Thursday, May 31, 2007 Part 1

Today started out quite warm again. Our apartment is currently 85 degrees! When we got up this morning, we uploaded some pictures of various kids from the orphanage to a memory stick so that we could take them into town to be printed. We figured we would venture out around 9:30 or 10, however, after talking to Svetlana about it, she said that she would have our driver pick us up at 12. She also told us that she would definitely be leaving today. We all had a lot of stuff to do in a very small amount of time. When 12:00 rolled around, we jumped in the car and headed to a photo shop. It’s not exactly what we’re accustomed to at home. Svetlana explained what we wanted to do and left us with the girl who worked there while she went to pick up Mark and Christine. We gave the girl our memory stick and she led us into a small room adjacent to the store. It had a computer set up and a memory stick reader. It had an Epson photo printer. The photos are 1.30 grivna…or 30 cents. We chose 41 photos to be printed and are planning on giving them to Ludmilla tomorrow. Mark and Christine also had photos that they uploaded after they arrived. When Svetlana dropped them off, she told us that our driver would pick all of us up at 1pm, but that she needed to go buy train tickets. She left and the 4 of us wandered around in the center of the city for a half hour. When we arrived at the orphanage, Amina was outside talking to Svieta. She ran over and hugged us and then went looking for Masha and Khrystyna. Khrystyna came out a few minutes later, but they weren’t able to find Masha. After waiting for a little while, Svieta said that she needed to take some papers to the social worker. She told the girls to look for Masha and that when she got back we would head for lunch. By the time she arrived back, we didn’t have very much time left. We needed to get lunch and get a birthday present for one of the workers from the orphanage. We headed to Amstor to eat at their cafeteria. The food was really good. This is my favorite lunch place so far! Khrystyna was in a little bit of a funk because Fred wouldn’t let the girls get soda. She asked for soda and Fred told her no, that she had to have juice. She didn’t want juice so she decided she would have nothing to drink. We told her that was fine with us. She was quite pouty throughout lunch. When Fred went back to the line to get more juice, Khrystyna and Amina went with him and they each got a juice. Amina had already finished her first juice by this point. After quickly eating, we explained to the girls that they each could have 10 grivna to buy a birthday gift and card. They could either each buy her something small or all chip into buy her something larger. They each wanted to get their own card and gift. Each of the girls settled on a little figurine and a birthday card. All of the girls stayed within the agreed upon price range. When we got back to the orphanage, the girls had to run inside because they were late for dance practice. We said quick goodbyes and the girls hurried inside. Svieta needed to talk to someone in the orphanage, so she asked us to wait for her. While we waiting, Khrystyna came out dressed in the cutest cat costume! She looked adorable. We took a few pictures of her. A few of the other kids came out in their costumes as well. The celebration at the orphanage tomorrow is a very big deal. The kids have all been working for hours on their programs. There will be a concert and a fair and lots of items that the children have made throughout the year will be for sale. We are quite excited. Tomorrow is also the day that we will be bringing all of the toys to the orphanage that we bought for the children. We purchased beach balls, pails and shovels for playing in the sand, puzzles, balls, and Frisbees. I think it will be a very enjoyable day for everyone! When Svieta finished in the orphanage, we came back to our apartment so Svieta could get packed to go back to Kiev. She left at 4:30 and now we are home alone! Woohoo! The TV and DVD player in the apartment our in the room that Svieta was sleeping in so we’ve been watching DVDs on our laptop. We’re quite excited to be able to watch movies on a regular TV! We’re planning on heading to the internet café in a few minutes to update the blog and maybe we’ll grab a bite to eat before we head back to our apartment. I am completely exhausted and am going to try to head to bed early tonight. I know I’ve been asking for this repeatedly, but please pray for the weather to cool off. In the time that it has taken for me to write all of this, the temperature has risen to 88 degrees. We’ll try to update again tomorrow night. We should be able to get tons of good pictures tomorrow…we hope. We were told not to speak English any more than necessary tomorrow and that if we do have to speak to do it quietly. There will be a lot of people at the orphanage and they don’t want people asking any questions about what the Americans are doing here.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

