarded of strangers.
The women are petite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tiny women in my life. They aren’t tiny by their standards but are by ours. I’d say many are 5’0” – 5’3” and thin. Thin is definitely in, more so in Kiev than here. Looks play an important part here, I just don’t know how much. Most people are better dressed than our counterparts in the US. I dress in nice khakis and a nice shirt and I’ve been mistake for a local several times. I don’t feel like I stand out and Virginia wears nice slacks with a nice top and she doesn’t stand out either.
I almost forgot this little tidbit. When reading other blogs, they mentioned that people would try on cloths right there in the market street. They’ve taken their kids shopping for cloths and they’ll strip right there and try on the cloths. It’s even been written where women will try on tops right there. Now, I haven’t seen this, but I’ve experienced it. I need some blue jeans for playing with the girls. We weren’t sure of the size so I needed to try them on. I did step into the booth somewhat hidden by the table with jeans on them, but something I wouldn’t do in the states. Actually, I didn’t feel too out of place since it is quite normal here to do that. While I was changing, there were others coming up to the table looking for jeans and paid me no attention. Just another unique experience while here, one of many.
Another observation and then off to bed with me since it’s late. It’s all too common to see kids running around without any adults around, many by themselves. When I say kids, I’m talking about 7 years and up (maybe even younger but I’m being conservative). They are going about their business as is everyone else. With all the hype in the US, this would be considered child endangerment but it’s very passй here. Both girls and boys are dressed well. Boys as well as men wear their hair short and girls like their hair long, usually braided. Women wear both long and short hair here, all well kept. Our girls hair is getting long which makes me happy as I like long hair. I talked Virginia into letting her hair grow our and it’s beautiful.
Virginia is waiting for me to go to bed so I’m off. I’ll work some photos for posting before I go to sleep. I hope I can get them posted tomorrow. Not much new since we’ve fallen into this routine.
From a little town out of Yalta,
Chris and Virginia.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Short update
5 Nov 2008
I'm behind again so I'll do a longer detailed post when next I can visit the Internet Cafe.
We still don't have a court date. The gatekeeper to the judges will not allow anyone, including other contacts and facilitators to see a judge. She'll contact Irina this week but told Irina not to call her till next week. Our papers are in Kiev and should be ready for court this week; we hope we can get an early court date next week. We've been in this process now for 2 weeks and thought the people are helpful, they do things on their own timetable. No white envelopes helping here. Our driver has contacts as well and he was shut down just as we were. The 10 day wait period is almost never waived here so we aren't holding our breaths for that, but I really want to try for the waiver. We've been with the girls now for 2 weeks going on three once we have court so I hope the judge takes that into account.
As for names and pictures, we will be waiting until after the wait period. Once I explain, it will all become clear, but that's for later.
Our spirits are up though Virginia really wants to be home. I want this part of the process over so we can move forward. We're bonding well and the longer we stay here, the tougher it gets. The honeymoon is over but the girls still are not ours so it's hard to start parenting with the current situation. We do what we can, but our hands are tied and there are still so many influences here that get in the way.
Gotta run so cheers for now.
Chris
I'm behind again so I'll do a longer detailed post when next I can visit the Internet Cafe.
We still don't have a court date. The gatekeeper to the judges will not allow anyone, including other contacts and facilitators to see a judge. She'll contact Irina this week but told Irina not to call her till next week. Our papers are in Kiev and should be ready for court this week; we hope we can get an early court date next week. We've been in this process now for 2 weeks and thought the people are helpful, they do things on their own timetable. No white envelopes helping here. Our driver has contacts as well and he was shut down just as we were. The 10 day wait period is almost never waived here so we aren't holding our breaths for that, but I really want to try for the waiver. We've been with the girls now for 2 weeks going on three once we have court so I hope the judge takes that into account.
As for names and pictures, we will be waiting until after the wait period. Once I explain, it will all become clear, but that's for later.
Our spirits are up though Virginia really wants to be home. I want this part of the process over so we can move forward. We're bonding well and the longer we stay here, the tougher it gets. The honeymoon is over but the girls still are not ours so it's hard to start parenting with the current situation. We do what we can, but our hands are tied and there are still so many influences here that get in the way.
