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!

I think I've hit my psychological limit today. Don't know what will happen now, but I’m definitely at my limit!

I woke this morning to a "sound". Of course, I looked. Bad idea! I saw it---a mouse!
Jim very, very quickly awoke, and was immediately pressed into service. I don't "do mice"! A bug, while not my favorite, I can handle. I live in the desert, and have had 2 scorpions (O.K, they were in the garage, but the garage is attached, so they were "in the house") that in one way or another, I handled. (Went and got a neighbor the first time, the 2nd time, we doused him with vodka, which they absorb through their skin, rendering them unable to attack, and therefore easy to remove).

I just cannot handle mice. Ask my kids. I not-so-affectionately refer to all of those little things as "rodent in a cage"-or they SHOULD be in a cage if they are in the house, and preferably NOT in MY house.

Let me say it again, I just don’t do mice!

I looked, he looked back at me, I screeched and he ran. I don't for a second believe the adage that "he was more scared than me". Impossible.

OK, fine, we have a mouse, but today should be court-when Maxim gets those papers early this morning from the NAC.

After thoroughly mouse checking all items of clothing, twice, we dressed and took a walk to the market. Jim fried his electric shaver, using only the converter, not the transformer, so we had to get a razor for him, and I saw a leather purse I liked and wanted to check it out again. Purchases made, we headed back, wishing we could find a "cat store" at the market. I'd bring a cat back here with me to protect me.

And we waited. And waited. Maxim called around 12:30-he still does not have the papers signed by the NAC director. Seems that since there were mistakes on a couple of the papers, she wants to go over it with a fine tooth comb, which she is supposed to do and sign by 5 tonight. I've heard this one before. Since last Thursday, I believe, we keep hearing that either the next morning, or noon, or by 5 that day, the signatures will be obtained and we will be ready for court. (WAH, WAH, WAH) Jim reminds me it has not even been 2 weeks yet, and we are doing ok time wise, but I guess I’m just in a whiney American mood today, and in case there is any doubt, a mouse being in my room at any time, is totally unacceptable to me.

Back to "Diner of Death" for lunch-I'm even tired of what they have there---where they were all laughing at me. After talking to Maxim on the phone, I decided to let the hotel management know that we had a mouse in our room. I didn't have our translation book, not that it has THAT complaint in the "hotel" section (I looked). To get the idea across, I drew a picture of a mouse. An artist, I'm not, but they got the message. And, apparently, they found it amusing. And shared this amusement with the restaurant staff. They were all laughing when we arrived, and I caught the word for mouse in their conversation. So, not only am I traumatized by having said mouse in my room, looking at me, but I am now the butt of the entire hotel staff’s jokes. WAH, WAH, WAH (I told you I was going to be whiney)

No court today. But, on the upside, Maxim does "almost" have the background check on Tanya done, which is needed to secure her passport, since she is 14 years old. When he told us about this requirement, he said he was checking on getting it and most places took 10 days to get this document! AAHHH, 10 more days!??! But he found one place that can secure it in 1 day. Sounds good to me. At this point, he is picking that document up at 4:30 this afternoon, then going to the NAC to hopefully pick up the signed packet so we can schedule a court date. He told us to take the kids to get passport and visa photos taken this afternoon. He spoke with the director of the orphanage, who was supposed to assign one of the workers to accompany us to wherever the photo place is, but when we got to the orphanage, the director was gone, and no one there knew anything about it. They said to wait until tomorrow when Maxim is here. Fine.

We came back to the hotel to transfer photos from the digital camera to the laptop, while Tanya took a nap. We left the camera with her yesterday, thinking she would like some pictures of her aunt who came to visit her yesterday. After downloading the pictures, we noted that the only picture of the aunt was the one we took. All of the rest of the pictures were of friends.

Just for the record, I'm ready to go home. Or to Kyiv. If there are other delays past tomorrow, I think we will tell Maxim that we want to base out of Kyiv and we will bus here to Ivankiv every afternoon to see the kids. We cannot see them all day they are in school. We've done all there is to do—seen everything there is to see -- in Ivankiv, including chasing a mouse, and if we have to sit and wait, it may as well be in Kyiv, where there is more than one restaurant.


Jim here--I am not having a whiney day. The weather is wonderful—trees are budding, there is a nice warm breeze, spring has come to the motherland, and I don't have food poisoning. And I don't like mice either--but he was really cute.

The hardest part right now is communicating with the kids (especially Tanya). We have gone through all the phrase books for things to discuss—but with long days at school and the strain of wanting to get out of here (even more on their part than ours) It is difficult. Some of the other kids treat Tanya differently now that they know she is leaving and that seems hard on her.. The sooner we can get them out of there the better. Best case scenario: Court Tomorrow (wed) morning. Pick up court papers by early afternoon. Birth certificates tomorrow-late afternoon. Going away party at the orphanage after that, then to Kyiv Wednesday night. Doctor and passports Thursday morning, US Embassy Thursday afternoon (we have an appointment for mid afternoon). Drop by the NAC late Thursday afternoon and get a late flight to either Prague or Paris to connect home Friday morning—hey ya gotta have faith



Mary here--Ok, yes, the weather is BEAUTIFUL. Jim is right. I need to snap out of this, and focus on the positives.

We have only seen Tanya for a few minutes this afternoon, but even that much made me feel much better. I feel so bad for her that it is taking so long. We explain as best we can what is delaying (more papers to be signed, more stamps to be procured) but to look at her every day and say "no 'sude' (court) today, maybe tomorrow", well, it just breaks our hearts.

I like Jim's timeline, and I think I'm going to focus on it for a while. I'm so glad I have him here-for those of you who did this solo-I don't know how you did it. Jim's support is the only thing getting me through today (And seeing Tanya, and looking forward to seeing Dima this afternoon)


Tuesday April 20, 2004 8:35pm

Jim We had a good visit with Tanya and Dima today. Got back to the orphanage just before 5. Sat with Tanya and talked—Dima got back from kindergarten about 5:10. Played with a slinky and Mary tried to get sympathy from Tanya about the mouse—didn’t work. About 6:15, it was time for them to get dinner. We headed back to the "Hotel Happiness" --wanted to try to stop at the "fast food Kiosk" and get something for dinner. They had "chicken on a spit"--- not ready for that yet. Looking for some sort of sausage, but nothing looks like the words we know for sausage or hot dog on our menu decoder-- I guess it's back to the "Pectopah of Pain" aka Diner of Death for dinner (we have just been eating one meal a day, but we both have the "hungries" today).