When we asked Svetlana if we had anything to do today, she told us that didn’t think so. She left our apartment around 11am to take some documents to the court. She told us that she would pick us up around 1pm. I was being lazy this morning and just hanging around the apartment since we didn’t have anywhere to be and since it was quite hot! I decided to hop in the shower around noon, however, I was distracted by a phone call. It was Svetlana calling to tell us she would pick us in 15 minutes. We were needed at the court to sign some documents. We quickly got dressed and headed outside. Unfortunately, from the time of her phone call to the time she arrived, was 45 minutes…not 15. When she arrived, we hopped in the car and headed off to court. We had to sign our application to adopt Amina and Khrystyna and to change their names to Amina Lynn and Khrystyna Ann. It didn’t take long to sign the papers and then Svetlana told us to wait for her in the car while she took the papers to the judge and tried to get a court date. (Funny side note…All of our documents we have signed have been in Ukrainian. We have had a translator interpret each document that we’ve signed and we’ve had to sign a bunch since we added a second child and there was a lot of extra paperwork. Each time they translate a document the document starts out with our full names, date of birth, and full address as well as our passport numbers. Whenever they read our address, they always put the word “Mister” in front of our city. They read our street address, say “Mister Fort Wayne”, state of Indiana. It totally cracks me up. At first I thought it was just some funny way that our translator was reading it, but after having multiple translators say this, I guess it must be just the way they say the city…although when they saw where our passports were issued they just say San Francisco…who knows? If anyone has an explanation…please post it in the comments…I’d love to know.) Back to our day… We waited in the car for 15 minutes and when Svetlana came out, she told us that if all went well, we would go to court on Monday. Please pray that all will go well!!!! While we were waiting in the car, we noticed that the sky was looking very overcast. We really hoped that we would have rain soon. When we left the court, Svetlana needed to pick up some folders at the office supply store. This is the store that I wanted to go to on Monday, but after walking there on Monday, we discovered it was closed for the holiday. I was so excited to go in there. It was a small store with various writing tablets as well as markers, pens, and pencils. I couldn’t find any 3x5 cards or even 4x6 cards for flashcards, but after asking, I was able to puchase a few packages of cardstock. The cardstock is about 5x7, but hopefully it will still work for making flashcards. We were able to purchase 5 packs of cardstock and a box of markers for under $2. I thought that was quite a deal! When we came out of the store, it was pouring outside. We got totally soaked in the 10 steps it took to get to the car. When we got to the orphanage, we waited inside for a little while for the girls. It didn’t take very long for Masha to show up, but we waited quite a while for Khrystyna and Amina. When they came downstairs, we headed out for lunch. It was so dark and gray outside that it seemed like night. Also, traffic was very slow due to the rain. When we got to Vivottime (I know I spell this differently everyday…I’m experimenting), we ran inside. We got in line behind Masha’s family and began our daily ritual of picking out food. The girls normally each get a bottled drink, a cup of juice, soup (Ludmilla insists the girls eat soup everyday), salad, and various other foods. They ask for soda almost everyday, but we usually say no and they end up with bottled water or sparkling juice. Today we decided to let them each get a coke. The café was out of borscht today and Khrystyna and Amina didn’t want the other kind of soup they had. I told them that they could only get one bowl between the 2 of them, but that they each needed to have 5 bites. They agreed, but Khrystyna had a hard time accepting that. As we moved down the line, the girls added potatoes and sandwiches to their trays. Khrystyna was rather impatient today, so she decided to pass everyone in line and head to the juice dispenser. She moved her tray over to the display of desserts and grabbed a glass of red juice. While Khrystyna and Amina were deciding on what dessert to split, Khrystyna inadvertently spiller her entire LARGE glass of RED juice all over her tray and the floor. The juice filled her plate of potatoes and created quite a mess. I think Khrystyna was really embarrassed. She just stood there looking at the floor. Amina quickly asked one of the workers for a rag and started cleaning up the floor. When I got Khrystyna to make eye contact with me, she looked like she was going to cry. I told her that we loved her, that it was OK, and asked her if she wanted more potatoes. Her sandwich was wrapped in plastic wrap so we were able to salvage that. When Khrystyna said she wanted more potatoes, Amina headed back to the potatoes, and asked for more. We held up the line for quite a while trying to take care of the juice issue and eventually we made it to the cash register. We had a ton of food, divided between 3 trays, and somehow I managed to leave the line with only mashed potatoes for myself! It was quite an experience! I’d like to say that lunch was completely normal after that, but things just got stranger! When we finally got everyone situated at the table (no easy task), we began eating our lunch. There was a man in his 60s and a girl in her 20s sitting at the table behind us. The mans’ chair backed up to Fred’s chair. A few times during the meal, I noticed that the man was leaning on Fred’s chair rather strangely. I even pointed it out to Mark and Christine, but every time they turned to look he was sitting up normally. I eventually tuned the man out and went back to discussing English with the girls. We have been practicing English everyday. Today we wanted to do something a little different so we asked each of the 3 girls to come up with 3 word or phrases that they would like to learn in English. Masha said that she didn’t want to learn anything because if she wanted to know something, she just asked Svieta and Svieta would ask us in English. Khrystyna told us in Russian that she didn’t have any specific phrases because she already knew everything. Amina seemed to think long and hard before she told us that she had something she wanted to know how to say. We were all expecting something like where are we going, what time is it, or the name of a favorite food. Instead, she asked “How do you say ‘lawyer’ in English?” We were all totally dumbfounded! I asked her if she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. She quickly responded in English…”No, a doctor” I guess Fred and I better start saving for med school. We still have no idea why she wanted to know the word for lawyer, but I guess we’ll find out eventually. Amina’s desire to become a doctor quickly sparked another conversation about what each girl wanted to be when she grew up. Masha said she would like to be a Professor of Russian Literature. When Christine asked her what kinds of books she liked to read, she responded…I like DVDs. We all think it may be a little difficult to become a Literature Professor if you only watch DVDs, but who knows. Khrystyna does not know what she would like to be when she grows up. We probably could have gotten an answer from her, but while we were having the conversation there was a very loud “THUD” Fred had moved his chair and the old man behind him fell on the floor! He seemed to be unconscious! He was laying flat on his back groaning or gurgling. We all jumped up…we were quite worried. When I turned around to look at the girl who was with the man. She was just sitting at the table eating and drinking as if nothing had happened. The man was still laying on the floor! He hadn’t even regained consciousness! We quickly moved the girls away from the man. Mark ran over to the man while Fred ran to the cash register and pointed to the man. Svieta went to the girl at the table and asked if the man was ok. The girls said that this always happens when he’s drunk. She didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered that he was still laying on the floor unconscious. At this point, security came over and began halling the man off the floor. We took this as our cue that it was time to leave. We headed out to the car, hopped in, and headed back to the orphanage. The girls had another dance practice so we said goodbye and headed back to our apartment. We wanted to spend some time uploading pictures from the last week, so we grabbed our laptop and headed to Papa Karlo. We were quite discreet this time with the use of our laptop. We kept it behind our bag the whole time and tried to not to speak English. Amazingly enough, the internet stayed up the whole time we were there. When we were finished uploading pictures, we headed back to our apartment. It was raining outside and had cooled down considerably. Although it didn’t stay cool for very long, it was a very welcome respite! When we got back to the apartment, we waited for Svieta to return from the train station and then headed to Amstor. We were able to pick up some “real” spaghetti sauce as well as a few other items. We have to pick up bread every few days because they don’t use many preservatives in their food. The bread is fresh and quite delicious! When we finished our shopping, we headed back home. I made spaghetti for dinner and it turned out to be delicious! Much better than the last attempt with the borscht sauce. I also picked up some garlic rolls at the bakery. It was a good dinner and I thoroughly enjoyed eating something similar to what I’d eat at home! When we were finishing with the dishes, Svieta came into the kitchen and asked if we would need to purchase any clothing for the girls. She told us that when we finally get permanent custody of the girls and go to pick them up at the orphanage, we must bring all new clothes for them. They are not allowed to leave the orphanage with any clothing. I brought a few outfits for Khrystyna and the girls are close enough in size that they can probably share those outfits, but I knew I would need to buy shoes. I wondered why she was asking about this now. We haven’t had our court date yet and we have to wait 10 days after the court date to pick up the girls. When I asked her about this, she told us that she may be heading back to Kiev tomorrow! She told us that she would try to pick up whatever we need tomorrow while she is still here. I thought she may just be heading back to Kiev temporarily, but she told us that she may not be coming back at all. We may be on our own from here on out! She’s still not positive if she will be leaving. She said she would let us know tomorrow. Although we will miss her if she leaves, it will be nice to have our own space. We’ll let you know what happens! After talking to Svetlana, we spent the rest of our evening making phone calls and working on the logistics for the rest of the trip. Fred spoke to his boss about his return to work. His boss has been extremely kind and flexible and it has really made the uncertainty of the trip a lot more bearable! We also talked to our facilitator in Kiev about Fred’s return to “Mister Fort Wayne”…Ok…so we didn’t say Mister Fort Wayne while talking to him, but I think it has a nice ring to it. It makes it sound like a much friendlier town! I’m beginning to ramble, so I should probably go to bed. We’ll keep you posted as things develop here! Thanks again for all your prayers! They are being answered!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

This morning was a very lazy morning. Fred and I hung out at the apartment until 12:15pm. Svieta got a phone call at 10am to inform her that Mark and Christine would be having court at 11am…that morning. She quickly got dressed and headed out of the apartment. She told us that she would call to let us know when our driver would pick us up. We hadn’t heard from her at 12:15pm, so we decided to head out to get some money exchanged. When Svieta called us, we were on our way to the center of town to get more money. She told us that she would pick us at 12:45pm. We hurried to get our money exchanged and ran back to the apartment. We then headed to the orphanage to pick up the girls. The girls were a lot quieter than usual today. When we got to the orphanage, Svieta went into the orphanage to talk to Ludmilla while we played with the girls. When she came out she told us that Amina’s medical documents were ready to be signed. We quickly followed her into the orphanage to sign the paperwork. The doctor went over Amina’s medical history, Svieta translated, and Fred and I signed on the dotted line. It didn’t take very long since Amina is very healthy! When we headed back outside and played with the girls for a few minutes…then we were told that the girls had dance practice. The girls headed to dance and Mark and Christine headed to lunch with Fred and I. Svieta needed to take care of some documents so she went off on her own. We had asked her earlier in the day if it would be possible to take the girls to see Shrek 3. She said she would have to check with Ludmilla, but Ludmilla was very busy. After lunch, we wandered through the mall for a little while and then headed to the movie theater. Svieta had hoped to meet us there, but she had still not been able to talk to Ludmilla. She had our driver pick us up and take us back to the orphanage. When we got back to the orphanage, Svieta was still waiting to see Ludmilla. After a few minutes, we saw Ludmilla walking down the hall toward us. Svieta explained that we wanted to take the children to Shrek 3 and Ludmilla gave us permission. We quickly rounded up the 3 girls and headed to the theater. When we got to the theater, Svetlana helped us buy tickets. The theater only has 5 rows and you had to purchase tickets for specific seats. Mark and Christine bought their tickets first and we bought ours next. Unfortunately, our tickets were not all together. The girls decided that they 3 of them would sit in one set of seats and Fred and I could sit with Mark and Christine. Christine and I ran back to our apartment while Svieta pointed out the seats to Mark, Fred, and the girls. Svieta told us that she wouldn’t be going to see the movie with us. When Christine and I got to the theater, the movie had already started. Apparently, after Svetlana showed the girls their seats, they decided to move. There was enough seats for the 3 girls and Mark and Fred to sit together, but not for Christine and I. We ended up sitting in the row behind them. During the movie, my phone began to flash at me. (I had turned the volume off) I didn’t plan on taking the call, but I noticed it was Svetlana so I ran out of the theater to take it. I was quite surprised that she would call when she knew we were in the movie. She asked me to run outside of the theater to get the keys to our apartment. She told me she was heading out of town in order to get our documents to Sasha. She said that she wouldn’t be back until after 10 pm. When the movie ended, we called Svetlana to ask her how we would get back to the orphanage. She told us that Mark and Christine’s driver would be meeting us in front of the theater and that he would have another driver with him for our family to ride with. The two drivers would take us back to the orphanage where we would say goodbye to the girls and then Mark and Christine’s driver would take us all home. When we got to the apartment, we decided to walk over to Papa Karlo to get on the internet. We were able to upload our blog, however, we lost our internet connection quickly after that. It seems that the workers at Papa Karlo are not big fans of Americans. When we overstay our wecome, they unplug our wireless access point. After a while, we figured that they weren’t planning on plugging it back in, so we left. We headed back to our apartment. We watched a little bit of Shrek 2 (in English) before Svetlana got home. When she got home, we asked her why she had to rush off so quickly. She told us that she had all the necessary documents for Kiev, but that she didn’t have them in time to meet the train in our city. She headed to a larger city which is a few hours away and handed off the documents to someone on the train there. She then headed back home. She was quite tired and so were we. We said goodnight and then headed to bed.