Gotta run so cheers for now.
Chris
1 Nov - 2 Nov Update
1 Nov 2008
We picked up the girls at 9am to have breakfast with us before we headed for Yalta. Another beautiful day on the Black Sea, sunny and warm. We had to make the girls take a sweater because they thought it was too warm to wear them, and it was; they were carried most of the day. Virginia and Irina took the girls to get jackets and some more socks and I went to the Internet cafй to post yesterday’s blog.
It’s too expensive to take a cab to and from Yalta all the time so we took the bus today. It cost us 18 rph ($2.50) for four of us to go to Yalta and it’s about a 40 minute ride; not too bad for the price. The girls were busy identifying places they’ve been along the way. I guess they weren’t restricted to home their entire lives. They travel well and behave themselves.
Actually, I think we are definitely in a honeymoon period as they are still watching their own behavior. We’ve had them many days for all day and they still haven’t had a fight. For sisters living together I find this either incredibly amazing or more likely on their best behavior. We’ve seen them when they are tired and they still haven’t been at each other. Oh, sure they pick on each other a little, but nothing dramatic. Not sure how long this will last, but we’ll take as much of it as we can. They’re pretty comfortable with us now so I would assume we should start seeing some behaviors from them. The younger one will keep us busy trying to keep up with her, but nothing out of the ordinary for girls their age. The older one has her “stuff” together and helps keep her younger sister in line. It appears it’s been this way for quite some time.
One of the older ones friends met us when we picked them up this morning. She brought a few candies with her and gave them to the older one to give to us. (Note: I hope we get fast court date because I’m tired of having to write older or younger one all the time.) We bought some candy for the girls to give to their friends. Each day we take them back or pick them up, it’s hard to not take some of the others with us. It breaks our hearts seeing these kids there and their prospects are rather slim. We’re only the second family this school year to adopt so it’s not a regular one. The last family was Italian so a lot of the kids like to say Ciao. We also gave some beanie babies to the girls for their special friends. They’ll have several opportunities to give these to their special friends.
We did get a good laugh in today. Earlier, they asked Irina if all the games and such in our flat are going to stay with the school when we all leave. Irina said yes and then they asked if there were any more games where they were going. It seems that they thought all the games we have were there and there wasn’t any back home. Irina told them that there were plenty of games at home that they will be able to play with and they gave a sigh of relief. It’s sad to think that they would think this, their world is definitely smaller than those reading this.
It still amazes me how much these kids share with so little to call their own. They like to share with each other as well as with us. The older one has some insight into bonding and is always sharing her food with us. She’ll offer up her last bite, sweets, meat, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotten to the point where we are sharing all our foods and drinks. Neither of them tries to hog the food. It’s getting to the point where we feel like we’ve been a family for quite awhile. It all seems too good to be true but God put these girls in our hands and us in theirs so we feel it’s meant to be. Virginia and I waited 10 years for the “other shoe to fall” because things were just too good between us for it to be real and after 18 years it’s still all good. We’re not going to count on the “shoe to fall” since we both feel this is right.
The girls keep asking when they are leaving and coming home with us. Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure and the last post has the projected time.
Tonight, we got invited to go to a wedding tomorrow. All of us are invited and quite excited to see this first hand. The girls don’t know about it yet but they’ll find our first thing in the morning. I hope I can get some nice pictures of the wedding and the girls all decked out for this.
This was supposed to be a short post since today was a rather uneventful day (compared with the others). Until tomorrow.
2 Nov 2008
Today is the last day of the girls fall break. We’ve fallen into a pattern of picking up the girls in the morning, having something to eat and then doing something for the day. Today, we went to a wedding and then to a local land mark (Palace).
The wedding was of close friends of our landlady and was held in a Russian Orthodox church. The ceremony had many elements of familiar symbolism that I’ve seen before, though not sure where. It was a small ceremony, quite solemn for a wedding and very interesting to see. We feel privileged and thankful to have been a part of the ceremony. At the end, the priest blessed our adoption.