Dinner was the now famous "fried meat" (Pork sautéed in onions) with some mashed potatoes--have we mentioned that potatoes actually taste like something here?? Mary had a beer--My tummy is still not ready for alcohol--Shame, because they have great local beer here.

While we were at dinner, Max called the hotel--we missed it. Spent the last half hour trying to get through to him. The pay phone at the hotel is on the fritz. We went to a couple of shops and found a phone, but all of our phone cards were out of minutes. Argh. The wonderful lady at the front desk offered to call her home and have her daughter call Max and have him call the hotel (the hotel reception phone can only call in Ivankiv). The little girl was having trouble getting through, so the lady ran home to call him. I guess he got all the needed papers because he will be here at the hotel tomorrow morning at 8---YAY!!! My timeline is intact (so far).


A Chicken Story (no, it has nothing to do with Mary and the mouse).

Chickens are high culture in Ukraine. Chicken humor is rampant. At the Circus the funniest acts (to us and the natives) involved the gratuitous use of chickens.. Picture LARGE St Bernards. 2 on a carousel, 2 on their hind legs pushing the carousel—pretty funny stuff.. Add to that a couple of chickens on top of the carousel and the audience goes wild. Don't know why it’s funny but it is. There were several other appearances of the feathered fowl when the room needed a lift.

There are 2 ways to go to the orphanage from the hotel. "Live Chickens" or "Dead Chickens"-- "Dead Chickens" is through the marketplace where can you buy all imaginable chicken parts in various stages of freshness (or spoilage depending on your perspective). The other way we pass down a residential street where every home is complete with a Lada in the driveway (many up on stumps-- rather than blocks back home) and chickens in the yard. The "watch roosters" announce your coming and going and the Babushkas are often in the yard tending to the garden and chatting with the chickens-- not just making chicken noises, but in deep conversation that drifts from "Ukrainian" to "Chicken" and back. Chickens are let in and out of the yard--- usually they stay close--- if one gets locked out you will see them pecking at the gate to get back in. Neither dogs nor cats mess with the chickens, because Chickens are high culture in Ukraine.


While we're at it, some phone tips (at least these will work if you are in the sticks)---

1) Buy a phone card--they are cheap--you can get them around town--The post office or any of the Ace and Base stores. Get a lot of minutes because if you call out of the city (and you will be) the minutes go FAST. (our 120 minute card—gives us about 10 minutes to Max's cell phone and it costs just over a dollar)
2) Dialing out of the city? You must first dial 8--- wait a moment for the next tone and continue with 0 then the city code, then the number--dial S-L-O-W-L-Y.. they are still on pulse dialing and the phones get confused easily. After you have dialed all the digits, you will (hopefully) get a ring (rings here are like western Europe--two long beeps, pause, 2 long beeps). After your party answers, press 1. That completes the call and the seconds start ticking off your card. Be patient--it takes 30-45 seconds after you have dialed all the digits to get through.
3) Look for phones in post offices, grocery stores and all the usual places (Train stations, airports)
4) Many payphones are broken--as the husband of our Hotel manager says in broken German "Es ist Ukrainia nicht arbeiten".. As if to say "hey it's Ukraine- what do you expect?"


Language thoughts--

Learn to read Cyrillic. I can't, Mary can and it has been VERY helpful. Many everyday words are close enough to English to figure our—But if you don’t know Cyrillic you'd never know that Pectopah is Restoran--- close enough to get it!

Learn the "polite words" Please, Thank you, I don't understand.. and be able to count to at least 3 (helpful when ordering pastries --or whatever) in Russian or Ukrainian--- seems like everyone speaks either and they are used interchangeably where we are.


A LOT of people over 40 speak German as a second language We have probably been able to communicate more complex concepts with my German, than with Mary's Russian or anyone in Ivankiv's English (except Max). The Orphanage Director, one of the caretakers, the Hotel Manager, Tanya's track coach all speak pretty good German. If you know it you're in luck!


Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Just added a BUNCH of new pictures! Check them out!

Thanks again for following along on our progress-- just ran a stats report and we've had over 24,000 hits since April 1. Keep the hits and the prayers coming!


Wednesday, April 21, 2004 1:15pm
Mary We are in Kyiv right now-more disappointing news from Maxim this morining. We were up and ready to go to court at 8 am, fully realizing that we probably would not be going that early, but wanting to be ready, just in case.

He arrived with the bad news-no court today. The judge is booked with 2 major trials, and no time between them, plus, he wants to give notice to the inspector. We are now really hoping for court sometime tomorrow, but not sure.

I won't go into details, but I did want to pass along this bit of information.
'Know that when you are here, whatever you and your facilitator do, has repercussions on everyone to come after you.

We decided to come into Kyiv today for a while. Maxim arranged a car to bring us to the square where we wanted to be, and we just ate a yummy lunch at TGI Fridays. That alone lifted our spirits (although I would have probably been just as happy with some cabbage rolls from our cafeteria)

I'm in much better spirits today, despite the further setbacks. If we could just get the court thing done by Friday so this weekend we could spend in Kyiv with the kids, at an apartment (with a bathtub, a kitchen, and hopefully no mice) I would be one very happy camper.

We will be out of here soon, then back to Kyiv so that we can see the kids this afternoon.

Please, please, keep the prayers coming. Thanks to those who have signed our guestbook. Please do so again. Reading those posts really lifts my spirits and makes us know you are all pulling for us from home.

Until later.....


Thursday, April 22, 2004 10:45am

MaryJim may have already posted an update. We are at an internet cafe right now, but we are in separate rooms, so I'll go ahead and post-maybe double. Sorry.

We will also work on the dates being in order from now on. Once home, we should be able to get all of this in chronological order. If reading, just watch the dates.

Today is our anniversary, so we are in Kyiv. Still, it impresses me as one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.