Prayer Requests:

*Please pray that the weather will cool down. We are
tired all the time because of the heat and are not
sleeping well!

*Please pray that we get a court date this week. Fred
would like to be able to get back to work as soon as
possible. Also, I don’t want to spend my entire summer
in Ukraine!

*Pray for our relationship with the orphanage. Pray that
we would be a source of encouragement to the staff of
the orphanage as well as the kids.

*Pray that the children who are in the orphanage will be
put on the registry soon so that they can be adopted by
loving families and that those children who are already
on the registry will be adopted quickly!

*Pray for all the families who are waiting to adopt. It is
a long and emotional process. Pray for strength and
stamina and that things will move swiftly along.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Today was another scorchingly hot day. It is also a holiday! (No, it’s not Memorial day…actually, yesterday was a religious holiday. It has something to do with 40 days after Easter or something like that) Since the girls didn’t have school, we would be able to pick them up at 12 today instead of 1 or 1:30. When we got up this morning, I worked on what we wanted to teach the girls today. We really wanted to make sure they can express their feelings in English. I bought each of the girls a notebook and wrote their full name on the first page. On the second page I wrote their full name in cursive. On the following pages, I wrote out a few “feeling sentences”….I am happy, I am sad, I am bored, I am confused, I am hungry, and I am thirsty. Each of these sentences got one full page devoted to it. I had Fred draw a small illustration of each feeling at the top of each page, then I numbered the lines on each page 1-5. I figured that I would have the girls write each sentence 5 times and then draw a picture to illustrate each point. I also wrote the feeling in Russian at the bottom of the page. After getting the notebooks ready, I hoped that we could go to the office supply store to pick up some 3x5 cards. I wanted to have Fred draw his faces on one side of the card and write the word on the other side…homemade flashcards. We knew we would have to leave our apartment at 10 am since the cleaning woman would be coming so we figured that we could use that time to buy some notecards and make flashcards. Unfortunately, the office supply store was closed due to the holiday. The mall was open, so we spent a little time in the mall. We picked up another Frisbee…they tend to either get taken into the orphanage for the group, broken, or stuck up in a tree! We also picked up some bubbles for the girls. The mall is not air conditioned either and it was quite stifling in there. Part of the mall houses electronic equipment, and that section is air-conditioned. We walked around 4 of the 5 air-conditioned floors of the electronics store. I’m sure people were wondering why people who only speak English were looking so intently at stoves and washing machines, but we knew we still had an hour to kill and it was miserably hot in the rest of the mall. When we had spent as much time as we reasonable could in the mall, we headed to a furniture store that was adjacent to the mall. It was a really strange store. We had noticed a sign on the way into the mall that showed all kinds of Apple products…iPods, Mac Powerbooks, etc and the sign pointed into the furniture store. When you walk into the store, you immediately see all kinds of furniture, however, if you go to your right, there is a little freestanding Mac store area. If you go the left, it’s like and old 5 and dime store. It had notebooks, towels, toys, clothes, etc. We only had a few minutes in there before our driver was picking us up, but we found some inexpensive notebooks and colored pencils that we picked up for the girls. When we came out of the store, our driver was waiting. We hopped in the car, waited a few minutes for Svetlana to come out to the car, and headed back to our apartment to pick up our toys for the day. We didn’t want to be stuck walking around for 2 hours with a bag full of Frisbees, balls, rackets, water, and other necessities. When we grabbed everything we needed, we headed back out to the car and over to the orphanage. The girls were waiting for us when we arrived. They were quite excited to see us! We told them that we were going to go to lunch, work on English for a little while, then head to the park. Khrystyna and Amina had told us on Saturday that their classes at school were going to the park on Tuesday. Khrystyna reminded us about this and asked if she could buy chips for all the students in her class. I figured that since she goes to school with children from families, there are probably lots of times that parents send in treats for all the students, but that Khrystyna probably has not had that luxury. We agreed to buy chips for everyone! She was totally thrilled. We offered to do the same for Amina and she was quite excited as well. We told them that we would go to the grocery store after we finished lunch and worked on English. Svetlana had our driver drop us off at the cafeteria for lunch and Mark and Christine’s driver ran them by their apartment to pick up stuff for the day. Amina and Khrystyna decided to split a bowl of soup today and to split a dessert so that they could still have ice cream later. They finished their food fairly quickly and while we were waiting for Masha to finish her food, I pulled out the English books I made for them. Christine was completely impressed and asked if I would teach English to Masha too. Christine had an extra notebook, so I wrote the same stuff in Masha’s book and had Fred quickly illustrate it. When we were finished, we started our English lesson. The girls seemed to like the goofy pictures that Fred drew. When it came time to draw their own pictures of each feeling, Amina drew a big round smiley face. Masha did the same. Khrystyna is definitely the artist of the group. She copied Fred’s smiley picture. It was awesome. We did happy and sad while we were in the cafeteria and then headed out to the park to finish. By the time we finished all of our sentences, the girls were getting restless. Mark and Christine decided to take Masha shopping for a pair of shoes and we decided to take our girls to the playground and to the grocery store for chips and ice cream. While we were walking to the playground area, Khrystyna and Amina began asking about going on the big bouncy thing. This is the one that Masha and Khrystyna got to go on that has a crocodile, a cobra, a big slide, and lots of things to climb on. Khrystyna has been telling Amina about it every time we drive by that particular park. I told them that they could go on it after Masha left the park, but that I didn’t want them to say anything to her because I didn’t want her to be sad. They quickly agreed and when Masha and her family left the park, we headed to the bouncy thing. The girls had a blast and we were glad that Amina was able to experience it with Khrystyna. We are trying to be really careful to make sure that Amina gets to do the same fun things that Khrystyna did last week. We still need to plan a trip to the extreme park so that Amina can have that experience as well. After the girls finished jumping and playing, Fred suggested we buy ice cream from a lady with a cart in the shade. The girls got yummy strawberry popsicles and Fred got some coffee flavored ice cream creation that he said was really good. We then headed to the grocery store to pick up chips. We saw Masha and her family as we headed to the store. Svieta was with them and she asked if we wanted to stay at the same park or go to a different park. We decided to let Amina and Khrystyna make that decision. Of course, they decided on the crocodile park. We made the decision to head to the crocodile park after we went to the grocery store. Masha’s family decided to stay in the park we were currently in. Masha sat down on a bench and put her new shoes on and of course my girls had to go over and admire them. While we were walking to the grocery store, Amina said, “Mom, Masha’s shoes BEAUTIFUL!” I told her that we would buy new shoes for the two of them sometime later this week. They immediately began whispering back and forth…I think they are planning on what kind of shoes they will get! When we got to the grocery store, the girls explained how many kids they had in each of their classes and that they wanted to get individual bags of chips for each person. I took them into the store with me while Fred waited outside and we picked up chips for their classmates. Khrystyna also asked nicely for some cat food for the cat and kittens. I bought her a 40 cents bag of food for the cats. She and Amina immediately told Svieta that we got cat food when we ran into her again. It’s amazing how much joy they get out of the simplest things. After our grocery store run, we headed off to the park. The girls pulled out their rackets and began a rousing game of hitting the ball back and forth. We played in the shade and it was quite relaxing to sit and watch them. We only planned on being in the park 45 minutes and after 30 minutes of playing the girls began to ask about the crocodile. I told them that if the wrote their full name 9 times and “I want to go to crocodile.” 2 times that we would go. Amina’s name is shorted than Khrystyna’s and Amina is faster in general, so she finished much more quickly. By the time Khrystyna was finished with her name, she was frustrated. We told her that she only had to say “I want to go to crocodile” and that we would let her write it 2 times tomorrow. That seemed to be about all she could handle today. The lady at the crocodile looked extremely happy to see us. She even offered me a chair to sit down on while the girls played. I think she just likes us because we’ve given her enough money to put her kids through college.  