wanna move???

http://cincy.rapmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Cincynky&PRGNAME=

WOW

It is so hard to believe--- one year ago today we were in Kyiv and we had just gotten our info to head to Slav'yansk.

This is going to sound really strange, but if I knew now what I knew then (that I would return to the US to get fired from my job for saving this child's life). It would have been so much easier over there. The constant fear that things were not going well at work--- not well at home-- made it very hard to just chill and let what was going to happen unfold as God had planned.

My perspective is so much better now--

Update: Joey is doing GREAT! He just finished first grade. We have decided to move him BACK to kindergarten in a Catholic school next year. There are so many social skills that he missed in the orphanage-- a chance to be a "kid" will be a good thing! It's a half day program, We will work on academic stuff during the morning and he'll be off to St Jude in the afternoon.

He is now an English speaker. Joey still remembers his Russian. We go to a local dining spot and the host speaks Russian. They will chat as we get seated--- he still "gets it". Nice!

Again this time, the transition has been VERY easy--- easier than we deserve. Joey has blended into our family with few (if any) problems.

To our Ukrainian friends a BIG hello! Peace Corps Katie THANK YOU !!! Lera--- I know we still owe you a package-- it's on the way--promise! and to MAX our translator and even more our.. friend-- MANY THANKS--- It is very humbling to know that if it were not for all these wonderful people Joey would probably be in an institution or worse-- he would be another statistic of the sad truth of Ukraine's struggle to deal with their mentally disabled population.

There are so many more kids that need help. It is overwhelming to even think of it. Please check out http://www.reecesrainbow.com/ and http://www.life2orphans.org/ to look for ways that you can help. We feel called to do more--- we pray every day for the guidance to do the right thing---please pray for us and for all the kids that desperately need help not just to get adopted but just to survive!

Jim

Home for a Month!

It's hard to remember a month when so much has happened in our lives. Getting Joey---Getting fired-- having all of my stuff packed to move back to Vegas for a job and then it not happening--- more job interviews---lots of lawyers---- whew!!

 

The good news is we have been able to spend a lot of time together to get settled in. We have been at the pool almost every day (we all have great tans!) and spent a lot of family-time!

 

I started a new job tonight- I host Hall of Fame Coast to Coast an oldies/classic hits radio show than is syndicated across the US--- Please call your local station and ask them to carry us (that way I won't have to take a second job).

 

Okay-- to the important stuff---- All the medicalsf have looked great for Joey--- no heart problems----blood draw for chromosomes was this week---we'll know the answer to the Trisomy 21 or Mosiac question in a week or so---

 

He has some more school testing this week--Catie will translate (the person provided by the district was not very good last time). Hard to believe we are just a few weeks away from the start of the school year!

 

He is sleeping a bit better with the melatonin-- but he is still testing the limits at every turn. Not only that, but he has a really foul mouth. He swears like a little Ukrainian sailor--especially when he does not get his way--- It's really funny (okay maybe funny is not the right word) to see this sweet little child with such a bad mouth. The good news is only Catie knows what he is saying and he will NOT picking up these words around the house (and hopefully not in school for a while!)

 

 

paperwork stuff:

 

Joey got his letter from the Office of the President with his citizenship documents last week (YAY!!)

Mary got his paperwork turned in for Social Security

Ukrainian registration papers went away

We will get his passport as soon as the SSN card gets back

whew

 

 

That's it for now--- more later!

Another Week Home

WOW-- time is flying!

 

Joey is doing great fitting into the family. He is taking swimming lessons daily at the swim club. He LOVES the water.

 

Sleep has been the big variable. If he gets his nap, he is an angel. If the nap does not happen, it's not pretty. Quite ugly infact!

 

We all watched the DVR'd MONK tonight. He enjoyed it, but probbaly more enjoyed us all watching together as a family. Things just feel right--- that is a true blessing!

 

On the downside, the stress of joblessness is growing and tomorrow I will need to decide between a couple of different opportunities. One will keep us here in Cincy, the other involves a move. There are so many variables it's tough to decide. Please keep us in your prayers that the decision will be the right one!

 

More in a week or so!

 

 

PEACE!
 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

Adjusting Just fine!

Joey has been home for almost 2 weeks now and things are going fine! He is getting into his schedule and back to his much needed naps. We have been spending a lot of time at the pool and he loves the water (but he is fearless and sinks like a rock.). Swimming lessons start today. We have a pond in the back yard and getting him sea worthy is priority #1!

So far doctor visits have been good--- ENT and Eye doc gave him a clean bill of health--- cardio, Down Syndrome clinic, Genetics, TB Clinic and ortho are next week.

LIFE UPDATE   
I was SHOCKED to be terminated from my job my very first day back from FMLA. My lawyers won't let me say any more about it right now, but I look forward to sharing the incredible story as soon as I can.

Matt has to be in the hospital for the next few days and I am on the road hunting for a job...so things will be crazed. I'm sure everything will work out, but we sure did not need this added stress.

More soon!

PEACE


Jim and Mary

Joey's Journey Home

Sorry this is a little late--- Things are going great at home. Only problem was he came home with an ear infection and pink eye. Both are now under control and he is feeling much better!

 

Tuesday morning we were up and out of Max's by 9 for our 12:15 flight. Max lives on the Left Bank so there were no problems with traffic getting to the airport (also on the LB). We stopped at a supermarket to look one more last time for some things that Catie wanted us to bring home plus get some liquid gifts for some folks back home.

 

We got to the airport 2 and a half hours early and waited for our check-in desk to be assigned. About 30 minutes later (and a couple of Joey breakdowns) and we were up to the Air France counter to get checked in. We got our seats (all together) and used up our last kopeks on a sandwich and a couple of Cokes to share.

 

Our flight boarded on time and Joey was THRILLED looking out the window for most of the flight (some squirms but good for the most part).

 

After and on time arrival in Paris and we were ready to try to get a transit visa.

 

Nightmare time--- The French (when they do decide to speak to you in English) know only one phrase: "It is not possible". We tried for 5 hours and it seems that a 6 year old with Down Syndrome is a terrible security risk to the French people (though I'm sure he could defeat them in an armed conflict). So we will spend the night at the airport. ** Note about the French workforce*** They don't work. We watched workers kick garbage out of their area so they would not have to pick it up, there were several baggage handler "strikes" forcing planes to be late in getting out. There are 5 people to do the work on one in American or Ukraine or Germany. Socialism and "Full Employment" at it's best. This country (or at least the airport) is fully dysfunctional.

 

We finally found a nice person at the transfer desk and she got onto an airplane and got us some food, blankets and pillows and we camped out in front of the Crown Room. Joey slept for 5 or 6 hours, Mary and I for an hour or so. At 6 we were kicked out of our resting spot and I went through immigration to get us some breakfast from McDonalds. They were closed so I was coming back through immigration and the nice officer at the B gates decided I did not need to be there since we were departing from the E gates so he refused to let me in....(Mary and Joey were just on the other side of the glass. After arguing with him for a while, I handed Mary and Joey their documents and told them I'd see them at "E".

 

They got there no problem. It took me over 2 hours. First the 24 hour shuttle buses were not running (the employee shuttles were running ever 2 or 3 minutes but I was not permitted in). Then I decided to walk, but could not pass through because "D" was evacuated because of a "suspicious bag". That also stopped the shuttles (that were not running anyway). "But How to I get to "E"? "It is not possible!" was all they would say. I finally caught a bus to the train station and was able to get a shuttle from there to the E gates.

 

On the bus, we were talking with a young woman who travels a lot for work. She tries never to connect in France. We were talking about how much better things have gotten in Ukraine in the past 3 years and how much worse they are in France. This country has some serious problems (Actually I really like France and was very sad to see how the country is slipping downhill).

 

 

We boarded the bus to the plane after having our documents checked 3 more times (full employment) and got in our seats vowing NEVER to connect through CDG ever again. Joey was very good on the flight. He ate, slept, ate, ate and watched tv. The flight crew on Delta was wonderful.  We touched down just after 3 Cincy time. Ahhhhh home. Immigrations was quick. Mary took Joey to the back room to get his papers done and I got the bags. They were finished before I was and came out to meet me. We got the bags and went through customs (It's so nice to see nice people doing good work--- we're no longer in France)

 

Thanks to the nice welcoming party at the airport. We stayed and visited for a while and finally at about 5 we made it home!!

 

 

YAY!!!!

 

The A/C at home was broken so we headed to the pool up the street for a swim. Hot dogs on the grill for dinner and all is well.

 

A family is whole.

 

If you have any questions about adoption or Ukraine or would like more detail on any part of our journey. Please feel free to email us:

 

marty at martythompson dot com

 

or stolzfamily at juno dot com

 

Peace!

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

We are home!

Just a quick note to let everyone know we made it home!

lots of drama getting here-- fill you in on all that later today. We won't be online or avialable by phone much for the next 4 days as we get settled with our new bigger family, but we'll try to post once a day!


PEACE


Jim and Mary

Monday June 25, 2007

**** FOOD POISONING ALERT*******

 

 

It was bound to happen and it did. Both Mary and I got a serious case of the "Ukrainian trots" She thinks it was from "our café"—I refuse to believe that and think it was at ElDorado (the place with the English menu) Either way Mary was really sick starting yesterday—it hit her hard at Church. I woke up this morning sick (aches, 102 fever and the other fun stuff that I will not mention). We got right into the cipro and are both feeling a little better this evening… The best advice I can give anyone is to have your family doc write a prescription for Cipro or something that will work on stomach bugs. Only being sick one day is way better than 2 weeks last time (though I won't lose as much weight)

 

Ok—on to the real post—

 

I know most people get swamped right before they leave Kyiv and really don't have a chance to write about the last day (us included last time). This time I wanted to give those of you thinking of adopting or already in the system, a feel for the hectic last day. ( at least ours)

 

Joey finally got to sleep around 10 last night and not having a nap for 2 days he did NOT want to get up for breakfast and the cab at 7:30. We pried him out of bed and got him to eat some hot cereal (thanks Chef Max) and we were off to the medical center.   Medical center is actually a generous term. It is a hallway with several offices and "exam rooms" where people looking for immigrant visas for the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand go to get a "physical" that is approved by the embassy (you may hear some people refer to it as the "Oil Clinic" as it is operated by an oil interest.)

 

Traffic was terrible from the left bank into the city. Our cabbie played "chicken" on the highway speeding the wrong direction down the road (we did not come all this way to die in a car accident you dummy head). It took an hour to get into the city.

 

The good news is orphans go to the front of the line at the Oil Clinic, so the hallway full of people did not slow us down. Max pushed his way into the registration room, then for weight and height and then to wait for the doctor. And wait and wait. The clinic opens at 8. Doctors start seeing patients at 9. Our "assigned doctor" never showed up so we got into the "back-up doc" at 9:45 (our Embassy appointment is 10:30). She decided that their psychologist needed to evaluate Joey to determine his level of mental delay. I refused and said the home study already has us approved to adopt a kid with Down Syndrome and that was approved by the US Government. We did not need LukOil's quack shrink to take more of our time (and I'm sure money) to tell us we are adopting a retarded kid (sorry for the pejorative). We know that! I called the embassy and I was right we did not need the extra evaluation—they are just trying to separate us from some greenbacks.

 

The doctor finally relented and prepared the paperwork after her "intensive evaluation" ("he looks okay to me"). We were off to the American Embassy. (I called them again to alert then to the fact that we were running late)

 

*** Note to parents who get their visa physical at the Oil Clinic***

There is a really nice playground just to the rear of the building—it is a little hard to see from the street. It's a great place to go while your forms are being prepared.

 

The people at the Embassy are WONDERFUL!!

 

Max did a great job compiling all the needed documents and we only had 4 or 5 forms to fill out and sign once at the window. It took about an hour for all the paperwork and the interview. They have a fun waiting room with toys for the kids and a water cooler (not to mention the best bathrooms we have found in a public place in all of Ukraine.) We need to come back after 3:30 to get the completed visa and all the immigration documents.

 

We grabbed a cab and headed to the Delta ticket office. I know we could just pay for his ticket in the morning at the airport but I'd feel better having it in hand today (Flights are TIGHT through the holiday and we don't want to get stuck here because of a preventable airline issue) We were very excited when the Delta lady said she could get us home without the overnight stay in Paris—DEAL! It was not til she printed that tickets that I noticed we would still have an overnight – but in New York… We decided to stick to the original plan—beg for a transit visa at the airport and get a room at Formule One (I LOVE their "shower capsules") or something near the airport. Plus that gives us one more day for the Cipro to work before the long flight.

 

I sent Mary, Max and Joey off for food while I did the airline stuff (The thought of food is very bad right now). Tickets in hand, I went to a kiosk to grab a little fizzy coke to sip. I checked the tickets and they were wrong. She had Joey's right, but Mary and I were still overnighting in New York. I suggested that they may not want him to wander through CDG on his own—they hastily agreed and got the tickets fixed.

 

Upon picking him up from the orphanage, we learned that he had a savings account with about 450 USD in it. Max went ahead to the local branch to see what we have to do to get his money. It will take 30 days and about an hour of paperwork—seems like a good investment of time so we will get there after we pick up the passport.

 

We took a cab back to the Embassy (we had taken a bus from the embassy, but I'm feeling really puny) and went in to get his stuff. 3:30—nope sorry come back at 4. 4—nope there was a slight clerical error on the Visa (it had his full middle name and the passport had only the initial J). They needed to reprocess all the paperwork. No problem—we've got no where to be til 6 (the bank) We walked across the street and got Mary and Joey an ice cream and me another coke. We headed back over and it was ready (actually they decided the inconsistency was not really a problem). Again I will say—The people at the American Embassy are the BEST! They really seemed to care and were very efficient (not typical for this country).

 

***** Note for adoptive parents**********

 

there is another playground right next to the Embassy—not nearly as nice as the other one, but a good place to kill some time.

 

We are now officially ready to go home tomorrow—Thanks Max!!!

 

We went to the bank and worked a plan to get Joey's money to him. It has to be wired from Slav'yansk to Kyiv and we'll send Max a power of attorney to withdrawal the money (or transfer it into one of those cool 13% interest accounts here for him.) The process will take 30 days but what the heck. Max is willing, the bank is willing and it IS his money.

 

******Note for adoptive parents**********

 

Many kids do have a small savings account in their name when they leave the orphanage. Don't let the money just sit there—make sure you track it so the kids do not lose it.

 

We had a celebratory dinner of Skyline Chili (Max said he liked it and Joey LOVED it) Mary and I both ate and so far so good.

 

Our flight leaves at 12:15. we'll be out of here at 9 for the cab ride to the airport. The computer is staying behind in Ukraine so we will not be able to post until we get home.

 

Thanks for everyone following along—we will keep posting through the adjustment period. Thanks to everyone back home for holding it all together and thanks to Max and the many new friends we have made along the way.

 

What is the cost of saving a life--- A LOT! But there is no amount that is too much when you see those bright eyes looking back at you and knowing that they would have grown dim way before their time at Torez.

 

 

PEACE!

 

 

Jim and Mary

Sunday June 24, 2007

(sorry for typos--I'm on a Ukrainian keyboard) It has been quite a day today.

 

Little Joey has experienced more new things today that I can even imagine.

 

We needed to get our of Max's place while we translated documents for the embassy. So after a wonderful breakfast prepared by Chef Max we walked the 3 (Long) blocks to the Metro (Subway). Took the train into the city center and got off at Zoo. I have seen a lot of people say bad things about the zoo here and certainly it is not as nice as Cincinnati, or San Diego-- but other than the ape cages (which are NASTY) I thought it looked pretty modern. (Wait--- all the toilets are squatters--forgot that one)

 

KyivStar (a cellular provider) was offering free train ride through the Zoo today so we saw a LOT in a little time. Joey did manage to toss his new hat into the duck and turtle lake-- so his beloved cap is not more :-(. We saw the critters, took a bunch of pictures, ate caramel corn (I do not recommend it), rode a coupe of carnival type rides and after about 2 1/2 hours we had all had enough zoopark.

 

We took the metro to the main shopping street and had the obligatory meal at TGI Friday's--- Joey had a kids's burger with fries and about 1/4 of a bottle of katsup. Mary and I split nachos and a Friday Burger. It was a good taste of home.

 

We walked the main drag (which is closed off to all vehicles for the weekend). There is a big concert later tonight... We missed A free Elton John concert last Saturday. We will miss this one too. We had a nice stroll and went to the underground mall for some ice cream (I would not recommend Baskin Robbins--- they have 31 flavors but 3 tiny scoops cost 7 dollars-- and it was not that good--- there is a Gelateria that looks way better-- or for 1 hrv (20 cents) you can get a Mc Cone (what we should have done)

 

We hiked up a huge hill to the Catholic Church (St Alexander's--how fitting) but it was an hour before Mass. So we climbed a bit farther to a pretty park with a playground and PONIES!! Yes--- Joey had his first pony ride today too (Sorry James). 3 bucks for a once around the park. We dodged a little rain and headed back down to Mass. English Mass was at 8:30, we would be there for Russian.. Cool!

 

We arrived about 30 minutes early and waited. Joey was a perfect angel (pun intended). He copied what everyone else did and was heartbroken that he only got a blessing at communion.

 

After Mass, we went back down the hill to the food court a the mall. We resisted the McDonalds urge and got some pretty yummy Ukrainian fast food (baked chicken with pineapple and cheese, boiled potatoes with dill and a pork chop) Joey loved it.

 

By this time it was 6:30 and we were quite tired from our day of exploring. A 20 minute metro ride and the 10 minute walk to Max's and we are back--

 

Bath time and now Joey is laying here as I type with his eyes wide open (I'm sure not wanting to miss out on anything)

 

Firsts for Joey today:

Subway

Escalators (which he now LOVES and has them totally figured out---that is saying something in the land of the world's fastest escalators)

American food

time to see a real body of water (the Dnipro)

trip to the zoo and see the animals

time to ride a "ride"

pony ride

shopping mall

to see a big city

a balloon on a stick

and on and on and on....

 

Today was a blast! tomorrow we get our cab at 7:30 and go to the American Medical Center then to the Embassy at 10:30---

 

wish us well!

 

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

Suturday June 24

It is Done!!

 

At 11:30am Joey left Orphanage Topolok for the last time. He is ours!

 

We had to provide a drive from home (45 km away) and back for the director to come in on a Saturday and she was kind of a snot-- but no matter--it's over!

 

We took him to eat at our cafe for lunch (borsht and bread) and then to drive the power wheels at the square (I wish I could upload the photos). Joey is facinaed with TV remote controls-- A fine young American already!

 

Max got back from dropping off the director at 2 and we headed to Donetsk for the train. We DID (withsome help from Peace Corps Katie) find the Mexican place, "Tequila BOOM!".. It was Great. Very authentic in everything but price (75 bucks for 4 of us) but a very nice splurge.

 

Joey had a bit of trouble falling aspeep on the train but we loved it. Such big eyes seeing everything for the first time. The sense of wonder was amazing.

 

We are now in Max's apartment for the nxt 2 days. We need to get out of here for the day so he can work on documents. I'll write more later as time permits.

 

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers--- we have only the Embassy, Doctor and an airline ticket between us and home!!

 

 

Peace

 

JIm and Mary

Thursday and Friday June 21 and 22

Friday June 22, 2007

 

STILL 1 day till Joey's release

 

Well, the good news is that we WILL be able to make our train tomorrow night. We have  the documents done, notarized and 100% ready for the US Embassy. The bad news is that we did not make it back from Donetsk in time to pick up Joey from the orphanage. It seems there is new paperwork that must be completed by the orphanage director before we can get him--- We did not have the documents to present to her until after her day was done. (she had an all day conference yesterday and could not be bothered to stay until 6pm when we got there).

 

Max got here at 6:15am and caught an hour or so of sleep. He went to the courthouse to get the signed decree at 8am---They said it would be ready and waiting. Well, it was not waiting—he was. Finally Max was able to get the decree at 10. (we were at the hotel watching Discovery Channel's "How it's Made", "Myth Busters" (both in Ukrainian) and various Ukrainian cooking shows (we can now make a mean stuffed standing pork chop))---oops almost forgot the dubbed informercial for the magic bullet…. I WANT ONE OF THOSE!! Pesto is 6 seconds? How cool is that??!??!!

 

Back to the real story—

 

Sasha drove us to the notary in Kramatorsk, then to Joeys birth-town to get the birth certificate changed.

 

Next the one hour drive to Donetsk to get the birth certificate authenticated and then to the passport agency---

 

The court decree took forever. It was about an hour to get the birth certificate---10 minutes to get it authenticated and less than 45 minutes for the passport. We were VERY lucky—to get started 2 hours late and have a 2 hour drive to Donetsk and STILL get everything done is incredible (it usually does not work that way!!)

 

It was 4:30 and we were wiped out! We celebrated a fruitful day by taking Max and Sasha to McDonalds (none of us had eaten since breakfast and we were not in the mood to go hunting for the Mexican place)

 

Time for the 2 hour drive back to Slav'yansk. We stopped off in Kramatorsk to pick up some pictures of Joey when he was little. Sadly, the workers could not scare them up.. Hopefully they will find them and send them to us.

 

We finally made it back to the hotel close to 7. We decided to splurge tonight and went to El Dorado. Actually, the food was just okay—we should have stuck with "our café".

 

10pm and bedtime.

 

Tomorrow Max will drive to pick up Luba from her home (45 km away) and bring her to the orphanage to sign the papers we need. We will meet them there at 9:30—sign the papers and get Joey out of there—Max will take Luba back home and do some sightseeing at the Lavra. Mary, Joey and I will take him to the square to ride a "power wheels" and terrorize the pigeons---then lunch and back to the hotel for a nap before we head back to Donetsk for the overnight train ride to Kyiv.

 

Sunday is mass in Kyiv (we'll get in too late for English) TGI Fridays and the circus (we STILL can't reach Catie and James' relatives in Ivankiv L). We'll be on our own—Max will be busy translating documents for the Embassy.

 

 

Thursday June 21, 2007

 

1 day till Joey's release

 

Today was great day and a difficult day. It was great because we are but one day away from springing Joey from the joint. It was also great because of the wonderful party with his groupa. Yet it was very difficult because it was the day we said goodbye to our new friends- Lera and Mimmo and Lucia.

 

After a big storm last night, today was breezy and cool. It felt more like October than June. We got to the Orphanage for our morning visit and found Joey all bundled up to go outside. We headed out, but soon got cold and came inside to his groupa's playroom. We played with the hula hoops, emptied and refilled the toy basket and spent a lot of time wrestling on the mat.

 

Mary asked that he get  a bath either today or tomorrow before we go. They decided to give him a bath BOTH today and tomorrow so he had to leave us 15 minutes early.

 

We hung out and waited for  Mimmo and Lucia (the Italian couple who are also adopting) to finish up their visit and we met up with Lera who was nice enough to go with us to the ceramic market. (in case you missed it—there is a huge pottery plant here in Slavyansk. They make pottery that is resold under an Italian brand). The market was amazing. Things were just closing up as we got there but enough merchants to look for goodies. There was a HUGE coffee and tea set—it was beautiful—for 22 hrvn (less than 5 dollars). We got a few goodies to take home and walked out less than 2 dollars lighter. The Italian couple was as amazed as we were. They were familiar with many of the pieces—they actually found some items that match things in their kitchen back home. In Italy it was over 10 euro for something that was 40 cents here----crazy! We'd like to try to get back there tomorrow for a couple of minutes if there is time.

 

We all went to get lunch—Lera helped Lucia get something that was NOT chicken with Cheese (pretty much all she as eaten in 2 weeks) It was nice to sit as our "Mini UN." Italy, US and Ukraine (Actually Lera is a Russian citizen) all sitting down to enjoy a meal together—Leda, our waitress, was a bit overwhelmed. After lunch a sad farewell to Lera.. Thanks for being a great friend—we will stay in touch!

 

Max called a cab for us at 3:30 and we picked up cake, ice cream, fizzy apple juice and Champaign for the party.

 

4 O'clock and party time!! The kids were so excited to see the cake. We listened to music, ate, and played with bubbles. It was a very nice time! I feel a little bad for the workers. We left them with six 5 year olds all amped up on sugar.

 

We had a chance to take Joey outside for a little while. We fed Stimpy and walked around the grounds for one last time. Big hugs and I think Joey understands that tomorrow he gets to leave with us. We asked the workers to explain to him that we would be back around noon and we would be leaving! Tomorrow Joey will be officially and legally a member of our family.

 

We had a quick bus ride back to the hotel. We dropped stuff off and decided to have one last meal at "our" café. The food was good and we were pretty much able to order in Russian (amazing how much you can learn in a month). After dinner Leda presented us with a Chernihivska mug as a "present". Spaseeba!

 

We had Mimmo and Lucia to the room for a Coke Light and goodbyes. They have court tomorrow. We wish them well!

 

 

We are all packed and ready to go first thing in the morning. Tomorrow needs to go well—I'm confident that it shall!

 

 

PEACE

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

Got him

Hello,

It is Julie, James and Mary's daughter. I just wanted to send out a quick update. My parents got Joey from the orphange and are on a train to Kiev now. They will be updating as soon as they can. We can't wait for them to get back!!

Julie

 

Wednesday June 20, 2007

2 days till Joey's release

 

**** some tech stuff. As I said yesterday, Yahoo is killing it's Photos section. We have migrated all of our photos to snapfish, but I'm having trouble setting up public directories there—plus I cannot update the html on the website since I do not have my authoring tools here—sorry—no more photos until we get home (unless I have an epiphany as to how to do it) Also—I'm not sure if we'll have internet again until we get to Kyiv. Things will be moving fast Friday so Thursday's blog will probably be late at best or we may need to go dark until Sunday. Please check back early and often!

 

sooo close! I can't believe it— Tomorrow is our last day of visits—A regular visit in the morning and the party in the afternoon! Yippeee!

 

Today we rode with our Italian friends to the orphanage. They do not like the trolley-bus (too many people) so we took the regular bus (1 hrv vs 60 kopek) and we got there a little early for the "dance recital". It pretty much went the same way as the last program did--- teachers and a small group of kids performed for the rest of the kids and some dignitaries (and the adoptive parents). The theme was "back to school" and the older kids all got new backpacks and school supplies. It was quite cute except for the song for the closing credits (it prominently featured the "F" word many times—that is a first for a preschool performance for us).

 

We tried to get pictures of the other kids in the group after the performance, but we did not bring a still camera, just the video with a 2 megapixel still. Some photos look great—the ones we took of the kids did not--- we'll try again tomorrow.

 

We had about 45 minutes to play with Joey after the performance—just kinda hung out and played with the dogs.

 

We stopped to eat on the square on the way back to the hotel (the Italians have a translated version of the menu there). The food was pretty good (chicken with cheese and fries) but most of what we ordered was not available--- (I'm sure in honor of Mr Lenin who was peering down upon us). We were going to go to the lake, but a big storm has rolled in so methinks it's nap time.

 

The Italians and American's will take ice cream cones to all the kids to celebrate today's wonderful performance… We have 53 ice cream cones on hold at the 7-11 (well it IS open from 7am til 11pm)

 

More later!

 

And later it is!

 

First we took mahroshna (Ice cream—sorry for the bad transliteration) to all the kids--- lots of hugs and spaseebas! It is hard to believe so many great kids need a home--- I wish we could take them all home with us---- One girl in particular. Her name is Nastia (Natasha) She is the mother hen of Joey's group. She knows a little English and LOVES to practice on us. She has been out of sorts since her friend (and Joey's best friend here) Kristina left on the "blue bus". She is pretty and sweet. Dark hair, blue eyes. She seems to be about 5 or 6. A born leader, but not bossy at all--- we actually thought about how much it would put us back, time-wise, to go back to Kyiv and get paperwork and adopt her (we are approved for 2), But my boss is already wanting to fire me, so another 2 weeks here would no doubt cause me to spend some time in the unemployment line. The best we can do is put out the word—PLEASE—if you are even thinking about adoption—contact us and we can tell you more.