Since Papi wasn’t feeling good, I stayed in our flat while all the girls went to a palace and park for the day. I guess the girls have finally felt comfortable around Virginia and Irina that they finally started acting like I would have expected. They’ve spent so much time together that I could see it building for several days, but I wasn’t there when it finally came forth. The girls got into a fight with each other and were cranky most of the afternoon. I didn’t see any of this and they watched their P’s and Q’s when they finally got home to where Papi is. I don’t know if they’re still on their guard with me or whether it’s a cultural thing. Virginia had to tell me all about it and I could see their tiredness and restlessness.
They are now at the point of testing the boundaries which is what I’ve been waiting for. I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen but now is as good as any. I feel this is the beginning of us fitting in together as a whole family and they will learn the roles each of us plays. They are already trying to go around one of us to the other when we say no but we are united and stand together. They grumble a bit then move on. This is progress and they’ll learn that what one says, the other will back up. Today was the roughest so far and I expect there to be many more when all they have is us and themselves without all these other distractions.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Yalta while the girls are in school. We have a few things we want to shop for and Irina is going to try and speak with our Judge and get a court date. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow (Nov 3) we’ll been in this process for 2 weeks and we still don’t have a court date. Irina keeps us posted whenever she knows something and I can tell you that it’s not the fault of our team. This region is hard and probably a bit harder right now with world affairs being what they are. Crimea is Russian by their standards, need I say more.
We picked up the girls at 9am to have breakfast with us before we headed for Yalta. Another beautiful day on the Black Sea, sunny and warm. We had to make the girls take a sweater because they thought it was too warm to wear them, and it was; they were carried most of the day. Virginia and Irina took the girls to get jackets and some more socks and I went to the Internet cafй to post yesterday’s blog.
It’s too expensive to take a cab to and from Yalta all the time so we took the bus today. It cost us 18 rph ($2.50) for four of us to go to Yalta and it’s about a 40 minute ride; not too bad for the price. The girls were busy identifying places they’ve been along the way. I guess they weren’t restricted to home their entire lives. They travel well and behave themselves.
Actually, I think we are definitely in a honeymoon period as they are still watching their own behavior. We’ve had them many days for all day and they still haven’t had a fight. For sisters living together I find this either incredibly amazing or more likely on their best behavior. We’ve seen them when they are tired and they still haven’t been at each other. Oh, sure they pick on each other a little, but nothing dramatic. Not sure how long this will last, but we’ll take as much of it as we can. They’re pretty comfortable with us now so I would assume we should start seeing some behaviors from them. The younger one will keep us busy trying to keep up with her, but nothing out of the ordinary for girls their age. The older one has her “stuff” together and helps keep her younger sister in line. It appears it’s been this way for quite some time.
One of the older ones friends met us when we picked them up this morning. She brought a few candies with her and gave them to the older one to give to us. (Note: I hope we get fast court date because I’m tired of having to write older or younger one all the time.) We bought some candy for the girls to give to their friends. Each day we take them back or pick them up, it’s hard to not take some of the others with us. It breaks our hearts seeing these kids there and their prospects are rather slim. We’re only the second family this school year to adopt so it’s not a regular one. The last family was Italian so a lot of the kids like to say Ciao. We also gave some beanie babies to the girls for their special friends. They’ll have several opportunities to give these to their special friends.
We did get a good laugh in today. Earlier, they asked Irina if all the games and such in our flat are going to stay with the school when we all leave. Irina said yes and then they asked if there were any more games where they were going. It seems that they thought all the games we have were there and there wasn’t any back home. Irina told them that there were plenty of games at home that they will be able to play with and they gave a sigh of relief. It’s sad to think that they would think this, their world is definitely smaller than those reading this.
It still amazes me how much these kids share with so little to call their own. They like to share with each other as well as with us. The older one has some insight into bonding and is always sharing her food with us. She’ll offer up her last bite, sweets, meat, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotten to the point where we are sharing all our foods and drinks. Neither of them tries to hog the food. It’s getting to the point where we feel like we’ve been a family for quite awhile. It all seems too good to be true but God put these girls in our hands and us in theirs so we feel it’s meant to be. Virginia and I waited 10 years for the “other shoe to fall” because things were just too good between us for it to be real and after 18 years it’s still all good. We’re not going to count on the “shoe to fall” since we both feel this is right.