It feels great to finally have thing moving in the right direction. By tomorrow night, we should be in Kyiv with the kids-provided the judge waves the 30 day waiting period. Please pray for that.

Thanks for signing our book and thinking of us. The positive thoughts really do help.

Keep checking back-we will not get into a cafe tomorrow, probably, unless Jim goes in late tomorrow night after we all are back in Kyiv. Otherwise, it will be Saturday that we will do our best to get the update on the court proceedings posted.

Off soon for our anniversary lunch.


Thursday April 22, 2004 6:45 PM

Didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted with the kids today, but I’m really glad we decided to go to the Delta ticket office in Kyiv. They had to book the fare through London to get the adoption rate-it took several hours, but the kids are all ticketed. We changed our flight to be on an Air France plane. I HATE Airbuses, but it has in-seat entertainment AND gets into Cincinnati almost 2 hours earlier, so we'll have more time to visit with family there (and eat some Skyline and Greaters).

We spent our anniversary wandering around Kyiv-window shopping, (found Harry Potter in Ukrainian), Internet café and TGI Friday’s again for lunch (I feel like such a dirty American). Met with Max to get some papers signed and back to Delta to FINALLY get the tickets. We hoped to be back in Ivankiv by 2-ish-it's now 3:30.

Back to the bus stop (avoiding the man with a monkey on his back-no really!) and we decide to be "local" and take the trolley-bus. 10 cents from downtown to the Ivankiv Bus terminal. From there into a shared cab and back to Ivankiv. Stopped to get some fruit for the kids and made it to the orphanage by 5:30. The kids were very excited to see us and to see their airplane tickets to America. Spent 45 minutes or so with them playing and talking about court-time for them to eat-and, sadly, time for us to head back to the hotel.

We have quite a stash of food accumulated from today-Packi (rich and heavy jelly doughnuts), leftover chicken fingers (actually more like chicken Lincoln Logs) from Friday's, a Ritter Sport bar, The Infamous Bacon Loops, Milk, Coke and fruit-you’d think we plan on being here for a while---NO-PLEASE!

Side note-----

Other than the occasional soccer, match my favorite new hobby is watching the Ukrainian Music Video Channel, M-1. Hotel California in Ukrainian sung by guys in train conductor uniforms is fun. The ring tones commercials are a hoot-they play 10-12 ring tones in all their ring tone glory and give you the number to dial to download your favorite. A GREAT Idea-many soft drinks and beers have cell phone text message numbers on the bottle caps-punch in the number and see if you won (airtime charges will apply). George Benson is coming to town next month-every commercial break has a commercial for the concert. Oh, and my favorite video-Baby Ticket-It's "Lola Rennt" in a 3 minute techno video--- hope we can download it at home so I can drive Mary nutso some more.

Side note 2---

Bring Note cards and Thank you notes from home-They do not exist in Ukrainian culture-not even at the Hallmark Store in the underground mall.


Humm-court is late tomorrow-nothing to do in the morning. Maybe we should go do some vodka shots to celebrate 21 years together-Just what my tummy needs.. pardon me judge while I step outside and barf.

Friday April 23, 2004 11:00AM

We were up at 9 today-went to the market to buy some souvenirs and some breakfast stuff. Anything to take our minds off of court today.

The terrible things that could happen:

They say "no". I've never heard of that, but we could be the first.
The judge refuses to waive the 30 days. Not the end of the world, but it would be very disappointing.
I take out all my frustrations on the inspector and accidentally trip her on the way into court-no better to wait till afterwards.
Actually, I almost popped Mary in the eye last night-I don’t remember it, but I was sleeping with my arms over my eyes (since Mary won’t turn the light off for fear of the “mean ole mouse”) and she and I both turned over at the same time and she almost got an elbow to the eye-try to explain that one in court.

Okay, one more meal in the diner of death--- Potato pancakes for me-I know that is safe. Mary will go for fried meat.

Now we'll get packed-either way we’ll be in Kyiv tonight. Picked up a Nike (sure it is) gym bag for under 7 bucks. That should be enough luggage space for everything

We’ll update again after court today..I'll try to get to the internet café to post tonight (as long as we get to Kyiv before they close at 10pm)


Saturday April 24, 2004 12:19AM
Jim
It is done! We can now play full court basketball as a family (roll faster grandma, roll faster)

As of 4:48pm Kyiv time Tanya Catherine Stolz and Dmitri James Stolz are officially members of our family!

Court was an Experience. Very formal. In the court, Mary and me, the judge, the local prosecutor, the orphanage director, Minister of Child Welfare for the district, our “dear friend” the inspector, Max (since the inspector challenged Max as our interpreter he played the role of our council) One of Max’s facilitator friends was the translator-more on the Inspector AFTER we are back home. Tanya and Dima were also present for part of the hearing.

It was much more formal than I expected-this was like Law and Order and for a while, I thought we might get the "chair". The Translator was to the left of Mary who was to the left of me. All rise-the Honorable Mikhail Gorbechev (minus the stain) was presiding. (He was wonderful-no non-sense but wanted what was best for the kids) I stand and answer questions--- BIG problem-I am nearly deaf in my left ear-the translator is one person away from me on my left--- I can't hear a thing. Twice I had to turn to him and ask him to repeat what the judge said. Oh great-more stupid Americans. Questions would have been easy-- this was a “tell me how you came to adopt these kids in Ukraine--- argh and the translator said be brief..

After my grilling it was Mary's turn (and it is now too because there is a hot bath waiting for me)

Mary here,

I wasn't grilled as much, just asked if I had anything to add. I added to our list of why the adoption should be executed immediately. Everyone in the court room had the opportunity to ask us questions. The prosecutor chose to, the Minister of Child Welfare chose to, (but they were the same questions she had asked us before, and she was very nice-definitely kind of prompting us by her questions as to what to say), then the inspector asked a few questions.

The judge then called Tanya and Dima into the room, and asked them a couple of perfunctory questions-Dima does not know when his birthday is. They were excused and a couple of statements later, the hearing was finished. The prosecutor asked that the 30 days not be waived, not because it was not in the best interest of the children, but because there could be problems with investigations later. The orphanage director gave a wonderful statement, urging the judge to waive the 30 days.