 

The afternoon's visit with Joey was tough. It rained and we were not able to get out much other than under "our" shelter house. He chose today to see how far he could push us. He found out the answer is "not very far". Three (or was it 4) "time-outs" a LOT of crying and I think he is finally understanding boundaries--- there will be more tussles, but hopefully we can be firm, consistent and loving in correction and it won't cause any of us too much grief!

 

We stopped by the Chernehivska café for dinner. Mary got something like a chicken swiss steak. I got chicken, peas, and corn in a cream sauce. Good stuff! We will miss the friendly staff and good food there!

 

It's hard to believe we are down to our last day of visits! We will meet the Italians at 9:30 for our last (hopefully) trolley-bus ride to the orphanage. Meat sticks and a coke and we'll be done. We'll go to the pottery market with Lera tomorrow at noon, then to get treats for the party (the director wants cake from a specific bakery—wonder if she owns it) We'll get the cake, ice cream, juice and some Champaign for the workers. We have the party play list ready to go on the computer (and no songs with the "F" word will be featured). Maybe we'll watch Kidsongs (but I hope not-- hehehehheeee)

 

Friday looks like this: (I hope)—sorry if this is a repeat--

 

8am     go to courthouse to get the court decree

9am     Drive to the notary in Kramatorsk to get everything nice and "official"

10:30   Get to his birthtown for the birth certificate

noon    back to the Orphanage to pick up Joey for the last time!!!! (YAY!!!) J

            Drive to Donetsk

2pm     Go to passport agency to get his Ukrainian International Passport

4pm     To hotel in Donetsk

5pm     McDonalds in Donetsk for his first taste of American food (this is actually up for negotiation—there is a Mexican restaurant in Donetsk that Katie (Our Peace Corps friend) said is actually pretty good. We are very curious to try it—so that may be his first taste of "American" food.)

7pm     SLEEP

 

If this works out, we have most of Saturday to lounge around—if not, we will be doing passport stuff then (the passport lady offered to come in on Saturday if need be!

 

 

Saturday

7pm     Get on train for Kyiv

            sleep on train (we have a 4 berth 2^nd class sleeper car)

 

Sunday

            We will try to get to Ivankiv to see Catie and James' relatives. If they are still on vacation we'll go to the circus and/or the zoo and take it easy.

 

Monday

            AM Doctor visit

            PM American Embassy

 

Tuesday

            12 noon flight to Paris

sightsee in Paris (the French Embassy STILL will not answer their phone so our hopes for a travel visa are fading a bit)

Wednesday

            Fly home

 

We really need the birth certificate, passport and American Embassy to come off without a hitch for this to work--- it's not unheard of, but there are often problems. Max knows that we will be stuck with him and him with us for an extra week of we hit a road bump.. needless to say he's working extra hard to see that we are going to get out of here!!

 

 

Hopefully you'll see more from us tomorrow--- Keep praying for us. We need it!!

 

 

PEACE!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday June 19, 2007

3 days till Joey's release

 

In less than one week we will be aboard an airplane making our way home!! YAYAYAYYAYAYYAYAY!!

 

Thanks to Julie for finding a flight for us—there is no direct flight on Tuesday, but there is a flight that has an overnight connect in Paris. That is good news because the Wednesday flight we were booked on was sold out—no seat to buy for young Joey--- in fact there were not 3 seats on ANY flight through the holiday…. So there is extra pressure to get everything done right on schedule—we have no room for error or we will could stuck here till July 5. Keep us in your prayers that he don't hit any snags with his birth certificate, passport or at the embassy.

 

This morning's visit was a shopping trip. We (Mary, Joey, 2 orphanage workers and I) climbed into a Lada taxi and headed for the Rynok by the hotel.   We got him a couple of outfits, some sandals, socks and undies. Total cost about $30. Not too bad compared to Dillards—but we do not shop at Dillards. A little more than at the K-mart and the quality does not seem as good. We stopped to get his passport and visa photos done. We pick them up at 6:30. that will save us some time during our crazy day on Friday. Joey really enjoyed the trip—he did not get car-sick and was fascinated by all the motor scooters at the Rynok (Hey Prof--- can we have a ride?!?!?)

 

We also picked up a gift for the kids in the group.

 

By the time we returned to the orphanage our visiting time was over--- we were very happily surprised when the workers invited us to stay for lunch. It always smells so good.. it IS good. Clear veggie soup, brown bread, spaghetti, tomatos and a "mystery meat pieces parts" patty with homemade cherry juice to drink (I LOVE those cherries!!)

 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was too late to go to the beach (sniff sniff) so we hung out for a while, went to the internet and hung out some more.

 

Getting ready to head out for our afternoon visit--- more soon…

 

 

 

We are back from a fun afternoon! Our visit went well. Joey was wiped out from his morning adventure—it took an hour for him to finally wake up and we played tag and the "killer lion game"--- sounds too evil to write about—you'll need to ask in person. We did a lot of the usual—walk the grounds, feed and pet the dogs, climb on the playground equipment and, of course, eat cherries!!

 

"Priviet" to Kat and Jaye at work. It was good to get caught up. Thanks for doing such a great job while I'm away. Joey, Mary and I really do understand that you are working extra hard and we appreciate that you are busting hump!---Thanks!! YOU ARE THE best!

 

Kudos also to the kids for taking care of grandma and for not killing each other while mom and dad are away!!! Spaseeeeeba!

 

 

We spent some time at the internet today trying to figure out how to get a French transit visa for Joey (we would really prefer not to have to sleep in the airport) Last time Mary had to cry (literally) to the guy at immigration at CDG and he finally approved a waiver and let us take James and Catie to a hotel. I'd like for this to go better that that one. Much to our great surprise (not), the French Embassy in Kyiv does not answer their phone, so if anyone out there has any suggestions for securing the Visa, please email them to me at: marty at martythompson.com.

 

We'd (okay, actually I'd) like to take him into the city and go up the Eiffel Tower, see Notre Dame and spend the afternoon being tourists. I LOVE Paris--- Mary HATES it! We'll do battle if we can actually get him through immigration!   J

 

We met Lira at 6 and headed to the drug store to pick up his passport and visa pictures. I must say that I have never known Joey to not be smiling. He is a really happy kid 99% of the time…EXCEPT when they flashed the picture.. Oh MY--- he has that Eastern European "up yours" scowl. It looks like he wants to kick someone's butt just 'casue it would be fun… What a hoot!

 

Lira, Mary and I went to café Ultra for Dinner and for English tutoring. Congrats to Lira she passed her boards and is now qualified to teach high school and college math! I'm trying to figure out who I can "fix her up with" in the US. She's a sweet girl who will have a really tough life here. (there are no jobs here for teachers right now so she is looking for work in another field). She is a "born again" Christian and seeking the same.

 

Tomorrow is a dance recital at 10 (that should be interesting) and a regular visit at 4. We are planning a big party for 4 on Thursday for all the kids in his group--- cake, ice cream, fizzy apple juice (they love that stuff here), bubbles and general silliness. The end is really getting close and as strange as it sounds I will kind of miss "Ground Hog's Day".

 

Still to do while we are here:

 

Beach

Pottery outlet

Chernihivska café one more time

Get a photo with Mr Lenin on the square

 

 

See ya Zaftra!

 

 

Peace

 

Jim and Mary!

 

PS Our photo link is dead (many thanks to Yahoo). It will have to wait until we get back to fix it. I'll try to get to blogger and load some pics there, but usually the only way I can post to the blog is through email and I have not figured out ho to load pics that way--- sorry

 

Monday June 18, 2007

Monday June 18, 2007

 

4 days till Joey's release

 

We awoke up today to "I Got You Babe" on the radio—not really, but it is groundhog's day again—But today had a twist. We were tour guides for the family from Italy.

 

We met in the lobby at 9:30 for the trip on the trolley-bus to the orphanage. We showed them how to board (push hard), how and why to avoid the "B Dehot" bus (it's going to the depot which is ok on the way to the orphanage, but will not get you very far on the way home) how, when and how much to pay on the different modes of transport (on the trolley-bus the nice "sturdy" lady will squish her way through the throng, collect your money and give you a ticket---in Kyiv they will offer you a discount if you will give the ticket back to them so that they can resell it and pocket the money. On the city bus you pay the attendant as you exit) and other important public transportation tips.

 

Plus we helped them order lunch. Chicken Kiev for everyone—Rice with maslo (butter) for them--- fries for us. And went back to the orphanage with them this afternoon. I think they will be ready to solo tomorrow if need be!

 

It's fun showing people around "our town". Rain today kept us from the beach, but we will try that tomorrow. We also still need to get to the pottery market and we will take them with us. Not many people here speak any English. I am surprised that no one speaks Italian (especially since the Italian pottery company has a factory here.) We will not be able to take them to the lavra, but will show them how to get the bus so they can go if they want.

 

This morning the kids were back in school (it is at the orphanage). Joey (I think we are set on that name) came down from class to meet us right at 10. We got him dressed (school uniform is undies only) and headed outside--- he was very active today. We raced, ran, jumped, wrestled non-stop both in the morning and afternoon.

 

He also popped a gasket today at some workers at the factory next door—there was a bunch of noise coming from over there and he walked over near the wall and started shouting at them--- the only thing we could make out was "Luba". We are guessing that the factory noise is a common problem and Luba comes out to get them to quiet down in that tactful Eastern European way (scream at them and they scream at you and then nothing happens and you go to the kiosk to share vodka shots). We taped it to see if he actually saying things or just babbling (and it we should be concerned at what he is saying!) It was very cute!

 

I think Joey finally understands that the end of his time here is getting close. We spoke with Luba (the director) today and she agreed to let us take him out tomorrow to get clothes and shoes (the adopted kids may only leave the orphanage with what God gave them at birth). We will be provided with an escort to assure that we return with him.

We were walking around the orphanage and I told him we needed to hurry to get to the Duoma (home—also what the kids call the orphanage). He started jumping up and down shouting Duoma! Duoma! Duoma!—I felt terrible. He thought we were leaving for our home right now… sigh! Soon little man, soon! Joey was very "clingy" both times we had to leave today. We all want "ground hogs day" to end.

 

Random notes:

 

• Our dog family has grown to 3—Stimpy, Stinky (formerly known as Wren but he got his new name since it appears his favorite past-time is rolling in poo), and Scared-ey. (his tail never comes out from between his legs). Not too much food for them since Joey eats most of it (Hot Dog in a blanket, apple turnover and meat and cheese and a meat-stick).

 

• Cherries are EVERYWHERE--- Joey loves to pick them but is tired of eating them—I am not—I do not think I have ever eaten so many cherries. They are tiny but full of flavor—there are 20-30 cherry trees on the grounds and all have branches drooping from the bounty. (I'm working on mouth sores from cherry overload!!)

 

• The corner 7-11 got a shipment of ½ litre bottles of Pepsi. We have never actually seen Pepsi outside of an occasional kiosk in Kyiv—not that we are big Pepsi fans,   but you tend to notice stupid little stuff when you relive each day over and over.

 

• Meat-Sticks weigh exactly 100 grams and cost 45 cents. (sorry that is real minutia)

 

• When it storms here the sky turns orange. I assume from pollution?? Rich Appuzo where are you?

 

• There are no storm drains or sewers.  When it rains it floods. You may have to drive/walk/wade/swim home at any time.

 

• Happy news we are back in our "BIG" room—it's an extra $20/night and worth every penny—we feel human again!

 

We are really excited to be able to take Joey shopping tomorrow—it should be a great day. We also will probably go to the beach and we meet Lira (the college student we are tutoring in English) at 6 for snacks at Café Ultra.   More tomorrow----it's getting close!!

 

 

Peace!

 

 

Jim and Mary

argh

It seems that Yahoo Photos is going bye bye...

 

 

We are migrating all the photos to the new site, but it will take some time and I do not have my design software with me here in Ukraine----- I'll try to get no pics up tomorrow, but we may be at the end of the line on photos until we get home--- check back tomorow

 

 

 

 

Sunday June 17, 2007

5 days till Joey's release

 

Ground Hog's day is back!  It's the same day over and over and over—the good news it that it is a great day!

 

We got up this morning and went to the Rynok to get Joey (pretty sure that is what we will call him at home) a backpack of his very own! He LOVES it! Big enough to hold all of his stuff (ball cap, crocks, pen, paper, Delta travel kit, pop and snacks) little enough for him to carry on his back! Cost was about 6 bucks (I do love this country!!!)

 

We had to pass on our first bus ride this morning because it was too crowded—even the iron willed babushka could not get on the trolley-bus. We took the next regular bus and got to the orphanage just a tad late. This morning --- we:

 

• Ate cherries (a lot of cherries)
• Watched Kid Songs on the computer
• Looked at pictures of Joey from Antoshka (the first time he has ever seen them) He was impressed and seem to love himself thoroughly.
• Tuta! tuta'd! 3 times
• Ate bananas and meatsticks
• Fed the dogs (Stimpy returned with her boyfriend Wren (sp??))
• Talked with the Italian family who are also adopting.
• And got called in early for Joey's bathtime--- he NEEDED it!

 

We stopped by the internet café by the university and ate lunch at Café Ultra (Mary had sweet and sour chicken---very authentic actually-- and I had Chicken Kiev—yes they eat that here)

 

We headed back to the room to request the upgrade for the rest of the week (we get our room back tomorrow) and another "load of laundry". I have taken to doing laundry with my feet in the shower. Clothes get cleaner—my feet get clean and my hands do not crack open and bleed--- I do not see a downside!

 

We had a much better trolley-bus ride this afternoon (we go the coveted rear standing place against the back window where you can place your bags on the ledge and lean on the wall—YAY!!!)

 

Our afternoon visit was much like the earlier visits. Joey was tired and a little grumpy. He had a couple of "time-outs" and was not allowed to play with the sobakas because he was being rough (poking them in the eye--ouch).   Queenie  (our 14 year old black lab/chow mix) requested that we make sure he is "dog friendly" before we return so she does not have to eat him.

 

This afternoon we:

• Ate Cherries (actually only I ate cherries—Mary does not like them and Joey likes to pick them and hurl them to the ground—he no longer has cherry picking privileges)
• Fed the Sobakas
• Ate a hotdog in a blanket
• Played beach ball soccer
• Played the "backback game"
• And tuta tuta'd 3 times

 

We were going to show the Italian couple how to take the trolley-bus today, but the orphanage workers called them a cab so we shared it back to the hotel (they are staying here too).

 

I am embarrassed that my Italian has gotten so bad--- I barely remember the basic pleasantries L. The wife speaks pretty good English. We will take them to the trolleybus stop tomorrow and try to show them around town. (We were so lucky that Peace Corps Katie found us and helped us get settled—we'd like to return the favor). The translator for the Italian family headed back to Kyiv today so they are on their own.

 

We splurged and ate out for dinner tonight. A storm blew in while we were at the outdoor café. We sat and ate and watched the dust blow by and finally a few raindrops with lightning and thunder. Back in the room now and to bed by 9! YAY!!!   Check out the photo page for some shots from Munich and we'll take more pictures here in Slov'yansk tomorrow!

 

 

Peace!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

PS We will NOT be home Tuesday as there is no Delta flight that day—looks like Wednesday will be the best we can do--- we'll keep you posted!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Update

Saturday June 16, 2007

6 days till Alexander's release

 

We are back in Ukraine!

 

We were up at 5 to get our shuttle to the airport (no public transport that early on a Saturday) Got in and checked in—good thing. We were the last people to get seat assignments--- they ended up bumping a BUNCH of people on the flight from Munich to Vienna. We grabbed one last Bavarian breakfast and boarded the plane for the short hop to Vienna. We only had 30 minutes to get to the Vienna to Donetsk flight and we ran to get there--- we had to go through passport control and security (picking the slowest line each time) but we made it---barely. Vienna to Donetsk is a 2 hour flight (about from Cincinnati to New York) We were served a HOT meal (Chicken breast, mashed potatoes, spinach, fresh hot rolls, and chocolate mousse—and a Bier).. Hey US carriers take note--- we'll fly Austrian Airlines next time we have a choice, the food was great and the customer service was the best we have ever experienced!

 

Sasha, the driver, was there to meet us after we were (once again) the last people through immigrations entering Ukraine--- it's just funny by now--- no longer annoying. It's about a 2 hour car ride from the airport to Slov'yansk. We got to the hotel and got checked in—we no longer have our big wonderful room--- it's still nice by Ukraine standards, but kinda like a Motel 6 in the US. (we are going to try to get our big room back tomorrow—it's worth the extra $8 a night).

 

We had Sasha wait for us and take us to the orphanage to see Alexander. He was very happy (and I think a little surprised to see us). We got him dressed and headed outside--- he did not want to walk—he wanted mama to carry him EVERYWHERE! I ran to the 7-11 (joke) and got Ice Cream for him and all the kids in his group (our return to Ukraine was also our return to hot weather --- we passed a digital thermometer that said 41c—not sure it's really that hot--- but close). I also picked up a meat stick and some pop. Alexander went back and forth between the ice cream and meat stick (YUMMY) He prefers not to swallow his food right away. Better to savor the flavor a bit longer (and the low tone in kids with DS). No Stimpy today so he had to eat everything--- no problemo for him---

 

We walked (well Mary and I walked, Price Alexander was carried) around the grounds and we stopped to pick (and eat) cherries, smell the blue spruce and eat some more cherries. We were playing on the train when a family from Italy and their translator came in. We said hi and they went in to get their soon-to-be daughter. I guess we will be spending time with them for these next few days as play space is quite limited outside.

 

Too soon it was time to leave and we promised that we'd be back zaftra (tomorrow).

 

The Italians got their cab—we walked and got our trolley-bus--- it's a VERY different world from Germany. Nowhere is this more visible than on public transportation. In Germany everything is spotless, runs on time, is air-conditioned , is wonderfully comfortable and everyone is respectfully quiet. Here—it gets you from one place to another sooner or later—usually-- and the sweaty, smelly mass of humanity is busy yelling to and at each other. It's not bad—just different and you really need to adjust your attitude to keep from getting grouchy.

 

We stopped at the supermarket for supplies ($30 for enough food to get us through the next several days--- and it was just a little bit more than our breakfast at the airport in Munich.) Loaded down with bottled water, juice, pop, fruit, maslo, yogurt, cereal, and milk, we opted for a cab back to the hotel for $1.

 

It's Saturday night and we won't go out to dinner tonight (it's the one night we keep a low profile as not to provoke the intoxicated local teenagers). We got some chicken breasts and hot dogs in a blanket from the grocery.

 

8:50 and we are zapped---

 

 

nighty, night

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

Friday June 15, 2007

7 days till Alexander's release

 

Guten Tag from Erding, Deutschland!!

 

We almost did not make it here—it seems there is a BIG transportation convention in Munich and our usual hotel was booked (as was nearly everything else that the info desk at the airport could find) "nearly" was the key word as they were able to find us a nice room above a car dealership in Altenerding. Not the quaint surroundings we were hoping for, but it's a room with a w.c. ensuite--- Better than the airport which is where we thought we may end up sleeping. They do NOT have internet here so posting will have to wait til we get back to Ukraine. (how strange does that sound?!??!!??)

 

Wednesday we got the bus from the airport to the city center and transferred to our hotel. We made our appointment for the tour of the brewery for 6pm.

 

We took a cab to the Erdinger brewery and joined our tour. We expected to tour in German, but ended up with a bus-full of people from the BIG convention. They broke us into two groups—our group; full of Poles, French and Italians, all decided on English. YAY!! We will finally get to do the tour in our native tongue.

 

It was a great tour and weisswurst, pretzels and beer (it IS a brewery tour) afterward… We sat with a guy from Poland--- we helped with his English and he with our Russian. It was a nice time.

 

We were going to walk back into Erding (5 km or so) and grab the S-bahn one stop to Altenerding—we got as far and the gas station and decided to stop in for a Mezzo Mix and a snack (we had not had a "real meal" all day.) and asked the clerk to call us a cab (in
"perfect German" hehehehehe) We were shocked by the prompt service in the shop and by the cab driver—It really hit us how slow and uncaring the service is in Ukraine!

 

Thursday we caught the S-bahn into Munich and got to Marienplatz just in time for Mass at St Peters (I think Pope Benedict's home Kirche) It was a wonderfully orthodox service.

 

We walked over to Hofbrauhaus after Mass for a beer and some obatzer. YUM!

 

We then hopped the subway to Englisher Garten (The HUGE park in the city center)  where we walked and walked and walked… We stopped by the Chinese tower for lunch. We then sat with our feet in the river and fed the ducks what was left of our "pretzel as big as your head"

 

--- random thought. Are there any American's left in America? We usually come over here off-season and we see very few American's… This time they are everywhere. There is more English spoken in Hofbrauhaus, Munich than in the one in Vegas. We met Kevin from Cincinnati (mariemont) and his wife. We ran into them again as we were squatting on an English tour in the Englisher Garten—THEN we ran into a guy from St Bernard (also Cincinnati) Walking through the park---freaky.

 

 

It's 5:30 and we have tired feet. Time to grab the S-bahn back to Erding. We got a Doenner kebab and a pop and set off back to the hotel. There is a McDonalds by the hotel and we decided to stop in and check it out (I was parched and really wanted a pop or something) I was joking that it would be swell if they had a "beverage bar" like back home and we could actually get free refills (we have never seen that in Europe before). THEY DO HAVE A "BEVERAGE BAR" WITH FREE REFILLS!!! WOW that is CRAZY! They also have McTacos! We have been really hungry for Mexican food since we left. We got a taco and grabbed a table next to the bev-bar. Hummmmmm the taco--- it was a pita with a hambuger patty some lettuce and a bit of something like a taco sauce. It was okay, but it was not a taco. After 12 small coke-fanta mixes, we went home and crashed, still really hungry for some Mexican food.

 

Friday! Our last day of vacation. Today we wanted to go to the spa and really had no other plans. We decided to see if we could rent some bikes and go out exploring.. (the hotel people looked at us like we were crazy – and maybe we are. Mary has not been on a bike since she was 14--- I rode a bit in Vegas but really not much since Jr High.) You know the old saying--- just like riding a bike--- we rented a couple of 21 speeds for the day and just like we've been riding every day of our lives we were off. What a wonderful, liberating feeling! We rode into Erding, for a typical Bavarian breakfast (weisswurst, pretzel and a weiss beer) and headed off to tour the area---we stopped off at several churches and rode through the park and small zoo. Then we peddled to the spa. We opted to leave the suits on (and all of Europe is sleeping better because of it) and just go to the play area--- we swam and got to be among the first to experience "galaxy"—Europe's largest collection of waterslides. We took it easy and went only on the slides for kids 10 and unter. But even those were some pretty serious slides including water "rollercoasters" that shoot you uphill as well as down and we rode the longest slide in Europe---lots of fun……. Back to peddling—we toured a bit more and after 35kilometers we dropped off the bikes and hopped the S-bahn into Erding for dinner… Then, as the Sir Douglas Quintet said---"The Rains Came". We were forced to catch a cab back to Altenerding and the hotel.

 

We leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 6am—we'll be back in Slov'yansk in time for our afternoon visit Saturday and after that we'll get to the internet. We can't wait to see Daniil/Alex tomorrow!

 

 

PEACE.

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

If it's Wednesday it must be...???

Guten Tag from the Flughafen in Wien!

 

The land of the free internet!! Just a quick post to say howdy.. we had a great night sleep in Kyiv, and terribly frightening cab ride to the airport and we are killing time between flights. We leave for Munich (Erding) in an hour.

 

I think we WILL have internet there so we will bother you with daily updates about our "vacation"

 

Weather for Erding---RAIN. Umbrella location-- Hotel in Slov'yansk. Oh well we'll be too happy with beer to care. Beer Tour #1 tonight at 6pm!

 

details to follow

 

 

PEACE!
 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

Tuesday June 12, 2007

We are in Max's apartment after a long day in Kyiv.

 

We have our train tickets for all of us to travel from Donetsk to Kyiv on next Saturday night. (the nice lady at the passport office there offered to come in on Saturday if we could not get all the papers done on Friday. So we took a chance and booked the train (since tickets are so hard to come by).

 

 Last night's ride was okay. I slept better than I thought I would and never came close to crashing to the floor (Mary was worried every time I turned over so she DID wake up each time I moved).

 

Last night things almost went very bad. A large Ukrainian woman in a wheel chair boarded at our stop--needless to say things are NOT ADA compliant here and she could not get in her cabin on the train. She tried to lift herself but fell to the ground. Max and I rushed to pick her up-- I had the heavy end and right after thought about how I probably just killed my back lifting this 250 lb woman to her bunk--- I am happy to report no significant back pain today! YAY!!! I got to do a good deed and not get punished for it!!

 

We fly out for a "vacation" tomorrow to Munich (actually a little town nearby called Erding) There is a Roman Spa there and the brewery of our favorite German Beer. (we are members of the fan club!). We will tour the brewery, get to daily Mass (which we have missed dearly), spend time in the Spa (textile, order nicht?) train in to Munich maybe once or twice and perhaps get to the Monestary at Andechs. It will be nice to actually speak the language (well, at least sort of).--- Actually I am very humbly impressed with how good our Russian is getting. We are ordering from the menu, I have my Cyrillic down pretty good. We took the subway on our own downtown, stopped by the cafeteria ordered our food in Russian and grabbed the subway back (actually we overshot by a stop and had to backtrack) but another couple of weeks and "look out Czar Nick!"

 

We will fly from Munich directly to Donetsk on Saturday in time for Sasha to drive us to our afternoon visit with Daniilka! We miss him and all of our family back home sooooooooo much and want this to be over and all of us be together!!

 

************** Radio Alert*************** Radio Alert************************

 

 

All non-radio people stop reading or your eyes will glaze over!

 

I spent this afternoon with the fine folks from the Ukrainian Independent Broadcasters Association (they are the Ukrainian version of the NAB). I met them after reading an article in the Kyiv Post last year and we have been working on getting together.

 

Some interesting facts about Radio here:

 

Total radio revenue in the entire country is $28 million

Max of 8 minutes of commercials per hour (does that kill you Jim and Mike?)

50% of all music product must be Ukrainian

all commercials must be in Ukrainian (even in eastern Ukraine where everyone speaks Russian)

Unless you have a special station licence all personalities must also speak only Ukrainian

Radio controls only 3% of the ad dollars behind print, TV, outdoor and tied with transit.

there are no real formats here- only Pop and Schlager (ethnic old folks music-- think Classic Country)

No real programing research --- program directors (with some help from the oligarchy) decide playlists.

 

I will be helping the folks here on a couple of projects as time permits---

 

Radio here could explode! It is as ubiquitous as in the US but the government needs to stop thinking of it as a political tool and start to let the free market decide what is best.

 

************** End of Radio Alert*************** End of Radio Alert************************

 

We will not be posting while in Germany and our phones will not work there. We'll leave word with the kids as to how to reach us

 

Check back on Saturday for our next update!

 

 

SEE YA!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

Days go by!

Monday June 11, 2007

 

 

What a day it was today!

 

Court was this morning at 9am---actually the judge had 2 hearings schedule for 9am—we waited for the jurors to arrive and by 9:45 we were underway. The judge introduced the juror(s) (we were still waiting for one to arrive), the inspector and the orphanage representative. She asked us if we were satisfied that this would be a "fair court".YES WE ARE! The judge (a red headed typical Ukrainian woman in her mid 40s) read our "petition to adopt" to the court. I was asked to stand and restate why we were here. At that time I asked that due to his medical conditions especially his cardiopathy that the 10 day waiting period be waived. (it is almost never waived anymore—stage 4 cancers, missing limbs and severe heart problems are the only reasons). There was a statement from the prosecutor and the orphanage representative. By this time the second juror arrived (a 50 something man). The judge asked if there were any questions from anyone for us—at first no—then the "late" juror had a flurry of questions..Finally the judge told him to "cool it" (Max's term). The judge told us she would have a decision by the afternoon.

 

It was about a 20-minute hearing and it seemed to go VERY WELL! We felt good about the possibility of getting the waiver on the wait.