The girls keep asking when they are leaving and coming home with us. Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure and the last post has the projected time.
Tonight, we got invited to go to a wedding tomorrow. All of us are invited and quite excited to see this first hand. The girls don’t know about it yet but they’ll find our first thing in the morning. I hope I can get some nice pictures of the wedding and the girls all decked out for this.
This was supposed to be a short post since today was a rather uneventful day (compared with the others). Until tomorrow.
2 Nov 2008
Today is the last day of the girls fall break. We’ve fallen into a pattern of picking up the girls in the morning, having something to eat and then doing something for the day. Today, we went to a wedding and then to a local land mark (Palace).
The wedding was of close friends of our landlady and was held in a Russian Orthodox church. The ceremony had many elements of familiar symbolism that I’ve seen before, though not sure where. It was a small ceremony, quite solemn for a wedding and very interesting to see. We feel privileged and thankful to have been a part of the ceremony. At the end, the priest blessed our adoption.
Since Papi wasn’t feeling good, I stayed in our flat while all the girls went to a palace and park for the day. I guess the girls have finally felt comfortable around Virginia and Irina that they finally started acting like I would have expected. They’ve spent so much time together that I could see it building for several days, but I wasn’t there when it finally came forth. The girls got into a fight with each other and were cranky most of the afternoon. I didn’t see any of this and they watched their P’s and Q’s when they finally got home to where Papi is. I don’t know if they’re still on their guard with me or whether it’s a cultural thing. Virginia had to tell me all about it and I could see their tiredness and restlessness.
They are now at the point of testing the boundaries which is what I’ve been waiting for. I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen but now is as good as any. I feel this is the beginning of us fitting in together as a whole family and they will learn the roles each of us plays. They are already trying to go around one of us to the other when we say no but we are united and stand together. They grumble a bit then move on. This is progress and they’ll learn that what one says, the other will back up. Today was the roughest so far and I expect there to be many more when all they have is us and themselves without all these other distractions.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Yalta while the girls are in school. We have a few things we want to shop for and Irina is going to try and speak with our Judge and get a court date. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow (Nov 3) we’ll been in this process for 2 weeks and we still don’t have a court date. Irina keeps us posted whenever she knows something and I can tell you that it’s not the fault of our team. This region is hard and probably a bit harder right now with world affairs being what they are. Crimea is Russian by their standards, need I say more.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
31Oct Update
31 Oct 2008
Today was another wonderful day spent with the girls. We’ve now spent 1 week, nearly all day every day with the girls and it’s going great. They are still on their guest behavior but are defiantly feeling comfortable with us as we are with them. It’s hard to think that we, as well as them, were so nervous when we met them for the first time. We already feel like a family and our time together is quite natural. I can also tell you we are acting like proud parents and think they are the most wonderful girls we could have hoped to get. Laura, if the offer for Annabelle still stands, we’ll take her also as she’d fit right in (inside family joke).
Today was a leisurely day for us. We picked up the girls and walked to the local store for some supplies. It only takes about 5 minutes to get from the school to our flat so we were home by 11am. We had them work in some grade appropriate math books so I can get an idea as to where they’re at; I still need to work with them to really find out. When we handed them the books, they just dove in and started working on their own for quite some time. We also picked up some books on learning English and show’s them how to make letters and such.
We watched “Emperors New Groove” in Russian. Since this is one of our favorites, we were able to follow along. Speaking of movies, these are not pirated, have the Disney seals and were from a video store and were only 10 Dollars each. We’re headed back to Yalta tomorrow and I’m going to pick up some more movies for that price. We brought some of our movies along but don’t hold the girls attention when there is a lot of talking. We fully understand. These movies are region 5 so since I don’t have a hack for my computer DVD player, I use a program to copy the DVD to my hard drive, another program to remove the region code and then we can watch these with a DVD player on the computer. Works great and I don’t have to have the DVD in the drive to watch them.