He said he would leave to deliberate, and the court reporter said he would be back in 3 or 4 minutes. IT was 50 minutes! All rise, court is back in session, and he reads through the entire 3 page declaration, out loud, with the final statement being that the 30 days were waived! Thanks, Galina, for your eloquent speech! You are the one who got it done for us!

I took the kids, went back to the hotel for a quick change of my clothes (I HATE dress up clothes) and stopped at the shop for some cake. Took the cakes and some “lemonade” back to the orphanage while waiting for Jim and Maxim to do the birth certificate runs.

Jim's turn:

What a rollercoaster in the court-as the judge was reading the decision, talking about the kids prior social situation-it is so sad and I feel for them and how it must have torn them up.. then relief that it is done and the joy of all being a family-and totally ecstatic when the judge decided to waive the 30 days-(I was NOT expecting it to be waived after what was said by the prosecutor during hearing). We are a family-I can’t wait to get them home to meet their brothers and sisters!

Now we have a mission (and I am at my best when on a mission) It's Friday nearing 6pm when we finally get the copies of the ruling. We have to get both birth certificates (in 2 separate towns) before we leave for Kyiv tonight-If we can't, there is no way we'll be able to leave on Tuesday. Max and I RUN to the Ivankiv records lady (who offered to stay a bit past 5)… there is some chatter-a few problems that Max gets around (the ruling did not mention that the kids were citizens of Ukraine). And we are off to Tanya’s birth town-a little dorf about 25km from Ivankiv. As we are riding up there in our "Lada Taxi", I get an eerie feeling.. Everything is spooky and still-there is a thunderstorm off to the south.. but where we are perfectly calm. The air feels "funny". Then the driver starts talking about how we are just a couple of kilometers from the "dead zone" Zone 1-all the land evacuated after the Chernobyl accident. No people-no livestock-no farming-just still. Very eerily still.

Tanya was born in a "dead county" the county seat was evacuated. All the records moved to a small village that now serves this once large county-now population 6,000. The record's lady is very nice (her 3rd week on the job and she got audited today-fun) She agreed to stay and do the birth certificate if we could drive her home. Deal! No computer.. Max writes the request by hand. She types the document on an old Soviet typewriter. 45 minutes and we are outtathere! Then the drive to her home--- even closer to Chernobyl. The spookiness gets even spookier. Burned out homes from looters. Shells that were once apartment buildings. It was very still and quiet. Dogs are everywhere in Ukraine-but I did not see or hear a dog the entire trip up there.

After dropping her off, Max and I notice a couple of storks tending to their young in a nest atop a power line (one of the lines that used to lead from Chernobyl to Poland). Storks and their young-kinda cool coming back from getting the birth certificate!


It's 8:45pm-there is NO WAY that the record’s lady in Ivankiv is still waiting for us. It's now pouring rain. Max and I jump from the car and dash past Lenin’s statue in the square and follow the techno-beat of what sounds like a disco--- wait-it is a disco-A Teen Dance in the town hall.. I wonder if Mr. Lenin is enjoying the beat??? Across the dance floor. Max and I decide not to dance-and back to the records office-SHE WAITED!! She had heard what a hard time we had with the process and decided to show us that not all people in Ivankiv were like the Inspector (at least that’s my take). 9:15 Mission complete. 2 new birth certificates-

Back to the Orphanage (where I'm sure they think we are out drinking it up on an Ivankiv Friday Night) to get the kids and Mary-- What a day!


Mary again..

As soon as we got back to the orphanage with the cake and lemonade (at 5:45), we took the cakes to be cut and went to pack. Tanya was ready, and within 2 minutes had all of her and Dima’s stuff in the suitcase. I had to stop her so we could get the gifts out of there before she put their stuff in! We had our first "mother daughter argument" and I'm proud to say, I won! I reminded her to get her dictionary that we got her, and looked in her desk when she opened the cabinet. All of her school stuff was in there-books that had to be returned to school, and a stack of notebooks. I looked at her and asked if everything had to go back to school? She had that "gleam" in her eyes when she smiled and said "yes, school". I knew immediately she was lying, and she knew I knew! I told to bring those notebooks with her! She argued that they were Ukrainian, and she would not remember Ukrainian, she was going to learn English. Nope, no doing! I put my foot down, played the "mean momma" and told her to bring those books! She smiled and backed down. If only everything could be that easy! She will want those some day when she is older.

The kids went down for dinner, but didn't-- eat-too excited. They passed out the treats after dinner, and then we waited. And waited, and waited. Tanya kept asking me if we were going to Kyiv today. Today? Now? Dad and Maxim Kyiv now? Tanya, Dima, momma, papa Kyiv today? Then looked up the word for “certain, positive” and asked me again. She was so ready.

They did have a very nice, relaxing while waiting evening to end their orphanage experience. Dima played outside for a while with his friends, Tanya filled the 128 meg smart card in the digital camera between pictures of her friends from school and pictures around the orphanage.

When Jim and Maxim finally showed up, the kids were ready in about 30 seconds, and they had to put their shoes and coats on! We got the donation stuff straightened out, hugs all around, tears from me, a couple of caregivers and at least 2 of Tanya's friends, but not from Tanya. You can just tell she is so strong. It was not a lack of tears from not caring about this place, but from her inner strength, and happiness to be part of a family, on her way to America.

Yuri was our driver home to Kyiv, (He also drove us to Ivankiv). His wife, who is also an adoption facilitator, is 9+ months pregnant. And he still drove us! He is our favorite capitalist in Ukraine. He sells window casements (window furniture, he says), buys cars in Germany and brings them back to Ukraine to sell at a profit, drives for adoption facilitators, and anything else to make an honest Grivna. He told us life in Ukraine is hard, but if you are willing to work, you can make it easy. He is an optimist and an all around good guy. He took the drive slow and careful with our precious cargo, which was much appreciated.

Dima fell asleep for a short time on the ride to Kyiv, but was up and raring to go when we made it to the apartment. Everyone in, Jim ran to the grocery store while I supervised bath time. I’m sure it has been a very, very long time since they have had a bath-only quick showers at the orphanage. They both thoroughly enjoyed their baths.