 

After court we drove to Kramatorsk to visit Antoshka- the orphanage where Daniil was the first 6 ½ years of his life. They were very excited to meet us and hear the news that "Their little prince", Daniil, was going to be adopted. They had photos of him all over the halls. We visited with the care-takers in his old groupa and tried to learn as much about him as we could form those that really loved him the most. We met with the doctor's wife who was especially close to him and also with the assistant director—tears of joy were everywhere as they talked about what a great kid he was for them and how happy all of us are they he now has a forever family. On a very sad note the workers showed us some other kids who were in his group that had "aged out" Most of the kids went to an orphanage called Torez and many of those precious little ones were dead. It seemed every other page in the photo album with be a bright eyed disabled child who died way too young in this place. They fought hard to keep Daniil out of Torez. For that we are forever grateful! Thank you to the wonderful and loving staff at Antoshka!!

 

A terrible storm hit Kramatorsk with heavy rain, lightning, strong winds. They have no storm sewers here so this typical American summer thunderstorm turned the roads to rivers. Max's friend Sasha skillfully blasted his Daewoo through the torrent and we arrived back in an almost dry Slov'yansk in time to grab a quick lunch. The food was great but it was hard not to be consumed by the looming 2pm court decision.

 

We rushed back to court and around 2:30 pm we are very pleased to announce to the world the newest member of our family Alexander Joseph Stolz… Daniil… is ours!!!

 

Great news indeed! Our petition has been granted, but the court did not find sufficient grounds to waive the 10 days. (Again, a child must be in imminent danger of death – we could not in good faith argue that he was)

 

At that moment we decided it best to take the overnight train to Kyiv to visit with James and Catie's family and for my meeting with the broadcasters association.   The train leaves at 5:10—it's now 3—YIKES. We rush to pack (we will keep a good deal of our stuff at the "bell desk" at the hotel.) We hop a cab and swing by the store for a small gift for the inspector and her office (a box fan and a few packages of paper). We rush to see Daniil (We are still trying to figure out if he is going to be Alex, Joey, AJ or something else). We only get to spend about 30 minutes and we have to get to the train station (Not the normal one but a tiny depot near the "resort") It was soooooo hard to leave him there, but we need to tend to these other duties and we have Max let him know we'll be back very soon to get him ad take him home with us forever.

 

We got the last 3 bunks on the overnight train to Kyiv—all in different compartments, but at least we got on the train.. We did a little trading and at least Mary and I are in the same compartment. The upper bunk on a train is scary. It's thinner than a single bed at home and 5 feet off the ground. I never fall out of bed at home, but I am writing now on the train because I am afraid to go to sleep and roll over crash to the floor and break my neck! I love the motion and noise of the train—it is very soothing, but I'm convinced that I'll tumble out if we stop. Arrgh

 

Hey!! We just found out the train will have a 3 hour layover in Khrikiv (sorry for the spelling). From my Cincinnati civics class I know that that is a sister city to my hometown. We decide to go out and explore on our layover rather than stay on the hot smelly train. We grabbed a cab and got a brief tour. We swung by the Cathedral (a magnificent looking Rocco building) and got dropped off at what the cabbie proudly proclaimed to be Europe's largest town square. It is massive- with Mr Lenin looking out over the ritzy shops as if to say "what is all of this comrade? I did not approve this..). I have seen Red Square in Moscow, St Peters in Rome, St Marks in Venice, Marienplatz in Munich and I could not say that the cab driver was wrong in his assessment of the square.

 

We took the subway back to the train station for a "McBathroom" stop (we deserved a break today) The Big Mac was fine—the bathroom with a real sit down potty was GREAT!!

 

We are now making our way through the night to Kyiv. We arrive at 9:45am. We will head to Max's apartment, get cleaned up, get on the internet, try to make travel arrangements for a short trip to Munich or Crimea, meet at 3 with the Broadcasters Association and get to Catie and James' village by 7 and back to Max's for the night.

 

We will be on our own until next Friday as Max has another adoption to work on.

 

Keeping track of the timeline? So are we—here is "best case"

 

Tuesday Kyiv

Wed-Thur-Fri Munich or Crimea

Sat-Friday Slov'yansk

Friday 8am Get court decree

            9am Notary in Kramatorsk

            11am Birth Certificate

            1pm pick up Daniil from Orphanage

            3:30pm Passport office in Donetsk

Friday night in Donetsk

Saturday finish up passport if we can't do it Friday

Saturday night train to Kyiv

Sunday "free day" in Kyiv

Monday morning doctor

Monday afternoon US Embassy

Tuesday fly home---

Again, this is "Best Case" but we could be home on June 26.

 

 

Thanks for all the nice emails—please do post to the site as we don't always have time to get to the email!

 

Thanks for your prayers--- they have been answered today in our new little boy!

 

Bless you

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

Sunday June 10, 2007

 

Sorry we were not able to get to the internet today--- lots of kids on video games and not a computer anywhere around for posting…

 

We slept in today and grabbed quick breakfast before heading to the orphanage. We had fun playing with the beach blanket (table cloth) and all the usual stuff. We also got to savor some cherries (it was harvest day) from the orphanage yard--- YUMMY way more flavor than from home. Fed and played with Stimpy—colored—and pretty much just hung out.

 

12 noon and we met Lera for the bus rides to the beach. It is a glorious day. Sun and in the mid 80s. I went out and swam—Mary and Lera went later—need to stay behind to watch the moneybelt. Grabbed a couple of Piva and some Pepsis (it's a "no Coke" beach) and hung out talking about Ukraine and Russia and the differences between things here and in the US with Lera while she practices her English.

 

At 2:30 we grabbed the #2 bus back to the hotel for a quick lunch and showers to rinse off the salt and we are headed back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit—

 

 

We played "Papa The Lion" this afternoon—Daniil sneaks up on me-- I make a growling noise and he runs to mama. This and bubbles, sobaka time and the visit was over way too soon.

 

We decided to try the Kazak (No, Borat was not there) restaurant tonight. We are STUFFED! I had Shashlik and some other yummy stuff. Mary stuck with Ukrainian food and got a giant chicken breast smothered with mayo, tomatoes and cheese. There was a 50 ^th birthday party there while we were eating. It was a table of 12 and they had a feast like I have never seen--- bottles of vodka, Champaign, wine and beer. 4 or 5 different platters of different appetizers, shashlik, veggies, cheeses, cabbage rolls and a little roasted baby pig. (I really wanted to join them but Mary did not think we would fit in very well). The best part—LOUNGE SINGERS!! They were singing to tracks (think karaoke). As we were leaving the 50 something Ukrainian women were all up singing and dancing to the Russian equivalent of YMCA--- It was CRAZY. We laughed (at them not with them) for a few songs then slipped out before the vodka shots really started (we have court in the morning).

 

Wish us luck tomorrow!

 

 

PEACE

 

 

Jim and mary

 

 

 

 

Saturday June 9, 2007

 

Not too much to say today. We opted NOT do go to the beach in favor of some time at the internet researching heart problems in children with   Down syndrome. We will present a case to the judge for waiving the "10 day wait", but we do not hold out much hope for success.

 

We bought a tablecloth today to use as a beach blanket for our rescheduled salt lake venture tomorrow. It provided the main source of entertainment for our visit this afternoon (think the parachute games in gym class). We brought ice cream cones for all the kids in his group-- a very happy time for everyone!

 

No new dining experience for us tonight night—We feel a bit uncomfortable out on Saturday nights as alcohol consumption is way above the rest of the week and bands of teen boys parade around with beers in hand looking for "something to do". We'd prefer not to provide them with any entertainment at our expense. So our rule is stay out as late as we please Sunday-Thursday. Friday and Saturday get in before dark. Kazakhstan will have to wait!

 

We enjoyed  an early dinner at the café (Milestone for us! We ordered off the menu in Russian and actually got what we thought we were going to get!!!) and home to do laundry (big load in the shower makes for clean clothes and clean feet!)

 

One more day until court!!

 

 

PEACE

 

Jim and Mary

Friday June 8, 2007

 

Katie (our Peace Corps friend—she said it was okay to name her so we are not "blowing her cover") met us at the hotel and together we took the 45-minute bus ride to the lavra.

 

In Ukrainian the place's name means the "Mountain of Light". In Russian it's "Mountain of the Slavs".   A very beautiful complex carved out of the white chalk cliffs overlooking a very scenic (and reportedly very polluted river). It has significance to both religious and secular society. Formed as a monastery nearly a thousand years ago, Monks continue the contemplative lifestyle on the grounds today. There are a number of chapels including one located in the caves (the burial location for the Monks). Sadly, the churches and caves were all closed to visitors today. We hiked up the mountain past a memorial to an artillery spotter from "The Great Patriotic War to Defeat the Fascists" (WWII)   -- the mountain was a key battleground between the Soviets and Germans.— up to the chiseled Soviet statue of Artem. While the Soviets left the monastery intact, they wanted to be sure to have an icon of the State rising above the Icons of the Church. So Artem and a memorial to the battlefield dead, towers above the Monks.

 

****** Food Alert*****

We broke our "street food" rule and dove into the goodies in the "souvenir Rynok" on the way out of the lavra. Yummy pastries filled with caramel and apple and jam. Plus "Sharma" (kinda like a gyro or a doenner kebap but with mayonnaise and ketchup rather than the cucumber yogurt sauce) It was really tasty and hopefully it will not require that we break out the Cipro.

 

After the bus ride home, we said goodbye to our new friend and wished her well as she set off on her summer assignment to teach at an English camp in Crimea. It was so wonderful to run into Katie; we know so much more about the area and have a much greater understanding of the amazing work the Peace Corps volunteers perform. Thanks Katie!

 

 

We changed clothes and eagerly headed to the orphanage for our afternoon visit. Daniil seemed a little off today. Not sure if he is getting sick, did not nap well, or if missing our morning visit just threw him off, but he was very tired and a bit grumpy this afternoon. He WAS very excited to get his gifts from Katie—he LOVES his Mickey Mouse ball-cap, bubbles and he spent a good while this afternoon playing with his crayons. We fed Stimpy some sausage and cheese (which Daniil shared). He ate his banana and it was time to do the rounds at the orphanage. It was a beautiful afternoon and all the kids were out. That meant that we were stuck sitting on the concrete stoop--- That was until Luba (the orphanage director) came out. It seems little boys will get sick and women's ovaries will freeze if one sits on concrete. No, really—it's true—honest. So not wanting to be responsible for either of those tragedies, Luba moved us to the world's most uncomfortable bench by the main door of the orphanage. Tragedy averted!

 

Daniil did have fun today with some imaginary play today. He used his gift bag and packed "soup and bread" for his lunch and headed off to "work"--- he walked around the hut and greeted mom with a hug after a hard day in the coal mine. Mom asked for some Khleb (bread) so he headed to the "store" to get some—repacked his lunch bag and headed off to the mine again. – very cute!

 

We had a nice chat with a nice older woman waiting for the bus today.. Some English, some German and some Russian and we were able to tell her about Daniil and she told us about her life. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She comes here for the curative powers of the salt lake and mud. She is a very young looking 71 (Ukrainian women do not usually age well) so I'd say the spa works!—We are headed there tomorrow during our noon time break with Lera for some sun, salt and mud!

 

We stopped at the "mega-mart" and got a couple of chicken breasts and some salad for dinner—we figured we better take it easy after our big day of "street food". Tomorrow will be a "splurge night". Katie told about a Khazak restaurant here in Slov'yansk called El Dorado. They have an English menu (good news since we do not know the ethnic cuisine of Kazakhstan) and it supposed to be great!

 

Enough babbling—gotta get to bed- We are getting very nervous about court on Monday and neither of us are sleeping well. Need to listen while the sandman calls!

 

PEACE

 

Jim and Mary

Thursday June 7, 2007

I know we sound like a broken record, but it was another good day here in Slo'vyansk, Ukraine! We were up and out early to the Rynok (open air market) in search of bubbles to play with Daniil---found em—25 cents! Then we are off to the trolly-bus for the ride to the orphanage for our visit. Visits are getting more predicable as we figure each other out!

 

Treat for Daniil

Treat for Stimpy (as long as Daniil does not eat it all)

Broom-ball and just visiting for a couple of hours.

Mary parades him around the grounds singing, "you are my sunshine"

Time to go in

 

We went to the "mega-mart" after our visit (more like the size of an IGA back home) and got some cooked chicken breasts for lunch and other groceries to hold us over through the weekend—We spent $30USD (they take credit cards) and that should be more than enough for our 2 meals a day in the hotel til court on Monday.

 

**** A note about credit in Ukraine. Just recently, "everyday Ukrainians" can get credit.  This has opened the chance to buy a world of consumer goods. There is an appliance store on almost every corner of our little city. Building supply, remodeling, electronics and even car showrooms are all promising "easy credit". (my fave is "Credit Dumka"—insert "dummy-head" joke here) Many people we speak with don't quite understand that they will have to pay the money back. It's just "free stuff" to them. It will be interesting to see how this nation where the average worker makes (at the most) a couple hundred dollars a month find a way to actually afford their 30 inch plasma TV.

 

We also spent more time than we expected at the Internet café today. We hoped to get in and get some stuff downloaded to my "thumb-y drive", update the blog and be on our way, but we ran into the disabled fellow that we helped last week to find his friend in Portland.   He has been searching since then to try to find this fellow's email (we found the mailing addy and phone number but no email). We did several email searches to try to help him but came up empty. Thankfully one of the girls we met at English club was there to help us explain that it's often harder to find email addys in the US than street addresses. If he is there next time, we'll offer to call and see if we can get the email.

 

Our afternoon ride to the orphanage was the most crowded so far on the trolley-bus. I pushed as hard as I could to get up the steps and Mary was able to sneak on right before the doors closed--- butts, legs, arms and privates are smashed against you—THEN the (always hefty) ticket taker lady somehow manages to get through to get your 60 kopek. AMAZING!

 

We forgot our snacks today so I ducked out to get some "salt cheese", a 2 litre of Coke (they are out of .5 litres) and plastic vodka shot glasses (try to explain that one to the Orphanage Director) so we can avoid Daniil's prolific "backwash".

 

After a waay too quick visit, we headed down to catch our #7 trolley-bus--- . We were thinking about trying a new café tonight for dinner, but I was covered with grime from our playtime and the place we were looking at looked a bit more upscale than that, so we went back to the "Chernehivska café" where they proudly marched out my ballcap that I had left a couple of days ago (I was wondering where it went.) Wet go a couple of beverages, some pistachios and borsht and watched a 50 something guy in a tan suit wine and dine his table then step into his H2 Hummer and speed off. Hummmmmmm.

 

We will sadly miss our morning visit with Daniil tomorrow as we will meet our Peace Corps friend and she will take us to the Cave Monastery. We hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you tomorrow.

 

 

 

Peace!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

"Hey" to the Crew at Work---Congrats on a good ratings trend—I just saw a bit of the data but it looked good---Duker—Congrats on ANOTHER #1 month!!! YAY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

--
Marty Thompson
President
www.MartyThompson.com

Thursday June 7, 2007

I know we sound like a broken record, but it was another good day here in Slo'vyansk, Ukraine! We were up and out early to the Rynok (open air market) in search of bubbles to play with Daniil---found em—25 cents! Then we are off to the trolly-bus for the ride to the orphanage for our visit. Visits are getting more predicable as we figure each other out!

 

Treat for Daniil

Treat for Stimpy (as long as Daniil does not eat it all)

Broom-ball and just visiting for a couple of hours.

Mary parades him around the grounds singing, "you are my sunshine"

Time to go in

 

We went to the "mega-mart" after our visit (more like the size of an IGA back home) and got some cooked chicken breasts for lunch and other groceries to hold us over through the weekend—We spent $30USD (they take credit cards) and that should be more than enough for our 2 meals a day in the hotel til court on Monday.

 

**** A note about credit in Ukraine. Just recently, "everyday Ukrainians" can get credit.  This has opened the chance to buy a world of consumer goods. There is an appliance store on almost every corner of our little city. Building supply, remodeling, electronics and even car showrooms are all promising "easy credit". (my fave is "Credit Dumka"—insert "dummy-head" joke here) Many people we speak with don't quite understand that they will have to pay the money back. It's just "free stuff" to them. It will be interesting to see how this nation where the average worker makes (at the most) a couple hundred dollars a month find a way to actually afford their 30 inch plasma TV.

 

We also spent more time than we expected at the Internet café today. We hoped to get in and get some stuff downloaded to my "thumb-y drive", update the blog and be on our way, but we ran into the disabled fellow that we helped last week to find his friend in Portland.   He has been searching since then to try to find this fellow's email (we found the mailing addy and phone number but no email). We did several email searches to try to help him but came up empty. Thankfully one of the girls we met at English club was there to help us explain that it's often harder to find email addys in the US than street addresses. If he is there next time, we'll offer to call and see if we can get the email.

 

Our afternoon ride to the orphanage was the most crowded so far on the trolley-bus. I pushed as hard as I could to get up the steps and Mary was able to sneak on right before the doors closed--- butts, legs, arms and privates are smashed against you—THEN the (always hefty) ticket taker lady somehow manages to get through to get your 60 kopek. AMAZING!

 

We forgot our snacks today so I ducked out to get some "salt cheese", a 2 litre of Coke (they are out of .5 litres) and plastic vodka shot glasses (try to explain that one to the Orphanage Director) so we can avoid Daniil's prolific "backwash".

 

After a waay too quick visit, we headed down to catch our #7 trolley-bus--- . We were thinking about trying a new café tonight for dinner, but I was covered with grime from our playtime and the place we were looking at looked a bit more upscale than that, so we went back to the "Chernehivska café" where they proudly marched out my ballcap that I had left a couple of days ago (I was wondering where it went.) Wet go a couple of beverages, some pistachios and borsht and watched a 50 something guy in a tan suit wine and dine his table then step into his H2 Hummer and speed off. Hummmmmmm.

 

We will sadly miss our morning visit with Daniil tomorrow as we will meet our Peace Corps friend and she will take us to the Cave Monastery. We hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you tomorrow.

 

 

 

Peace!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

"Hey" to the Crew at Work---Congrats on a good ratings trend—I just saw a bit of the data but it looked good---Duker—Congrats on ANOTHER #1 month!!! YAY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday June 6, 2007

 

We were up and out to the internet café this morning at 9. We then proceeded directly to the Orphanage. Daniil was ready for us when we got there and we headed outside to play. Stimpy was there for her treat and the 3 of us played with her for a while. We did 3 laps around the grounds exploring all there is to see and we played more of the dumping game. Time really flew today. Strange—some days 2 hours seems like an eternity and then days like today where it's gone so terribly fast.

 

Mary and I had planned on going to the salt lake today, but it's too windy. Sand will be whipping and it's much cooler lately so we'll try again later (it's supposed to get back into the 80s by Saturday.) Friday we are going to the Lavra (Cave Monastery) with our Peace Corps friend. (it will be the last time we will get to hang out since she is headed to The Crimea to work at a camp for the summer).

 

I am writing here on our lunch break. We had some of the wonderful Ukrainian Kielbasa, ham, cheese, bread, butter and jam. We had a ton of laundry to get done in the sink too.

 

Not much else to report on. Max will get back into town Sunday night. Our next critical event is court on Monday. As long as that goes well the 10 day wait starts to tick.

 

Stuff we need to get done during the wait:

 

• Get to Antoshka (his previous orphanage) in Kramatorsk to get more detailed medical records.
• Meet his Bio Mom (or at least try)
• Get to Kyiv to meet with the Broadcasters Association
• Get to Ivankiv to see Catie and James' Grandma and Aunts.
• Either build slides or install blinds at the orphanage

 

We may have a weekend of nothing to do next weekend. We are torn. We could really use a break from the grind and maybe get over to Munich, down to Turkey or the beaches of Croatia for the weekend, but we HATE the thought of being away from Daniil for 3 days. We will wait to see what our mental state is after court on Monday to decide.

 

We hear rumors that there may be another American family in the area—If anyone know of someone in Kramatorsk please email me marty@martythompson.com with any contact into they may be willing to share. (it's an easy bus ride between the two cities)

 

Back in the room after the afternoon session… today we learned new words—"tik-o-da". (sorry for the spelling) Daniil had been saying this a lot. We could not figure it out. We had dinner tonight with Lera and she explained that it means "where are you going?". Makes perfect sense. He would say it when the ball would wander off, when the sobaka would run away or when the "blue van of infamy" would drive away. "Where are you going". We get it now!

 

We had another fun visit this afternoon. We played a BUNCH of "broom-ball". (brooms here are not like in the US—they are 3 feet high and are made of twigs and branches that are lashed together.) We found 3 old brooms used to sweep the dirt on the playground and turned them into a wonderful game whapping the beach ball around the yard. It did scare us a bit when Daniil became very winded after the 20 minute game. His medical report says he has a slight heart murmur—but he sure does tire easily. (it's not good when papa has more energy that you!). We sat with the Doctor and Max and went through his medical file. He had an allergic reaction to a bee sting when he was 3 that sent him to the hospital. That, the cardiopathy (as they call it), he's a bit duck-footed (sorry I know that is not politically correct) and he has astigmatism—along with his primary diagnosis of Down syndrome. We still need to get the full record from Antoshka (see above) but overall he's pretty healthy.

 

9:15 and bedtime (the sun will be up at 4am—hopefully we will not)

 

 

more later

 

PEACE,

 

Jim and Mary

 

PS: a word about Daewoos:

 

By FAR the most seen auto manufacturer in this area is Daewoo. They have several products—the Getz, the Lanos and (it's branded Chevy, but it's still a Daewoo) the Aveo.

Yes, you see a few Hyundai's, and the ever-present Soviet Lada. The Russian Mob drive black SUVs—usually Lexus or Mercedes—sometimes a Rav 4 if they are not really full fledged mobsters. Plus here in Slo'vyansk there is one Lincoln Towncar and one brand new Chrysler 300—wonder where they get them fixed--   But the Daewoos are everywhere—you look forward to getting one as a cab since they are the nicest thing you are likely to get –(I'm convinced Lada is secret Soviet code for "car that runs too rich and stalls a lot). We had a Daewoo in Vegas (a blue Nubira) and LOVED it—when they stopped selling them we could no longer get parts so it had to go-- but it was one of my fave cars ever.   Yes, we are in Ukraine—"The land of really fertile soil and lots of Daewoos!"

Tuesday June 5, 2007

 

Hey Tuesday!

 

We had a fun day today. We got up and Mary went to the Rynok to get supplies for breakfast and laundry in the sink. I was lazy and read my "Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" (thanks Rob) book. I've already finished "Crusader" Reagan and the Cold War and got through another few books of City of God. I'd like to finish "Teeedy" and get through City of God for the second time (I have been fighting with St. Augustine for several years and he is winning.) before we leave.

 

We had 2 great visits with Daniil today. His new thing is wanting to be carried on his walk around the orphanage grounds. Mary obliges since my back won't permit it. I am getting better each day and able to finally walk without a hitch.

 

During Today's visits we:

Fed the Sobaka (twice)

Played with the Sobaka (almost non-stop)

Played beach ball-volleyball and soccer

Smelled roses, buttercups and pine trees

Tried to break into the steel shed with 3 big old Soviet locks

Wiped noses at least 50 times

Washed hands with Purell almost that many times

Practiced writing ABCs

Made a calendar with important dates for all of us to check off the days til we get home

Emptied and refilled the "backpack of fun" at least 5 times

Counted kopek 3 times

Watched a fire of scrub-brush burn in the yard

Drank a pop

Ate a cookie

Swept the dirt to clean up fuzzys

Watched trolley busses return to the depot (behind the orphanage)

Shared hugs and "kisses all over your whole face"

 

 

After the afternoon visit we visited the University English club and helped the students at a rousing game of Scrabble.

 

Sad news: Our new Peace Corps friend is headed to The Crimea to work at a summer camp on Saturday. We will check with her and see if we can take over her English Club for her for the next couple of weeks. She has made life MUCH easier for us the past week. THANK YOU!

 

We had a yummy dinner at our Café. Mary had a chicken pepper stew and I hade pork with mushrooms, cheese and (sorry to say I liked it) mayonnaise, fried potatoes and a salad with mayonnaise, cheese and tomatoes. It was, perhaps, the best meal during the trip thus far. We feel a little guilty; it was expensive (just under $20). A nice splurge, but we'll get back to thrifty tomorrow!

 

I think I have Mary talked into going back to the salt lake for a little fun in the sun during our downtime tomorrow afternoon. We'll get some street food and sit at the beach for a couple of hours. After out afternoon visit, we are meeting Lera to help with her English.

 

Well, that was our Tuesday. Hope yours was as good!

 

PEACE

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

 

Monday June 4, 2007

 

Happy Birthday James! I'm so sorry we are not there with you to celebrate the big number 10. Hope you have a great birthday today and have a great family party this weekend!

 

I wish I had better adoption news today—I do not.

 

We will have court at 9am on Monday June 11, 2007. There was a chance that we could snag a cancellation this Wednesday, but all the people who need to be in court cannot be there. So there it is—better than the 14 ^th, but not what we had hoped for. We have a very strict and scrupulous judge. When we came here in 2004 we decided that we would not be a part of any of the "culture of the bribe" and we still feel the same way. We will not make any payments to anyone outside the law. Thankfully that is NOT what this judge was looking for—she is just very much "by the book". And the book says she has this much time to review paperwork—she's using it.

 

So here is the timeline as it stands today: (this is Not written in stone, but I think it's a pretty realistic expectation)

 

Monday June 11, 2007 Court. (time starts ticking for the 10 day wait)

Friday June 22.  We can pick him up from the Orphanage early in the morning. Then need to go to the village where he was born and get his birth certificate redone. Go to Donetsk and get the birth certificate certified and get his passport.) Hopefully we can get all of this done that day but probably more realistic to think that will be on Monday June 25.

Overnight train June 25 to Kyiv

June 26 Physical at the American Medical Center

June 27 US Embassy Visit for US Visa

Thursday June 28 fly home.

 

It's scary but that is actually the day we bought our tickets for the return based on other people's timelines.

 

We sent Max back home to Kyiv on the train tonight and it's just us again in the thriving burg of Sla'vynsk.   Our life for the next week;

 

Up at 8, eat breakfast, shower.

9:30 leave hotel for the walk to the bus

9:40 Bus to Orphanage

10 visit with Daniil

12n Catch the bus home

12:30 lunch in hotel, write journal, read, nap

3 leave for internet café to post to blog

3:40 catch bus to orphanage

4pm visit with Daniil

6p catch bus home drop off bags and head out to get dinner.

9p back to hotel for reading, writing and bed

 

The routine is easy. Thinking about everyone at home is hard. We really do have it pretty simple here right now. Our days are fairly lazy.

 

Some projects we are working on to make a difference while we are here:

 

• We are either going to get and install some blinds or slides for the Orphanage.
• We are helping the Peace Corps worker with her English club at the University. (Tomorrow night is scrabble night!)
• We are planning to help the Peace Corps worker with her "social Club" for young adults with disabilities.
• Tutoring Lera in English
• I plan to take an afternoon to visit and lend a hand to Radio station "Focus" in Kramatorsk.
• Still waiting to meet with the Independent Broadcasters of Ukraine in Kyiv. (we had to fly out before our last scheduled meeting)

 

Thanks to all for the prayers and warm wishes. Keep them coming. Reading comments from you all is a highlight of our day—after visiting with Daniil!

 

Peace,

 

Jim and Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday June 3, 2007

 

We continue to occupy time here in the best way we can.  We have always believed that any uncomfortable situation can be turned into a fun one. It's all about attitude. It would have been very easy to blow off the young college student who wanted to practice English. Or send off the Peace Corps worker who came up to us in the internet café, but we took the time to stop and talk and have made wonderful new friends.

 

Lera (the college student) is one course away from her master's degree in mathematics. She will be a high school math teacher (qualified to teach at university, but prefers high school). She is from a town 2 hours away and was convinced by her mom to become a teacher. (it was her Mom's dream to teach, but was unable to get the education.) College here is a deal by US standards --$500 a year or so—but that is 5 months wages in Ukraine.