Today was a milestone day for me. While watching the movie, the older one sat next to me and snuggle up with me. What a wonderful feeling. They’re bonding with Virginia very quickly and just slower with me. The culture here is different (duh!) and I believe they were close to their mother and not so much to their step father. I haven’t trust myself at them and figure they will come around in their own time. I always showed them small signs of affection like putting my hand briefly on their shoulder or kissing them on the head. After a couple of days, they quit pulling away and accepted these gestures of affection. Of course I would want my hug on greetings and goodbye’s, but those are expected by both parties. My biggest fear was a severe case of Reactive Attachment Disorder but I can say that these girls have no signs of it and are already attaching, strongly. They are no longer overtly worried about their peers stealing us. The younger one which had a larger issue about this asked us if she could bring her friend to our flat and play. As much as we would’ve liked to, it’s prohibited. We felt bad for the little girl who probably didn’t understand why she couldn’t come along. I no longer worry about any bonding issues with these girls as we’ll all strongly bond; that I have no doubt.
We played a few games here in the flat. Twister was a challenge at first since we didn’t know the words for right and left; hand and foot were easy to find out. It’s quite interesting trying to communicate rules when you can’t even say right or left. We have plenty of music on the laptop so they love to dance and horse around while it’s playing. We feel the younger one will always be young at heart and reminds me so much of my youngest niece. She loves to play rough and is always laughing. I have this one picture of her and Virginia together (the older was being the dedicated photographer as was I) on the waterfront in Yalta. They were playing model for us and the younger one busted herself up with her antics. When she goes into a full blown laugh, her eyes are close and she has an ear-to-ear grin; she laughs with her whole face. Every time we see the picture, it crack us up. The older one doesn’t play nearly as rough and not very often. She prefers to make up Virginia or herself or to play calmly (much like my nieces her age). We’ll have our hands full with these two, but in a good way.
Our paperwork is also moving forward. Irina was in Yalta all day waiting for the conclusion to be signed. I guess there is no mayor in Yalta right now so the standin has to sign the paperwork. At first he wasn’t going to since he doesn’t know anything about these matters and was going to make us wait until Dec. 7th for the newly elected official to sign. ARGHH!! But he relented and yesterday Irina came home with the signed documents. She also applied to the court and hopefully get our court date on Monday. As mentioned before, this area is difficult so we don’t expect to get a court hearing until the following Monday. Our return tickets were originally booked for Dec. 9th and it looks like we just might make it if we only encounter small glitches. These are all if’s.
Back to Yalta on Saturday with the girls. Irina needs to mail the documents to Kiev and she found jackets for 100rgh ($20).
On many travel blogs, I read where the prospective parents were glad they brought lots of books and movies to kill the boredom of waiting. We may have had paperwork/officials problems, but we haven’t had any time to read of watch our movies. Last night, we went to be by 9pm because both of us were wore out. I usually have to sneak in some time for these updates because we are so busy. We’ve been blessed in our process because we get to spend so much time with our girls and thankfully it doesn’t look like it’ll slow any. Their normal school resumes on Monday so we will have time during the day till about 3pm when their classes end. Maybe only then will be have time for these things, but I just as soon have the girls and be all worn out instead.
We think we may have to build a playground in our back yard. They love the seesaw and swings not to mention the big spinning thing. They may look old (which they are) and decrepit, but they are built solidly and are holding out just fine. Virginia and I play most times on this gear with the girls. You should see the looks we get from the locals as though we must be insane to play like that. I’ve yet to see any fathers actually engaging their children in play so I’m thinking it’s another one of those cultural things; but that’s not going to stop us from playing with the girls because we’re just having too much fun.
It’s going to feel wonderful to hear children’s laughter in the house again. The only time we heard this was when Virginia’s brothers family visited (they have younger kids) and it always made me feel like it was a home. When they left, it always got quiet again and I went through withdrawals afterward (I came from a large, noisy family). I can’t wait to hear it again with our girls and especially when we ALL get together there again. Some of you may say it’ll get old for me, but I never tire of the sound of laughter. There’s truth in the saying “Laughter is good medicine”. It’s good for the heart and soul. Just think of how good you felt after a good laugh and think what a better place the world would be if people laughed a lot more. I don’t think I’ve heard any laugher on the streets here and that is SAD!
