4/27/04 2:11pm

we are NOT at the airport :-(. Everything is done except the US Embassy. We have an appointment there tomorrow morning at 10-- sooooooo One more night here. It was pretty scary-- they told Max the earliest they could get us in was May 4th--AHHHHHHHHH. He was able to beg his way into an appointment tomorrow) Tickets are changed. We have all the same flights just a day later-- So we'll be in Cincy Thursday from about 3-6pm (we actually arrive at 1:20 but want to allow plenty of time for immigration--wanna meet for food?) . Arrive in las vegas at 9:47pm. If anything goes wrong tomorrow we are going to end up stuck here for an extra week-so keep us in your prayers!







4/27/04 7:30am

Gooooooooooooooooood Morning Kyyyiiiiiiv


Bright Sunshine-It’s going to be a nice day-Hopefully a productive one too!

Big Breakfast for all-

Before I continue a quick note about yesterday. It was the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The root cause of Tanya and Dimas road to the orphanage. A huge memorial for all the kids who suffered because of the disaster was held on the main square. There is still a large section of Ukraine and Belarus that is not habitable. Many here think that the accident, and it’s cover-up, (so that May Day festivities would not be hampered) was one of the primary reasons for the breakup of the Soviet Union. When driving just a few miles from the reactor, our driver commented that they should build these plants in out of the way places--- The faulty Russian designed reactor and a bad decision to conduct a risky test did the reactor in. The impact on health, most feel, could have been greatly minimized if the area was evacuated immediately as was called for in the plans, rather than wait days -and in some cases weeks to get people out of the contaminated area…

Dima and mom just returned from trash duty. When we got the trash ready to go out Dima was asking “moshna” (Ukrainian for “may I do it”). Hope that enthusiasm does not go away!

Tanya went out to call her friends-“big” Natasha says “hi” to everyone.

Max will meet us here at 9:30. Pick up passports at 10. Then to the Doctor, the Embassy and Home (?)


Hey Julie-you will be happy to know that yes, Dima LOVES “Machina” Hotwheels, anything to do with cars-so you will have someone to play with.

Hopefully our next post will be from Paris-Adieux!





4/26/04 7:45pm

Kind of a frustrating day today-Looks like it may take one more day than we hoped. There was a conference of all the vital statistics people from all over the Kyiv Region. That caused a delay in getting the birth certificates legalized, which made us too late to get them apostilled today. They won’t be ready until 4 tomorrow (but Max thinks he MAY be able to get them sooner).

We pick up their new passports tomorrow morning at 10. Embassy appointment is at 10:30. Plane leaves at 3:05. Plus we need to get a trip to the doctor in there too. I say there is no way it can happen. Max said not to change the tickets until tomorrow at noon in case he can pull it off.


Everyone ate breakfast---as a matter of fact Dima ate 3 breakfasts.

Breakfast 1: A hard boiled egg and juice.
Breakfast 2: Corn Flakes and milk.
Breakfast 3: Sausage, kefir and bread and juice.

He is very skinny-he did not like the orphanage food-he LOVES sausage.


Max and I were out early to hurry up and wait for a break in the conference to get the needed stamps. Mary and the kids waited at the apartment. We should have had them at 9 and to the Apostille guy by 10. We got them a little after 11. Argh. Back to the apartment to pick up the rest of the crew and head to the notary. (Notaries are a big deal here-more like lawyers than US notaries)

WOW-so much for a quiet evening-there was just a fireworks display outside of the window-- Right outside of the window--- A professional one--- really cool…. Not sure of the reason, but that was neato!

Okay where was I? Oh the notary. We waited and waited in the cab for Max.. Problem Our usual place had a computer failure. They lost everything. The other neighborhood notaries wanted our Ukrainian Social Security Numbers-a problem since we don’t have those numbers… We’ll give them a little while to get it fixed. We all go wandering around the neighborhood. Find the Ukrainian equivalent of Best Buy. As opposed to everything else here that is super cheap, stuff there is VERY expensive. MP3/CD Players for over 100USD (I just paid $18 for one at Best Buy before the trip). On the way back to the notary we stop off at a bread kiosk and I spot my favorite, “Hot Dogs baked inside of bread”! We buy 4 of them for a grand total of about 80 cents. Back to the notary-NO LUCK. Their computers are dead (maybe some of that “special edition” Microsoft software?? We find another notary that does adoption stuff and about 30 minutes we are finished.

Max is off to “motivate” the passport guys to get moving. We head to our cafeteria for the first time with the kids.. It is PACKED. I take Dima and find a table. The girls hunt for good looking grub--- and boy do they find it. A couple of cabbage, cucumber and corn (strange but good) salads. borshch, cabbage rolls, baked chicken with cheese, potato varenky and some really good cheese blintz sort of thing (last 2 items smothered in sour cream (I could really like living here)).


Back to the apartment--- for movies on the computer (“special edition” 5 dollar Russian language Jungle Book 2 and Cheaper by the Dozen from a street vendor)

Everyone is ready for hot baths (it’s a cold rainy Kyiv day).

Dinner is whatever is left in the fridge (Ham and Cheese omelets, Sausage, bread, and tomato.)

Dima is a little eating machine-As I mentioned, he loves sausage ( it’s kind of like salami but better).

I head back to the store for more food for tomorrow (maybe if we stock up we will leave tomorrow).

Back to the apartment and chocolate éclairs for all.. A free fireworks show and now the kids are off to bed-and so are we-Here’s hoping for a more productive day tomorrow.