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..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 technoland.
we will find another internet place with floppy drives before we head back there this afternoon
Keep the prayers coming
Jim and Mary
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
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 f 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!
Jim and Mary
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 f 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!
Jim and Mary
4/6/04
Our last day of being a tourist is done. Now time to get down to the business for which we came.
day recap:
up early---big breakfast in the apartment. Ham, poached eggs (no frying pan), Kefir (kinda like a drinkable yogurt—Peach Thank You), juice and tea.
out the door at 8:30 to do some exploring on our own. We stopped back into the “mystery” church in time for Liturgy. All chanted-- very nice. It does make one sad to see what great tradition the western church has lost in its quest to modernize.
We decided to head down the Kyiv’s “main drag”, Khreshchatyk Street. Every bit as nice as the Champs Elysees in Paris. One interesting holdover for Soviet time, the TSUM Department store. 4 floors of shopping fun… Soviet building—western goods. Armed guards one every floor giving you the “eye”.
Walked to Independence Square and strolled along one of the best public squares in all of Europe. Street vendors selling everything from Hot Dogs (50 cents) to Old Soviet military trinkets to Elvis Nesting Dolls (I’ll try to get back there to get you some, Bobby). Under the square is a large underground shopping mall. Could have been Fashion Show in Vegas—seen one mall you’ve seen them all….
Stopped off at McDonalds to see what prices were.. Big Mac meal will set you back about 12 Hyrvna ($2.25). We decided to come back with the kids later. Settled for a Mc Cone for 20 cents and lunch will wait until we get back to our fave spot the cafeteria… Today on the Menu—Fried Meat, Borscht (WOW was that good—my first time to try it--- MUCH better than I was expecting---infact; my new favorite food), I got a beef patty covered with melted cheese and a sausage. All great. Both is us ate (a lot) for about $6USD total.
***Side note: banks everywhere are advertising incredible passbook interest rates—17% local currency, 12% for Dollars. Where do I sign up for THAT deal?!?!?!
After lunch, we decide to try to find the Catholic Church--- With signs in Cyrillic (if there are signs at all), it’s pretty tough to navigate. We give up and decide to head home…I want to try a short cut. My sense of direction was good, but the rain started and we gave up and caught a cab back. We were charged the “American rate” (about 3 bucks)..a lot more than it should have been. We cut the deal up front and it got us out of the rain, but turns out we were only about ½ mile from being home. Oh well. We have little time to relax before Max gets here and find out the time for our appointment tomorrow. More after Dinner
JIm
Mary here, after dinner:
Our 2 ½ hours of down time in the apartment was just what we needed to recover from all of the walking for the past 2 days, before dinner. We had enough time to do a load of laundry and hang it “out” on enclosed porch area, hoping for it to dry before tomorrow’s big day. Even if it doesn’t, have no fear, we do have clean, appropriate clothing to wear! Maxim was just on time, and we headed out for dinner. He suggested a new restaurant, Mexican food, which we love, so we were all for it! Dinner was wonderful, if a little pricy. For about 40. US dollars, we had burritos, nachos, and steak fajitas, plus 3 beers and 2 margaritas! We had a great discussion about economies, governments and life in general. Back to the apartment for an early bed time since our appointment tomorrow is at 9 AM! Yippee, we have the first appointment of the day. By the time you all get this, it will be all said and done.
Maybe a little background on us and our situation, for those who may be following along but don’t personally know us—We have 5 great bio children, ages 20 to 13, and decided last summer to adopt internationally to add to our family. After researching many hours, we decided to pursue a Ukrainian adoption of 2, possibly 3 older children. We were specifically looking for a girl in the 10-15 year old age range, with a younger brother somewhere around 5-8 years old. We agreed that we would widen our preferred ranges and numbers just a bit, to try to ensure a good match for our family. We felt we could not turn down a referral of a “perfect” sibling pair because they happened to have one more sibling, nor were we willing to help split up a sibling group. We wanted to stay with older kids, but once again, thought that if a specific group included a sibling as young as age 3, we could not turn them down based on that alone. So we were approved to 2-3 siblings, ages 3-15, but knew our concentrated looking would be ages 5-14. In our research, I joined a yahoogroups for Older Ukrainian Children being adopted, and a dear soul, Harriet, (who I hope is not grading my grammar right now!) asked if anyone was interested in an older girl for adoption, as she knew a very sweet older girl. I wrote to her, telling her of our interest, but specific interest in one with a younger brother, preferably for the younger brother to have a disability. (our youngest son has Down syndrome and autism, and really needs to have a younger brother. I really wanted him to have sibling, at least for a time, that was close to his same “mental” age, who he could be close to as they grew up together) When Harriet wrote back, she explained that the girl she knew did indeed have a younger brother, in the approximate age group we were considering, who seemed to have a physical disability. Then she sent me a picture. As I downloaded that picture, I got goosebumps! The girl, Tanya, looks so much like our 15 year old, it is spooky. And her younger brother, Dima, looks amazingly like our youngest son, although he clearly does not have Down syndrome. I was looking into the faces of two children who I could say without a doubt were “my children”. I have read may adoption accounts, and had seen that phrase being used, but until I experienced it, I never knew how strong that connection could be! Harriet knew of these children from her previous adoption at that specific orphanage, which were before Tanya and Dima were available internationally.
