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.