Jim home with food, and we all realized we were starving! So, we ate tomorrows breakfast sandwiches tonight. Good thing Jim also got eggs, corn flakes (which the kids were very happy about) and milk for tomorrow morning. Teeth brushed, and into bed they go. Both the couch and the love seat in the living room open into beds, which the owner set up. Dima decided he would rather sleep in the bigger bed with Tanya tonight.

They both whispered for a while, now, at 1;30, all is still. Time for us to be in bed, too.
Good night from Jim, Tanya-Catherine, Dima-James, and Mary Stolz

Saturday April 24, 2004 8:00AM

Dima was up at 6:30-Thanks Mom for getting up with him.. Cornflakes (no milk thanks) and Cartoons on a Saturday morning. Dima came in and pounced on me to get up at about 7:15. nice. A quick breakfast and we are headed into the internet café-

We are really glad to be back in the apartment-especially with the kids--- It's BIG, comfy and home.

Saturday April 24, 2004 8:00PM

Our first full day with the kids went well--- lots of busses-lots of walking-Lots of fun--- Man, are we tired!

Up and out to the internet café. Different guy there-took 3 computers to finally get one that didn’t crash every time java ran. Never had that problem there before-He gave us a discount-4 UAH for close to an hour.

We are still trying to figure out which busses run from Freedom Square to Bresabarian (sp?) Market. All the ones we have tried make a “righty” at a big park-we then get off and walk back to the main street and down the hill to the main shopping street.

Back to the apartment (no trouble with busses this way). We ask if they are going to the "circus" they grunt "Tak" and we climb in. It's not really a long walk and we'd hoof it, but Dima's little legs wear out fast.

Max calls a little after 11. We were hoping to get the passports done today, but no luck. It's too late after getting birth certificates apostilled. It looks like Monday is going to be a VERY busy day.

After the call from Max, we decide to save the Zoo for tomorrow and get some shopping done today. But first naps-it's 11:30 and Tanya reminds us that Dima does not nap until 1-(but he was up past midnight and awake at 6:30 so we're thinking he's ready---cuz we are!) Hey, did we mention Dima'’s nap time is 1? (which is exactly when he fell asleep). We were up and out a little after 2. Back onto the wrong bus (a different wrong bus this time-we rarely make the SAME mistake twice).Off at the park and walk back down the hill.

It’s a beautiful spring day in Kyiv-Thought about stopping at the park, but it is wall to wall kids (guess that's the idea with parks). Maybe later.

Shopping, shopping, and more shopping, yet ever vigilant, we only buy a couple of things (The UAH need to last 3 more days). We walk all the way down the main street-I do mean down the street (it’s closed off to cars on the weekend). We walk all the way back up the main street.. Capitalism at it’s best. You can get everything here. Your picture taken with a monkey..orrr how ‘bout an owl? Concerned that too much borshch has caused you to put on a few pounds? Find out-talking scales are every few meters-or for half the price there’s a babushka with a bathroom scale (do you really want the scale talking to you telling you how fat you are-nope-I’d go for the babushka-If I could convert Kilos to Pounds in my head).
Telephone cards of all shapes and sizes-how bout a great deal on some very nice "designer" sunglases? Need a fresh copy of MS Office XP? I "don't know how they do it" but you can buy it for just 15 UAH (3 bucks). I’m sure they have a "special" deal with Microsoft J .

No open container laws here-everyone over the age of 10 seems to have a beer in their hand (I'’m still not ready yet-I REALLY dislike those people at the "Diner of Death" right now). Water filled yo yo balls, balloons of all sizes, hot dogs for 2 UAH (40 cents)-Marge Schott would have loved this place!

We decide to eat American with the kids-sure we could have done MC, but opted for Fridays-Dima LOVES pickles (Julie, get a BIG jar of dill spears). The kids got Kidburgers (my that’s a VERY LARGE Fluffy Bun). I got onion soup. Mary, a Friday Burger. Everything was yummy. Out the door in time to see a parade of all of the ethnic groups with large populations in Ukraine. Everyone is parading in traditional costume. The kids are not impressed-neither am I. Mary is, but she loses-Mini bus back to the apartment. Tanya stops to call her friends. Dima and I go to the room and watch some football.

Bath time-wind down time-Dima is in bed. Tanya is watching TV-I'm ready for bed. So Nighty night.


April 25, 2004 12:30pm

Ahhhh I have the apartment to myself. How did that happen? Tanya went to call her friends (boredom is setting in for her-she is anxious to get going to America). Mom and Dima when to the park. I need to wait here for a call from Max. The orphanage director has some documents and other stuff that we forgot in our rush to get out of there Friday night. She was coming into Kyiv today and wanted to stop by, drop the stuff off and see the kids one more time before we head off.

The kids (and happily, Mary and me) slept in today (sort of) Up at about 7:30.

We need to get our of here by 8:10 to get to church at 8:30 for Mass in English at St Alexandar. We decide to take a cab and we arrive at church by 8:20. We thought we were late-Mass was going on-In Ukrainian. Nope--they are running late. Mass began at 8:45. (hey it's 8:30ish).

It was a beautiful Mass. Organ and violin music. Traditional hymns. Irish Priest. Nice. The kids were great at church. (and I’m sure they were thrilled that it lasted about 50 minutes rather than the 2 ½ hour Orthodox Liturgies).

We walked down the BIG Hill to Independence Square, then on to our normal bus stop to catch a mini bus back to the apartment. Breakfast time. It's been forever since I have made soft boiled eggs. It will be forever until I try again. First attempt-almost hard boiled eggs. Second try, very soft boiled (and snotty) eggs. I give up. The kids like the hard boiled-the other goes down the drain. Sausage, ham, bread, cheese, pastries, milk and juice for all!

We got to talk with Julie, Marie and Emily last night. It was GREAT to hear their voices. Things are good at home (except grandma has the grumpies). I think I owe a lifetime of free Bellagio Buffets to the kids back home.

Tanya’s back-Mom and Dima should be here in just a minute-Nap time is at 1pm, you know. I may dash out during naptime and get stuff uploaded (or maybe I'll take a nap too J).