When the girls were finished, we headed back to the car and then on to the orphanage. We spent a few minutes blowing bubbles and then the girls decided to feed the cat. The kittens are still too small to eat cat food, but that didn’t stop the girls from trying. They played with the kittens for quite a while. When Masha and her family got back, each of the girls as well as Mark and Christine grabbed a kitten and headed to the other side of the parking lot for a kitten race. We saw a few of the older boys doing this the day before and it seemed fun. You place your kitten on the ground and stand in front of it then slowly back up and the kitten follows you. Amina’s kitten was halfway across the parking lot before Khrystyna could even get her kitten moving. Since Khrystyna is very competitive, she just picked up her kitten, ran across the parking lot til she was even with Amina, and put her kitten back down. Poor Khrystyna…she picked a kitten that was completely content to stand in one place. After the kitten races, she put her kitten up on the wall and holding on the the underside of her, ran along the wall, letting her paws drag on the wall. I think she was trying to teach her kitten the importance of hurrying…a lesson that was completely lost on the cat. On the way back, she let go of the kitten and the kitten actually started walking. Khrystyna was so excited, that she started skipping back to us and she left the kitten all alone. We all started yelling for her to watch the kitten and she turned around just in time to catch the kitten before she fell off the wall. It’s amazing how much entertainment a few kittens can provide…even for people like Fred and I who aren’t big fans of cats. After playing with the cats for a while, it was time to say goodbye again. That’s the hardest part of this process for me…part-time parenting. During the day, you are the parent and you make decisions and then you have to give them back at the end of the day. I’ll be so happy when we can play with them during the day and tuck them into bed at night! After our goodbyes, we headed back to the apartment to pick up our laptop and then we went over to Papa Karlo. Unfortunately, the wi-fi connection was down and we were unable to upload our pictures to the internet or update our blog. Hopefully tomorrow the connection will be back up. When we got back to our apartment, it was nearly 90 degrees inside our apartment. By the time we went to bed, it had cooled down to 29 degrees Celsius…84.2 Fahrenheit. We were sooo hot. I slept with 2 frozen waterbottles snuggled up next to me. It actually kept me cool enough to sleep. When we woke up this morning, our room had cooled down to 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 F)…not much better, but it least it got cooler rather than hotter.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Today was a little cooler than yesterday. It was only in the high 80s!  When we were planning out our day last night, I decided that we would pick up the girls at the orphanage and then head to lunch. After lunch, I planned on bringing Khrystyna and Amina back to our apartment so that we could work on English. When I told Svieta our plan, she told me that she had talked to Ludmilla and that we are not allowed to bring the children back to our apartment until after our court date. We decided that we would just go from lunch to the beach! We didn’t have beach towels, so we had our driver pick us up and we headed to Amstor. We were quite surprised to find that beach towels cost 170 grivna (or 34 dollars!!!!!) We were not quite prepared to spend that. I found 2 beach towels with a tic tac toe board on them that came with Xs and Os. The material was super thin, but they were only $8 each. They only had 2 of them, so we decided we would just have to share! We also found some rackets and squishy balls that were designed to be used in the water. When we got back to the apartment after going to Amstor, we loaded a bag with fun beach stuff…Frisbees, the rackets that we got at Amstor, a kite, some gum, and bottled water, then we headed to the orphanage. Since Khrystyna told us last Sunday that she doesn’t like pizza, we have been eating primarily at the 2 cafeterias. We all enjoyed the pizzeria we ate at last Sunday and had been wanting to go again, but we didn’t want Khrystyna to be upset. Fred and I decided on the way to the orphanage that we would tell Khrystyna that we were going to the pizzeria for lunch. They offered other foods there and we decided to tell her that she didn’t have to eat pizza, she could have something else off the menu. We had Svieta tell her that she could eat what she wanted, but that she needed to have a good attitude or we would not go to the sea. Svieta explained all of this to her and she agreed very quickly! She was even smiling about it. As we walked to the car to head to lunch, Khrystyna asked Amina if she liked pizza and was going to eat some. Amina quickly said yes! Khrystyna told Svieta that if Amina would eat pizza, she would eat it too! We were completely amazed. When we got to the pizzeria, they didn’t have any outside table available. We headed inside to sit down. Our waitress told us that you are not allowed to put tables together inside the restaurant, so Svieta sat with Mark, Christine, and Masha, and we had our own table! Amina and Khrystyna did a very good job translating what the various toppings were for the pizza. We all ordered pizzas and they were really tasty! Khrystyna picked at one piece of her pizza and then just ate the toppings off the rest of the pizza. She didn’t eat very much, but she was very pleasant and didn’t complain. I had bought a few bags of chips with me to give them at the beach, but brought them out at the pizzeria instead. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the chips! When we were all finished, we headed for the sea! The girls were thrilled!!!! I was the only adult with a bathing suit, so I was elected to go in the sea with them. When the girls pulled off their clothes, I was relieved to see that Amina and Khrystyna both had modest swimsuits! Khrystyna’s was quite funny, though! It was a navy 2 piece with a McDonald’s logo on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathing suit with a McDonalds’ logo on it! The girls didn’t want to spend anytime sitting on our beach towels, they just wanted to swim. We taught them the phrase “I want to swim” and then headed into the water. The water seemed a little cold at first, but it was sooo refreshing. Masha and Amina paired off once we got in the water and Khrystyna was stuck trying to get their attention and doing flips. I tried to applaud loudly each time she did a trick. I think she was frustrated that Amina and Masha were playing together, but she handled herself quite well! After playing in the water for a while, we headed back to the beach. Svieta told them they could go in the water again once they were dry. They spent some time playing with the rackets and Fred tried to teach them to fly a kite. Unfortunately, there was no wind so the kite didn’t do much good. After sitting around for a while, the girls started pointing to the sea again and asking Svieta in Russian if they could go back in. We made each of them say “I want to swim” before we headed back to the water. Khrystyna got a little confused and said “I want to sleep”. She immediately realized that she said sleep instead of swim and we all giggled and told her that the other girls could swim and she could sleep. She kept saying “No, no…swim, swim, please” We smiled and told her that of course she could swim with the other girls. The 3 girls and I headed back into the water. When we got in the water the second time, the girls were all trying to do flips and handstands. Amina was doggy paddling through the water. She said “Mom, I swim like dog”. I hadn’t even noticed that that was what she was doing, but it made me laugh that it was called the same thing in Russian…and her translation was quite funny! After 15 minutes in the water, Svieta waved us back in. She told us that we would need to dry off again before we could go back in. This time, the girls decided to play in the sand. I was really ready for some shade and since Fred had been sitting in the shade while I was in the sea, we decided to switch places. He headed down to the water’s edge where the girls were playing in the sand. They played for quite some time before coming back up to play with the rackets again. They were definitely worth the $2 we paid for each of them. When the girls were dry again, we headed back to the sea for one more swim! We all splashed and had a great time. No one wanted to get out when the time came. We told the girls that they would need to dry off and then we would head back to the orphanage. While Khrystyna and Amina were hitting the ball back and forth, Khrystyna and tripped backwards and ended up flat on her back in the sand. She hadn’t dried off much and the entire back of her was covered in sand. We quickly headed back to the sea to wash off the sand. Masha took her place hitting the ball with Amina. When Khrystyna finished washing the sand off of her back, she wrapped herself in her towel and sat on the beach quietly. She was exhausted. After the girls changed clothes, (we held a towel in a circle as a makeshift dressing room and each girl took a turn) Masha began complaining that she had water in her ear. Svieta turned to Mark and Christine and asked “Do you have a stick?” The look on Mark’s face was priceless. He looked at her like she was crazy. Christine quickly realized that she meant a Q-tip. Christine told Svieta that she had some at the apartment, but not at the beach. Personally, I was relieved to find out that it is not an approved practice to put sticks in children’s ears! On the way back to the orphanage, Amina and Khrystyna were very quiet. They were both exhausted. Khrystyna struggled to keep her eyes open the whole way home. We didn’t spend much time saying goodbye because the girls were soo tired. We hugged the girls, told them that we loved them and would see them tomorrow, and headed back to our cars. Mark and Christine invited Fred and I to go out with them after the beach. We went back to our apartment, took quick showers, and hopped into the car to head to Mark and Christine’s apartment. We spent some time relaxing in their apartment and chatting and then walked to a restaurant that was a few blocks from their apartment. It was a really nice seafood restaurant and it was air-conditioned! We sat ourselves at a table by the window and the waitress headed our way. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak much English….and we don’t speak much Russian. Also, the menu was very large. It had pages of hot and cold appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, desserts, and drinks…all in Russian. After giving us some time to look at the menus, she could tell we still had no clue. She tried to explain the menu to us. She said “Steaks?” I knew what a steak was and it sounded quite good so I just said “Yes, steak Y Kartoshka” or steak and potatoes. She said ok and then she tried to explain more of the menu. She started pointing at entrées and explaining them. She showed us steak with potatoes and steak with vegetables. When she pointed to the steak and vegetables, she said Steak…moo moo. She was letting us know it was cow. Then she pointed to an entrée and told us it was chicken. She seemed to be at a loss for words and then she said chicken and starting hitting her leg. We figured out that was a chicken leg. She pointed to the next item and said chicken and then she waved her hand across her chest! We thought it was hysterical, but we got her point…it was a chicken breast. We placed our orders, ate delicious food, and had a wonderful time. We finally got back to Mark and Christine’s a few hours later. Our driver picked us up and we immediately headed back to our apartment to go to sleep!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