Virginia’s input:
Although I don’t now the name of most of the food items as they are written, I have tried many things and enjoyed them all. I worry that the tastiness of much of the things I have eaten might have long term consequences (weight gain), but our companion Irena tells me that we are so busy and active that not a chance. All the people we have had to deal with directly in regards to the adoption have been very helpful. Some things are slower and harder in this region for adoption, but it is the nature here. The girls are bonding well with us and vice-versa. They were on fall break this last week and contrary to usual practices at our stage of the process we were permitted to take them on outings off property for the day, each day. This has definitely put us further along in respects to bonding with each other. We have also been quite fortunate that they weather here in Crimea has been extraordinarily warm and sunny. We have gone into Yalta many days with no jacket on and just a light sweater, shed half way through the day. We don’t expect this may last much longer, but will take it for as long as it lasts. Chris even had to buy a couple of short sleeve shirts to wear, hard to find this time of year. It was + 28 Celsius yesterday and our landlady’s mother was going for a swim in the ocean, (the water is pretty warm it was + 17 Celsius yesterday), and the ocean is perhaps a ten minute or so walk from here, (rough life, I know).
Cheers for now so I can finish getting ready for Yalta to post this.
Chris and Virginia
Note: The girls are 9 and 10. FYI for those about to travel, the dollar got as high as 7:1 the other day and is hovering around 6 right now.
Today was another wonderful day spent with the girls. We’ve now spent 1 week, nearly all day every day with the girls and it’s going great. They are still on their guest behavior but are defiantly feeling comfortable with us as we are with them. It’s hard to think that we, as well as them, were so nervous when we met them for the first time. We already feel like a family and our time together is quite natural. I can also tell you we are acting like proud parents and think they are the most wonderful girls we could have hoped to get. Laura, if the offer for Annabelle still stands, we’ll take her also as she’d fit right in (inside family joke).
Today was a leisurely day for us. We picked up the girls and walked to the local store for some supplies. It only takes about 5 minutes to get from the school to our flat so we were home by 11am. We had them work in some grade appropriate math books so I can get an idea as to where they’re at; I still need to work with them to really find out. When we handed them the books, they just dove in and started working on their own for quite some time. We also picked up some books on learning English and show’s them how to make letters and such.
We watched “Emperors New Groove” in Russian. Since this is one of our favorites, we were able to follow along. Speaking of movies, these are not pirated, have the Disney seals and were from a video store and were only 10 Dollars each. We’re headed back to Yalta tomorrow and I’m going to pick up some more movies for that price. We brought some of our movies along but don’t hold the girls attention when there is a lot of talking. We fully understand. These movies are region 5 so since I don’t have a hack for my computer DVD player, I use a program to copy the DVD to my hard drive, another program to remove the region code and then we can watch these with a DVD player on the computer. Works great and I don’t have to have the DVD in the drive to watch them.
Today was a milestone day for me. While watching the movie, the older one sat next to me and snuggle up with me. What a wonderful feeling. They’re bonding with Virginia very quickly and just slower with me. The culture here is different (duh!) and I believe they were close to their mother and not so much to their step father. I haven’t trust myself at them and figure they will come around in their own time. I always showed them small signs of affection like putting my hand briefly on their shoulder or kissing them on the head. After a couple of days, they quit pulling away and accepted these gestures of affection. Of course I would want my hug on greetings and goodbye’s, but those are expected by both parties. My biggest fear was a severe case of Reactive Attachment Disorder but I can say that these girls have no signs of it and are already attaching, strongly. They are no longer overtly worried about their peers stealing us. The younger one which had a larger issue about this asked us if she could bring her friend to our flat and play. As much as we would’ve liked to, it’s prohibited. We felt bad for the little girl who probably didn’t understand why she couldn’t come along. I no longer worry about any bonding issues with these girls as we’ll all strongly bond; that I have no doubt.
We played a few games here in the flat. Twister was a challenge at first since we didn’t know the words for right and left; hand and foot were easy to find out. It’s quite interesting trying to communicate rules when you can’t even say right or left. We have plenty of music on the laptop so they love to dance and horse around while it’s playing. We feel the younger one will always be young at heart and reminds me so much of my youngest niece. She loves to play rough and is always laughing. I have this one picture of her and Virginia together (the older was being the dedicated photographer as was I) on the waterfront in Yalta. They were playing model for us and the younger one busted herself up with her antics. When she goes into a full blown laugh, her eyes are close and she has an ear-to-ear grin; she laughs with her whole face. Every time we see the picture, it crack us up. The older one doesn’t play nearly as rough and not very often. She prefers to make up Virginia or herself or to play calmly (much like my nieces her age). We’ll have our hands full with these two, but in a good way.