And now we are here, in Kyiv, ready to go tomorrow to the NAC to begin the formal adoption procedure. We wrote a letter to the NAC, delivered by our facilitator after we had been approved and received that approval number, explaining exactly how we knew of Tanya and Dima. Of course, according to Ukrainian law, there is no preselection. No one has been paid for holding these children for us, and in fact, no one is holding them for us. We knew going into this that there was a chance, however small, that someone else could come along before we could get there, and adopt them. We have been prepared for that, and knew that in that case, we would be very happy that they had a better life than in the orphanage, sad for us that we did not get to raise them, and then look for another sibling group. But honestly, I don’t’ think there are anymore of “our kids” here, just Tanya and Dima!
Anyway, tomorrow at 9 AM, we have an appointment. We are the first appointment of the day. I hope that is a good sign. The NAC has all of the above information, so I’m hoping that the appointment will be quick; a mere formality. We are praying that we will also receive the letter to travel tomorrow, which will enable us to make it to Ivankiv, where their orphanage is, tomorrow. Otherwise, we could be here another day, playing tourist. Either way, I hope to get this to the internet café tomorrow right after the meeting at the NAC, so we should know before uploading these two entries.
Here’s to a good night’s sleep tonight---yeah, right!
4/7/04
UPDATE!!
NAC went great! Max met us at the apartment at 8:20.. After a 10 minbute walk, we arrived--- 30 minutes early. I think Max was more nervous then we were. We sat downstaris for a while... Waited upstaris outside the offices for a few minutes then in the "famous" hallway (which is much brighter and nicer than we expected).
We met with Oxana, the psychologist. The Director stopped in to see us and was very warm, kind and seemed very happy to see us. All the paperwork was ready. They had the kids' papers attached to our letter of request for appointment. There were no questions about anything. Max Translated the kids information for us. Dima does have craniostenosis (sp?) but has had surgery. there are some other (minor) health issues, but having grown up in the shadow of Chernobyl that was to be expected.
Total time meeting at the NAC-- 10 minutes.
Our last day of being a tourist is done. Now time to get down to the business for which we came.
day recap:
up early---big breakfast in the apartment. Ham, poached eggs (no frying pan), Kefir (kinda like a drinkable yogurt—Peach Thank You), juice and tea.
out the door at 8:30 to do some exploring on our own. We stopped back into the “mystery” church in time for Liturgy. All chanted-- very nice. It does make one sad to see what great tradition the western church has lost in its quest to modernize.
We decided to head down the Kyiv’s “main drag”, Khreshchatyk Street. Every bit as nice as the Champs Elysees in Paris. One interesting holdover for Soviet time, the TSUM Department store. 4 floors of shopping fun… Soviet building—western goods. Armed guards one every floor giving you the “eye”.
Walked to Independence Square and strolled along one of the best public squares in all of Europe. Street vendors selling everything from Hot Dogs (50 cents) to Old Soviet military trinkets to Elvis Nesting Dolls (I’ll try to get back there to get you some, Bobby). Under the square is a large underground shopping mall. Could have been Fashion Show in Vegas—seen one mall you’ve seen them all….
Stopped off at McDonalds to see what prices were.. Big Mac meal will set you back about 12 Hyrvna ($2.25). We decided to come back with the kids later. Settled for a Mc Cone for 20 cents and lunch will wait until we get back to our fave spot the cafeteria… Today on the Menu—Fried Meat, Borscht (WOW was that good—my first time to try it--- MUCH better than I was expecting---infact; my new favorite food), I got a beef patty covered with melted cheese and a sausage. All great. Both is us ate (a lot) for about $6USD total.