This morning started out with yet another trip to the notary. Lena met us there and we filled out paperwork requesting the adoption of Amina and Khrystyna. We had previously done these documents for both of the Khrystyna and we did lots of other documents so that we could get our referral for Amina, but now that we have our referral for Amina, we were able to do a joint application to the Dept. of Child’s Rights Protection Services and an application to the local court system. We were able to get things notarized very quickly this morning and then we headed off to the orphanage.
When Fred and I arrived at the orphanage this morning, the girls had not yet returned from a special party as school. Svetlana decided to leave Fred and I at the orphanage and take our driver to go pick up Mark and Christine. I guess she needed to talk to them, but I found it to be quite strange. After being dropped off, we waited only a few minutes before the girls returned home from school. All of the children were walking in a line of groups of 2. It was to so cute to see Khrystyna and Amina walking together! They seem to have embraced sisterhood! As soon as they saw us waiting, they said something to their teacher and came running over to hug us. Amina showed me that she ripped her skirt that morning and told me that she needed to go change. The girls ran inside to change and came out a few minutes later. Amina had her hair in a French braid and Khrystyna’s hair was in a normal braid, but looking much neater than normal. (Khrystyna hates brushing her hair!) When I told them how pretty they looked and that I liked their braids, Amina explained that the teacher braided Amina’s hair and Amina braided Khrystyna’s hair. While we were waiting for Mark and Christine, the girls started making swimming motions and saying “slimming, slimming”! They all really wanted to go swimming. I told them that we could talk to Svieta, but I wasn’t sure if they would be allowed. We told them that we would go to lunch and then go to the park with the crocodile. Amina told us that her sunglasses had been stolen at school last week and we told her that we would stop after lunch to get a new pair. We ate lunch at Vivotttime (I’m sure that is spelled incorrectly) one of the cafeterias that we frequent. The girls ate a ton of food, but were willing to pass on dessert so that they could have ice cream later. After lunch, we headed to the market to buy sunglasses for Amina. She tried on a few pink pairs that were similar to the ones we bought her last weekend, but they were too small for her head. She finally settled on a brown pair with a few crystals on them. They make her look much more grown up! After the market, we headed to “crocodile park” with Masha and her family. The girls had noticed a house of mirrors when we had been there previously and had asked to go on it. We told them they could go on a different day. As soon as we got into the park, the girls started asking about it. We told them they could go and they headed inside. While we were waiting, Svieta asked us if she minded if we got some cotton candy. She knew that if she got some the girls would want some too. We told her that was fine with us. She got cotton candy that was larger than she was! When the girls finished in the house of mirrors, they wanted cotton candy too! We bought one cotton candy and made the 3 girls split it. They totally enjoyed themselves. When the cotton candy was finished, the girls immediately began discussing which rides they wanted to go on. They went on the roller coaster, the crocodile, the centrifugal force ride, and a ride which was like a very large swing that went back and forth. When we were finished with the rides, we headed to the playground and played on the playground equipment for a little while. The girls had a great time and they were totally filthy by the time we left. We headed for the ice cream shop next for some super delicious ice cream. I’ve even figured out how to order the ice cream I want! It was a very fun day! When we got back to the orphange, we asked Svieta to ask the orphanage workers if the girls were allowed to go to the sea and if they had bathing suits. She told us they would look for bathing suits that night and that if we tested the water and thought it was warm enough, we could go in! We didn’t tell the girls because we wanted it to be a surprise. When we got home, we were too exhausted to do much of anything. The weather has been consistently in the 90s and it has been totally draining. We don’t have air-conditioning in our apartment, so we usually don’t want to do much more than lay around! We decided that we would try to head to bed early so that we would be ready for our big day at the beach!

Friday, May 25, 2007

It is now Saturday morning, but I was so tired by the time we got home yesterday that I didn’t take time to journal! Yesterday was definitely a very interesting day…in some ways it was our best day so far and in other ways our worst! Our morning started off wonderfully when Svetlana knocked on our door and told us Sasha was on the phone for us. Sasha told us that he had spoken to the SDA and that he would be able to pick up Amina’s referral in the afternoon. We were so thrilled to know that we would be able to adopt Amina! Also, we had been praying that we wouldn’t have to go to Kiev for our second referral, but we also knew that the SDA rarely, if ever, gives out referrals without seeing the family face to face…even if it is a second referral. We were very excited to hear this! After explaining about Amina, Sasha said something very strange. He said that Ludmilla was very upset about some things that had happened and that we should probably buy fruit for all of the children in the orphanage. We were more than willing to buy fruit for the orphanage, but we were totally confused as to what Ludmilla was upset about. When we got to the orphanage to pick up the girls, we were called into Ludmilla’s office. I thought we were being called in to talk about Amina, but Mark and Christine came in with us. What happened next was very surprising. We spent what seemed like 3 hours, but was probably closer to 45 minutes being lectured by Ludmilla. She wanted to make sure we understood how much the orphanage does for the children and that we respected that. She felt that there were other families who did not appreciate how much the orphanage does for the children and does not put the needs of the children first. It had nothing to do with us…and I am sure that the families that she felt were not respectful were not intentionally disrespectful. I think it was a misunderstanding combined with cultural differences. The end result was that Ludmilla said that we were only allowed to spend one hour with the children and that it had to be on the orphanage grounds. The girls were very disappointed that we would not be taking them to lunch. I felt especially bad for Amina as this was the first day we would have been able to take her out! We were very disappointed. When we were finished our meeting with Ludmilla, we were told that the girls would have dance practice for an hour. We took that opportunity to run out and get lunch for ourselves and fruit for the orphanage. Svieta took us to her favorite pizza place. The pizzas were a lot more like a traditional American pizza. They let you choose what toppings you want and then hand make the pizza when you order. It was really quite tasty. I got chicken and mushrooms and Fred got ham and pineapple. When we were finished lunch, we headed to Amstor for fruit. We bought a ton of fruit. It cost us $60, but we figured it was quite worth it to restore our good relationship with the orphanage. When we got back to the orphanage, Fred and I began playing Frisbee with the girls while Mark and Christine were meeting with Svieta. While we were playing, a few children from the orphanage came outside. I suggested that we toss the Frisbee to some of the other kids. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but eventually we had lots of kids playing with 2 frisbees and a soccer ball. We had such a wonderful time playing with all the children. It was exciting to get to know the children by name and to see Amina and Khrystyna interacting with their friends. We also were able to get lots of fun pictures of the kids who played with us. When we left the orphanage that evening, the children were all hugging us and telling us that they loved us! It was really cute. It made me wish we could take home more with us. Maybe someday we’ll be back for more! By the time we left the orphanage, it was 6 pm. We headed home for desperately needed showers and then we walked over to Papa Karlo (they have wi-fi) to upload a few pictures and to update the blog and let everyone know that we got permission to adopt Amina! WOOHOO! The day had been emotionally and physically exhausting, so we didn’t stay at Papa Karlo for very long. Mark and Christine were at Papa Karlo when we got there and their driver was waiting to take them home. Thankfully, he was willing to take us home too! I probably could write 10 pages on everything that happened today, but it’s probably better that I keep it fairly short.