 

The Peace Corps worker is a 27 year old LA kid who has had working for the Peace Corps on her life list for some time. Oddly enough she teaches at the same University that Lera attends (this is not like a US university with thousands of students—maybe several hundred) but one in Math and one in languages and they had never met before tonight. Hopefully they will become friends during the last 6 months for each of them in Slay'vansk.

 

We had PIZZA!! Not really like you think of pizza—it was a good crust with catsup, olives, peppers, ham, chicken, tomatoes, canned mushrooms, green onions and cheese.

I loved it—Mary did not. Catsup for pizza sauce takes some getting used to!

 

We had a great meal for the 4 of us, including drinks for about $10 bucks—again, great by US   prices, but way more than most Ukrainians could ever afford.

 

 

We had 2 good visits with Daniil today. It was too cold to go outside in the morning so we played in the "motor room" at the orphanage. Lots of balls and hoola hoops to take out and put away (his favorite game). We took the computer and watched a Kid Songs DVD and listened to some music with him. It was still cool this afternoon but we were able to go outside. We took food for Stimpy and Daniil got to feed her—it's a good thing we take food fit for human consumption because usually the way it works is Daniil takes a bite and gives the rest to the dog. Stimpy will let me (jim) come up and pet her but is still not sure about Mary and Daniil yet. We played with the beach ball and took a stroll around the grounds and our time was up.

 

Tomorrow we need to go to the notary in Kramatorsk in the morning so we will only get to do our afternoon visit. Tomorrow is also our big day (hopefully) with the judge to try to get the court date nailed down (sooner than June 14 that she offered last time)

 

We'll post more as soon as we get word from the judge!

 

Peace,

 

Jim and Mary

 

com

Sunday June 3, 2007

Just a quick note to say we found an internet cafe by the University--- check out new photos onthe photo page and videos on youtube

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByoKgN-Fy9Q

 

and

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P9d3iPCevs

 

PEACE

 

Jim and Mary

 

Saturday June 2, 2007

 

Well, by now you know that we could not post today. The library Internet café (the one funded by the US Embassy) was closed for "cleaning" today. The other one (where all the pre-teen and teenage boys play graphically violent computer games that feature really foul language) had no Internet service and did not expect it to be back up before 3pm today. So—no post—sorry.

 

We got to the orphanage right at 10 today and took bananas to the kids. Daniil was ready to greet us when we arrived (the kids in his groupa have been spending a lot of time outdoors while the "worker-men" redo their living room with new flooring and wall covering. We took treats for Stimpy the Sobaka. "Day old" cheese and sausage. She is the ugliest dog I have ever seen and has a horrible under-bite--   She is so freakish that she is adorable. At first we thought she was snarling at us—then we realized that her mouth just does not close right. Not mad, just in need of a little doggie dental work. She finally let me pet her and, after some encouragement, Daniil was able to pet her too. He LOVES Sobakas (poor Queenie will not be left alone at home).

 

We played some ball, swept the floor of the playhouse and spent some time talking to the orphanage director, Luba, who came in with her husband and grandson. The grandson is in 6 ^th grade and has been learning English for 2 years. We spent some time talking with him in English so he could practice. He also translated a bit for us and Luba. (we are still trying to soften her up a bit) She is not going to get in the way of the adoption, but we really want her to see that this is a good thing and perhaps be more willing to get the kids registered faster so they are eligible to be adopted internationally.

.

Noon came much too soon. We said goodbye to Daniil and that we would see him zaftra (tomorrow).

 

Not too much of a wait for the bus and we made it home pretty quickly. (side note on the bus—this morning's ride was the most crowded we have ever seen. It was a bendable bus with 4 doors and easily held 90 people---except that this is Ukraine and there were at LEAST twice that many on board. I did not think I was going to get on which was a problem since Mary had already shoved her way in. I finally pushed as hard as I could and got the mass of humanity to more forward a foot or so-- and just in time as the doors closed and squished me into the rump of a very large woman in front of me—welcome to Ukraine!)

 

We called our new Peace Corps friend and she agreed to meet us at the statue of Papa Lenin to head to the salt lake. Slay'vansk (I think I got the spelling right there) is a spa town. In fact; it has the "best curative mud in Europe" as voted by Spa World Magazine (probably not the real name of the publication). We toured the grounds---very pretty featuring gardens and sculptures. (Still very much "Soviet" and everything is kinda run down—a little like if the Masonette was in trailer in Cleves. (Cincinnati people will get that- sorry for the rest of you)

 

We then walked to the salt lake. I would say it's 4-5 acres of "saltier than sea water" water. Seems very clean. LOTS of people. Lots of very LARGE old Ukrainian women in bikinis (not a pretty sight). The water felt great and the sun was glorious. Mary covered my back with mud (it's supposed to work)   She covered her leg which was pulling a Charlie-horse. Her pain got better, mine did not. (I had a "horrible" teeter-totter accident and threw out my back—the doc prescribed steroids before we left home and I'm getting around okay between them and the advil.)

 

A bus ride back to our hotel for showers to wash the salt water off, and we are on our way to dine with our Peace Corps friend at a Chinese restaurant.  

 

We are back from dinner...interesting. It is a Chinese restaurant without anyone of Asian background anywhere. We had sweet and sour chicken and beef (kind of a catsup based sauce) and a really yummy chicken peanut spicy dish. "fried rice" and Dim Sum. The bill for the 3 of us was just under $20.The food was really good! We had a nice chat about life in Ukraine from the perspective of someone who comes from our culture but has lived here for 2 years. It was a very nice evening!

 

Hopefully, we will find an open Internet café tomorrow to post, and share some of the pictures of "Stimpy the sobaka" and mud-encrusted healing Ukrainians!

 

Until then…….

 

PEACE!

 

 

Jim and Mary

Friday June 1, 2007

 

 

Hola y'all!

 

We had a fun Friday evening! First we went to our café, and then to the town square. There was some sort of kid's event going on.. There were lots of kids very dressed up jumping on the inflatable alligator and riding the "power wheels" (both provided by capitalists who bought the stuff and the permit to sell on the street. All of this happening, directly in front of the statue of Mr. Lenin. Very weird) A couple of adult beverages—the soft stuff for me Chernehivskya Pivo, and the first introduction to Russian Vodka for the Mrs. (she is now sound asleep in the other room!! (Quite funny)!)

 

We had a great visit with Daniil this afternoon. In the past visits, we tried to pack way too much into our "get-togethers". He is much happier walking around the grounds and playing with the sobaka (dog) rather than having us entertain him every moment..

 

The performance this morning was fun. Daniil was in a couple of the skits, but mostly he was an observer like us. There were some local dignitaries there and they brought cakes and big Milka Candy bars for all of the kids! We brought juice boxes, cookies and "fun size" Snickers and Milky Way bars for each Groupa (the kids 60 kids are broken down in groups on 8 or 9). (they were not amused that we were in line at the market with 60 juice boxes)

 

At the end of the day, we got to finally share the pictures of home with Luba (the director). Hopefully she'll understand that Daniil is heading to a better place!

 

We have met lots of fun folks here.

 

You know about (name removed to protect her identity) . She is a Peace Corp worker from LA. She is taking us on a tour of the area tomorrow including the cave Monasteries and the Salt Lake Spas. We hope to get Chinese food for dinner (it sounds strange, but it will be a nice touch of home to get some General Tso Chicken and an eggroll!!).

 

Yesterday I spend half an hour talking to a retired Soviet chief engineer. He worked on machine tools for East German aircraft. His second language is German as is mine. It was a wonderful chat for 2 people who are far from fluent. He is struggling to get by every month. After the terrible inflation in the 90s, the retired folks here (after the promise of the Soviet system for a quality retirement these elders) do not have not enough to get by. It was very profound to hear his story and very strange to think that it was his work that we wanted to blow away into oblivion during the Cold War.

 

Today we met a 20 something girl named Leda. She overheard us speaking English on the bus on the way to the Orphanage. She stopped us as we got off the bus and asked is we would speak with her so she could practice her English. She seemed very sweet. She followed us on the way to see Daniil. We traded phone numbers and we will meet with her on Sunday after our 4pm visit. An hour of English practice for an hour of Russian for us! Fair trade!

 

For those interested in our timeline: Monday is our BIG day. We need the judge to understand that there is more to this than just a regular adoption. This is a kid who needs to get out of here and needs to get out fast. There is a lot of testing that needs to be done before our local school system shuts down. We also need to get cardio and ortho to look him over for all the typical Down's things. We really need to get him back by the 3 ^rd week of June to get all of this stuff going. The SDA, orphanage and the Embassy have been VERY helpful. The local judge has not (so far). The optimist in me refuses to think that she is playing this for personal monetary enhancement. (We will NOT go there with her). I'm sure she just wants to be sure that everything is in place for the welfare of Daniil (this is where you can mock me for being naive).

 

We will not be able to update on Sunday (the internet café is closed). We'll do our best to get to the joint on Monday (but it could get wacky with the court).

 

Please keep us in your prayers. We NEED Monday to go our way!  We are beginning to lose our sense of humor and are quite ready to come home with our new young man!

 

Marty

Friday June 1, 2007

Sorry-- not much time to write today. We are at the internet cafe and need to get out of here in 15 minutes.

 

Good news: The SDA did as promised and issued all the paperwork to Max THIS MORNING! That is less than 48 hours (THANK YOU Tatiana and Zarina!) usually it is 5 working days. The next hurdle is Max's meeting with the Judge on Monday---- We shoudl know our court date after that-- hopefully the judge will be as compassionate as everyone else has been so far!

 

See the new pictures in the Photo section--- We'll have a movie posted tomorrow.

 

We will try to get here early in the AM tomorrow and post a more detailed update..

 

See ya

 

Jim and Mary

Wednesday May 30 and Thursday May 31, 2007

A double update today—

 

First the important stuff—The judge has agreed to meet with Max on Monday. She wants two changes to our documents. The homestudy says we have 4 kids living at home. Max filled out the paperwork saying that we have 7 kids. Both are true, but the judge wants the paper Max did to match exactly the wording on the homestudy. Secondly, she wants a paper saying that Daniil will be permitted to enter the US. (which is what the I-171H, that she already has, is). Not sure what she's looking for there. Max is calling the Embassy to see if there are any other papers to issue to make her happy. She has still not agreed to move up the court date, but does seem a bit friendlier. More when we know more….

 

Yesterday at the internet café we ran into the only other American in Slvansk (or at least we assume she is). A nice Peace Corps worker from Los Angeles.  Yesterday was her birthday. We asked her impressions of Ukraine and gave us the Peace Corps line that "it's the hardest job you'll ever love" She teaches English at the College here and helps out at a rec center for disabled young adults.

 

We will be stopping by and helping as much as we can in her English class (it's very close to the Orphanage). We also found out about more about the cool spas and healing lakes in the region and plan to check them out on Saturday. There is a thousand year old cave Monastary in the area too. I hope we can swap some English lessons for a local to take us around and show us the sites.

 

She also had some very interesting insight. Ukraine is not as it seems. The civil, polite surface hides a very dark society. She said when she got here she was disgusted by the whole "Russian Mail Order Bride" thing. Now she is 100% for it and asked us to let all our single men friends know that it is for real and these are wonderful loving women who have no future here. And she implored us to tell people to help "get them out".   So there ya go fellas.

 

We were also warned about meat from anywhere but the western grocery and that, even filtered, the tap water will make you dear friends with the commode.

 

As for Daniil, we have discovered that the early visits go much better than the afternoon visits. By afternoon he is really tired and not much in the mood for anything. He also gets over-stimulated very easily. Added to this is the difficulty we find in securing a location where we may visit. There are 5 or 6 individual "playground" areas around the grounds, with each group of children seeming to have an area assigned on a rotating schedule. We may not be in an area with the other children (We are briskly told we must move, immediately) and one time all of the areas were taken. We literally had nowhere to go but on some stone steps in the full sun! Luckily, this has only happened once since we've been here, but I'm sure we are up for a repeat performance. We have finally realized that he is usually content to sit and/or stand and watch the Sobaka (Dogs) and "Fuzzy Devils" (like dust devils only made of "Fuzzys").   He loves to leave the Orphanage grounds but we have been told that he may no longer go out (a couple of the caretakers were okay with it—a couple were not—they appealed to the Director and she said Nyet" to the road trips).

 

A very sad moment today. A blue school van was parked near where we were playing. He really wanted to stay close to the van. The doctor and a girl came out of the orphanage and boarded (probably going to the clinic) and he flipped out wanting to get on the bus--- he kept saying "home" over and over—I'd like to think he was wanting to leave with us,   but I think he wanted to go back to Antoshka (the baby house orphanage where he was his entire life up till 5 months ago.) He was sobbing when the bus left without him—Heartbreaking.

 

Tomorrow there is a big performance at the Orphanage. There will be song and dance. Skits and more! We have been invited—they were especially excited when the found out I work for a country music station, as one on the numbers they will be performing will be a "cowboy song". We will bring cakes and pop for everyone for after the show.

 

We have given up our cab rides! They cost 8 hrv 4 times a day for a total of just over 6 bucks a day. We are now taking the bus for 60 kopek a trip for each of us—the 4 trips works out to about a dollar a day total. It's a "trolly-bus" powered by overhead lines. The afternoon ride is not too crowded—the morning rides are packed. Think of the most crowded place you ever been---Maybe Tina's before a rainy Bengals game? Not even close—at lease twice the number of people in the same space…and ahhhh the smell. (I won't get into details. but it is quite ripe). But 5 bucks is 5 bucks and with everything being way more expensive than we expected every little bit helps.

 

A typical day for us right now is: (sorry for the minutia)

 

7am     Get up and maybe head to the Rynok for some fruit for breakfast

8am     Breakfast. Either cereal (some sort of corn flake kind of thing) or bread, butter and jam. Cold Cuts, Cheese, yogurt, milk and either juice or fruit. (this is usually our big meal)

9am     Shower. Get ready to go

9:30     walk about half a mile to get the bus to the Orphanage

10-12   Visit with Daniil

12        Bus back home (maybe stop at supermarket)

1          Lunch –bread butter, cold cuts, cheese, bottle of water

            rest/read and write

3          leave for internet café and bus

4-6       Visit with Daniil

6:30ish Stop for a beverage and maybe dinner at a street side café

9          grab an ice cream at the corner 7-11 (tin hut) and head home to do laundry, read and write.

11        shower and bed

 

Every day is a bit different and we do hope to be helping at the college soon so things will change.

 

******* Weather update********

 

It is still CRAZY HOT. It has pushed 100 ever day since we got here save one. Yesterday afternoon was wonderful! A big storm blew through. Thunder, Lightning, Wind and about 17 raindrops. It did cool things off a bunch, but the forecast for the rest of the week is sun and close to 100. (Looks like there will be a chance and temps back into the mid 70s for Sunday and Monday!!) I miss my "Weather Rush"!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday May 29, 2007

 

UGH—not a good day.

 

So far everything has been "best case scenario". Today has been worst case. All started out well. Max arrived at 6:15 and we were set have a very productive day. I went with the doctor to 2 clinics and the hairdressers (yes one of the docs was getting her hair done) to get all the needed signatures. Mary stayed with Daniil and played and Max went to see the judge. Two out of 3 ain't bad unless the one you need is the important one. Mary's mission accomplished—a nice visit with Daniil. My mission accomplished—the doc got all the paperwork done. Max ran into a roadblock.

 

The judge had had a hectic day. By the time he caught her, she was leaving court after a full docket. She was not happy to see him and told him there was no chance for court before June 14 ^th. WHAT June 14^th?? We hoped to be on our way home by then. It is permitted by law to take this long, but everyone else has been so helpful and appreciative that we are giving this youngster a chance we thought the judge would feel the same way. She does not (or at least did not this afternoon) We are hoping that Max just caught her at a bad time and she may reconsider in the morning.

 

The SDA will process all the paperwork so that we could have court anytime after this Friday. June 14^th is A VERY long way from Friday.

 

After a frustrating day, we had a nice dinner at our café and Max headed back to Kyiv (the only berth left on the train (is that proper train lingo??) was 3 ^rd class. A small sleeper on top (the hottest) right next to the lavatory (the smelliest). (we love you Max!!). He will deliver the papers to the SDA in the morning and they promised to turn them around by Friday at the latest.

 

So here is the deal—If the judge will bend and grant court like we requested on Monday we could be home by the 15^th or 16^th. If we get held up in court we could be here for the 4^th of July. Argh----

 

Stay tuned for more as we know it----

 

The weather forecast for the rest of the week—Sun and highs near 100!

 

YAY!

 

 

Jim and Mary

 

PS: On a lighter note--A word about meat sticks:

They are kinda like Slim Jims only they have flavor beyond the salt that cured them. Somewhere between a summer sausage and pepperoni. Dr Atkins would have loved them (were he not dead). They are my fave as I am trying to lose 30 lbs on our trip. "Go Meatsticks"!

 

 

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Max arrived early at our hotel room (6:15ish), and we began our day of planning. The two most important steps today are: Getting a court date if possible, (at least meeting with the judge) and getting the Inspector's letter. If both of these are accomplished today (or really, if only the Inspector's letter is gotten) Max will be on his way back to Kyiv tonight. If not, we have a roommate. And, we still need to go over the medicals at the orphanage, just so we know everything in his file

 

Also, on the "to do" list, is to make a decision about staying in our current hotel, or trying to find more fiscally responsible accommodations. This place is nice; western rooms, downtown location, close to many things, but not walking distance to the orphanage. And, EXPENSIVE (2 days here is more than 3 weeks at the Ivankiv Hilton)... but it IS air-conditioned, and a very nice oasis. I'm voting for staying put.

 

Also, the medical form from the orphanage needs to be redone-I'm not sure according to whom, but it does, which requires someone to accompany the orphanage doctor to all of the specialists for stamps next to their signatures,, while Max hangs at the courthouse to accost the judge and try to nail down a court date.

 

We took a cab to the orphanage, taking note of the proximity of the number 7 bus route, and vow to use that mode of transportation from now on. We arrived a little early, (before the doctor), so Jim and I got Daniil, and visited a little with him and his group outside. The workers keep trying to keep the other kids away, but they want to see the pictures too. We honestly don't mind showing all of the kids and although Daniil is somewhat perturbed at having to share attention, it is a good thing to begin to teach him.

 

After a while, we were able to secure permission to remove him from the orphanage grounds—this is caretaker dependent—and walk to the corner store.  

 

Max is ready with the orphanage doctor, and two cabs are waiting for us. Jim goes with the doctor, I stay with Daniil, and Max reports in a the courthouse. Everything is going as planned……

 

Then, Jim called me.  Daniil and I were playing a sort-the-leggo-blocks-into-colors game, and I was trying to talk to Jim, write a number he was giving me, AND keep Daniil happy all at the same time. Seems one of us should call the SDA and ask/remind them about our case, to see if the 5 day processing time could be shortened. More of a reminder.   Who has the phone number of the translator? Not me—it is in the hotel room. Jim's cab stops there first, and he calls me back with that number. I tried it, but the number was not valid. We tried a variation (both Jim and I) and neither one got the SDA translator. Max called me with 3 other numbers to try-and I gave up trying to do anything with Daniil, the backpack, the computer case, a liter of water, and the phone, all needing my hands! I took Daniill back 30 minutes early to his groupa, and tried to explain I HAD to make these phone calls.

 

I did get through to the SDA, and they got our translator on the phone for us. She remembered us (I don't think there are too many people who are adopting kids with Down syndrome) and said that although she could not promise, and Max would have to ask when he turned the papers in, she thought it would be by Friday! I called Max back and he is trying for a Tuesday courtdate, giving us a cushion day, should they not be inclined to get this finished BY Friday.

 

And, here I sit, at the orphanage, waiting for the guys to return. Thankfully, we have two cell phones (THANK YOU Melanie! You are a lifesaver. ) and could do all of this rather quickly. The last word is that everything will be ready to be filled, registered, stamped, signed, sealed, sewn, delivered, and whatever else they do here (everything short of having a hard bound edition of the documents prepared!).by 1pm today.  

 

Mary

Hey! They are open!

Yes, Today is a holiday and most things are closed, but or some reason the library internet center is open.

 

It's hard to type ont he Ukrainian keyboard (even though they do have the same layout and letters) so I'll be quick.

 

there are new pcitures on the picture page and new videos on youtube...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QshLWIqZO84

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TobSUQGBGWw

 

 

HAPPY Birthday to Lynn...we would not be here were it not for you--THANKS!

 

It is MUCH cooler today--overcast chance of rain and only mid 80s. back to near 100 by mid week.

 

We'll write more tonight--- keep us in your prayers-- things will get crazy again tomorrow as we need to get the inpector's signature and send Max back to Kyiv (he's there now but will train back here overnight). Hopefully the SDA will process us in a day or so and we can get a court date mid week next week!!

 

Don't forget to say "hi" on the guestbook-- it's nice knowing you are out there!

 

 

 

JIm and Mary

Sunday May 27, 2007

 

 

Yes, it's another Sunday in the south! The sun is shining, the wind a howlin and if you don't find some shade you'll be melting 'fore long. The "Fuzzies" are still fuzzin and the dust will still sting you all over—but all considered it could be MUCH worse. We have 24/7 water and A/C—that's SO much more than we expected.

 

There was a ton of activity this morning at the market by the hotel. This afternoon it's a ghost town—a car drives by every few minutes. A couple of sweaty people slink by now and then. Mostly it's just the dogs out trying to liberate the meaty scraps from the garbage cans.

 

The church on the main square is being rebuilt and is closed. We did not find another church anywhere so Pentecost was celebrated with Daniil in the playground. There is a Catholic church in Kramatorsk. We will try to get there next week—maybe with Daniil.

 

Fun news today! We found out today that we are pretty much free to take him anywhere we'd like during our 2 hours. Today we went to the local 7-11 (well, actually more like a tin hut with beer, pop and some snacks). Daniil was in awe of the store and was SO excited to get his very own water ("biz gas"). We also grabbed a 3 tea cookies and headed back to the orphanage to dine in the shade on our favorite bench. I do not think he has ever not had to share. He was very protective of his bottle, but did offer it up to us a couple of time after we had finished ours. Significant visible "backwash" made us decide to decline his offer. But it was sweet of him.

 

Daniil seems to be more tired in the afternoon. Maybe it's from the heat, maybe just worn out from the day. He is also much "floppier" (a low tone DS thing) and can get a bit grumpy if he does not get his way. "tuta" is "here" and "tuta" is where he expects us to take him in the afternoon--That could be the teeter totter, or the monkey bars or our favorite bench to explore what is in the "backpack of fun". But it better be now-- tuta!!

 

The "nice" orphanage worker  is teaching him to say "I love you" he surprised us with that this morning—so precious he is!

 

 

More tomorrow!

 

PEACE

 

Jim and Mary

Saturday May 26, 2007

Saturday May 26, 2007

 

You are reading this later because of lack of internet connectivity in beautiful Slvansk—sorry.

 

Man, it's HOT---I mean really hot. In the mid 90s with a dry dust and "Fuzzy" filled breeze. "Fuzzys"? Yes, "Fuzzys". It seems the Soviets thought that by planting poplar trees they could reduce smog as poplar's are great O2 producers (I do not know if that is sound botany, but it's what we were told). We Do know that they are also great "Fuzzy" producers and for a month each year the air and ground are filled with the cottony puffballs. They stick everywhere--- up your nose, in your eyes, cover your hair... You can't brush them off—they smear and stick. "Fuzzy" accumulation is about an inch and a half on the orphanage grounds.. very pretty—but not much fun when you inhale a bunch of them and cough for a few hours trying to hack them up. (sorry to be graphic).—back to the heat. We were very smart to take the room with AC for an extra $10 a night. The poor folks in the non air-conditioned rooms look miserable (they all keep the doors open to try to cool off a bit). The hotel is a wonderful oasis for us.  

 

Outside we see lots of people wearing shorts (in a culture that really does not believe in them) Everyone is in sandals and it is a nation of baseball hats. (we don't look that out of place after all). Mornings and evenings are wonderful—the heat of the day is not!

 

We were up this morning at 8 and headed to the Rynok to get some groceries. (The Rynok   is a giant open air market where you can buy everything from shoes, to bread to coloring books—much like a SuperWal-mart without the roof (and the meat and dairy departments have no refrigeration)). We got some shampoo, hand lotion, bananas for the kids at the orphanage, cheese and a wonderful 40 cent snack-- it was an 8 inch across flat deep fried dough pocket with a filling similar to a pot sticker. YUMMY! I think they have other fillings too—we will try that tomorrow.

 

At 10, we got our cab and headed to the orphanage. They had Daniil ready to go when we arrived and we headed right outside. We are trying to get into a routine. First we sit and visit—then play and climb in the playground. We then look at pictures of his new home and family and practice English. A small snack, a video and back to the playground and our two hours are up… We were worried that we would have trouble filling the time. That has not been the case. Daniil still feels a bit warm to us and has that "sick smell" He was also a bit more tired today. He is happy to hold our hands and walk around, but he knows when it is getting to be time for us to leave and really wants to be carried—so far my back is holding up fine!!

 

We got the cab back to the hotel and stopped off at the supermarket – we needed some stuff that they did not have at the rynok (or we did not feel good about buying there i.e. the non refrigerated milk and meat). We got the goods into the fridge and left straight away to the internet café. It is nice. It is one of a network of such facilities partially funded by an American NGO. It's housed in the public library and has air-conditioning (NICE!!). The place is located right by the town square and the statue of Lenin. The wind had knocked down the memorial wreath of flowers placed there. I wanted to set them up, but Mary would not let me. Poor Mr Lenin.

 

Got back to the hotel watched a soccer match and power napped.

 

Up at 3:45 and back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit. Same schedule except paper airplane making took the place of the video. We called the kids back home and let them talk to Daniil--- he seemed to have fun as we pointed to the picture of each of the kids as he was talking to them.

 

We are now back in the hotel getting caught up on the journal and doing a bit of laundry in the sink. I think we will go out to a café tonight for a small meal—

 

***************Ice cream Update****************

 

Every small store has several items: soft drinks, Pivo (beer), water, cookies, old meat and cheese in a deli case that no one buys and ICE CREAM! Tonight we were very excited to find CCCP Ice Cream (see the photo on the photo page—it is photographed atop the Paul Kengor Ronald Regan Biography The Crusader which deals with Regans role in the demise of the Soviet Union—Wonder how "Dutch" would feel about CCCP Ice Cream--- I bet he'd like it!—We did too—YUMMY!

 

Sorry to be so verbose---just want to paint a picture of life for us here in Slvansk!

 

 

PEACE!

 

Jim and Mary

Mary's Update

So far, Jim has been doing all of the updates-with my input-but I decided I'd try to put some in as well. His writing is much more humorous and concise, but for those who like more detail, I'll try and fill in.

 

Our impressions so far: We have been to Kyiv 3 times now, in 2004, 2006, and now. The city is changing rapidly. Today, there are many new, stylish, beautiful apartment buildings being built, many fewer old Ladas, and many, many more American and German made cars. We have seen quite a few Chevy Aveo's   and lots of VW's. Seems the middle class is growing.  Yesterday we flew into Donetsk, drove through Kramatorsk into Slavyansk, then back to Kramatorsk to spend the night. It is more "untouched". Hopefully the growing economy will soon reach beyond Kyiv.

 

We have been thinking much of our new friends, the Attwoods. If you are reading this, Sarah or Adrian, call us back. We tried to return a call, but it was from your hotel, not your cell.

We had a lovely dinner with the Attwoods on Tuesday evening at the restaurant in Shevchenko park. It is a great place to eat, authentic atmosphere and food (and Emily, no bunnies in cages this time!) Just outside the restaurant was a crepe stand. Also delicious!

 

Our apartment in Kyiv was wonderful. It was right on Shevchenko Blvd, a block from the park, and only up 2 flights of stairs. Air conditioning that ran cold, and a beautiful, elegant bathroom, We are in a hotel right now in Kramatorsk, but we will be moving somewhere else tonight.