Our paperwork is also moving forward. Irina was in Yalta all day waiting for the conclusion to be signed. I guess there is no mayor in Yalta right now so the standin has to sign the paperwork. At first he wasn’t going to since he doesn’t know anything about these matters and was going to make us wait until Dec. 7th for the newly elected official to sign. ARGHH!! But he relented and yesterday Irina came home with the signed documents. She also applied to the court and hopefully get our court date on Monday. As mentioned before, this area is difficult so we don’t expect to get a court hearing until the following Monday. Our return tickets were originally booked for Dec. 9th and it looks like we just might make it if we only encounter small glitches. These are all if’s.
Back to Yalta on Saturday with the girls. Irina needs to mail the documents to Kiev and she found jackets for 100rgh ($20).
On many travel blogs, I read where the prospective parents were glad they brought lots of books and movies to kill the boredom of waiting. We may have had paperwork/officials problems, but we haven’t had any time to read of watch our movies. Last night, we went to be by 9pm because both of us were wore out. I usually have to sneak in some time for these updates because we are so busy. We’ve been blessed in our process because we get to spend so much time with our girls and thankfully it doesn’t look like it’ll slow any. Their normal school resumes on Monday so we will have time during the day till about 3pm when their classes end. Maybe only then will be have time for these things, but I just as soon have the girls and be all worn out instead.
We think we may have to build a playground in our back yard. They love the seesaw and swings not to mention the big spinning thing. They may look old (which they are) and decrepit, but they are built solidly and are holding out just fine. Virginia and I play most times on this gear with the girls. You should see the looks we get from the locals as though we must be insane to play like that. I’ve yet to see any fathers actually engaging their children in play so I’m thinking it’s another one of those cultural things; but that’s not going to stop us from playing with the girls because we’re just having too much fun.
It’s going to feel wonderful to hear children’s laughter in the house again. The only time we heard this was when Virginia’s brothers family visited (they have younger kids) and it always made me feel like it was a home. When they left, it always got quiet again and I went through withdrawals afterward (I came from a large, noisy family). I can’t wait to hear it again with our girls and especially when we ALL get together there again. Some of you may say it’ll get old for me, but I never tire of the sound of laughter. There’s truth in the saying “Laughter is good medicine”. It’s good for the heart and soul. Just think of how good you felt after a good laugh and think what a better place the world would be if people laughed a lot more. I don’t think I’ve heard any laugher on the streets here and that is SAD!
Virginia’s input:
Although I don’t now the name of most of the food items as they are written, I have tried many things and enjoyed them all. I worry that the tastiness of much of the things I have eaten might have long term consequences (weight gain), but our companion Irena tells me that we are so busy and active that not a chance. All the people we have had to deal with directly in regards to the adoption have been very helpful. Some things are slower and harder in this region for adoption, but it is the nature here. The girls are bonding well with us and vice-versa. They were on fall break this last week and contrary to usual practices at our stage of the process we were permitted to take them on outings off property for the day, each day. This has definitely put us further along in respects to bonding with each other. We have also been quite fortunate that they weather here in Crimea has been extraordinarily warm and sunny. We have gone into Yalta many days with no jacket on and just a light sweater, shed half way through the day. We don’t expect this may last much longer, but will take it for as long as it lasts. Chris even had to buy a couple of short sleeve shirts to wear, hard to find this time of year. It was + 28 Celsius yesterday and our landlady’s mother was going for a swim in the ocean, (the water is pretty warm it was + 17 Celsius yesterday), and the ocean is perhaps a ten minute or so walk from here, (rough life, I know).
Cheers for now so I can finish getting ready for Yalta to post this.
Chris and Virginia
Note: The girls are 9 and 10. FYI for those about to travel, the dollar got as high as 7:1 the other day and is hovering around 6 right now.
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