We’re excited about tomorrow-A day full of missions. GOOD! The only thing that has us kinda freaked out is our lack of French transit visas for the kids. (we have to overnight in Paris because we chose to fly Delta-I'm a "Skymiles" pig). Max seems to think that it may be more trouble than it’s worth (in time at the Embassy and money) and we might just want to just spend the night at the airport. If it was just to two of us, that's what we’d do-but we’re not sure keeping Dima happy at CDG sounds like much fun. I expected Delta to take care of this-they (the local ticket office) did not offer and directed us to the French Embassy when I asked for their help. For all the miles I fly with those boys, I expected better. Argh--- The French Embassy in Ukraine when I speak neither French nor Ukrainian (and we all know how much the French enjoy speaking English and helping out Americans)-doesn’t that sound like a fun day-and we probably won’t have the time to press Max into service-more important to get the paperwork needed to get out of here.

I’ll try to get an update posted after tomorrow's running-we should know if we will make the Tuesday flight by then.

Hey, Cincinnati Family-Right now, we have everything set up so that we have the better part of the afternoon to visit with y’all (no, that was not a Kentucky slam). I think we get in around 1:30pm (It's the first Air France flight in of the day from CDG). We’ll probably clear customs and immigration by 3pm. We have to be back to the airport by 6ish. Greaters? LaRosas? DonPablo’s? Should we rent a car? We’ll call and let you know for sure.

Everyone was back-now they went to call Max. We want to go to the Zoo today, but time is getting short-

We need the stuff from The Orphanage Director, but the kids need to get out and do something.

April 25 2004 4:30pm

We're back from the zoo. We were reading in the Kyiv Post about how rundown the zoo is, so we had low expectations. Not sure where the Kyiv Post was but The "Kyiv Zoopark" was wonderful. A few of the exhibits were old and "cage-like" but for the most part it is a beautiful, modern zoo-complete with all the usual zoo stuff. (like overpriced snacks (a whole dollar for a 1 litre coke), trinkets and beads, and rides (we could not escape the ride magnet-both kids especially like the roller coaster). If you adopting kids of ANY age the “Zoopark” is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. That and the circus are the 2 "Must-Do's" in our book.

We to the zoo and back on a Trollybus (our new fave mode of transportation). It started to rain so we called it a day.

Got back to the apartment and not a drop here, so mom and Dima are back to the park. Tanya and I will cook dinner. Spaghetti, sauce (it was VERY hard to find any sauce-finally spied a small jar of Barilla mushroom and 3 cheese), and large hotdog like sausages. Plus a nice tomato salad and some garlic bread--- scratch that-just bread-I thought there was some garlic here but nope-

The saga of the soft boiled eggs has a happy ending. Never thought to look in the oven for more pots and pans. We DO have a frying pan! Fried Eggs tomorrow morning. Yea!

April 26, 2004 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.


April 27, 2004 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!


April 27, 2004 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!

April 27, 2004 8pm


So, have we said we’re ready to go home lately?

Well, we are.

It's The US Embassy tomorrow at 10am- they are doing us a favor by squeezing us in. Hopefully they will do us another favor by processing paperwork and getting it out a little early for us as well. Usually paperwork is ready for pickup by 3. Our flight is at 3:05. We can probably make it to the plane if we are at the airport by 1:45. ("pretty please nice American Embassy person" we have an extra bedroom if you need a place to stay in Vegas, and a very nice Las Vegas T-Shirt (from the World's Largest Gift Shop on the Strip) as a lovely parting gift.).

My guess, one more night here. ( I don't want to say that too loudly, Mary is not happy about it AT ALL).

And then there's the dreaded--"if anything is wrong with the paperwork the next appointment is May 4th" scenario. If that is the case, you will find us lounging for the weekend at a Black Sea Resort--- Yalta sounds nice--- good enough for Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin it’s good enough for us. And we can stay like kings (or dead former foreign leaders) for the price of a Motel 6. Hey that almost sounds like fun (except that my vacation time has run out and I am now officially on “family leave” so there are no paychecks coming to the Stolz family—hey did you happen to see that you can make a donation through pay-pal J)). So I shall capitalize (and bold) the "ALMOST".

The upside is a one day delay will give us time to get the French transit visa. That is the only upside I can come up with, and after thinking about it--we'll be in the airport in France from about 6pm until boarding time at 9am. Dinner, a movie, breakfast and that only leaves about 9 hours of time to fill (hopefully with sleep). If we DO get the transit visas… we have to clear customs and immigration. Get to a hotel (probably get to sleep by 10 or 11). Then up by 5 to get back to the airport, through security, passport control and to the gate. (a lot of hassles). Either way it works out, it will be a challenging time—Kinda wish we would have flown KLM/Northwest (though I’ll end up with a free international ticket and Mary with a domestic ticket after all the miles on Delta at the top fare class).

We are all in a funk today--especially Tanya. She is ready to go to her new American home--- Have I said lately that we are all ready to go home. We couldn’t imagine all the people who talked about the only thing that mattered at the end of their trip was getting out of here (Ukraine). It seems like such a nice place!! Now, we know EXACTLY what they were taking about. WAH! (Kelly, you were right!)

The kids are in bed--The hot water is running especially brown today, so we’re not sure a bath is in order. (hey did I mention that I think I have ring-worm--- Does spoiled chicken cause that? How do you say Lotramin in Ukrainian?). WAH

Hey here's something fun. We were teaching the kids American Sign Language as a way to reinforce some English. Well, the sign for the letter "t" and the sign for "toilet" (a waving "t") is a particularly bad gesture in Ukraine. (we knew that and have been very careful not to "sign" the need to go to the potty). Mom showed Dima the sign and he busted out in laughter--- He ran to get Tanya and show her what "mama had taught him". We explained that that sign needed to be reserved until we reach American airspace. Max thought it was a “swell” thing to teach them and is hopeful that the kids will show off their new American gesture for the Director of the NAC when we go back to say "bye bye" --N---O---T !!

Heeheehee

BTW--- have we said that we are ready to go home lately?

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 2:50 Paris Time

We made it on the plane--- I can't believe it! What an adventure to get here.