Good news

We finally have good news to report! Sasha called this morning to tell us that he would be able to pick up Amina's referral this afternoon. We will not need to travel to Kiev to pick up the referral. Amina was thrilled and called us mama and papa today. We'll post more later! Thanks for your prayers!!!!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

We hoped that by the end of the day the SDA would have made a decision about our adoption of Amina, however, we are still waiting. We woke up this morning, spent some time hanging around the apartment, and then decided to walk to the internet café. We headed down there so that we could update our blog. We also hoped to be able to pick up 2 more necklaces for the girls. We spent a little time at the internet café uploading pictures and updating our blog and then headed out to buy the necklaces. We knew that we didn’t have too much time before we would be meeting Svetlana and our driver. When we hadn’t heard something by noon, I decided to call Sasha. I’m sure he is as eager to hear from the SDA as we are…just so we’ll stop pestering him. When I talked to him, he said that the SDA had called in the morning and asked for our case number. He thought that was a good sign and that we would hear something by this afternoon. He told me he’d call as soon as he heard something. We headed off to buy some necklaces from a local vendor. Also, I was really hoping to buy a few bowls. Our apartment only has 2 bowls and they are small. Svetlana bought sunflower seeds and so one of the bowls is sitting on the table with the sunflower seeds in it. It makes it really hard for 2 people to eat pasta or cereal. I was able to find some bowls for 2 grivna (40 cents) each. We weren’t able to find the same necklaces that we bought yesterday, but we were able to find similar necklaces. After our purchases, we headed back to the internet café to meet Svetlana and Andre, our driver. He picked us up and took us back to the apartment so we could drop off our laptop before we headed to the orphanage. We quickly unloaded the laptop, grabbed a Frisbee and a soccer ball and headed to the orphanage to pick up Khrystyna. We still are not able to take Amina with us. While we were waiting outside at the orphanage, Amina came outside. We were able to talk to her for a few minutes. I’m so glad that she speaks some English…it’s not much, but it’s nice to be able to say “How are you?” and have her say “I am fine…How are you?” She’s sooo cute! She looked sad as she headed back inside. I’m sure that the wait is killing her as well. When she got to the door to go back inside, we called her back over and gave her a pack of gum. I wish we could do more, but for now that will have to be enough. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to take her with us. After Amina went inside, Khrystyna and Masha came running outside. So far I have managed to not comment on everyone’s clothing, so you’ll have to forgive me for describing what Khrystyna had on. She had on a pair of homemade looking shorts in a bizarre floral pattern that were extremely short and a top that came nowhere near her belly button! It was definitely not one of her best outfits, but she still looked really cute. I just don’t want her dressing like that when she gets back home. While we were getting ready to leave for lunch, Svetlana thought of another café we hadn’t visited yet. Although the food at Papa Karlo and Levotttime has been good, we were ready for something different. The café she took us too was actually air conditioned. It felt so good!!!! Unfortunately, it took forever to get our food and the food wasn’t very tasty. I would go back there again if for no other reason than it is the only air-conditioned place we’ve found and it’s been extremely hot! After eating lunch, we headed to the park by the sea with the inflatable crocodile. We had talked about going to the beach today, however, we decided on the park because it’s a lot more shaded. We spent some time playing Frisbee and kicking the soccer ball around before we let Masha and Khrystyna jump on the crocodile. After the crocodile, the girls wanted to go on 2 more rides, but we told them they had to choose between the roller coaster and the centrifugal force ride. Also, we told them that we wanted to go play on the playground equipment before going on a ride. They played on the playground for a little while longer and then headed over to the centrifugal force ride. Mark and Fred went on the ride with them. They all really enjoyed themselves. After the ride, we headed for the ice cream shop where we got the yummy banana splits yesterday. I got ice cream with bananas, pineapples, and shaved chocolate. Khrystyna got her ice cream with strawberries, bananas, and chocolate. Fred chose a banana split. While we waited for the ice cream to come out, I pulled out my picture/word flashcards and quizzed Masha and Khrystyna. They are both very good at reading the words, but they are not as good at remembering what the name of each picture is. We’ll keep working on it. The more English words they can learn, the easier things will be when they get to the US. When we were finished with our ice cream, we headed back to the orphanage with the girls. We still hadn’t heard back from Sasha. By this time, we knew that we had already missed today’s train to Kiev. After we dropped the girls off and said our goodbyes, we headed back to the apartment. When we got back to the apartment, Sasha called. He said that the SDA had pulled Amina’s file and that they had called him to see if we had been approved by US Immigration for more than 1 child. Sasha told them that we had approval for 3 children. They told him they would look into it and get back with him. Sasha thinks we should know something by tomorrow. Please pray that God will work a miracle and that we will NOT have to go to Kiev for our referral. If they can get us the referral without seeing us again, it will shave a few days off of our trip. Also, since Monday is a holiday, the earliest business day that we could be in Kiev would be Tuesday. This whole adoption process is a ton of logistics, so just pray for all the details to be processed smoothly and quickly! After our phone call with Sasha, we relaxed and watched a DVD on our laptop. Now that the movie is over, we are heading to bed! I know I said this yesterday, but hopefully I will have some good news for you tomorrow!

Whew! It's HOT! ;-)

Weather Forecast... It's definitely starting to warm up here. There is not rain forecasted for any of these days! Hopefully we'll be able to find a place in the shade or maybe we'll take the girls to the beach. We bought a kite, a frisbee, and a soccer ball so a day at the beach could be quite fun!

Thursday
82° F | 64° F
28° C | 18° C

Friday
87° F | 68° F
31° C | 20° C

Saturday
93° F | 75° F
34° C | 24° C

Sunday
89° F | 73° F
32° C | 23° C

Monday
89° F | 66° F
32° C | 19° C

Denver and Fort Wayne families!

Just wanted to say a quick hello to all of you families who are waiting to adopt. We will try to get as many pictures of your children as we can. We are grateful for your prayers and will be praying that your adoption journey moves along quickly and smoothly! Thanks for all of your e-mails and kind words! Also, Aimee, thanks for providing a picture of all the kids who were in Denver. It will make it easier for us to spot them and take pictures!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