 

The SDA was a very different experience than the NAC in 2004. We walked to the building, Max took us in and told them we were here, and right on time, the translator came downstairs to meet us. She was very young, (20-25 years old), and although she spoke English with a heavy accent, we had great confidence in her ability to translate. She took us upstairs, through one office to an inner office. Both of these offices were outfitted with new furniture (looked like Sauder made a major sale here!) and a nice love seat size couch for us to sit on. Both the translator and the psychologist had desks, but their chairs were brought around to the front side of the desks so we were in a more "friendly" arrangement. At first, they were business-like. Polite, but not especially friendly, just businesslike. We introduced ourselves, and they asked the general opening   questions about why do we want to adopt, and why a child with Down syndrome. Then, how do we know Daniil, and have we ever met him. We had not, and explained how 2 other mothers who had adopted from his former orphanage had met him, he had made a particular impression on them, and through the internet, we got to talk with them about him.   They had a couple of pictures, and we just wanted to add him to our family. They said that we had not included his current orphanage in our letter of request for him, so they could not know where he is now. We came prepared with that information (thanks Lynn and Megan!) and they left to find the referral. We sat for about 5 minutes, worrying that perhaps he was not properly registered for adoption afterall! But when they returned, their demeanor changed quite a bit. The psychologist smiled broadly, and held the file close to her. She spoke briefly of his diagnosis-we did know he has DS, and what all of that entails-right! She said we would get the complete medical report in the region, then, smiling, slowly showed us the photo! A good picture makes all of the difference in the world. I've not seen this picture before, and really have none of him as a baby. They offered to give us this picture, if we would return with one of ours for their file! I don't have any with me, but we promised to print one out, and bring it back.

 

Then, they said to come back Thursday, between 5-6 to pick up the referral. Jim asked very politely if we could possibly get it any earlier in the day, as we had train tickets booked and the train left at 6:30.   She could not promise, but said she would ask them to process this faster, because of the nature of our request and the child we are adopting. We explained the educational and medical testing that we had scheduled for him at home. The translator gave us her cell phone number for Max to try and call her, and the psychologist took Max's number so she could call him to arrange all of this. By the time   an hour and a half had past, Max had talked to both of them, and it seemed that they were trying to be very cooperative. We also asked for faster processing of the approval, which has a normal processing time of 5 working days. We will see if they are still so inclined to help speed things along. I hope they are. Total time, about 25 minutes.

We went out of the building looking for Max. They had sent him on a mission to make some copies of the dossier, so we grabbed a coke and listened in on an English speaking tour group's explanation of a statue. Max found us, turned in his copies, and we were on our way for the afternoon tasks—Max had to go back home and get his passport and copy of his power of attorney to pick up the referral that afternoon—he left his apartment unprepared for that turn of events-and we went back, got changed out of our SDA meeting clothes, into something cooler, and went to find a place to print a picture of Daniil/Alexander. And to pack!

 

 Out and about, we found somewhere to print the photo, and left the task to them, while we went to the underground mall to grab a bite to eat. (Air conditioning)We elected to get local food, not Mcdonald's, and there was a little cafeteria line place where we could see the food, so we knew what we were getting. Pretty good lunch for average price-but it was airconditioned!

 

Max called us with options—fly in the morning, or train the following night. Flying is more expensive, but we gain a half of a day to get the paperwork going.   We opt to fly, so we meet him after getting the picture, and walk to the airline office to purchase the tickets. We leave at 8 in the morning. Max has one of our suitcases that we need to complete the packing, but he has plans tonight if we don't need him, so he will bring it with him when he picks us up at 5:15 am.

 

We left for the airport right on time, and Jim was disappointed that our flight was on an Airbus, not a Soviet jet. Oh well. We were crammed for the one hour flight, but they did serve a nice breakfast in a Styrofoam box, so the hour went by quickly. We deplaned, rode the bus to the terminal, then waited outside for the luggage truck to bring the luggage in. Everyone swarmed the truck, picking their luggage, and a ticket checker waited by the door,   processing everyone as they tried to get past, making sure that you took only your own luggage. Max's friend, Sasha was our driver for the day, and he was there, ready for us.

It was about an hour and a half drive, maybe a little more, to Slavyansk, and we went right to the orphanage. The director had been notified, for the past 24 hours, that we were arriving to meet Daniil, but when we got there, she was not there. Never said she had to be out, just wasn't there. We were ushered into the psychologists office, leaving Max and a clerical worker to begin drawing up the papers. This was at about 11:30 or so. The director arrived, but had "visitors" and could not see us. Then, she had a spot in her schedule for us, and we followed her to her office. Max had spoken on the phone with her a couple of times, and said she seemed hesitant about international adoptions in general, and totally unclear as to why anyone would want to have a child with Down syndrome in their family. "They" don't do well in a family, and the family does not do well with "them" is the attitude.

Max helped us explain that we did indeed know exactly what we were getting into, and we wanted another child with DS. She was very adamant that he was so low functioning (my term, I can't remember exactly how Max translated it, but I could tell he was also trying to be kind in his translation) She explained that this orphanage is for children who will never   make it in the regular school,, but will always need special schools. And he is a year older than his groupmates, and he is still significantly behind them! According to her, he cannot play ball, play with blocks or trucks, or any of the other things the other children can do. We tried to convey that this does not matter to us. I don't know if she ever got it, or not.

She called for him to come in, but we did not get to interact with him. His head was down, but he raised his eyes to make contact with her. She was warm with him, helping him blow his nose, and asked him if he wanted a mama and papa to come for him."Da". Will you keep your nose clean? "Da" Will you keep your face clean? "Da". Do you like to play with the other children? "Da" Are they nice to you? "da"   Do you share your toys with them? "Nyet!"  Hey, at least he is honest! After the interrogation, she sent him back to his groupa, without introducing us, or allowing us to interact with him, then asked if we were still sure we wanted him! I was in tears, just wanting to go and scoop him up! He did look at us and smile, but when I asked her if she thought he knew what we were there for, she denied it. He had no idea, according to her.

Back to our room (psychologists office) for more waiting. Max continued to work on papers, updating us as he went, while we fought sleep. At 4, they allowed us to come and see him. Our visiting hours are 10-12, and 4-6. He recognized us IMMEDIATELY when he saw us from afar, and came running, hugging us with total abandon. No way he did not realize   who we were in that office. They had been talking to him for some time, that his mama and papa would come and get him soon.

We played in the motor room with him, and it took him about 10 minutes to warm up to us. We played with a big truck, and a ball, and we got him to say "ball" if he wanted us to throw the ball to him. He catches on quickly. We played with the smaller than normal size hoola hoops, but mostly he just put them in a random pattern on the floor, and then picked them up to return them, one by one, until two were left, then started the procedure again. By 6, Max had returned, and we took Daniil outside to his group. We asked Max to tell him we would be back in the morning, but Daniil just kept saying "I don't want" over and over again, not wanting to let go. Heartwrenching.

 

Off to find lodging for the night, we decide to go to Kramatorsk because Max has papers to be produced at the notary there. There are so many official papers for these adoptions.

 

That is where I began this diatribe. I'll have Jim post it in a conspicuous spot on our blog, so those who do not want so much rambling info can skip it. But I know that when I am researching, I   like all of the nitty gritty. Plus, it makes a great diary to remember how things went.

 

Mary

Day 2 with Daniil Update

Friday May 25 2007

 

*** First a note on connectivity**** Here in Slavansk, the internet is available only at the public library (in the building on the public square right behind the very L A R G E statue of Mr. Lenin—sorry that didn't work out for you). They have very limited hours on weekdays and even more limited on Saturday. They are closed on Sunday and Holidays—that means you will not hear from us again until midday Tuesday (our time). Cell phone coverage seems pretty good, so we are not totally disconnected!

 

It was a good day—it was a bad day. We had 2 great visits with Daniil. Check out the new pictures on the pic page YES we have video on you tube---click the following link     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwerDI3CqiE  (sorry for the poor quality it takes forever to up load"

 

The bad part is we were not able to get the inspector's signature today as hoped. She had people in from Donetsk and was unable to get through all the documents and proof them. That means we will not get the paperwork to the SDA until Wednesday. L

 

Our day started in Kramatorsk. (we had a lovely evening before at a café there where I was able to chat with our nice waitress (we both spoke German as a second language). The hotel was quite Soviet in all things (no hot water, brown cold water, no AC, really scary elevators) except in price--$60 for the night--- Where is Tom Bodett when you need him.

 

We got all the papers notarized by 10:30 and made the 30 minute drive (past the really stinky meat rendering plant) to Slavansk. Paperwork was the order of the morning. We got to the orphanage at 11 to hang with Daniil. We played outside today; Climbing, running, jumping and the like. We took videos and pictures and shared them with Daniil.. We also started talking about his new life and showed him pictures of his brothers and sisters, his new house, his room and his new school.

 

We had to leave at noon per the orphanage rules and went to grab lunch—on the menu today: A nice tomato and cucumber salad, Some egg salad for Mary and borsch and pampusky (outrageous rolls smothered in garlic oil and fresh dill) for both of us. Some nice water ("biz" gas—not carbonated please).  

 

We got all the documents we needed EXCEPT for the inspector's signature. She really wanted to be able to help us to get it done today, but she had her bosses in from Donetsk today and was not able to get it done. (she promised to get it by 11am on Tuesday—Monday the holiday for Pentecost).. then, we went apartment hunting—Slavansk is a "spa town". We thought that sounded neat—spend our time here in a spa—3 meals, mud baths, pampering…ahhhhhhhh.

 

SHOCKER!! Soviet spas do not work that way. If you are lucky enough not to be in a dorm room, you stay in a simple room with a single mattress on a spring foundation. Your spa treatments include sitting a room with naked old men beating each other with birch branches… THEN comes the real fun when you plunge into ice water to "invigorate" the soul.   Pass. Thank you.

 

We looked at an apartment. It was very frightening on the outside. The dingy stairwell and hallway stunk of cat urine. Not to mention that it looked like we could be killed at any moment by someone lurking in the dark halls. The apartment was very nice, but we could not get past the smell. PASS. Thank You!   We ended up in a very nice hotel for at least the next 3 days. It is WAAAAY more expensive than we were expecting ($60/night) but it is beautiful. Up to western standards. It's a 2 room suite with air-conditioning, 24/7 hot and cold running water---nicer than we stay in Germany. But we will go broke here—We will stay till Tuesday then look for something cheaper.

 

We sent Max back to Kyiv for the 3 day holiday weekend. All the trains from here were sold out but he got a train from a nearby town. (we could tell he did not want to be stuck here in "Hooterville" for the weekend.) We'll be fine on our own. We went to a café for dinner tonight and got by just fine. Shashlick (the "food of death" from the last trip- (it's somewhere between shish kabob and bar-b-q), potatoes and some beverages (okay a LOT of beverages) for $11.

 

I think we have a schedule set.--- 8am wake up and go to the Rynok (outdoor market) to   shop for the day's food. Come back to the hotel, eat breakfast (lunchmeat, cheese, bread, juice) and the taxi will be here for us at 10. Visit with Daniil from 10-12. Taxi pickup at 12—stop for lunch and writing on the blog while we dine.   Stop at the library—post to the blog—walk to the hotel (10-15 minutes). Laundry (no washing machine and no Laundromat, sot we'll be scrubbing in the sink) then taxi pickup at 4. Back to the orphanage for our second visit. Taxi pickup at 6 back to the hotel.. snacks for dinner and bed. That is our life for the next 20 some days.

 

 

Mary Here Now:

Just to add to this about our visit with Daniil. First of all, we are changing his name to Alexander. But, as to not confuse him right now, and not to totally confuse us, I will refer to him as Daniil here, since we call him that at the orphanage.

He spotted us when we walked into the adjoining room, and came running to us—in his undies. All of the kids are in their skivveys, getting ready to go outside. They do have hats to wear to protect their heads while outside, but the rest of their bodies, minus those parts covered by bathingsuit bottoms, is free sunburn location! He got himself dressed very quickly, and we went outside. He is able to easily repeat words, at least the beginnings of words, in English. He says dow for down, and up for up. We are signing with him, and he is picking that up quickly. This is one bright little boy with Down syndrome. He does have   a runny nose, and by this afternoon's visit, we both decided he felt warm, and has a decidedly "sick smell". Current moms will know exactly what I'm talking about. For this afternoon's visit they put sandals on him that were way too small. He kept trying to tell the caretaker that he wore the other sandals, but she insisted that he wear the ones that were too small. She was so stern that I was afraid of crossing her! So, once we got outside, I went to the car where our bags were waiting, produced the "crocklings" that we had purchased for him, and changed his shoes. (Catie and Emily, Max chose the blue ones so Danill has the green ones!) Then, we changed them back before taking him in, when they are immediately removed upon entering the building.   We told them that he felt warm, maybe feverish, but they said he was fine. (Max told them, so I knew they understand what we said). But then after we got into our hotel room, both Jim and I said he "smelled sick".   Funny, we both thought it, but neither said anything. He also had a big mark on his back, and we asked about that. They said it was a bug bite—it was HUGE!

He is very affectionate with us, especially with Jim. Definitely is a daddy's boy. He does try to push the limit, by trying things like kicking at us, progressively stronger, until we tell him "No, stop!" then he does it again, and whatever game we are playing immediately stops. He looks sad, and comes and hugs us. All is forgiven, but the original game is over. He is learning quickly, and has stopped the offending behavior twice after being told to stop once.  

We will have to see what tomorrow brings with his "non-illness". I may just take a thermometer with me. I'm not sure if he is sick, if we are able to see him.

 

WE met Daniil

What a day!!

We decided to fly from Kyiv to Donetsk this morning to try to get a 3 day jump on the process. The SDA processed our paperwork so it was ready last night. We were up at 4am to catch a flight (but not, as I have always dreamed of, flying on a Soviet airplane--it was an airbus--Damn French). The flight arrived in Donetsk at 9am and we were at the orphanage by 10:30. We waited while Max worked his magic and by noon Daniil (Alex) was in the directors office with us. We did not "meet" him then-- just saw him. Max continued on and we contined to sit in the psycholigist's office for 4 hours until finally it was 4pm and we were able to officially meet Daniil.

WHAT A WONDERFUL ADDITION TO OUR FAMILY HE WILL BE!!

He is quick as a whip and is already saying "More Ball" and "Dad" and "Mom" in English. He was quite excited to show us off to his friends at the orphanage. We played ball, hoola hoop, and trucks. The director was concerned about his delay, but we found him to be doing very well. He is using 3-4 word sentences in Russian and was putting 2 words together in English after a couple of hours.

He did NOT want us to leave this evening. He kept repeting "I don't want" over and over when we said we had to go.

Our visiting hours will be 10am-12noon and 4-6pm each day. We may miss tomorrow morning's meeting as we are rushing to try to get everything submitted to court tomorrow. As in the States, Monday is a Holiday here and we can get way ahead if the court will accept our papers tomorrow. The best case is: Court next Friday (probably the following Monday)-- 10 day wait (cannot be waived) then 4-5 days on the other side. We may be a bit quicker-- we probably will be a bit longer.

There is so much more, but the meter is ticking at the internet cafe-- we do not know if we will have internet or phone in Slavansk (we are in Kramatorsk tonight so we can get papers notarized in the morning). We will try to take the 30 minute cab ride at least a couple of times a week until we are back to the land of running water.

 

(hey kids, call us on the blue phone)


Jim

SDA DAY

We are "done-day" at the SDA. Things went great! We met with The Psychologist and  Tatiana the translator for about 20 minutes. We got our referral for going to the region to see Daniil. We politely asked if there was any way to speed up getting the paperwork done to travel to Slavansk a bit earlier. (we specifically said we do not want to bend the rules or ask for special treatment beyond what they would do for any disabled child but we need to get him home by late June for the educational assessment and doctors visits (his file says he has some slight cardiac involvement)). They agreed and the documents we need will be prepared by this afternoon (thank you SDA!). We were to train overnight tomorrow, but we are now thinking it may be better to fly tomorrow morning to give us an extra day to maybe save close to a week (If we can beat the 3 day holiday weekend this weekend Max can have everything turned in back here on Tuesday rather than Friday. Our next update will (hopefully be from the region)—

 

We will spend the rest of today getting some photos processed and lounging—we are packed on the crazy chance that we could actually get out of here today and get to see him—A very good day- Thanks for your prayers. They are working!

 

Jim and Mary---

We are here

Day One in Ukraine is done.

We are writing at 8pm from A VERY hot internet cafe---so this will be kinda short---

 

Please check out our new pictures at www.martythompson.com/Ukraine.html click onthe photo link (sorry I do not remember the URL

 

We had a wonderful flight from JFK-- Yummy food and drink-- Nice older Ukrainian couple who had no idea how the plane worked (or that you got to actually eat for free!!)

 

Immigration was a pain again-- I always pick the WORST line (3 times in a row)-- I'm not picking anymore--ever. We were in the first 10 people off the plane and we were in the last 20 from TWO planes to get through.. Customs wwas a breeze. The truth is we had no where to be today so it would not have been worth the $50 for VIP service--- just a little frustrating.

 

Max was waiting for us as we came out the door and we got in our taxi (A shiny new Chevy Aveo---go Daewoo!!) The ride downtown was fun--bad traffic so we ended up going the wrong way on the road to get through it all---"it's just the way it's done, officer".

 

We decided to go to the Ukrainian Folk Museum-- a 300 acre spread of relocated farmhouses, churches and out buildings from Ukraine's rich history. Very cool, but actually VERY hot---record heat again today-- 90 degrees. I passed on the Carpaithians (sp?) I hate the mountains with my heel spur.. but the rest was nice. We took public transportation (subway and bus) out and back. Fast and easy and cheap (about 30 cents per person per way)

 

We met up with Attwoods (sorry if we spelled your names wrong) for Dinner at the neat folk restaurant in Schevchenko Park. Their appointment is tomorrow Am at 10-- ours is at noon. How is this for cool. max and I were enjoying a beverage before the rest arrived and we ran into the Big Ukrainian Pop Star OLEG (ugh I can't rememebr his last name). he IS a huge star and yes, we stalked him. (See the pic on the photo page)

 

WHEW not sure we could cram much more into today-- maybe a 20 cent ice cream cone from the Golden Arches.. from the 21st century plane ride to the 16th at the folk museum. we have seen it all!

 

 

see ya soon

 

 

Jim and Mary (proofing my bad typo-ing on the Ukrainian keyboard)

 

JFK

Greetings from JFK--- we were considering changing the Cincy to JKF leg to a later flight (we have a 3.5 hour wait here) but Mary convinced me to keep us on the earlier flight-- good thing. In the summer, we walked about 100 feet from one plane to the other--- this time it was a change of terminals-- we probably would have made it in the 45 mihutes the later flight offered for the connect--but we would have been running.. I do not run well. 'nuff said! Thanks to the wonderful efforts of a "special Delta friend" we are up front for the JFK/KBP segment-- it cost 50,000 miles, but sitting here in the Buisness class lounge sipping a beverage it all seems worthwhile. If all goes well our next post will be from Kyiv. See ya then

We are ready!

Okay-- you are never really ready until the boarding door closes on the plane, but we are more ready that we have ever been before a trip. The camcorder still needs to go in the carry-on (it's charging)-- but that's it. And a good thing too. Tomorrow's fun starts at 7am with a ride to Oxford for Emily's basketball game-- then James has soccer at 2-- Pre party for the Brooks and Dunn concert at 4, I need to be on a conference call for work at 6 and Mass is at 7--whew!

We have a 3 hour layover at JFK on Monday---just looked to see if we can get a later flight. There is one, but only 45 minutes to get from Comair to Delta--- we DO NOT want to miss the flight--- we'll hang out for the long lay-over--- we can rest from all of Sunday's excitement.

If any folks "in country" are reading here please email us-- we would love to hook up Tuesday night in Kyiv (maybe Podil or maybe in Shevchenko Park ) for dinner.

Jim

Well, 4 more days till we leave.
Gifts are purchased (most of them), bags are packed (sort of) and we are almost ready to leave. Thanks to all who have responded to our letter. The outpouring of warm wishes is tremendous and we appreciate every single one of them.
We are just waiting now for Julie to arrive (to stay with the other kids) and then on Monday, we are off.

WOW

Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful outpouring of support. We sent our adoption notice out today to friends and family and I need to thank everyone who responded. Your prayers are so appreciated. It's pretty freaky to think we are less than a week away.

While we are in Ukraine, I will be doing what I can to help out the Independent Ukrainian Broadcasters Association. I'm excited to be a part of the cool stuff that they are trying to do (If I can only get them on board with Miranda Lambert :-)). I hope to do a few sessions for them. We f9und out today that we should be able to have internet the entire time we are away. Great news. If we figure out the time zones we may try to set us a few voice chats on yahoo instant messenger. Stay here for details. (sorry the radio guys in me)

PEACE!

marty

One Week

Yikes

We leave in one week--

I can't believe we are getting this close--- 2 weeks from tonight we will have the jitters about our SDA appointment the next day. We are all set to go. Work stuff is nearly done--Family stuff is all done. I am hoping to be able to use sky miles to upgrade on the flight over (it's a really long flight from jfk to kbp in coach) But either way--- here we go!

We picked up a new laptop for our translator's friend (Vista has not shipped there yet), snacks for the inevitable food poisoning (it has happened both times for me) Plus several doses of Cipro since I WILL eat street food anyway! We have some great reading-- I WILL get through St Augustine's City of God on this trip-- and some light stuff too.

Still need to get:

Pair of jeans for me (I do not wear jeans in the US--- but it's the thing to do there.
Some shoes for both of us
Kohl's has "American" T Shirts for $5---we will take these as gifts

and that is IT!!!

the plan:

Monday (or maybe Sunday) we fly to Kyiv---please please please upgrade us!!!
Tuesday get settled and hopefully find fellow Americanski to have dinner with in Kyiv-- I'm thinking a cool Ukrainian folk evening with sashlick (sp?) Vereniky and Pivo (beer)
Wednesday SDA appointment
Thursday Paperwork and overnight train to the region--
Friday meet our new young-un and maybe get paperwork started.

from there-- only God knows.

Please tell your friends to check out our blog and PLEASE post comments-- we will need support!

more to come soon!


PEACE

Jim

A quick update as we are getting going on our new blog/site updates.

Our family just celebrated the three year anniversary of Catie and James becoming "Stolz's". It has been an amazing three years. They continue to do very well adjusting to life in the US, and we are very fortunate to have them as members of our family.

Everyone is also very excited about our new little guy. We will post more about him once we get there and get the all clear, but just briefly, we are leaving on May 21 for a May 23 appointment with the SDA to adopt a known little boy. He is 6, and has Down syndrome. We are praying that the SDA will grant us permission to adopt him. He is in the Donetsk region.

Max will be our facilitator again, and we are very much looking forward to this trip. Hope you all can follow along.

Mary

Sending from Email

Sorry for the random post...just checking the post from email feature at blogger

Here we go again! You can find all the information on our 2004 adoption in the archives--- We are set to travel on May 21 for our May 23 appointment at the SDA. More soon!

Following is our Journal in chronological order

Stolz Family
Adoption Journal
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Jim We are still waiting for an appointment. For some reason, we thought this process would go much faster. We are heading into our 5th week since the paperwork arrived and NAC and was translated. You can see the pre-adoption timeline on the main page. Check out the links section too. Hopefully we'll be traveling in the next 30 days and we will do our best to keep everyone updated!

Friday, March 19, 2004
Jim YAY!! Approved. We travel on Wednesday. Been preparing like a fool today.. You think that since we have been waiting for this for the past 3 months we'd be ready----NOT! Packing list for me:
2 pair of black pants
3 shirts
sweater
3 changes of socks and undies
1 pair shoes
Purell
Zonebars
small med kit
small toiletries kit to share
after that it looks like a best buy ad:
Laptop
Digital Camera
Video Camera
Power and phone converter
Iriver-- dang I forgot to buy that!
all to fit into one carry-on-- a backpack if I did not feel the need to be a geek
more later--- Go UC--GO Muskies!

Saturday, March 20, 2004
Mary
Happy Spring! It will certainly be a happy spring for us. The past couple of days have been a flurry of activity as we are preparing for Ukraine. I thought we had most everything done, but when crunch time comes, lots more things “pop” up. We have traveled overseas before, so we are somewhat familiar with packing light, travel wardrobes, etc… But now, considering we will be coming home with 2 GREAT souvenirs of our trip, well, it takes on a much deeper meaning!

For those who don’t know us, we are Jim and Mary. We have 5 great bio kids ages 20 to 13. We have decided that we want to add to our family, and decided that adopting from Ukraine is for us. We began the process last summer, (2003) by researching and starting the mountain of paperwork. And now, we are ready to go. We specifically want to adopt older children, as we have done the “baby thing’ and while it was great, it is great to be past diapers and bottles! Through email loops we found 2 children, bio sibs, who we feel would fit perfectly in our family, and we are praying that the NAC will agree with us. We are doing this independently, which basically means that other than our homestudy, no adoption agency is being used. Actually, this is the only way the Ukrainian system works-all adopters are independent. If you have an agency, they hire an independent facilitator for you once there. We decided to do the research on our own and hired that facilitator ourselves. We had some indispensable help stateside from Dr. Conaty at www.ukraineadoptionhelper.com in preparing our dossier and getting mentally ready for this trip. And now it is us, our facilitator/translator and the Ukrainian government. We will have an adventure!

Be sure to check back often, as we will do our very best to update our journals daily, with words and pictures. And pray that everything goes well.

Sunday, March 21, 2004
Mary Today was divided between getting ready to go and watching our teams advance, or not advance, in the March Madness NCAA tournament. Xavier looked GREAT! Go X. UC, well, it WAS 2nd round after all. Next year!

Some have asked for my packing list. It looks very similar to Jim's-2 pair of pants, 3 or 4 shirts, 1 skirt, 1 pair dress shoes to pack, black gym shoes to wear, socks/stockings, necessary undergarments-3 (we are used to hand washing and prefer to travel light). I take an extra T-Shirt and pair of shorts for sleeping/bumming around an apartment, and a bathing suit-just in case. We share a toiletries kit with separate toothbrushes, and I took a little make-up. I usually don't wear make up, but I thought I may want to look a little dressier there. I am borrowing Marie's 3/4 length black leather jacket, and I'm all set. We have a couple of books to read, and we share the laptop and all of that entertainment. I'll stash a prayerbook and an extra rosary in my purse, and I'll be set.

From our list, it seems we would not have many bags. But we have other things to take with us-requested items for our facilitator and his family, plus donations that we have collected while here to take to the orphanage. The only way I am able to get out the door with all of these bags is by reasoning with Jim that we only really have one carryon size suitcase and one personal item each-the rest is all stuff to leave there. We have one very large suitcase packed full of diapers/diaper wraps and infant clothing, thanks to the wonderful families in our local home school group. I used those "suck the air out of everything" bags, and that suitcase is really, really full, plus another box full of these things. Once we are there, we will drop these things off, and have an empty suitcase in which to put the kids' clothing and all kinds of goodies to bring home! And there will be plenty of room in our suitcases once we remove the gifts we have in there.

I can't believe we are actually going to be on our way. I'm making lists of things to do, making sure everyone has necessary papers (child care authorization for kids here) and phone numbers in case of emergencies.

Tomorrow will be more of the running around stuff. Hopefully Tuesday will be a restful day-then we leave on Wednesday.
Yippee!