***Side note: banks everywhere are advertising incredible passbook interest rates—17% local currency, 12% for Dollars. Where do I sign up for THAT deal?!?!?!
After lunch, we decide to try to find the Catholic Church--- With signs in Cyrillic (if there are signs at all), it’s pretty tough to navigate. We give up and decide to head home…I want to try a short cut. My sense of direction was good, but the rain started and we gave up and caught a cab back. We were charged the “American rate” (about 3 bucks)..a lot more than it should have been. We cut the deal up front and it got us out of the rain, but turns out we were only about ½ mile from being home. Oh well. We have little time to relax before Max gets here and find out the time for our appointment tomorrow. More after Dinner
JIm
Mary here, after dinner:
Our 2 ½ hours of down time in the apartment was just what we needed to recover from all of the walking for the past 2 days, before dinner. We had enough time to do a load of laundry and hang it “out” on enclosed porch area, hoping for it to dry before tomorrow’s big day. Even if it doesn’t, have no fear, we do have clean, appropriate clothing to wear! Maxim was just on time, and we headed out for dinner. He suggested a new restaurant, Mexican food, which we love, so we were all for it! Dinner was wonderful, if a little pricy. For about 40. US dollars, we had burritos, nachos, and steak fajitas, plus 3 beers and 2 margaritas! We had a great discussion about economies, governments and life in general. Back to the apartment for an early bed time since our appointment tomorrow is at 9 AM! Yippee, we have the first appointment of the day. By the time you all get this, it will be all said and done.
Maybe a little background on us and our situation, for those who may be following along but don’t personally know us—We have 5 great bio children, ages 20 to 13, and decided last summer to adopt internationally to add to our family. After researching many hours, we decided to pursue a Ukrainian adoption of 2, possibly 3 older children. We were specifically looking for a girl in the 10-15 year old age range, with a younger brother somewhere around 5-8 years old. We agreed that we would widen our preferred ranges and numbers just a bit, to try to ensure a good match for our family. We felt we could not turn down a referral of a “perfect” sibling pair because they happened to have one more sibling, nor were we willing to help split up a sibling group. We wanted to stay with older kids, but once again, thought that if a specific group included a sibling as young as age 3, we could not turn them down based on that alone. So we were approved to 2-3 siblings, ages 3-15, but knew our concentrated looking would be ages 5-14. In our research, I joined a yahoogroups for Older Ukrainian Children being adopted, and a dear soul, Harriet, (who I hope is not grading my grammar right now!) asked if anyone was interested in an older girl for adoption, as she knew a very sweet older girl. I wrote to her, telling her of our interest, but specific interest in one with a younger brother, preferably for the younger brother to have a disability. (our youngest son has Down syndrome and autism, and really needs to have a younger brother. I really wanted him to have sibling, at least for a time, that was close to his same “mental” age, who he could be close to as they grew up together) When Harriet wrote back, she explained that the girl she knew did indeed have a younger brother, in the approximate age group we were considering, who seemed to have a physical disability. Then she sent me a picture. As I downloaded that picture, I got goosebumps! The girl, Tanya, looks so much like our 15 year old, it is spooky. And her younger brother, Dima, looks amazingly like our youngest son, although he clearly does not have Down syndrome. I was looking into the faces of two children who I could say without a doubt were “my children”. I have read may adoption accounts, and had seen that phrase being used, but until I experienced it, I never knew how strong that connection could be! Harriet knew of these children from her previous adoption at that specific orphanage, which were before Tanya and Dima were available internationally.
And now we are here, in Kyiv, ready to go tomorrow to the NAC to begin the formal adoption procedure. We wrote a letter to the NAC, delivered by our facilitator after we had been approved and received that approval number, explaining exactly how we knew of Tanya and Dima. Of course, according to Ukrainian law, there is no preselection. No one has been paid for holding these children for us, and in fact, no one is holding them for us. We knew going into this that there was a chance, however small, that someone else could come along before we could get there, and adopt them. We have been prepared for that, and knew that in that case, we would be very happy that they had a better life than in the orphanage, sad for us that we did not get to raise them, and then look for another sibling group. But honestly, I don’t’ think there are anymore of “our kids” here, just Tanya and Dima!