We were up and ready to roll by about 8:30am. Yuri and Max arrived at 9:15 and we were off to the American Embassy. Consulate, actually. We arrived a little early. The 2 prior appointments had to cancel because they could not obtain their passports in time (poor guys are stuck there thru the long holiday weekend—Score one for Max!). Mary went in to the small room to complete the paperwork---everyone is behind glass—there will be no passing of germs (or anything else) at the American Consulate. The place had a huge line of folks wanting US Visas—Some leisure, some work, a bunch of old, bald, fat guys (sorry if that applies to you--it does to me too) with their Ukrainian "wanna be wives", then there was us. Max did an awesome job with the packet for the embassy--all the papers in proper order with proper translations and the proper stamps and authentications. We were in and out of there in 45 minutes (and if we had filled out our paperwork ahead of time (I'd recommend that) it would have been a 15 minute process.

Then the bad news. Tanya is the first adopted child that they've processed that needed to be fingerprinted--(everyone over 14 needs to have biometrics on their visa as of April 15th). They said come back at 3 to pick up the visas--we begged.pleaded,even tried to shed a tear (but we do really like it in Ukraine). They agreed to process the paperwork as soon the fingerprints came back—could be 10 minutes could be till 3--- we waited--- hung out-- made ourselves known (and gave the very nice ladies the last of our Las Vegas gifts.

We decided to grab our last Ukrainian meal (hopefully) and come back at about 12:30. (Hoping that the American Embassy does not work on "Ukrainian Time" (where everything is at least 30 minutes late))

It's 12:50 and Mary comes running out with the packets--they are done--Okay Yuri--will we make it? It's up to you.

In Kyiv, lunchtime is rush hour.. So here we are in Yuri’s Lada (he sold the Honda for a nice profit--yay Yuri!) trying to speed (Ladas do not speed well) through the street of Kyiv--We get stuck in a couple of traffic jams—the road to the airport has construction. are we ever going to get there??

We arrive at the airport at 1:55—We have just over an hour to get through customs, passport control, ticket line and 2 sets of security. Max and Yuri do their thing, pushing us through the lines (I do mean pushing and shoving and acting like the French-- we never would have made it otherwise—Thanks guys)

We bid an all too quick farewell to our new friends and assure Max and Yuri that we will return for salo and rye bread (Ukrainian snickers) and vodka shots very soon (we still have our other tickets on Northwest to use or lose within the year—so a long weekend in Kyiv is in order)

Ticket counter was fine "then passport control" all the documents are in place but they want to see the adoption decree (10 minutes seems like an hour as the plane is boarding). It is 2:55 and we are through passport control and more security. We make it to the plane at 3:00 for our 3:05 departure. Tanya and Dima are glowing. Our frazzled rush through the airport did not faze them at all—they are going to America (be sure to trill your "r"). Semolot (sp?) and machina are everywhere—Dima is in a dream world!


We are on an AirBus A-320—seats are 3 and 3. We have the middle and isle in row 18—both sides. A nice Ukrainian fellow offers Dima his window seat. Tanya is stuck on the aisle.. We switch them after our lunch (Pork, salad, roll, torte and coke.). Tanya likes looking out the window--Dima is furious -- it is HIS window--(we have some de-spoiling to do). Tanya gives into young Dima and after 30 minutes they are back in original places.

We are surrounded by adopting families- A couple in front of Mary could not get the 30 days waived. They will have to come back for their new family member. Same for a lady next to Mary. In front of me, is a new father. His wife and new little girl are a few rows back. Another couple with a little one behind Mary (and those are just the people in our immediate area). The folks in front of us did not know they needed a transit visa to spend the night in a hotel. Looks like we have airport sleeping buddies.


A bit on Maxim. What a guy. Maxim is an English teacher by training, but is continuing his education with hopes to work in international relations--perhaps one day at the UN. His English is impeccable. Actually Mary and I are embarrassed to say that Max speaks better English that do we—complete with a wonderful British accent that he picked up by listening to English audio tapes. He has worked on many adoptions over the past 3 years as a part of an agency. We were his first "start to finish" adoption. He did an incredible job. Had we not run into the Inspector problems in Ivankiv we would have completed the process in just over 2 weeks door to door. He is married to a Pediatric Cardiologist named Larissa (who makes the best borshch on the planet). Larissa works in a hospital several hours by train away from Kyiv, so they only get to spend time together on the weekends for now. In short--we've heard the horror stories and we check out references the best that you can from 10,000km away--but there is always leap of faith with the selection of a facilitator…Will they be there with you the whole time? Can they actually do what they promise? ON time and Legally? And Legally was a big deal for us. There are other facilitators who are well known to get things done quickly by offer bribes. Ukraine is trying to go legit. We want to do our part to help this fledgling democracy break away from the cycle of petty (and some not so petty) bribes. Max proved that the system DOES work without Buying your way through. Did we pay “expediting fees”? Sure. If a notary stayed late to turn a document around for us we gave them a little something for the extra effort. The state stops paying them at 5—If you ask them to stay until 8 and process paperwork we are simply paying them "overtime". BEWARE of facilitators tat promise the world (and demand a large price to deliver it) Odds are they are dirty and they make the process harder for Ukraine and for all Americans who come after. (case in point--the previous adoption in Ivankiv caused some concern with the "auditors". The entire system was inspected and it made everyone very uncomfortable to make it look like things were going "too fast" (even though things are supposed to be fast with older kids. I don't blame the parents before us--I do think their facilitator need to be taken to the Diner of death and fed raw chicken upon her return to Ivankiv. (lots of raw chicken)

About 30 minutes left in the flight I'll write more after we get settled in at CDG!

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 9:22pm Paris Time

I don’t know how she did it, but Mary convinced the passport control cops to give the kids transit visas. (YAY) We went to the Hilton but that hotel was tooooo expensive (600 Euros a night—are you KIDDING) We went to the Formula 1 but that hotel was too cheap--- 20 Euros per night but a couple of steps down from Motel 6 (bathroom down the hall)---- naw We want our own pottie—so we settle for the Motel 6 suites--90 euros including breakfast---done deal.. Juuust right! Tanya wants to take a bath in peace rather than eat--Mary Dima and I go for a good Parisian meal—Steak and Fries. 35 euros. Back to the hotel and into bed--WE WILL BE HOME TOMORROW!! In Cincy at 1:30 (should be out of customs by 3..We need to be back to the airport at 6 for the Vegas flight. How bout we meet at the new Larosas by Joe's house? We’ll just rent a car and meet you there? (sure hope somebody can come).