Monday, March 22, 2004
Mary
Jim and I both had busy days today getting things ready for our departure.
My job today was to pick up the cash we needed. I ordered it Thursday, to be picked up today. I specified that we needed all crisp, clean, preferably new 100 dollar bills. They told me the only time they get brand new bills is at Christmas time. That is fine as long as they are all crisp and clean, no tears, folds, markings. I went to get it, and less than 1/10 is useable! I stopped at various other banks, and not one of them would change even 1 100 dollar bill for a "non-customer". So I went to a bank that we refinanced our home through last year. Waited for an hour for the woman who "sold" us the loan refinance, and told her what I needed. I had spoken to her on the phone a couple of months ago about this, so it was not new to her. She placed 1 phone call, and 10 minutes later told me to come back tomorrow after 10am and she would have all of the money I needed in brand new bills! We are changing all of our accounts to this bank. (Bank of America is the bank that helped, for those who want to know)

Tomorrow, there are just a few things left to do, and then Wednesday, we should be leaving!
I can't believe it is real.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Mary
Well, we are not leaving today. It is a long story, but basically dates got mixed up and so we are in a holding pattern for a couple of weeks. We will update here as soon as we know anything.
Thanks for following.

Friday, April 02, 2004
Mary
Well, we got the news today, this morning, that our appointment is Wednesday, April 7. That is only 5 days away! We have been rushing all morning, making arrangements. We leave tonight, arrive in Kyiv on Sunday afternoon.
We will update on today's adventures once we are settled on the plane.

Saturday, April 03, 2004
Jim --whew—a crazy day of getting ready to go---good thing we've been packed for 2 weeks. Good flight from Vegas to Cincy-- I say that because I got upgraded-- not sure Mary feels the same way--- she was in sardine class-- HEY she said it was okay!

Had breakfast with mom in Cincy-- exciting time since she locked her keys in the car and was late for making meatballs for the church supper--- we did teach her how to say "meatball" in Ukrainian to stun and amaze her friends at Sacred Heart-- and so that the didn't think she was just "playing hooky".

Back at the airport now-- we board Air France to CDG and then on to Kyiv tomorrow morning. Tonight is DST-- does that mean the flight takes an hour less??------ I wish, as we are both in sardine class on the rest of the flights.

There are a group of Russian kids on our flight. They are orphans on the way back after a home-stay abroad program--- lots of cute little ones.

More from CDG if we can find a hotspot!


Mary,
Well, we made it our first leg to Cincinnati, which is "home" for us, so this has been fun. We met Jim's mom for a yummy breakfast, then waited with her while AAA came to get her keys out of her locked car. We practiced our limited Ukrainian-mostly food words. Food is a very important part of our lives! We know now how to say "meatballs" in Ukrainian.

After breakfast our day was spent searching for new shoes for Jim-he brought the "old, worn out" pair, not the just broken in ones. Found them, ate lunch at La Rosa's (the BEST hoagies in the world for anyone coming through Cincinnati, make note of that!) decided to pass on the Graeters Ice Cream this time, and headed back to the airport.

While checking in, there was a large group also checking in-a very large group of many children and some adults all obviously together. The kids were many, but very, very well behaved. They played quietly together. The guy checking us in told us that they were a group of Russian kids who were here for a visit, all hoping that this visit would end in their adoption. I really hope that they all have found their forever families.

Sunday April 04, 2004
Jim Ahhhh Paris-- the city of trash. Seems that all the airport "cleaners" are on strike. It has a very odd odor and lots of trash piled everywhere. The Air France Flight was GREAT! I love delta, but AF really is wonderful. I have gotten over my fear of the AirBus (it's just that when you see the footage from the Paris airshow where the new plane glides so gently into the trees...) We have a couple of hours here, then off to Kyiv--- hopefully we'll be able to write more from there tonight!

Mary,
Well, we made it to Paris. When we landed it was raining, but warm-around 50 degrees. The flight was very long, but the Airbus was very, very nice. It is amazing how much foot rests and little head supports can make you feel much more comfortable. For dinner, Jim "won"-I chose Chicken, he chose pasta. I had 3 very small pieces of chicken in my dinner, and I'm talking smaller than bite siize. He had meat filled pasta, so he got much more meat-very important in our high protein diet requirements. Oh well. Then there is breakfast on the plane-all carbs! They did have a yogurt, so that was at least a little protein!

The cleaning crew here is on strike, so the terminal is a trash pit. No kidding. It looks terrible. Hopefully, they will get that worked out soon. We changed some money, found a table and had a quick bite, while updating here. Jim is good at finding the hot spots.

Our flight leaves here in about 2 hours to Kyiv, so once we get through everything there, and get to our hotel/apartment, I will be ready to crash. I'm just not sleeping on the planes, and 2 nights of it is wearing on me. One good night of sleep should fix everything. Then we have a day or two to explore before our appointment.

Sunday April 4, 2004
Mary,
Wow, what a day. Travel for 2 whole days is not fun. Our flight was late getting out of Paris, and that was an adventure in and of itself. We watched, closely, for our gate number to be posted. When it finally was, 45 minutes before boarding, there was a HUGE line to get through security. People going through that line were going to one of two places, either Moscow or Kyiv. The Moscow flight was due to leave in fewer than 10 mintues, yet there were still many, many people in that line waiting to get through security. We were in line for about 45 minutes before finally getting through, then we got to sit and wait. Time for our flight came, the plane left the gate area, and no one was boarded. Seemed they needed to change the planes for "safety reasons". So we waited. Then they announced we could start boarding. They scanned our boarding pass, looked at our passports and sent us down the long hall, only this hall did not lead to a plane. We walked down 3 flights of stairs, out to a waiting bus. That bus drove around the tarmac until the right plane was located, at which time we all got off the bus and onto the plane. By now, we were an hour past our scheduled take off time. And the runways in Paris must be 5 or more miles from the terminal, because I could have sworn we were driving to Kyiv in the plane. Finally, 1 1/2 hours late, we took off.

We both caught a few zzzzz's, but I did also strike up a conversation with another American couple traveling for adoption. They want to get a little girl, between 3 and 6 years old. Their appointment is tomorrow. I wish them good luck in finding their child.

We landed in Kyiv without incident. Flying low over Ukraine coming in, it reminded us of Kansas-lots and lots of farmland. Taxiing in from the runway (A MUCH shorter taxi than in Paris), the airport looked eerily still and quiet. If you have ever seen "The Langoliers" that is what it reminded us of. Very, very eerie. Then we saw a truck driving, and that spell was broken, thank goodness.

We got off the plane via pull up steps, and boarded a bus for the very short trip up to the terminal. The terminal itself was new looking, much, much nicer and cleaner than Paris. We had our immigration forms filled out, so we picked a line and stuck with it. Shouldn't have-we picked the slowest line. We were among the last people getting through immigration from 2 flights arriving at the same time. Then, onto Customs. I easily found the English custom forms and started filling them out. We had already decided who was physically taking what through the lines, so it didn't take long. We put our bags on the scanner belt to be x-rayed, and quickly picked them up on the other side, then saw the famous "red" and "green" lines. We got in a red line, which moved very quickly. The customs official was a polite, but business like woman who questioned Jim on the "gifts" we listed. We just put "general gifts" totaling about 100.00. He explained exactly what they were: stuff like 2 English language books for the orphanage, coffee and gum for our facilitator, etc... She waved him through. I had the bulk of the cash on me, and 2 cameras. She asked if the cameras were "gifts", but of course they are not. We need those! She asked if all of the money I had claimed was ours. Yep! Then she stamped me and we were ready to walk through the double doors to our (hopefully) waiting facilitator, Maxim. For those yet to travel, that entire experience was really not bad at all. It only took about 20 minutes total, and we did not rush. And everyone is basically doing the same thing, so it is hard to get turned around and do it wrong.

So, through the doors we went, in search of our names on a piece of paper being held by Maxim. We looked, and looked. No "Jim/Mary Stolz" or anything like it. Hmmm, he must be late, although we were almost 2 hours later than I thought we would be. The private drivers wanting to give us a ride pounced us on immediately. We practiced our Ukrainian with firm but polite "nee, spaceeba". We quickly figured out the way to not get so many people wanting to give you a ride for "the best price in town", was to walk quickly, look like you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going, and don't just wander. We made our way over to the little restaurant area, changed 40.00 so we had some local currency, and I bought a phone card. I figured we would just call Maxim. I have called him many times from the states, but I didn't know what part of all of those numbers I needed to dial if we were dialing locally. Our Ukrainian travel guide came in really handy as we looked up how to make phone calls. We kept trying, unsuccessfully, to call Maxim. I could never get it to go through. By pointing and asking though our travel guide, the lady at the information desk said we had to dial "8" first. Finally, Jim was able to get Maxim, but Maxim could not hear Jim on the phone. So I went back to try again. We got through, and I started almost "yelling" "Maxim!" "Maxim", and low and behold, Maxim shows up right behind me! It was a stressful hour as we were weighing our options of how to get a hold of him, but all of that stress was immediately relieved when we finally met up with him.

Oleg, our driver, Maxim, Jim and I loaded the car (good thing we packed light!) and came to our beautiful apartment. It really is very, very nice. Soon we will post pictures, and a general description. After getting everything in, Oleg drove us about a mile and dropped us off for dinner. We walked back. Maxim came along with us, so we knew what we were getting. We went to a cafeteria style place, and I must say our first experience with Ukrainian food was beyond delicious. We must eat a high protein/low carbohydrate diet, and we had no problem at all getting those needs met. Maxim, Jim and I all ate for less than 9.00 total! And, I'll say it again the food was outstanding.

We walked back to the apartment, Maxim accompanied us to the grocery store a block away to help us get some stuff we needed, and then we walked back. We put the stuff away and now are ready for bed. I believe tomorrow we are going to an Internet cafe to upload this, so hopefully I'll have pictures ready by then.
Tomorrow is site seeing, as is Tuesday, and Wednesday, we will have our NAC appointment.


Jim Welcome to KYIV.
The flight from Paris was fine--- we are spoiled, usually using hubs in Germany (the Germans take timeliness and order much more seriously than the French). Chaos is a good word for the boarding process. About an hour late, we were in the air. I slept like it was my job for the entire flight.

Immigrations and customs was a snap. Good thing Mary took Russian. We knew our luggage was on belt 4 (English sign was broken). Unless you really are a “nervous nelly”, I would not consider VIP service. Time, Plane to Lobby, was about 20 minutes.

We had a bit of a mix-up with our facilitator—we missed each other in the airport. After a bit of stress and a couple of Coke Lights, he found us as we were calling his cell phone from the airport phone calling out his name--- cool!

Maxim and our driver, Oleg, whisked us in to downtown Kyiv and to our wonderful apartment. Huge by Ukrainian standards.. one bedroom, living room, large kitchen…24 hour running water and good temperature control (so far). Went to a cafeteria for lunch. Ate a little of everything (especially yummy was the “fried meat” (a little like carnitas—but Beef—I think) Crepes filled with Meat, Cabbage filled with meat, Breading filled with meat (the famous Chicken Kiev) and Cheese filled with meat (A really good cheese covered chicken breast)… Heard the Veggi-Tales 8 polish foods of Christmas?--- That is the food here---- Life is good! Oh--and if you're a beer fan—the local draft beer is WONDERFUL and about 40 cents a glass.


Did a little grocery shopping for Breakfast stuff: Kefir (drinkable yogurt like stuff), tea, meat (thanks Dr Atkins) a little bread and a huge jug of water---- it runs light brown from the tap.

It's now Monday morning. We are going to see the sights around Kyiv today—we wanted to go to Chernobyl tomorrow, but Maxim is trying to talk us out of it---we'll see--- more later.


Monday April 5, 2004
Well, we didn't find an Internet cafe today, so we couldn't upload our journals so far. Hopefully, tomorrow morning we will find one and get our updates up-to-date.

Today was a very long, busy day. Nothing to do with the adoption, so if you are reading this only to find info about that, go ahead and skip this entry. We were sightseers today. Maxim picked us up at 10am and called us a cab. The cab took us to the Percherska Lavra. This is a large Orthodox monastery grounds, complete with caves containing the remains of many saints, a number of churches, a few museums and a very large bell tower. We started in the bell tower, climbing over 300 steps to the top of where you can go. I didn't count them, they were oh-so-helpfully numbered. The churches were so beautiful. And we saw The Museum of Miniatures, which houses about 15 or 20 individual works of art all so incredibly tiny as to require significant magnification to see. One of my favorites was a chessboard, complete with chess pieces, all on the head of a pin! Amazing. (You can see about it at www.microart.kiev.ua )

From there, we got a ride (O.K, Maxim hitchhiked for us-apparently it is a very common and safe thing to do-the more dangerous part of it is the actually driving!) to change some money and get lunch. Back at "our cafeteria", we knew what we wanted, everything was so good yesterday. We did try a couple of new dishes, and they were every bit as good as everything else we have had. We had a cucumber (sliced) and cabbage (shredded) salad in a vinaigrette dressing. We also had what Maxim called "fried meat" which today I swear was pork, and yesterday beef, but Jim says it was the same kind of meat both times. Basically, the meat is sautéed with onions and tomatoes. Very good. Jim tried buckwheat and some kind of large, meatball type of meat. Both very good. And we had our chicken breast covered in some kind of cheese, also delicious. For dessert, we had a poppyseed roll. They are sweetened and have a poppy seed filling rolled into them. Yummy.

After lunch we continued on our city tour, seeing many, many other churches. We saw St. Sophia's, St. Vladamir's, St. Andrew's, and I'm sure some other Saint's churches as well! Each one was more beautiful than the last. It was just an amazing day.

We rode the subway --tokens cost the equivalent of around .07 U.S. dollars, quite a bargain. Coming up from the subway, we rode the longest escalator I've ever been on! It moved quickly, but I know we were on that thing for more than 2 minutes. Then walked a little ways, and got on another one. I can’t imagine how far down underground we were! We looked for an Internet cafe, but were unsuccessful, then Maxim dropped us off at our apartment and he went back to his. Jim and I took another walk, even though we literally had been walking all day. We walked to the grocery store we had visited last night to pick up the things that we forgot last night, and we explored around the area around the grocery store. There was a "Computerland" next to the grocery, so we stopped in there to see if they had Internet connections. The guy there told us where the nearest internet cafe was, but by then we were too tired to go exploring more, in a place we didn't know, not speaking much at all of the language. We will try first thing in the morning. Across from the grocery is a large "mall". We thought it was an upscale store, and we thought we may go in to explore, but when we got there, it was an entire 4-floor mall. All very upscale stores, with more security guards patrolling than customers shopping. No Internet in there. Across the street from that, in the town square, is a large building, with "cypk" written on it. I know my Russian alphabet, and could read "circ" and knew that in Russian, that meant "Circus". We decided to check it out. There was a big sign outside with today's date, along with tomorrow and Wednesday, but we couldn't read what was going on in these days. Well, it is not a circus. It resembled an outdoor flea market, indoors, only all women's clothing. We didn't stay long to see this circus. We went to the store and bought stuff for dinner and breakfast. Came back, had our dinner (various meats and cheese on some good, crusty bread), and are waiting for Maxim to call to finalize plans for tomorrow. We are probably not doing Chernobyl, but maybe heading to the underground shopping mall, which is a ways up our street. We told Maxim that we don’t' "need" him tomorrow, that he certainly may come along, but if he just felt obligated to "baby-sit" us, we were fine on our own. We take our phrase book, point and grunt, and try to communicate. It works well. We ask people to write down numbers, since we can't listen and translate numbers quickly enough, and from that we can find prices. I know tomorrow Maxim will find out for us what time our appointment at the NAC is on Wednesday. He may have other things to do with the adoption as well, so we can do this on our own.

General impressions of Kyiv and Ukraine 2 days into our stay:

It is definitely cleaner than I thought. The people are friendlier than I thought, but then we have had Maxim to translate most of what we needed. It was a beautiful day today, warm, sunny, probably about 50 degrees. Most people still had coats on, and all of the kids we saw were in snowsuits and winter hats, but didn't seem to mind. There is much green space, well maintained parks. We were expecting almost 3rd world, but this is very much like Western Europe. I've been to 2 public restrooms, which were clean and were stocked with toilet paper, and no one sitting there expecting money to keep it that way. The roads, some of them, are incredibly old, cobblestone, but they drive on them like they were perfectly smooth, newly finished black top. And, for the driving, it so far has not been as bad as southern Italy, but it is coming close. I just close my eyes and pray a lot. The only lines, indicating lanes, are the ones dividing the road into 2 ways, and it varies as to how wide each of those 2 ways are. But cars seem to squeeze through some of the most incredibly small places. They do drive on the sidewalk as well, and not just occasionally. You cannot assume that because you are on the sidewalk, you are safe! The sidewalks are very wide in many places, and I guess it is just fine to use that as an extra lane, or parking space. For all of the close driving, I've not seen any wrecks, yet, and very few cars show signs of being banged up.
The beggars have gotten to us. Seeing these old women begging on the street, knowing that they probably were proud, productive members of their society, and now, caught in the transition from Communism to Democracy, they are reduced to begging. So sad. We have so much, and take so much for granted. For instance, a broom. Big deal, right? They tie a bunch of sticks on the end of a handle, and this is their broom for keeping the street and sidewalk clean. But, clean it is!
The city is much more colorful than I had imagined. There are so many apartment buildings; I just can't get over it. It seems so strange. And Maxim says most of the apartments are privately owned, not rented. I don't know what the average price for an apartment is. There is refurbishment of buildings all over where we have been, making the outside very attractive. It is very much an alive, pulsing city, waiting to be discovered by tourists. So far, I'd recommend it for an adventure-seekers vacation! Will keep that thought updated.

Well, I'm going to close this now, and get ready for bed. We will do our very best to get this up tomorrow morning,


Tuesday April 6, 2004
Jim and Mary It's tomorrow morning! A nice relaxing night watching Ukrainian TV--- very entertaining. Our fave was a Candid Camera rip-off. VERY funny. Lots of Commercials—many for western products.. "Mr Clean" is "Mr Proper".. the Jingle does not quite work in Ukrainian--Mister Proper, Mr Proper- bla bla bla blavasky..

I got very excited seeing a wireless connection here in the apartment. They do not seem to have the security turned on, yet I can’t get in to “borrow” the connection—oh well.. we’ll be off in search of internet in just a bit. Tomorrow is the big day at the NAC--- Max will find out our appointment time this afternoon then we’ll meet him for dinner and to discuss the day ahead—more soon



Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Jim
We found it! A dumpy, yet charming Internet cafe with a T-1 line--- I think we got everything loaded--- We are about a 20-minute walk from the apartment. We'll try to get back here every day we are in Kyiv!

Our last day of being a tourist is done. Now time to get down to the business for which we came.

Day recap:

up early---big breakfast in the apartment. Ham, poached eggs (no frying pan), Kefir (kinda like a drinkable yogurt—Peach Thank You), juice and tea.

Out the door at 8:30 to do some exploring on our own. We stopped back into the “mystery” church in time for Liturgy. All chanted-- very nice. It does make one sad to see what great tradition the Western Church has lost in its quest to modernize.

We decided to head down the Kyiv’s “main drag”, Khreshchatyk Street. It is every bit as nice as the Champs Elysees in Paris. One interesting holdover for Soviet time, the TSUM Department store. 4 floors of shopping fun… Soviet building—western goods. Armed guards one every floor giving you the “eye”.

Walked to Independence Square and strolled along one of the best public squares in all of Europe. Street vendors selling everything from Hot Dogs (50 cents) to Old Soviet military trinkets to Elvis Nesting Dolls (I’ll try to get back there to get you some, Bobby). Under the square is a large underground shopping mall. Could have been Fashion Show in Vegas—seen one mall you've seen them all..

Stopped off at McDonalds to see what prices were.. Big Mac meal will “set you back” about 12 Hyrvna ($2.25). We decided to come back with the kids later. Settled for a Mc Cone for 20 cents and lunch will wait until we get back to our fave spot the cafeteria… Today on the Menu--Fried Meat, Borscht (WOW was that good—my first time to try it--- MUCH better than I was expecting---infact; my new favorite food), I got a beef patty covered with melted cheese and a sausage. All great. Both is us ate (a lot) for about $6USD total.

***Side note: banks everywhere are advertising incredible passbook interest rates--17% local currency, 12% for Dollars. Where do I sign up for THAT deal?!?!?!

After lunch, we decide to try to find the Catholic Church--- With signs in Cyrillic (if there are signs at all), it's pretty tough to navigate. We give up and decide to head home. I want to try a short cut. My sense of direction was good, but the rain started and we gave up and caught a cab back. We were charged the "American rate" (about 3 bucks)..a lot more than it should have been. We cut the deal up front and it got us out of the rain, but turns out we were only about ½ mile from being home. Oh well. We have little time to relax before Max gets here and find out the time for our appointment tomorrow. More after Dinner




Mary after dinner:
Our 2 ½ hours of down time in the apartment was just what we needed to recover from all of the walking for the past 2 days, before dinner. We had enough time to do a load of laundry and hang it “out” on enclosed porch area, hoping for it to dry before tomorrow’s big day. Even if it doesn't, have no fear, we do have clean, appropriate clothing to wear! Maxim was just on time, and we headed out for dinner. He suggested a new restaurant, Mexican food, which we love, so we were all for it! Dinner was wonderful, if a little pricey. For about 40. US dollars, we had burritos, nachos, and steak fajitas, plus 3 beers and 2 margaritas! We had a great discussion about economies, governments and life in general. Back to the apartment for an early bedtime since our appointment tomorrow is at 9 AM! Yippee, we have the first appointment of the day. By the time you all get this, it will be all said and done.

Maybe a little background on us and our situation, for those who may be following along but don't personally know us—We have 5 great bio children, ages 20 to 13, and decided last summer to adopt internationally to add to our family. After researching many hours, we decided to pursue a Ukrainian adoption of 2, possibly 3 older children. We were specifically looking for a girl in the 10-15 year old age range, with a younger brother somewhere around 5-8 years old. We agreed that we would widen our preferred ranges and numbers just a bit, to try to ensure a good match for our family. We felt we could not turn down a referral of a "perfect" sibling pair because they happened to have one more sibling, nor were we willing to help split up a sibling group. We wanted to stay with older kids, but once again, thought that if a specific group included a sibling as young as age 3, we could not turn them down based on that alone. So we were approved to 2-3 siblings, ages 3-15, but knew our concentrated looking would be ages 5-14. In our research, I joined a yahoo groups for Older Ukrainian Children being adopted, and a dear soul, Harriet, (who I hope is not grading my grammar right now!) asked if anyone was interested in an older girl for adoption, as she knew a very sweet older girl. I wrote to her, telling her of our interest, but specific interest in one with a younger brother, preferably for the younger brother to have a disability. (our youngest son has Down syndrome and autism, and really needs to have a younger brother. I really wanted him to have sibling, at least for a time, that was close to his same "mental" age, who he could be close to as they grew up together) When Harriet wrote back, she explained that the girl she knew did indeed have a younger brother, in the approximate age group we were considering, who seemed to have a physical disability. Then she sent me a picture. As I downloaded that picture, I got goose bumps! The girl, Tanya, looks so much like our 15 year old, it is spooky. And her younger brother, Dima, looks amazingly like our youngest son, although he clearly does not have Down syndrome. I was looking into the faces of two children who I could say without a doubt were "my children".. I have read may adoption accounts, and had seen that phrase being used, but until I experienced it, I never knew how strong that connection could be! Harriet knew of these children from her previous adoption at that specific orphanage, which were before Tanya and Dima were available internationally.

And now we are here, in Kyiv, ready to go tomorrow to the NAC to begin the formal adoption procedure. We wrote a letter to the NAC, delivered by our facilitator after we had been approved and received that approval number, explaining exactly how we knew of Tanya and Dima. Of course, according to Ukrainian law, there is no pre-selection. No one has been paid for holding these children for us, and in fact, no one is holding them for us. We knew going into this that there was a chance, however small, that someone else could come along before we could get there, and adopt them. We have been prepared for that, and knew that in that case, we would be very happy that they had a better life than in the orphanage, sad for us that we did not get to raise them, and then look for another sibling group. But honestly, I don't think there are anymore of "our kids" here, just Tanya and Dima!

Anyway, tomorrow at 9 AM, we have an appointment. We are the first appointment of the day. I hope that is a good sign. The NAC has all of the above information, so I'm hoping that the appointment will be quick; a mere formality. We are praying that we will also receive the letter to travel tomorrow, which will enable us to make it to Ivankiv, where their orphanage is, tomorrow. Otherwise, we could be here another day, playing tourist. Either way, I hope to get this to the internet café tomorrow right after the meeting at the NAC, so we should know before uploading these two entries.

Here's to a good night sleep tonight---yeah, right!


Wednesday April 7, 2004


UPDATE!!

NAC went great! Max met us at the apartment at 8:20.. After a 10 minute walk, we arrived--- 30 minutes early. I think Max was more nervous then we were. We sat downstairs for a while... Waited upstairs outside the offices for a few minutes then in the "famous" hallway (which is much brighter and nicer than we expected).

We met with Oxana, the psychologist. The Director stopped in to see us and was very warm, kind and seemed very happy to see us. All the paperwork was ready. They had the kids' papers attached to our letter of request for appointment. There were no questions about anything. Max Translated the kids information for us. Dima does have craniostentosis (sp?) but has had surgery. There are some other (minor) health issues, but having grown up in the shadow of Chernobyl that was to be expected.


Total time meeting at the NAC-- 10 minutes.

Later that day...

We will find out if Max gets our letter today. We hope to be off to Ivankiv tomorrow morning. There is probably no Internet there so updates may get slower (one of us may run down to Kyiv with some paperwork on one day to get an update posted).

Toured around the city again today after our appointment. Went to the Catholic Church (pretty dumpy compared to the wonderful Orthodox Churches). Saw the unity arch celebrating the union between Russia and Ukraine (many here refer to it as the "yoke"). In the square, there was a large sandstone statue of Soviet and Ukrainian leaders. A pigeon with good aim got good ole Lenin right on his head--- No respect even in death :-).


Best case timeline for return:

Ivankiv tomorrow meet the kids and get the paperwork rolling
Court date on Wednesday of next week
back to Kyiv on Wednesday
possibly out of here the following Monday (that would make us one of the first families to have paperwork processed by the US consulate here in Kyiv)
home by Tuesday--

That said, probably best to add a week or better to that timeline.

That's it for now-- Talk to you from Ivankiv!


Thursday April 8, 2004 5:50am
Mary
Maxim did get the letter of referral yesterday, but it was late, so we stayed in Kyiv last night, and are out early this morning. He is picking us up at 7 this morning for our drive to Ivankiv. I understand it is about an hour to an hour and a half northwest of here. He asked at the NAC for the letter to be issued yesterday, and they told him to call back after 3 to see if it was ready. Well, the letter was written for us, but the director still had to sign it, and she was out of the office. They weren't sure if she was coming back before the close of business or not. Either way, we were staying in Kyiv one more night, but getting the letter yesterday, allows us to leave that much earlier today.

I woke up early, about 5, to the sound of birds! What a beautiful sound. In Vegas, I never hear the birds in the spring. I know we have them, I see them, and evidence of them, but other than pigeons, I have not heard birds. It was such a sweet sound!

The kids called last night and that was wonderful to talk to them again. Julie is working on her book of calamities while mom and dad are out of town, and true to form, the hot water heater "broke" and water was all over the garage floor! We aren't sure if it broke, or if the overflow valve needs replacing. Hopefully, one of the kind neighborhood dads will come and take a look at it for us (and them). In the meantime, they get to pretend they are in Ukraine, in an apartment with no hot water!

Last evening was very uneventful and welcoming. We walked to our grocery store and got stuff for dinner and breakfast. Came home, ate, (ham and cheese sandwiches) and read while waiting for Maxim to call with our leaving time, and the kids to call with home news. Now, we are up, ready to go, getting last minute things packed and eating breakfast.

Next update from Ivankiv.



3:00pm
Mary WOW, what a morning!
Maxim was on time, we loaded and left by 7AM. It started out drizzling, but within a short amount of time, it was really raining hard. All the way to Ivankiv, it poured. The driving was really fine. We were stuck behind a truck part of the time, and Yuri, our driver, tried numerous times to pass, but each time he would look, he decided against it, for which I’m glad. There were no “playing chicken” games on this drive!