We really hoped that we would have good news to report today, but we are still waiting to hear back from the SDA. When we woke up this morning, we spent some time straightening our apartment and eating breakfast and then we headed to the center of the city. Svetlana told us she would meet us downtown at 1pm. We knew that Sasha would be taking our documents to the SDA around 11am and do we were anxiously awaiting his call. We figured we would do some shopping at the outdoor vendors as well as the mall. When we spoke with Khrystyna on her birthday, we asked her if there was anything special she would like us to bring her when we came to Ukraine. She asked for a necklace. We had been planning on bringing her a locket and having it engraved when we got home with the date of her adoption. We were told by our facilitator not to give our children any gifts of consequence until they are in our permanent custody. Unfortunately, anything that we give to them while they are still in the orphanage has to be left in the orphanage. They are not even allowed to take any clothes with them. We were told that we will need to bring clothes and shoes for the children we adopt when we pick them up at the orphanage for the last time! Since we have decided to adopt Amina as well, we didn’t think it would be fair to give Khrystyna a necklace and not give one to Amina, so we decided to wait until we got home. We wanted to buy necklaces for the girls that they could wear while they are here. We hoped to find something in the marketplace for under $10 each. On our way to the mall, we stopped at a street vendors table. She had lots of little silver(ish) necklaces with hearts. When I asked her how much they were, she told me in Russian. I was slightly confused, so I asked her again in English. She held up 3 fingers. I figured she meant 30 grivna each with is about $6. That seemed pretty reasonable to me, so we picked out two necklaces that were very similar with only a slight difference. Each were heart shaped with one small diamond-like stone. She said another number in Russian for the total….I figured she said 60 grivna, so we handed her 100 grivna. She looked a little annoyed that we gave her such a large bill. I figured she was just annoyed because it was so early in the morning and she didn’t have much change. When she gave her our change, we thanked her in Russian and walked away. We are so glad she didn’t understand much English. I told Fred that I thought she meant 30 grivna…$6. Each necklace really was only 3 grivna….60 cents. We are going to go back again tomorrow morning so we can try to buy 2 more of the necklaces we bought today. That way, when they leave the orphanage and have to take their necklaces off, we can give them another one. I’m sure it will probably turn their necks green, but they’ll enjoy it anyway! After spending some time in the mall, we headed to the park in the center of the city. We changed some money and waited for Svetlana to pick us up. We also were still waiting for Sasha to call. At 1pm, Svetlana picked us up and we headed for the orphanage. When we got to the orphanage, Mark and Christine were waiting, but the girls weren’t around. After a few minutes, we saw Khrystyna standing up in an upstairs window with her friend. They came running downstairs. Khrystyna introduced us to her friend Luba…the girl that has been in the hospital. She looked very healthy to us! After a minute, Masha joined the other girls. We stood talking for a few minutes while we waited for Svetlana to join us. While we were waiting for Svetlana, Ludmilla arrived at the orphanage. She is still not feeling well, so please pray for her health. Khrystyna and Masha each gave her a big hug and Luba went back inside. While the girls talked to Ludmilla, a group of children arrived home from school. Amina was one of the girls in that group. She immediately ran over and hugged us. While she was standing with us, Ludmilla asked Khrystyna and Amina if they would be good sisters to each other. They both agreed and she made them promise. I’m really glad that they are both looking forward to being sisters! When we left for lunch a few minutes later, Khrystyna asked why Amina couldn’t come with us again. I know she is really looking forward to having Amina be able to spend time with her every day. Ludmilla and Svetlana both talked to Amina today to make sure that she understood that we are doing everything in our power to adopt her and that we are just waiting to find out if we will get approval from Kiev. Lunch today was at a cafeteria that we have eaten at a few times with the girls. I think it is called LevottTime. Ludmilla said that the girls were supposed to eat soup for lunch since they would have a long dance practice after lunch. Svetlana explained that to them, but Masha and Khrystyna both got crab salad, soup, French fries, and bread. Svetlana seemed to think that was totally acceptable. Oh well, I’m sure Ludmilla just didn’t want them to get sick. After lunch, we had 30 minutes to do something fun before we had to get the girls back to the orphanage for dance practice. We decided to walk over to the park in the center of town. It has a good sized playground that is well shaded and 2 really huge inflatable bouncey things. The bigger of the 2 bouncy things had all kinds of things you could climb as well as 2 slides and lots of places to jump. For 10 grivna, you got 10 minutes on the large bouncy thing. Khrystyna and Masha had a great time. When their 10 minutes was up, we headed over to the playground. The girls swung on the swings, climbed across the monkey bars, went down the slide a few times, and then decided to play on the merry-go-round. At first, Masha and Khrystyna tried to push themselves, but Mark quickly jumped in and pushed them. They went really fast and were having a great time. Fred took a turn pushing the merry-go-round after Mark. When it was time to go, we told the girls they had to get off the merry-go-round. They were really agreeable and quickly got off. Fred and Mark decided that they should have a chance to ride it, so they jumped on and had the girls push them. After only 30 seconds, a very ANGRY looking old woman came over and started yelling at them in Russian. Apparently, the playground is only for children. I think Fred and Mark act like children…doesn’t that count? Fred and Mark quickly got off the merry-go-round and we all headed back to the orphanage. There was a vendor set up selling inflatable Scooby doos on the way back. Khrystyna asked for one and we told her no. We had brought 3 bags of cookies with us…1 for Khrystyna, 1 for Amina, and 1 for Masha. We told Khrystyna we would give her cookies instead of Scooby Doo. We gave Khrystyna and Masha their cookies right then. When we got back to the orphanage, we said goodbye to Khrystyna and Masha. We also gave Khrystyna a bag of cookies to give to Amina. As hard as it is for Fred and I to wait to hear back from the SDA about Amina, I’m sure it must be even harder for Amina. Please pray that the SDA will make an immediate favorable decision! We are praying for a miracle! We are praying that the SDA will decide that we don’t need to come back to Kiev for the referral and that they will be able to fax the paperwork so we can get the process moving along more quickly! After saying goodbye to the girls, Mark and Christine headed back to their apartment and Svetlana, Fred, and I headed for Amstor. I wanted to pick up some more bread from their bakery. We were able to pick up our groceries in less than 15 minutes and Fred and I headed back to our apartment. Svetlana had the driver drop her off in the city center by the shops and told us she’d walk home later. By the time we got home today, we were quite tired so we took a little nap. We also laid around and read for awhile. I decided I should probably cook dinner around 7. I had picked up some pasta and tomato sauce earlier this week, so I thought we’d have spaghetti with some fresh bread. While the pasta was cooking, I opened up the jar of tomato sauce. It had the look and consistency of ketchup. I tasted a small bit and it tasted quite strange…not at all like spaghetti sauce. I decided that I should probably make a cheese sauce for the pasta instead. When Fred came into the kitchen, I told him that the pasta sauce tasted funny and that I was going to make a cheese sauce instead. He tasted the sauce and said it was fine. I told him I wasn’t sure, but he insisted that it would taste good. When I finshed pouring the sauce over the pasta, it looked like a big pink blob. It didn’t taste horrible (I was starving), but it did taste rather strange. Fred only ate 2 bites before he decided that it tasted funny and he didn’t want anymore. I made quite a bit of it because I thought we’d both enjoy some spaghetti with yummy bread. Fred ended up eating mostly bread for supper. When Svetlana came in the kitchen, we were dumping the remainder of the spaghetti in the trash. I didn’t want to seem rude, so I told her that normally we would offer her some, but that it tasted really funny. She asked if the pasta was different than what we were used to in the states. I told her that the pasta was the same, but I thought that the spaghetti sauce tasted really different. She asked if I used the can that was sitting on the kitchen table. I told her that I had and she started laughing really hard! She told me that the sauce I used isn’t really a pasta sauce, it’s some kind of special tomato sauce that is used in making borscht! She told me that she would help me find pasta sauce later on in this week. Fred told me that he thought that this meal was one of the worst meals we’ve had….he said that there was a strange breakfast that we had in Kiev that was worse, but that he didn’t think it was my fault that the spaghetti turned out horrible. Oh well, I guess we’ll go back to eating out while we’re here. It costs about the same to cook or eat out here. Our meals at the cafeteria for the 2 of us have typically been about $5. After dinner, we relaxed a little more. I wanted to blog about our day before heading to bed. We are hoping that we will hear something first thing tomorrow morning so we can plan the rest of our trip! We’ll keep you posted!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Our plan for today was to relax during the morning, go to the internet café around 10:30am, and then head over to the orphanage to pick up the girls at 1pm. We usually try to pick them up at 1 and take them to lunch. As we were getting ready to walk out the door this morning, Svetlana told us that she needed us to come with her to the notary to sign some papers. We figured it wouldn’t take long and that we could head to the internet café when we were finished. We got in the car and headed off. Svetlana said she needed to make a stop on the way. When we stopped, she hopped out of the car and told us to wait for her, she would be back in a minute. We waited in the car for over 30 minutes. We drove for 5 minutes and then stopped at the court building we were at yesterday. We started to get out, but she told us we needed to wait for her again. This time, we waited over an hour! By the time we finally got to the notary, it was 1:30pm. She dropped some documents, told us to wait for Lena the translator, and left to go sign documents at the court with Mark and Christine. We signed a document at the notary that said we would like to adopt Amina as well as Khrystyna. We were there for a while longer before Svetlana finally came back for us. We headed over to the orphanage and played with the girls for a few minutes while Svetlana took care of some paperwork in the orphanage. While Svetlana was inside, Amina came out and hugged us and said hello. She then told Masha and Khrystyna that they needed to go inside and practice dancing. While the girls were inside, Svetlana came outside and was ready to leave for lunch. By this time it was 3:45pm! We had planned on eating almost 3 hours before and we were STARVING! While we waited for the girls, one of our drivers took Svetlana back to the apartment to pick up some documents. When Svetlana came back to the orphanage, the girls were still inside. She decided to go inside to look for them. Khrystyna came out shortly after Svetlana went inside. Amina came out next, but Masha still hadn’t come out yet. Amina and Khrystyna headed back in to look for Masha, but they couldn’t find her either. When Masha made her appearance, we were ready to head for the car. Unfortunately, we still do not have permission for Amina to spend time with us outside the orphanage. When we were getting ready to leave, Khrystyna asked if Amina was coming with us. Svetlana told her that Amina wasn’t allowed to come. Khrystyna looked sad, but Amina looked even sadder. She gave us a hug and said goodbye! We felt totally bad leaving her. Ludmilla, the orphanage director was out sick again today, so she was not able to call the adoption center in Kiev or talk to Amina. Nataliya, the orphanage psychologist talked to Amina today and asked if she would like to be adopted by us. She said that she would really like to be part of our family. Amina wrote a letter to the court requesting that they allow us to adopt her. Natliya told her that we really want to adopt her, however, we would have to wait to see if the State Department of Adoption would give their approval. Sasha, our facilitator in Kiev, told us that he expected to know something by tomorrow around noon. We are really hoping for good news. If the adoption center agrees to allow us to adopt Amina, we will head back to Kiev in the next few days to get our referral for her. Also, if things go well at the adoption center tomorrow, Sasha will ask the orphanage for permission for us to start taking Amina with us on a regular basis.