Kids, we'll be in Vegas as scheduled--Please bring flowers for Tanya (odd number) and a small truck or something for Dima. See ya there!

Hopefully the next time you hear from us we’ll be home sweet home!


Thursday April 29, 2004 10:00am EDT
Jim
Greetings from 39,000 feet above Newfoundland.

The night at the hotel was wonderful. A great hot shower, wi-fi internet access, croissants and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was 100% worth the money and the effort.

I was totally wrong about getting back inside CDG airport. We laughed when the lady at the airport said just be sure to be back an hour before the flight. We didn't want to have to rush through security again. Well, the folks in Paris continue to surprise. We got on our hotel shuttle at 7:10 and we were at the gate by 7:40. Passport control and security were detailed, but very fast.

CDG is a great airport and despite the fact that we had to ride a bus to a remote plane parking lot (whatever they call it) and up stairs to the plane, everything was fast, easy, and smooth. Oh yea-- we’re happy to report that the cleaner's strike is over—the airport is spotless. If you can connect here, we'd recommend it.

We are 5 ½ hours into the 8 ½ hour flight. The kids have been very good (so far) on the plane. They did not have the kid meal as requested for Dima--so he picked at his salmon pate (as we all did). In-seat entertainment is a good thing. Lots of channels of movies and TV. Plus music and games-- and my faves the --where are we? GPS screen-- and --the nose camera so you can watch outside screen. TIP: Check your flights before you go to make sure you are so equipped. (sometimes you'll need to switch airports— last we checked, Northwest has in-seat on the Detroit flights—but not Minneapolis, Or just a different flight out of the same airport will work. (Usually 777s, A320s and 747-400s have the in-seat stuff. 767, DC-10/MD-11 do not)


Thursday April 29, 2004 9:18pm EDT
Jim
It was an uneventful flight from Paris—nice actually. There were a few "antsy Dima" moments, but for the most part both kids did a great job.

As we were landing, I pointed to the ground to show Dima America--- he was soooo excited. "Tanya, Tanya--America, America" Tanya replied in Ukrainian "no Dima, France" Straight face--Dima was heartbroken--our entire section of the plane got the joke--poor Dima didn't. He was convinced that we never left France. I was finally able to convince him that indeed that was America out the window.

Immigration in Cincinnati was a snap (I'm a little disappointed. I missed the "event". I went to get the luggage and was going to meet them back at immigration—we were told it would be about 20 minutes until they could get to us--- about 10 minutes later James and Catherine came with mom to meet me at the baggage claim. Brand new Americans.) Customs was easy (for all the shopping we did, we got very little stuff--I am on family leave ya know—no paychecks). We rechecked our bags to Las Vegas and went up to get a rental car to visit with family. Papa machina??—(hey dad, you're not supposed to be driving a car--that's Yuri's job).

First American Meal--French Fries at LaRosas. Somehow wires got crossed--we waited and waited and we were alone at the restaurant. No Cincy family. We never did confirm with everyone, so we figured everyone was busy or didn't get the word. Decided to drive to my sister Kathy's house to see if she was home--Nope--she went with everyone else to meet us. Sing it Dr John. "It must've been the right place but the wrong time.." Okay--we'll try again. Scratch lunch--we ate--how bout ice cream? Deal--We meet everyone for Greaters.. It's great to see one and all. Sorry, my one sister couldn't make it, but the rest of the “fanm damly was there! It was a great time- Catherine and James (we can't convince them to use the diminutives yet) got to meet their Meemaw and the aunts, uncles and cousins. They were great --impressive, especially considering how long we've been on the road.

5:45 Time for pictures, hugs and back to the airport, through security and onto the plane. The nice lady at the gate was able to change our tickets so that each of the kids could have a window and (bless her heart) gave us a couple of the only empty middle seats on our 737-800 to Vegas—Room to stretch out and nap--a good thing--it's 4:18am in Ukraine.

Thursday April 29, 2004 11:34PM
Jim We are HOME!!! All the kids met us at the airport. Very nice! Bags arrived--No problem.. Dima thinks it's cool that Julie has a car—he wants to ride with her. Marie bought a 1973 muscle car (oh great). I went with her to see the car (it's really cool, but I warned her that the 70s were not a very good time for American Cars and expect it to be a money pit) We continued our tradition of stopping at In-n-Out after airport pickups. The kids are not crazy about burgers--they ate fries for the second meal in America.. I'm sure they'll be happy to have home cooked food (we're going to try to keep it close to Ukrainian for the first few weeks).

Dima and Matt are in bed.. Tanya is upstairs but we decide it’s time for the big people to hit the pool! Julie, Emily, Tanya Catherine, mom and I swim for an hour or so. We let Tanya call back to Ukraine and let them know she made it…


It's good to have our family all together!


Thank you for following along--- and stay tuned. We’ll continue to update on progress and I'll work on getting the web site in order over the weekend!

June 20, 2004
Jim Well it's been 2 wonderful months with Catherine and James at home. We keep waiting for the honeymoon to end, but so far there have been no issues.
Language is coming along. Catherine understands much more English, but James is fearless in using his new language skills.
The two of them are certainly different people. Catherine has a strong, quiet determination. James is relentless in his pursuit of everything.
Just back for the International Adoption clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Other than a few cavities and pending adenoid removal Catherine is in perfect health. James will need surgery to bring his previous craniostenetosis surgery to western standards and assure his brain has the proper room to grow as it should. He has a bone infection in his jaw from bad teeth. That needs to be resolved before the skull surgery. We plan on heading back east to have his surgery late summer/early fall (NO WAY would we have anything major done in Vegas---medical care here is a joke).
Ill try to get Mary to sit down at the computer long enough to give a more detailed update!