We arrived in Ivankiv at 8:30, and Maxim had called ahead to the inspector’s office. We stopped by, but she was not there. She was teaching a class at a local secondary school. Instead we decided to go to the orphanage, and see if the director would at least see us and give us some information on the kids, then we would get the "direction" after that, and hopefully meet the kids after they were out of school for the day. At the orphanage, the director was out-she was teaching a class at the other secondary school. The orphanage called ahead and she agreed to meet us at the school. Maxim went into see how we would do this, and soon returned to the car with the director and Tanya! Then we drove to the kindergarten, which here is like "preschool", and the director and Tanya got Dima and brought him out. Then we all drove back to the orphanage, where we could sit and chat. The director gave us a tour of the orphanage, and while we were out, the kitchen workers set out a very nice “tea” for us in the reception room. Then our driver drove her back to the school, and we stayed to talk with Tanya and Dima.

Dima is sooo small. He is 6, will be 7 in June, but the average size of about a 4 year old. And so cute. He kept smiling shyly at Jim, trying to catch his eye. We brought out a couple of books we brought along, and he just jumped at the chance to show off his alphabet skills, counting skills, etc. He did not want Tanya prompting him in any way! We showed them the photo album we brought with us, and they were very excited to see our house, kids, grandma, dogs, etc. Tanya ran and got a photo album she has of some pictures of her and her friends. She is proud of it. She knows most of the letters in the alphabet, and can sound out many words. The biggest bonus is that although shy, she is really ready and willing to try. We sat with my Ukrainian phrase book trying to communicate. It worked!

Emily, guess what? Tanya does not like soccer, but does like basketball! And she likes to run track and field. She ran in a 1K race yesterday and took first place in the city! She describes herself as a "sportsgirl". She will fit right in our family. We stayed and visited with them for about an hour and a half. We were really just getting warmed up, starting to loose some of those "first date" jitters on both sides, when Maxim returned and said we had to go right then. The plan was to go pick up the director, (who they had returned to school) then go to the other school to pick up the inspector, then return us all to the orphanage, where we would formally "meet" the children, under the watchful eye of the inspector. I guess this is the way it is supposed to be done, since we didn't have the "direction" when they had let us meet them. So, off we were to accomplish yet another round of pick ups and drop offs. I guess the kids just miss that day of school.

Once back at the orphanage, we went to the director’s office where they brought Tanya and Dima into meet us. We were back to square one! I hope all of this was explained to them, what we were doing, or else they think we are total idiots for going over AGAIN the picture album, etc. When we left the first time, Dima was totally comfortable with Jim, now, under the watchful gaze of all of these adults, he sat nervously on Tanya's lap. The inspector wanted to talk with Tanya and Dima first, privately, then with us. When it was our turn, she was not friendly AT ALL. I don't know if we were missing something in the translation or what. Even Maxim says he cannot figure out what she was getting at. She kept talking about how we are going to make sure that these kids and our kids at home are going to get along. We explained as best we could, but she was not satisfied. Finally, she brought up some "program" in Kyiv, and "offered" it to us. As best as we can understand, it is supposed to be some kind of thing where these "experts" can match children and adults who will make the best families. And this will ensure that these kids will get along with our other children. I'm not sure how. She admitted she could not require it, but it was very clear that she preferred that we take advantage of this very generous offer! Some of her comments were trying to explain it through an analogy of a man and woman get married and then decide 2 or 3 years later that they are not in love and don’t want to be married anymore. She also asked if we had ever had a conversation with someone, where it started out amicable, then we felt anxious and aggressive? (you mean like NOW??!! Only this time!)

Anyway, we declined her generous offer of the former Soviet Social Scientists studying in depth our family structure, through us, to determine if our children, who they have never met, will one day not get along with these children! I kind of felt raked over the coals, but Maxim assured us that this “institute” was not required, and she was only offering their advice and council. She would approve the paperwork without it.

We left there in search of a notary. (Left the inspector there, I’m not sure how she got back to where ever she needed to be!) There are 2 here. One does not work on Thursday (Today is Thursday) and the other was out, not sure when she would be back. Back to the orphanage, to pick up the director. Maxim spent a long time in there, and we were sure the inspector was giving him another hard time about all of this. But I don't think she was there. When he came out with the director, he said they were taking us to the hotel (and I use the word lightly-more later) ordering us lunch, and then they had 2 or 3 things to do. They would be back to pick us up later, when it was time for us to sign some papers.

The hotel: Tthe only one in Ivankiv, I believe. Now, mind you, we are not picky. Really, we are not. I just was not expecting a 2 story "trailer" to be a hotel. The room is small, painted light blue, and looks like a very small classroom in a "portable" at public schools. There are 2 smaller than single size beds, and we were each provided with a set of sheets to make that bed. There is a pillow case, a flat sheet to use as a bottom sheet and a duvet cover to place the wool blanket inside. At least that is what we have done, so if it is wrong, you all can laugh at us now! I guess the bed is comfortable, as Jim is asleep! Outside of the room, in the "entrance foyer" of the room, is the 2 room bathroom, shared by our room and the room also off of the same foyer. One room is the toilet room, one the shower room.

There is a wall plug in this room so we can charge the computer battery, but I doubt there are any internet connections in Ivankiv. We are going to try to work very hard to make this happen as soon as possible, to return to Kyiv!

Tanya was excited about coming to America. She wanted to know if we were going today. I tried to let her know, no, maybe in about 10 days. Then she asked if we could go "tonight"? I guess she really wants to come home with us. I'm so glad.

WE were more nervous about today than about the NAC meeting yesterday;. What do you say, how do you meet a child, an older child, who you are going to adopt? Do you hug? Shake hands? Immediately say how you love them? Risk scaring them off? I was not prepared to meet them while jammed in a car, but that is how it happened. When we left the orphanage for the first time after meeting them, I did hug both of them. And both squeezed back with a true, deep, affectionate hug. And then, of course, I cried.

After checking in at the hotel, Maxim took us to the restaurant in this hotel, and ordered lunch for us, then was off. We are waiting here for his return, hopefully soon, so we can sign the notary papers and I guess that is another "big step".

I'm keeping my spirits up, looking at the bright side of things. It is raining, and instead of the wind howling through aluminum, corrugated walls of our hotel, we could be out in it, with no place to stay for the night! And, MAJOR PLUS, this place is walking distance to the orphanage. Like I told Jim, we will only need sleep here, hopefully. We are hoping to spend all of the rest of the time at the orphanage with the kids. I’ll buy the orphanage food, too, if we can eat there with them!

Until later..



Later it is now.6:45 PM

Jim Maxim returned for us-through Yuri, the driver. Actually, Yuri came to our room and said "let's go now, Maxim needs to you sign papers". He was at the notary typing the papers, as she did not know how to do it. We got there, signed and took that paper to the orphanage, where we got to see the kids again. They met us with the best hugs! Boy, is Dima ever strong. He squeezes so tight, it is like he never wants to let go. Tanya is right there, as well. Maxim said this was what he wanted the Inspector to see, the spontaneous hugs of parents and children! Well, when sitting in an office full of adults, supposedly meeting for the first time, I would not expect exuberant greetings like that. Maxim grabbed our digital camera (good thing we taught him to use it) and took a few pictures of us with the kids, then talked to the director. Apparently, what they want to happen is the permission, or whatever it is called, to be signed by the inspector so it can be turned into the NAC tomorrow. The director sent us back to the Inspector, with directions to Maxim to "talk to her like she is a woman. You are a man, flirt a little, and get this done!" We all thought that was funny!

While in the director's office and all of this was going on, Dima was gathering his friends, one or two at a time, and bringing them by, getting just close enough for them to see, then grinning and pulling back, running away. I saw Tanya come by a time or two with her friends, in much the same manner. Always with big smiles.

More hugs and we were off to the inspector's office for Maxim to "flirt". He did not get this paper signed today, but feels confident that he can get it tomorrow morning, then return it to the NAC tomorrow. We are running up against Easter weekend. This is the year that Orthodox Easter and Western Easter coincide. The director was urging us to possibly return to Kyiv this weekend and experience Orthodox Easter with all of its beautiful pageantry. We are torn. We would really love to experience that, but have no one to share it with there, so we would essentially be “alone”. On the other hand, if we stay in Ivankiv, we could spend Easter with Tanya and Dima and the other kids in the orphanage. We will talk to the director tomorrow.

If Maxim is successful in getting this document early tomorrow, and returns to Kyiv early, Jim may ride down with him, then get the bus that runs back here. I'll stay here and visit Tanya and Dima. Of course all of this depends on what Maxim says.

For now, we are studying our translation book to be able to order something we like for dinner, at the restaurant in this hotel.

I still can't believe this day has finally come. We have met our children. They seem truly happy to be going home. On the way out of the orphanage for the last time today, one little boy yelled "Dima mama"!. Made me cry!

FOOD ALERT ****** FOOD ALERT******** FOOD ALERT

Just back from dinner at the hotel.


WOW our best meal yet in Ukraine.

We shared a tomato cucumber salad--- sure reminds us how produce in the US has no taste

Mary had a beefsteak with mushrooms (for shame or shame for shame---as we are within zone 2 of Chernobyl), onions and cheese.

I had Max's famous fried meat-think carnitas-- with buckwheat..

We had crepes with raspberry jam for dessert.

Plus a couple of good local beers.


I have not had a chance to write yet today-some random thoughts:

The drivers are not as bad as most say. Yuri drove us from Kyiv to Ivankiv with no problems-if anything he took things a little slow for my tastes. He is great and drivers overall are better than a Saturday night drive in Vegas.

Nice People (for the most part) Everyone involved in the care of the orphans really does want to see what is best for the kids-that means adoption. Yuri guessed that 80-90 % of the kids in the homes would end up on the street, hooking, working for the mafia or in jail. There seems to be a real desire to get these kids placed to avoid those issues.

Ivankiv orphanage is as wonderful as any orphanage could be. Bright and cheery.. warm.. loving staff. The kids seem to get along-but it isn't family.


Causes at home seem to pale in comparison to what is happening here in the real world. The monies thrown at homeless pets, spotted owls, and the "cause of the week" are really needed here and elsewhere to help HUMANS live a better life.


As for Tanya and Dima, WOW what wonderful kids, so strong to have thrived through such adversity. They will do great in the States and I’ll be proud to be their papa.




Friday April 9, 2004
Another great day.

A good night sleep in out little "Hotel Happiness" in Ivankiv. Up at 8 and Max at the door at 9:30.

We took the half-mile hike to the orphanage with our electronics in tow. Video Camera, Digital camera and computer, plus books for the kids and a KOOL Summer of Fun Beach Ball (thanks Tony).

The director called to have Tanya come back from school and pick up Dima on her way home.

Seems computers are scarce here in Ivankiv-luckily I had loaded Ukrainian on the laptop. We borrowed the keyboard from the Director’s defunct desktop and Max was able to type up the official documents of the day. (In Ukraine every official document produces another 3 official documents..you simply trade "up" until your stack is high enough to trade down the pile for the one document you really need-in our case the Judge's ruling)

Tanya and Dima arrived about 20 minutes after the call from the Director. It was great to see them both again. Seems like we have know them forever. Big hugs and down to the "getting to know you room". Lots of fun the beach ball. Back and forth round and round-off the head soccer style-bump, set, spike, good way to communicate without words. Next, book time, and Dima especially devoured the "First 100 words in English" and Richard Scarey's Best Word Book Ever. Both are highly recommended to bring with you. Also, Usborne's first 1000 words In English. Took some video, then showed them the results, along with the first part of the tape-from Marie's birthday, Christmas, etc They seemed to really enjoy it. They love the picture album we brought with pictures of the family, the house, the dogs, the neighborhood, etc… I don’t think you can possibly bring too many photo albums. They both wanted to keep it with them to show their friends.

We had to decide on final names today for Maxim's documents. So, we will have a "Tatiana Catherine Stolz" and a "Dmitri James Stolz" in our family. They seem pleased with their names, and Tanya is thrilled that Dima's middle name is Jim's. VERY HAPPY. While I was telling Tanya what their names were, and writing it out for her, Jim, Dima, and Dima's friend, Sergie, were playing ball. Dima purposefully brought Sergie in to "see" us, then obviously wanted him to sit and watch while he (Dima) and Jim played ball! Jim quickly included Sergie in the game, much to Dima’s dismay, but he got over it quickly. Sergie is VERY cute. Sweet, somewhat shy, just a darling little boy.

We took Tanya and Dima to the restaurant in the hotel. The first time they had ever been to a restaurant. Egg Salad, Chicken Kiev, Fries and OJ. For being a little guy, Dima ate well- Tanya too. Amazing how kids are all the same- Dima discovered the joys of blowing bubbles with a straw. Nap time is 1-it's now 1:30. The dutiful older sister reminds us that it is time for Dima to get some rest. We walk back to the "nest" (well-I carried Dima part of the way) and got him in for his nap. On the way, back, we ran into the director and Nicoli (Tanya's track coach). Seems our new "sports girl" will compete in the Kyiv regional track meet tomorrow (having won the 1k Ivankiv title). We'll all travel to the meet tomorrow at 9:30. One of the best parts of that whole story is the international way we all communicated. Max was not there, Nick, the track coach spoke some very broken English, and of course, we speak very little Ukrainian. But Jim and Galina, the director both speak some German, and between the 4 of us speaking parts of 3 languages, we "got it" that we were able to accompany Tanya tomorrow on the bus, be there at 9:30 AM!

Thanks to the Hamanns for the picture CD from when they were here-they were a big hit with the kids! Movie time-Monsters Inc on the computer. No language barrier there.

After the movie, it was time for us to get back to the room. Maxim was walking us back to the hotel, talking about whether he had missed the last "mini van" back to Kyiv for the day, or if he was going to be staying in the hotel too, tonight. (Our choice to stay in Ivankiv or go back to Kyiv for the night, or for the weekend. We wanted to stay close to the kids) As we rounded the corner, the last bus was there, so we bid him a quick "Happy Easter", and left a very concerned for us Max getting on the bus. I think if he could, he would tattoo his cell number on our arms, so he was SURE we knew how to get a hold of him if needed. But we have our "Language and Travel Guide to Ukraine, Third Edition" with us at all times, and we are not afraid to try to communicate with people. What is the WORST that will happen? We get bottled water with carbonation? Can't hardly get lost in Ivankiv, and we certainly won’t starve to death! Really, Maxim, RELAX, we can take care of ourselves! He seems truly impressed that we are able to communicate with Tanya! Much of that credit goes to Tanya. She is very open to trying to talk to us. She looks through the book (Language and Travel Guide) to find things to talk about, and we go from there! I also highly recommend this book!

Tomorrow is the track meet in the morning, then when we get back, the director has assigned someone to accompany us to the market with a list of things we can purchase for Easter Dinner. WE wanted to eat Easter Dinner with the kids at the orphanage, with all of the kids, but we didn't want to impose and stretch their already thin budget. We told them that if we could eat at the orphanage, we would bring whatever they wanted to add to the dinner.The director requested some fresh fruit and lemonade for the kids, and some Easter candy. She has also assigned a couple of the bigger boys to accompany us, to the Rynok (market) help carry these things. Remember, we are walking.

Rynok--- That is a good time to pause to list some of our favorite words in Ukrainian:


Favorite word-- -- Kharashow Sounds like "Horror Show". This is the all around “I’m okay-you’re okay” word. Cool, Swell, neato, good, okay, right, I understand-One pretty funny word does all that!

Thank You--- Spaseeba in Russian or Dyakooyou in Ukrainian.. In Kyiv most everyone used the Russian-here about half and half.

How much-Skilkee. Very helpful for knowing if a cab driver is "taking you for a ride" in addition for taking you for a ride. Make sure he replies in writing-- 15 and 50 sound very much alike in broken English-- That is the difference between a 3 and 10 dollar cab ride

Pectopah is restaurant--- noooooo silly, you need to remember it's Cyrillic. Make that Restoran when you use the proper alphabet.

Moloko is Milk--- Important because in cartons that look just like milk (down to the fat content) is Kefir-which is a yummy sour milk/yogurt mix (not yummy at all if you are chugging what you think is some cool refreshing milk).

Proshoo prinehstihs shcheh pihva? May I please have another Beer?

Pehrehproshooyu deh tooahleht? Where is the Pottie.

Ahhh Potties-Kyiv they were quite nice. Clean. Plenty of paper. Ivankiv..most do not work and TP is strictly a "if you want it you better bring it from home" sort of thing. Here in the "Hotel Happiness". They have large jugs of water in the bathroom since some of the toilets have no running water--- take a dump-dump in a couple of jugs of water and all is well.

Koshmar-That happens if you forget to bring the paper from home-- it is a nightmare-bad day sort of thing-- Missed the Bus, had to stand in the rain-needed to use the bus stop toilet with no paper and no flusher--- that is Koshmar.


Saturday, April 10, 2004

Mary here-Jim is ill today!
Slept well, but Jim awoke with the sickening feeling that the chicken he doubted last night, should have been left on his plate! He has not felt well all day. But we did make it to the orphanage on time, and accompanied Tanya to her track meet. First, when walking in the door, Dima was coming down the stairs. He saw me and ran, then JUMPED totally up into my arms. I did not bend down at all! He leapt all the way up for his hug.

The ride to the track meet was in a 9 passenger VW van-but there were 11 of us! On the way home, there was an extra passenger, so 12! The weather was beautiful leaving Ivankiv, cool, but sunny and the promise of warm air. An hour later, in Kyiv, it was cloudy, with a definite nip in the air. The track meet was in some woods just inside the Kyiv city limits-at least I think we saw a "city limits" type of sign. They had a path roped off for the runners, basically in a circle, seemed to be about ½ kilometer in length. Tanya ran twice around in her race, and I think she ran 1 Km, so that makes sense. The path they ran on was full of tree roots, small, ankle twisting pine cones, and occasionally some glass. We walked the path before the races began. I watched for the glass and removed whatever I saw. A large "radio" truck arrived with 4 large speakers mounted on top, and someone inside announcing racers names and numbers. We never did hear Tanya's name.

Of course, right before she was due to run, it started to rain. Not hard, but just enough that it was downright cold out there! Makes you appreciate basketball, with the indoor court, complete with bathrooms when necessary! We arrived at the place about 11:15 am, she was due to run at 1:10. That stretched to about 1:45. (Have you ever known a sports event to run on time?) She just ran in that one race.

OK, Julie, I now how your mind works! You want to know if she won! No, she didn't come in first. She was definitely the smallest one out there in her age group (I think they were separated by ages). She came in in the last ½. But she gave it all she had, and ran hard the entire way. It was very much fun, for those couple of minutes, watching Tanya run, which was obvious that she enjoyed doing.

Back in the van to Ivankiv, and Jim came back to the hotel. I took Tanya back to the orphanage, then told her we needed to go to the market to get fruit and lemonade. Tanya, Dima and I walked to the market. This "market" is the size of about ¼ of a 7-11! WE bought 70 bananas (yes, that is right, seventy bananas, there are 65 or 66 kids in the orphanage and we wanted to get everyone one, plus one for me, for Jim, any caregivers, etc…) and all of the oranges they had-I think 24. Carried those back, and I was expecting Tanya to take them to the kitchen. No, she immediately took them upstairs to the large music room, yelling all the way something about bananas. In one big whhoossshhhh, the room started filling up with kids, all going immediately to chairs lining the walls, waiting dutifully on the chairs for their banana. Tanya and Dima so much enjoyed handing each child a banana, proudly telling them these were from THEIR mama and papa. You have never seen children so happy to get a piece of fruit. Then, came the oranges. Tanya handed one to every 2 children, and there was enough-not everyone got to the room. The leftover bananas, along with a yogurt I had gotten for Tanya and Dima to share, and I think there were one or two oranges, were taken to Tanya's room, where she locked them in her locker. We are talking lock and key! First, she got one for herself and a 2nd one for Dima, plus one for me. Then we walked back to the market for lemonade and candy. Lemonade is not our lemonade; it is more of a sprite, soda type of thing. We bought 12 2-liter bottles, and a bag of hard candies, enough for each child to have 2 small hard candies tomorrow. Then, I spotted the Kindereggs. If you have never watched a child with a Kinderegg, you are really missing something.

They are egg size and shape, a hollow chocolate egg, with a small toy inside. We have seen them in Western Europe and our kids at home always love them-ok so do we!
I told Tanya to ask how many they had, and they had 66. Well, I’m pretty sure there are under 66 children there, so I bought the entire stock of them! I hope we have enough Ukrainian money for our meals until banks open again!
I told Tanya those treats were for Easter tomorrow, and she understood. We took everything back, and she locked it in her locker, hiding the lemonade under her bed. Then we walked back to the hotel to bring Jim a banana. He was still not feeling well, so Tanya, Dima and I ate at the restaurant downstairs. After 2 bananas, Dima still had room for a big bowl of chicken/egg salad, and a large amount of his French fries. I don’t think his appetite is the cause of his size! He probably just is too picky of an eater to gain weight with the diet at the orphanage. For us, he has eaten very well!

Took the kids home, and then I came back for an early bedtime. Spending all day outside tires me out. Jim’s tummy is still not better, so it will probably be a long night for him.

Tomorrow is Easter. I still have to get my phrase book out and go downstairs to the desk to find out what time Easter Liturgy is, and then I can go to bed.

Monday is a holiday in Ukraine-the Monday after Easter, so if the markets are open, we will take the kids to get some clothes. Tuesday they see the doctor here, but that is not the exam needed by our embassy. I think they need this one before the court date. We are hoping for an end of the week court date-maybe Thursday??? I hope so.

Sometime soon, if Jim is feeling better, he may take the mini-bus/van that goes from Ivankiv to Kyiv to visit an Internet café and upload all of these updates.

Happy Easter!

Sunday, April 11, 2004 Easter Sunday

Jim was sick all day today. If he is not feeling better by tomorrow, I'm going to ask for some remedies at the orphanage. If that is not incentive to feel better, I don't know what is!

I asked at the hotel desk this morning about time for Easter liturgy at the Orthodox Church, but the woman there was clearly not religious, and had absolutely no idea! So I decided to go to the orphanage, and see if I could find out there. (They do not list times on a handy board out front here!) Tanya told me they were going to church at 4. She held up four fingers. 4 o’clock. Swell, I'll just go with them.

The kids were enjoying their "Kindereggs", and the toys in them too. I'm very glad we got them for them. They were also enjoying the "lemonade" we got for them, making sure not to waste a drop of it.

We tried to watch Shreck, but the "play" would not work when I clicked on it, so we settled for Ice Age. It is a very cute movie, but much of the humor in it is language based, so interest was not really high. We looked at our books again, and Dima repeated many, many words in English with me. He will not have any problem with pronunciation. Tanya will have a little more, but not much. There is another Tanya here who is also taking English with our Tanya. She is very interested in the books I brought, and practicing saying and reading the words. These kids really want to learn.

Tanya, Dima and I came back and checked on Jim, then went to get something to eat. The restaurant (now know to Jim as "chez death!", was closed, so we went to the grocery store. I got a carton of milk, and some water, and got them each a drinkable yogurt. Plus some kind of layered cookie thing that looked good. Back at the orphanage, we ate and drank, then ½ hour later, it was time for lunch. They ran downstairs and were back in 5 minutes. Doesn't take them long at all! After lunch, it was Dima's naptime, but before he could lay down, it was brought to Tanya's attention that it was almost time to leave for Church. I thought it was at 4!, but no, it was 2-I keep forgetting 24 hour clock. She was trying to say 14! I ran back to the hotel to see if Jim was up for the service, but he was not, so I ran back. We left for church, but it was not at the Orthodox church. It was a Protestant Church service. We stayed for about an hour and a half, then left, and headed back to the orphanage. I brought out the Uno cards, which are another really good idea! You can work on colors and numbers in English, all the while playing a fun game! Didn't take long to teach them how to play, and I left them with Tanya to play with her friends tonight. She liked that idea.

While on the way to Church, Tanya told me that she wanted to be called Catherine. I will double check with Maxim when he arrives on Tuesday and can fully translate, but I asked 3 different times in different ways and got the same answer each time. She wants to be called Catherine, and Dima wants to be called James. Not Jim, or Jimmy (He looks like a "Jimmy", but James. Such a big name for such a little guy). I offered Tanya Catie, Cathy, Cate, and Catherine, along with strongly suggesting we keep calling her Tanya, but she was insistent. So, I guess we have a Catherine and James, instead of Tanya and Dima. IT was always our intention to allow them to choose to be called by another name, if they REALLY wanted to, but I was not expecting it to happen so fast. Could be a "new beginning, new name" kind of thing. I'll ask Max on Tuesday.

After Uno, it was dinner-time. I told Tanya that I had cleared it with Galina, the director, for us to eat at the orphanage tonight. She was pleased. I’m glad I did and got to experience what they do for meals.

Meal time is called, and one caretaker stands at the door, guarding it from anyone entering. 2 children are assigned to be helpers, and they carry each plate from the ½ door where it is served, to the tables. There were 6 tables, each seating 6 children. I thought there were a lot more children there, but tonight, that was it. 6 tea cups of tea were already on the tables, and the helpers placed one salad plate of the rice mixed with a very few pieces of meat, at each place. It was a gooy glop of food, like a sticky rice pilaf, with some sort of tomato "base" (like tomato soup?) that held it all together. And there were large pieces of bread in a bowl at the table. No butter, but heavy, (good) Ukrainian bread. Then the kids are allowed in. They swarm in, each taking their respective places at their respective tables. By the time they are all in and sitting down, the workers have placed a large bucket and dish cart in the dining room, and almost immediately children are finished and scraping their plates into the bucket. A lot of the food was not eaten.
I thought I was going to actually eat with Tanya and Dima, but I was directed to a table at the back of the room. Once all of the children were fed, the workers sat to eat. They had the same food as the children, along with leftover hardboiled eggs from breakfast, and a few things they brought from home. I must say, I felt very funny at first, having this food laid out for me, while the children did not have the same stuff. But these things were from the private homes of the workers, who brought food to work, like anyone else would. I left there with 3 pieces of "Pasch" bread- a special Easter only bread, homemade by one of the worker's mother's, and tried to share it with Tanya and Dima. They both refused, saying that they had some this morning! So I guess they do get some treats like that.

Back to dinner. I participated in an egg breaking ceremony for the hardboiled eggs, and sampled a few other homemade dishes. Only one did I not care for. It was some kind of gelatinous meat based product, eaten cold. I know that I've read about it and I'll have to look it up. We had some good Ukrainian bread, and some tea. They kept pushing me to eat more and more, but I did have my fill, plus I have to save room for more protein.

We managed to communicate fairly well during dinner. They told me to not take Tanya and Dima to the restaurant any more, that it was too expensive. Jim and I should both be eating there with them, at the orphanage, and not at the restaurant! I think I was invited to go to the Orthodox church next Sunday, if we are still here, with one of the ladies, but I’m not sure. During all of our discussions, I received a phone call on the orphanage phone! It was Maxim, who was feeling very uneasy since we are in Ivankiv, and he is not, and he has not been here in a couple of days. I reassured him that we were indeed ok, and that I was having dinner, talking to the caregivers in the orphanage. He asked about Jim, and I told him he had a “touch of food poisoning”. He offered to talk to one of the staff there about helping us get some kind of remedy, but I said I would talk to them tomorrow if Jim is not feeling better.

Which brings us back to the beginning of today, and time to close. If Jim is feeling better tomorrow, and Galina is in the orphanage, I may ask her if we can take the kids on the bus to Kyiv, visit the internet café to upload these updates, go to McD’s (no doubt their first experience with that, and maybe get them an outfit or two). Busses (really mini-vans) run every 30 minutes or so, and it could be a lot of fun, if we are allowed!

Hopefully this will be up tomorrow.
Until then'..


Monday April 12, 2004
Mary

Jim felt some better today, and was able to visit with the kids a little while, off and on. Recovery from food poisoning is NOT fun!