Anyway, tomorrow at 9 AM, we have an appointment. We are the first appointment of the day. I hope that is a good sign. The NAC has all of the above information, so I’m hoping that the appointment will be quick; a mere formality. We are praying that we will also receive the letter to travel tomorrow, which will enable us to make it to Ivankiv, where their orphanage is, tomorrow. Otherwise, we could be here another day, playing tourist. Either way, I hope to get this to the internet café tomorrow right after the meeting at the NAC, so we should know before uploading these two entries.
Here’s to a good night’s sleep tonight---yeah, right!
4/7/04
UPDATE!!
NAC went great! Max met us at the apartment at 8:20.. After a 10 minbute walk, we arrived--- 30 minutes early. I think Max was more nervous then we were. We sat downstaris for a while... Waited upstaris outside the offices for a few minutes then in the "famous" hallway (which is much brighter and nicer than we expected).
We met with Oxana, the psychologist. The Director stopped in to see us and was very warm, kind and seemed very happy to see us. All the paperwork was ready. They had the kids' papers attached to our letter of request for appointment. There were no questions about anything. Max Translated the kids information for us. Dima does have craniostenosis (sp?) but has had surgery. there are some other (minor) health issues, but having grown up in the shadow of Chernobyl that was to be expected.
Total time meeting at the NAC-- 10 minutes.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
4/04/04
Mary Here,
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 farm land. 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 xrayed, 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. We were pounced on immediately by the private drivers wanting to give us a ride. 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 ahold 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. Aftere 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 beyone 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, 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.
Until later.....
4/5/04
Welcome to KBiB.
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.. 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 mixup 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 yougurt 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.
JIm
4/5/04
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 sight seers 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 chess board, 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 hitchiked for us-aparantly 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 vinegrette 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 sauted 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 poppyseed 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 sudder to think 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 tho 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 patroling 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 Wedneday, 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 Chernoble, but maybe heading to the underground shopping mall, which is a ways up our street. We told Maxim that we dont' "need" him tomorrow, that he certainly may come along, but if he just felt obligated to "babysit" 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 definately 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, cobble stone, 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,
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
Jim and Mary
4/6/04
We found it! A dumpy, yet charming internet cafe witha 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!
See ya
Mary Here,
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 farm land. 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 xrayed, 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. We were pounced on immediately by the private drivers wanting to give us a ride. 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 ahold 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. Aftere 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 beyone 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, 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.
Until later.....
4/5/04
Welcome to KBiB.
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.. 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 mixup 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 yougurt 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.
JIm
4/5/04
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 sight seers 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 chess board, 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 hitchiked for us-aparantly 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 vinegrette 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 sauted 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 poppyseed 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 sudder to think 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 tho 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 patroling 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 Wedneday, 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 Chernoble, but maybe heading to the underground shopping mall, which is a ways up our street. We told Maxim that we dont' "need" him tomorrow, that he certainly may come along, but if he just felt obligated to "babysit" 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 definately 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, cobble stone, 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,
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
Jim and Mary
4/6/04
We found it! A dumpy, yet charming internet cafe witha 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!
See ya
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Mary Here,
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.
Signing off for now.
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.
Signing off for now.
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!
Jim
Jim
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Mary Here,
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.
The battery needs charging and we are ready to go to the gate for our next flight-to Paris.
By for now.
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.
The battery needs charging and we are ready to go to the gate for our next flight-to Paris.
By for now.
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 hookie".
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 homestay abroad program--- lots of cute little ones.
more from CDG if we can find a hotspot!
later
Jim
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 hookie".
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 homestay abroad program--- lots of cute little ones.
more from CDG if we can find a hotspot!
later
Jim
Friday, April 02, 2004
Mary here,
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.
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.
Mary
Mary here,
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.
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.
Mary
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Mary here:
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.
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.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
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 to the wonderful families in our local homeschool 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!
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 to the wonderful families in our local homeschool 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!
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Mary’s Journal:
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.
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.
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 (jim)
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!
jim
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!
jim
Saturday, March 06, 2004
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. hopfully we'll be traveling in the next 30 days and we will do our best to keep everyone updated!
jim
jim
Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Ancient Greeks used this to cure their bad health.
http://24.c.79ae.static.theplanet.com/engine.html Do you wish her at night?
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