4/6/04


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. 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



JIm





Mary here, 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 pricy. 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 bed time 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 yahoogroups 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 goosebumps! 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 preselection. 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’s sleep tonight---yeah, right!


4/7/04


UPDATE!!

NAC went great! Max met us at the apartment at 8:20.. After a 10 minbute walk, we arrived--- 30 minutes early. I think Max was more nervous then we were. We sat downstaris for a while... Waited upstaris 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 craniostenosis (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.