We went to the orphanage about 9:15 this morning, and Tanya was there, but not Dima. One of the workers told Tanya to take us to the church where Natalia, another worker, was with Dima. I had spoken last night to Natalia about going to the Orthodox Church in town. I thought she meant next Sunday. Apparently, she meant today! She was there with Dima and a few other kids. Tanya took us, and Tanya, Dima and I stayed through the entire liturgy-which was long! Jim was feeling very weak, hot, sweaty, and dizzy, and decided that rather than pass out in church, he would head back to the hotel!

After church, Tanya, Dima and I walked back to the hotel, and Jim was feeling better, so he accompanied us back. We first went to some stores in search of clothing for the kids. We found a pair of gym shoes for Dima (U.S. less than 6.00!) and a "jogging suit" for him, too. (about 8.00) I think he would wear about a 5-6 in U.S. sizes, Julie, if you see anything while you are out and about. The "pickings " are very slim here, and we decided to hold off on any other purchases until tomorrow. The large outdoor market should be fully up and running tomorrow-the Monday after Easter is a holiday here, so not much was open. I got Tanya and Dima each a drinkable yogurt. They don't get any milk in the orphanage, and they like the yogurt. So at least this way they are getting some calcium every day.

Back to the orphanage, it was lunch-time. The workers invited us to eat lunch with them, but Jim is not up to eating anything yet, and I had just finished a protein bar, so we passed. When Dima laid down for a nap after lunch, we taught Tanya to use the video camera and she went off to video her home and friends! A few false starts and she was up and running like a pro!

Jim started to feel run down again, so he left to go back to the hotel, and I stayed with the kids. The Orthodox Church came to the orphanage today to give an Easter presentation. They gave each child a hard boiled egg, and two coloring books with Bible stories in them. They also donated a few Bibles to the orphanage. It is nice to see that religion is accepted in this post Soviet system. Tanya wanted to video the entire presentation, as it included part of the choir singing, but the batteries ran out, and she was not able to. After the "concert" as Tanya put it, we walked back to the hotel to get the batteries charging, then back to the orphanage. We played Uno a time or two, and just passed the time.

The older girls, at least, here do their own laundry by hand. They wash it in a wash tub, rinse and wring it in the sink and hang it to dry on a rack in the bathroom. I told Tanya she would be doing her own laundry at home, too. Her eyes got really big, then smiled and asked if we had a washing machine! She laughed when I told her yes, getting the teasing I was doing with her!

I ate dinner with the kids again tonight-it was some "mystery meat" patty-I'm sure more filler than meat, but not bad tasting, a LARGE serving of mashed potatoes, and bread. Warm, sweat tea, and a hard boiled egg rounded out the meal. It filled me up. These kids eat FAST. I still can't get over it. And they all eat only with a large serving spoon. Seems sad to see these older girls, who clearly care much about their appearance, trying to dress as stylishly as possible, keeping themselves clean and well groomed, shoveling food so fast into their faces.

Tomorrow is the big day-the kids are going for some physical here tomorrow morning at 8 am. We do not go for that one, it is not the one required by the embassy. Max will be here in the morning, trying to get that final signature to turn into the NAC. Hopefully, the inspector will sign readily in the morning, and he can run it back to Kyiv right away. I think he said there is other papework to do tomorrow as well. If we have a chance, and are allowed, we would like to take Tanya and Dima to Kyiv, possibly on Max's return, to do some shopping, visit the internet, visit McDonalds, and return to Ivankiv late tomorrow afternoon.

We will see how well those plans work out....


Tuesday April 13, 2004

Jim Man--- The "Diner of Death" really did me in.

Thanks to the I-player, Michael Savage's and Sean Hannity's books and the Kyiv Post (which I have now read through 5 times) I have avoided going insane.

I have had probably a total of 1litre of coke/sprite and another liter of water plus a banana and one zone bar since I lost my battle with the spoiled chicken on Friday. Forget Dr Atkins-the "Diner of Death" Ukraine Diet is the way to go-I have probably dropped 15-20 pounds over the long weekend. I have been able to spend some time with the kids, but I wear down after about 90 minutes.

Today we arrived at the orphanage and went with the kids to the "hospital" (really the local clinic). They have to get a paper signed by all the specialists there to be released for adoption.

A note on Socialized Heath Care-

The theory is noble and wonderful-the reality is otherwise. Doctors make on the order of $50/mo. Thus the best and the brightest have either left Ukraine for the US or have changed professions- to be able to better support their families. Those that remain are over burdened and work in conditions far below our standards in the US. Patients wait in huge lines to be seen-actually several huge lines-

Line 1 Check in and get your chart-no HIPPA issues here
Line 2 Blood work
Line 3 Specialist (or many lines if you are going for a checkup)
Last line-back to return your chart.

Be sure while walking and waiting to avoid colliding with the open testubes of biohazardous materials being hand transported from one area to another.

It's an all day (or several day process).

We had trouble getting in to see our primary in Vegas-we fired her--- here you are stuck with what you have--FOREVER.


After a couple hours moving from line to line with the kids, we decided to get back to the orphanage (Max was to meet us there for more paper signing this morning) . We found out that Ivankiv required that we meet with the Minister of Children’s Welfare (or something like that) and she must approve us prior to court. After our experience with the Inspector, we were a bit wary. Gallina (the Orphanage Director), Max, Mary and I made our journey into town for our "interview". ---Side note-Max told Gallina that I was suffering from the "Ivankiv trots" and she insisted that we immediately go to the apothecary for something that will "make me all better by lunchtime" (I'm ALL for that). Stopped there and got some bitter herbs in a tablet form (if you want to look it up for me it's called Laevomycetinum)-I was skeptical-but now I believe--- an hour later and I am beginning to feel "human" again.-Okay back to the main plot-

We met with the Children's Welfare Minister-lots of questions, but not the "grilling" like we received from the Inspector. It's very clear that they care very much for the children of the village and want to make sure they are placed in loving homes. They want to make sure that we will retain their Ukrainian roots and that the kids will be encouraged to stay in touch with those left behind. (funny since that was one of the first things we asked Max -What can we take back with us that will help them remember their homeland?). We passed the test and she agreed to get all the paperwork done for us today so we could get a speedy court date (pray for Thursday).

We walked back to the orphanage to find that not all the required signatures were obtained at the Hospital. Max and one of the caregivers went back to get the needed signatures. Mary, Tanya, Dima and I walked through the Rynok looking for clothes for Tanya, then off to the hotel happiness for a quick lunch at the "Diner of Death". (I passed on the food and went up to the room for a nap).


Waiting for Max at the hotel now-they really want to speak with him at the front desk-I think they are concerned that we will skip out on our bill (about $50USD for the entire week)

More later-----


It's later-

Max just stopped by the room---frustrating day for him. The Inspector is holding out on signing the paperwork.. She legally has 10 days to do this--- normally it is done the same day-well-she does not like Max, us, or just does not like life. We have been approved by a social worker, the adoption agency, the INS in the US. In Ukraine, we have been approved by the NAC, their psychologist, the Children's Welfare Minister, the deputy mayor (both of whom are superiors of the Inspector) and the Orphanage Director, but this woman is not going to sign that paper without causing some pain… (no-we don’t think it is monetary pain) The worst case-she could hold us in limbo until NEXT Thursday----arghhhhhhhhh we hoped to be HOME by next Wednesday.

On a happier note-We had a great day with the kids--- played puzzles in the hotel room-Tanya took lots of digital pics around the orphanage.

Tomorrow-we meet the kids at 8 and go shopping at the market for clothes. Max will be here by 8:30 and begin his quest to get the last piece of paper signed (wonder if he has thought of slipping some Prozac in her Cik (juice).


The drama continues tomorrow



Wednesday April 14, 2004
Jim and Mary
Ahhhh a new day of adventure.

Up early to meet Tanya and Dima at 8 to do some shopping before school. To add to the take home luggage:

2 Tanya pants
a really cool leather coat
2 pair of socks
a purse
nice "euro" skirt and blouse set

Dima racks up
Undies
A pair of “Spiderman” jeans
2 pair of socks

grand total about 300UAH---about 60 bucks-- try that at Dillards J

after shopping, it's off the school for the kids and back to the Hotel for us.

************** side note***************

We ran into the Inspector (the difficult one) on the way to the Orphanage-she was pleasant and asked to meet us again later in the day as she was unsure about Max and his translation. Okay-whatever.

************** side note 2***************

A very exciting day here at the Hotel Happiness--- we got upgraded to a new room. It’s a wonderful 2 room "suite" complete with a tv and 2 single beds pushed together for a "faux queen" bed. We have our own potty and shower…Actually it's nice-a couple of steps down from the Motel 6 in the US, but better than we usually stay in Western Europe.

***********back to the story****************

Max met us at the hotel and took us to the market--- Mary is doing very well with the language, but I am ready to eat some meat and do not want a repeat of the "Death Diner" experience. I’d prefer a native speaker to determine if the ham is fully cooked. Ahh it is! Some ham, cheese, bread, yummy stale raisin/cherry toast, a couple of bananas, Moloko, water and coke--- LUNCH! I ate a little-it was good-I may be ready for The "Diner of Death" again tonight!!

Maxim went off to get the much anticipated Inspector's approval---heee hee hee good luck, Max!

A couple of hours at the hotel and Max is back-The inspector keep putting him off- "Methinks she does not like him". We decide to head to the Orphanage to get our couple of pages of social and educational questions about the kids answered. It's very clear that the director has a very soft spot for these 2. She was in tears a good part of the time. Great Students, Great kids. (we already knew that)

Max is off again to try to lock down the approval from the Inspector (at this point we think she is toying with him)-It’s okay, Max-As Mary said, “this is great practice for your future job at the UN!

Tanya and Dima are back from school-- Tanya wants and needs a haircut-they have a salon at the Hotel Happiness (go figure). Dima and I head back to the room to play cars, Mary and Tanya do the "hair thing".

Really cute cut-We have heard horror stories about stylists in the Former Soviet Union-this lady did a swell job-really…especially considering the total was about $2USD.

Back to get the kids to bed and then us to bed. Just saw Max-the Inspector's approval is DONE!!!!!! YAY!

Tomorrow morning Max is here at 8 to get the final 2 signatures, then Mary, Max and I are off to Kyiv to the notary and the NAC (and the internet)--- Sorry to the guys in Columbus--- your music will be in tomorrow’s upload---

More tomorrow!


Thursday April 15, 2004 Mini Update
Jim and Mary Hi gang--

We are in Kyiv today dropping off papers at the NAC and getting some stuff notarized. We found an internet cafe ---with no floppy drives-- so what follows is the nitty gritty--- if you want to read all the good stuff and not spoil it--- close this window NOW

Okay

We are still waiting for a court date-- could it be tomorrow? Maybe. Probably Monday. The local Inspector has been quite "diligent" in her efforts (aren't we understanding) causing an unexpected delay--and so it goes.

The kids are great- We have been able to spend a lot of time with them-- most of the day every day since we arrived in Ivankiv last Thursday. Tanya is a bit smaller than Emily and Dima is tiny. Both are in good health and VERY anxious to come to America.


Sorry for the lack of updates--Ivankiv has no internet-- they are still working on getting running water 24/7. Very nice village--just not a techno land.

We will find another Internet place with floppy drives before we head back there this afternoon

Keep the prayers coming


Thursday April 15, 2004 8:30 PM Happy Tax Day
Jim
Just back from our day in Kyiv..

Max got into Ivankiv early and got the Inspector’s report and had it signed. He met us at the hotel and we decided to get the papers notarized in Kyiv as we had to drop them off at the NAC anyway. That would give us a chance to post our last week's worth of updates and hopefully meet Maxim's wife, Larissa. It will be good to get to the city for the day, but it will mean we won't get to see the kids at all until tomorrow. We must get the papers to Kyiv so to the big city we go.

We "hitchhiked" into Kyiv---yes-don't try this at home, but in Ukraine it is quite common for cars to troll about and pick up folks with their hand out--- no thumb, please…arm extended at full length and at about 30 degrees with your palm down, and, viola you have a cheap ride (make sure you negotiate your fare before hand or you could really be taken for a ride-but it is usually 1/5th the cost of a metered cab)


Our goal was to have the papers at the NAC before lunch (1-2) and beg them for a "same day approval". Traffic was a nightmare and by the time we finished at the notary and got the subway to the NAC, it was about 1:20 and everyone had gone to lunch. Max left the papers and we will come back before the end of business to see how things are going.

Back into the subway to venture into "left bank" Ukraine for the first time.


******** Subway Side Note**********

The Kyiv Subway is one of the deepest in the world---2 very long escalator rides to get to the platform-the subway stations are incredibly clean.. No rats! No trash! This thing puts "The Tube" in London to shame. The subway cars get very crowded and there is little respect for personal space in Ukrainian culture. Getting on and off the car is a free for all-survival of the fittest-push shove, push harder, get some shoulder behind you to get those in your way -our of your way. (I am not a small guy and I was actually lifted by the crowd and nearly removed from the train… now I know to shove back-it's not personal, you just have to jump in and be a local… the babushka's can-we can--- this might be fun!)


We stopped off at the Internet Café while Max and his wife looked at an apartment they are thinking of buying. I put the disk into the A drive and noticed that it went in very easily--- too easi---- oh no-there is no A drive-just a slot where it used to live-the disk is not at the bottom of the computer case and no one here speaks English--- We were able to explain that the “Stupid Americans” put the disk into the imaginary A: drive and needed it to be fetched from the abyss-they complied, but it was not until Max returned that we discovered that indeed there is a floppy drive--- one for 30 computers-- in the file server--- a quick mapping and we were able to post our updates and pictures. Again, sorry it took so long.

From the Internet to Max and Larissa’s apartment for a WONDERFUL lunch. (yes--- I like food again)

The Best Borscht we have had in Ukraine
The battle of cold pork roast between Max’s and Larissa’s Moms…. They were both wonderful
A beef Sausage (kinda like a really big, really good hot dog)
Spaghetti
Fruit and pastries and tea
And to drink during the meal, a wonderful Ukrainian homemade drink-It comes from the sap of a birch tree-slightly tart, a little fizzy and very refreshing..

They also had Salo (pork fat you spread on bread). We both really wanted to try it (some call it Ukrainian chocolate) but we were stuffed-Hopefully Larissa and Max will have us back before we leave.

After dinner we hitched back to the NAC where a huge line of folks were still waiting to see the director. Max decided to get us on our way-- hailing a car to Schevschenko Square, then we climbed onto a mini bus for the hour ride back to Ivankiv (6UAH-- $1.10 per person). We are now safe and sound, comfortably in our room at "Hotel Happiness", awaiting word from Max regarding the success (hopefully) of getting the needed papers signed and ready for court. There is still a chance, however slim, that we could have court tomorrow!

********* Soviet/Ukrainian Side note*********

We wanted to get perspective from Max about the fall of the USSR and Ukrainian independence for Tanya and Dima to understand that time in their country. It’s a very different story than we get in the US.

Max was 15 when they got word of the breakup-nothing in the wind, no warning-just woke up one day to hear that the USSR was gone. And some American's might be shocked to hear that life under the Soviet system was not as bleak as we were taught in school. Summer vacations on the Black Sea every year. Enough money to buy what you needed and enough to save. A guaranteed pension for life upon retirement. There were downsides-product selection was poor, those in power and their cronies got the best "stuff".

Upon the collapse of the USSR, there was hyper inflation. Max’s great-aunt had her life savings of 10,000 rubles (over 15k usd) become worthless. She had to work an extra 9 years because the pensions were no longer enough to provide for life's (very) basic needs. Crime was also a serious problem in post USSR Ukraine. And the cronyism of the USSR was replaced by the oligarch's and their capitalist cronies.

Ahhh what is the line?? -"power corrupts"-- No matter the system!

Things are getting better. Inflation is somewhat under control. The middle class is growing. But there is still a long way to go until the people of Ukraine have it as good as even Poland or other Eastern Bloc nations. I heard some speculation that this is so because Ukraine missed out on The Renaissance and Reformation and free thought was never encouraged. Better to be a part of the collective-- but you can see in the eyes of all the Kiosk owners and the gypsy cabbies that they are figuring the "capitalism thing" out and will be just fine-as long as the government doesn't screw it up.



Friday April 16, 2004 7:30pm
Jim
Mary was up early to see the kids off to school-I was zonked from all the running yesterday and stayed in bed. Upon her return we set out on our quest of the day-To find a nice Ukrainian porcelain tea set. Many thanks to the Hamanns for their great directions we found a nice little Soviet era mini “Woolworth like” place and got a splendid tea set for about $18USD. After a walk through the Rynok, it was back to the hotel for lunch. Apparently something Mary either said or gestured gave the waiter the idea that we only wanted a coke. He promptly brought that and disappeared for 40 minutes. Ahhh not really that hungry anyway.

Back to the room for a quick nap before Tanya gets home from school. (Still not quite at 100% after my NDE)

Met Tanya at the orphanage and decided to hunt for some still needed clothes. Bad News: Everything is closed.

Tanya helped us to buy a phone card and we placed a call to Max to check on our status. We have another minor setback. No approval from the NAC today. Tanya and Dima's last name is spelled differently on the paperwork-- Tanya in Russian-Dima in Ukrainian. Max needs to get back here to Ivankiv to get the paper redone by our friend the inspector and get the 2 required signatures-looks like that will set us back another day for court---It's now looking like Tuesday.

Tomorrow we must get back to Kyiv to get a notary stamp. Good news since we’ve been wanting to take the kids to see the circus and there is a show at 13:00. That will also give us a chance to get shopping finished and take them to their first western restaurant. I want to try the TGI Fridays--- I'll probably be out- voted and we'll go to McDonalds.

It was a beautiful spring day here in Ivankiv.. Sunshine-temps in the mid 60s. All the trees are blooming (gesundheit). Had a great time with Tanya, Dima and a bunch of the other kids from the orphanage playing Frisbee and just hanging out.

7pm-time to say our goodnights to the kids and get back to the "Hotel Happiness" There is laundry to do-and only a sink in which to do it-I quickly offer to write today's update-- darn-I won’t be able to do my own stuff----Thanks Honey!!

Till tomorrow,



Saturday April 17, 2004 8:45 PM
Jim Step right up, one and all, young and old, boys and girls of all ages--- see the incredible dancing bear, acrobat cats, death defying horsemanship, the "dog-a-round" featuring the "fearless feathered winged warriors" plus lots of girls with feathers coming out of their tushies--- No we're not back in Vegas--It's the Kyiv Circus--What a show! 60 minutes non-stop, a 20-minute intermission, and then another hour of fun--- this is the ADD Circus--- no act lasted for more than 4 or 5 minutes. I HATE circuses—this thing had me mesmerized. Max was able to get us some seats from "Guido" the scalper for 10 uah a person--about 2 bucks. We were in row 2—incredible seats in the 1500 seat "in the round" theatre.

Our day started early picking up the kids at 7:30 and to the waiting car at 7:45. Up till now, we were beginning to think that all those who came before with the horror stories of the Ukrainian roads were just a bunch of spoiled American sissies… We would now like to formally apologize for thinking that. The driver was a MADMAN. We were in a Lada "a Russian branded Fiat"--That should be enough to describe it--- The slogan is "not a lada money for not a lada car".

He wove, he passed in no passing zones, He ran out of gas, he was more worried about his cassette player falling (It was solidly secured by a dish towel) than the fact that he made a 3rd lane down the middle of the 2 lane road (at 110 KPH with cars on both sides). We made it! It was not pretty, but we made it.

Max met us at and we were off to the notary. After adding another official document to our pile we were onto the subway and back to the Left Bank for shopping.

Hey Emily--we found Doenner Kabaps! Just as good as Germany, except they use Mayo and Catsup rather than the yummy yogurt stuff.

Max's wife met us to head to the Circus from there--- After the circus, we FINALLY were able to convince Max that we'd be fine with the kids alone in Kyiv for the rest of the day. That way he could spend Larissa's last day of vacation with her before she must head back to Sumy. We love his company, but it's nice to have alone time with the kids.

We walked from the Circus to the main shopping street near Independence Square-- a couple of miles. Tanya and Dima held up well. I ducked into the Internet café to upload the last few days--Mary and the Kids head to TSUM (the old Soviet Department Store) to do the last of the shopping.

We all meet for McDonalds on Independence Square for dinner--Funny, we'd never go to MC in the states if we were in a different city--we always look for local food---but the kids really wanted to try McDonalds for the first time and there really is something cool about seeing Micky Dees in what, just 15 years ago, was the Soviet Union.

Got a cab and transferred to a minibus for the 90 minute ride back to Ivankiv. We are all beat- The kids are back at "the nest" and we are at "Hotel Happiness" --can't wait till they get to stay with us for good

Sunday April 18, 2004 2pm

Jim and Mary Got up this morning too late for church, so we just went straight to "The Nest". The kids were watching a TV show, dubbed over in Ukrainian (or Russian, I couldn't tell which) with the original language being English. I didn't recognize the program but it had "Merlin" who was some kind of magician in it. (you can tell we watch a lot of TV--Huh)

We left when they were ready to go get Tanya some perfume. She had asked on the bus ride home yesterday if we could get her some perfume. How she communicated this was precious! I had handed her our notebook to doodle in, and she drew a picture of a perfume bottle, with spray coming out, a little smiley face as the face smells the spray, and the letters "OK" written on the bottle. Then pantomimed the entire process with a questioning look on her face, and said "tomorrow?" How can you turn that down?

So, today we were off to find the perfume, hoping it was not too expensive, as we find ourselves running low on UAHs and the banks open tomorrow. The market between the hotel and the orphanage was mostly closed, with only a few vendors out selling some very yummy looking fresh vegetables. No perfume. But Tanya kept on walking, saying something about a market and the hotel. We decided to trust her and follow. Back past the hotel, and down a side street, about ½ mile or so, was another market. We didn’t’ even know it existed. It looked much more permanent. It was only about 1/3 open, but we found some perfume she liked for under 2.00 USD. We continued to walk around this new market, and Tanya found another pair of jeans she liked, so we got those. Then back to the nest.

We watched a slide show on the computer of the photos of the circus. The vast majority of the actual circus photos, Tanya took. She did an excellent job. Dima was definitely showing signs of lack of sleep from yesterday-just overall kind of whiney. We joined the kids for lunch, was DELICIOUS!

They set a table for the 4 of us-Jim, Tanya, Dima, and me. Lunch was borscht, which as GREAT. Even the potatoes here taste better! Along with the borscht was bread, which is great with the borsch, and for dessert, something they called "a-LAH-dee". It was a small, sweetened round bread like dessert, with the texture of foccocia bread, but looked like a solid donut. I don't think they were fried, though. They were sweetened on the outside with a cinnamon sugar glaze, and then a cherry preserves bit on top. They were great. We could not finish ours, but did ask if we could bring them back here. Our wish was granted.

Tanya and Dima were both going to nap today, so we thought it best if we do the same.

Some thoughts to pass along to those who are yet to come:

Most useful items and items we wish we had:

Probably one of the most useful items we have with us has been our notebook and pen. We use it a lot—every day. It is great to have pen and paper handy for notes to write to myself, and when shopping, I simply pantomime writing while holding out the notebook, and the seller writes the price down. It’s much easier to understand that way. We use it in communications with Tanya, and if all else fails, hastily drawn pictures convey a message very well. We have a “Joe Boxer” wide spiral, hard front and back cover, and it is holding up well. They kids doodle in it, and practice writing their names. The pen clips on inside the spiral, and it is ready to go at all times. My purse is big enough to hold it, so I don’t have to carry it separately. Highly recommended.

A large purse has been a plus. Mine could be a little bigger, but it will do.

We brought "Wet ones" hand wipes and have found many uses for them. Water is off at our hotel frequently, so they come in handy here. Plus wiping up little hands after ice creams!

What I wish we had with us: a few computer games. We have a lap top with us (Thanks, again Emily, for letting us borrow yours!) and we can write these updates, file pictures, etc. but we didn't think to bring a couple of CD ROM games. I'm sure the kids would have loved them, and given them something to do with us. We go outside and play Frisbee a little, walk to the markets, etc. but after a week and a half, with language just building, it is difficult. We do have some playing cards with us, and they have been handy-building card houses and playing concentration. The UNO cards were a hit. Dominoes would be fun, too. Any kind of very small, very portable game like that, that you enjoy, would be great to include, especially when adopting older children.

And for that matter, if I would have thought of it, I could have made a CD of the pictures we have of our house and family. We have all of these pictures on our main computer at home, and a CD is certainly a good way to carry those pictures.

Bring batteries from home if you have a digital camera—you need the photo batteries if you want more than a picture or 2 per set of 4. You'll have no trouble finding them in Kyiv, but out here in the boonies it strictly Russian rip-offs that are okay for CD players but not anything heavy duty.

Stuff NOT to bring--- You can find nearly everything in every little "dorf" (except said batteries). Don't worry about soap, shampoo, TP, toothpaste, deodorant, make-up, hairspray etc. It’s all here--mostly the same brands as in the US and at about 1/5 the price as back home. Bring what you will need the first few days, then get to the market and buy what you need for your stay in Ukraine. Finish it up and don't bring it home---(wouldn't you rather take up that space with a cool CCCP hockey jersey instead?)

Will close until later-I want to get that nap in!


Sunday April 18, 2004 6pm
Jim and Mary That was a nice rest—up and back to the orphanage at 4. Dima is still sleeping--Tanya looks like she would like to still be sleeping--- Kyiv wore them (and us) out.

We spent time with Tanya and her friend Tanya in their room. Found out that the "other Tanya" is also coming to the States as a part of a home stay program in June. Hope it's somewhere out west so the girls can get together. We saw a card of the family with whom she will be staying. (Daniel and Rose if you are reading this let us know how to send you photos—Tanya is excited about coming. She is a great kid--If we had room for one more, we’d bring her home with us)

Talked about lots of stuff--Tanya's English skills are amazing 10 days in. (I suspect that she knew a lot more from class at school, but was shy about trying) There are very few things that we cannot (between her skills, the dictionary and the notebook) figure out. Tanya practiced writing in English. We looked over her school books.In the US she would be late in Algebra 1 or in the beginning of second year (she's in 8th grade). High School Physics, Geography, Biology and Chemistry. Much like the old Soviet system the focus is on the "precise" sciences rather than on the arts. She could probably smoke most American high school seniors on math and science standardized tests (at least in Las Vegas—“the land of the low expectations”). Bad news for the good ole USA.

We are all very tired--especially Dima, who at 5:15, has not yet gotten up from his nap. Mary and I decide to head back to the hotel. Tanya has an early day at school. I have to wash my pants by hand in the sink---since no one else will. (Feel sorry for me here—or not).

Going to the "diner of death" tonight--I'll not be having the chicken.

Hopefully court is tomorrow afternoon--Keep you posted



Monday April 19, 2004 6pm

Jim and Mary A whole lotta nothing today. The kids had long days at school We had to stay close to the hotel in case we could get a court date for today.

We did have a little time to get to the Rynok for some Moloko and Coke and back to the hotel. Got word from Max at about 11:30 that we needed some extra papers because Tanya is 14 (police check for passport, bla bla bla..) He was promised the letter from the NAC by close of the day today. Max raced up to Ivankiv to get all the other papers done and to check the Judge's schedule for tomorrow. Look like we'll be in tomorrow morning (as long as the Inspector does not have to teach a class--if she does it could be afternoon and another exciting night here in Ivankiv).

We met Tanya from school and went shopping for a backpack for Dima. We also picked up a nice leather briefcase to give to Max—The prices here are really wonderful—

We wanted to walk with Tanya and the caregivers to pick up the little kids from Kindergarten. On the way we ran into Tanya's aunt (we knew of her -- she visits very rarely and she is unable to adopt them). She brought a going away gift for Tanya and Dima- We wanted to give them some time together, so it's back to the hotel for an early night for us. We are getting VERY anxious to get home. We really miss all the kids and grandma and want to get our family together and get on with life.

Keep us in your prayers for a quick and painless hearing tomorrow.. Again, hopefully in the early morning so we can get the papers, birth certificates and get to Kyiv by tomorrow afternoon!


Tuesday April 20, 2004 3:30pm

Mary here,
Warning---skip this entry if you do not want to read a whiny diatribe!