When we finally got to Papa Karlo for lunch, it was after 4 pm. We were starving. While we loading up our trays, Khrystyna asked if she could get chips. I told her that she could have a bag of chips. She then asked if she could have 2 bags? She told me that 1 was for her and she gestured that the other one was for someone else. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was saying, so I told Khrystyna to ask Svetlana. Svetlana explained that she wanted to buy chips for a friend. I asked which friend it was and she told me that it was her friend Luba. She told me that Luba has been in the hospital and today was her first day back at the orphanage. Khrystyna also wanted to buy Luba a pack of gum. We let her buy chips, gum, and a bottle of sparkling water for Luba. She was so excited about buying these things for Luba After we paid and sat down, Svetlana said “You have 10 minutes to eat and then we have to leave.” I literally inhaled my food. I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even take any pictures. We all finished quickly and hopped back into our cars. Svetlana had to take our documents to someone who would be taking them on the train to Kiev. Our drivers dropped Mark, Christine, Masha, Fred, Khrystyna, and I off at the park where we took Amina and Khrystyna on Saturday. Masha had not been there before. We only had 30 minutes to play at the park before Svetlana would be returning and we had to have the girls back to the orphanage around 5pm. We let the girls play on the crocodile slide for a little while and then we agreed to let them take one turn on the roller coaster. When they were finished with those things, we headed back to the car. Svetlana hadn’t returned yet, so we pulled out the soccer ball and let them kick it around for a few minutes. It didn’t take very long for Svetlana to get back and we headed back to the orphanage. As soon as we got back to the orphanage, Khrystyna jumped out of the car and told me that she was taking her gifts to Luba. She literally ran into the orphange! She came back out a minute later, hugged us, and said goodbye. We agreed to meet the Niles for ice cream at a local ice cream place. Svetlana had to go to a meeting, so were on our own. The menu was in Russian, but we were able to figure out some of the important words…like dessert and banana split! I ordered a banana split. Fred told me to order for him. That he wanted something chocolate. I wasn’t sure if I ordered him chocolate ice cream or ice cream with chocolate on it. When our food came out, his dessert was like a chocolate mousse. My dessert was ice cream on a plate full of fresh fruit! It was fabulous! The ice cream here is better than any ice cream I’ve had anywhere else and the fruit was really good too. There was a ton of kiwi, pineapple, banana, strawberries, and oranges! It was quite tasty and it only cost $2.40 USD. Fred’s mousse was only $1.00. After ice cream, we headed to the internet café to update our blog and upload pictures. We spent a little time uploading pictures and then we headed back to the apartment. We are all exhausted and have been laying around the apartment tonight being lazy! I’m super tired, but I wanted to write about today while it was still fresh in my mind! Please forgive my spelling and grammar…my mind is ready for bed! Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good news to report. Also, we will try to post more pictures then!

Thompson Family Photo

Here is a picture of our new family!

Monday 5/21/2007

Today was a fun day, but it was also very busy. Svetlana left our apartment this morning at 8am to take care of some documents. She called us at 10:15 to tell us that Andre, our driver was on the way to pick us up. Fred was watching out the window of our apartment for our driver when he started calling my name and telling me to come to the window. There was a man walking by our apartment with a very large rat of his shoulder. It had a long nasty tail! That’s not something you see every day. The man and his pet rat were gone when Andre pulled up. We headed out to the car and Andre drove us to the city office building. The mayor, head of social work for the city, and other important city officials have their offices here. We were introduced to the director of social work and then we sat and waited for a little while so that we could meet with the assistant mayor. Our meeting with the assistant mayor was brief, but quite hilarious. When we were ushered into her office, she began speaking in Russian and holding out her left hand. Fred walked up to her and put out his right hand in order to shake her hand, but then he noticed she was holding out her left hand. He tried to move the stuff he had in his left hand to his right hand and did some strange looking handshake dance. He’d put out his right hand, then his left hand, then his right again. Finally, our translator informed us that she just kept telling us to sit down. Apparently, she had no desire to shake our hands…she just wanted us to sit down and get the meeting underway. We brought up Fred’s handshake dance later on with our translator and she laughed really hard. She agreed with me that Fred was hilarious! The assistant to the mayor asked a few questions about our relationship with Khrystyna, she asked us if we went to church, and if we had any other children. Our answers must have all been satisfactory because she wished us good luck and told us that she was in agreement with our adoption. After our meeting, Svetlana had more work to do, so we agreed that our drivers would drop us off at the internet café and she would call us when she was finished working and we could meet at the orphanage and then take the girls to lunch. She thought she would be done around 12:30. We spent 30 minutes in the internet café and then wandered through downtown to the mall.. We spent a really long time in the mall. We were able to find a Frisbee in the mall that made a whistling noise when you threw it. We also bought Madagascar and Finding Nemo in Russian. Mark and Christine picked up Shrek, Princess Diaries, and Toy Story 2 in Russian. At 1:30pm, we still hadn’t heard from Svetlana so Mark tried to call her. She didn’t answer her phone. She finally called my cell at 2:20 and said she would meet us at the orphanage. Our driver came and picked us up in front of the internet café and took us to the orphanage. Svetlana called to tell us she would be a little while longer so we got out the Frisbee and played with Masha and Khrystyna in the orphanage parking lot. When Svetlana arrived, she told us that she had been meeting with Khrystyna’s brother. He signed all the necessary paperwork that says he agrees with Khrystyna’s adoption. We are really looking forward to meeting him and will probably get to meet him later on this week. Svetlana said he is a very handsome young man. He is currently working and going to the university simultaneously and is studying economics. After Svetlana shared this info with us, we piled into our cars and headed for Papa Karlos. We were starving!!! Fred chose 3 different chicken entrees, some grapejuice, and a large piece of chocolate cake. I had chicken breast with cheese and mushrooms on it, a yummy garlic roll, and some apple juice. Khrystyna had some kind of salad made with ham, mayonnaise, peas, and cucumbers, a chicken drumstick, a pink heart shaped pastry, grape juice, and a bag of salted dry tuna (YUCK!). Khrystyna scarfed down her food and had her heart shaped cake eaten before we all finished our regular meals. When Fred tried a piece of his cake, he practically gagged. He said it tasted like it was loaded with rum or something. Before Masha started eating her fruity looking cake, she offered half to Mark. After taking one bite, she offered the rest to Christine. Masha said it wasn’t very good. Mark, Christine, and Svetlana all tried it and agreed that it was nasty. Svetlana then took a bite of Fred’s cake and declared that it was much worse. She said “There is definitely something not right with this cake.” Fred wholeheartedly agreed. The girls then started eating there dried salted fish in a bag. They offered us some, but Mark smelled it and immediately gave it back to Masha. Fred and I both refused it and Christine agreed to dry it. She made the most hilarious face when she tasted a small bite. It must have been quite bad because Christine is a pretty adventuresome eater! Also, later on in the day, Masha offered a piece of her fish to a cat on the orphanage grounds. The cat sniffed the fist, stuck its nose up in the air, and walked away! I’ve never heard of a cat turning down fish products before. When we finished lunch, we headed back to the orphanage to sign some medical documents. The orphanage doctor showed us the immunization record and medical record for Khrystyna and then showed Masha’s reports to Mark and Christine. After signing papers, we played Frisbee for a few more minutes with the girls while we waited for Svetlana to talk to a few more people in the orphanage. While we were playing, the girls were called in the orphanage. While we were waiting for the girls and/or Svetlana to come back outside, a group of girls came outside. The group included Amina, Vika (one of the girls that came to Fort Wayne last summer) and Lena (a girl that is a friend of Masha and Amina). They headed out to the place that housed the cat with her new kittens. The new kittens are very tiny and very cute. We got some great pictures of Amina with the little kittens. When Svetlana came out, she said we needed to hurry to the courthouse to take some papers to the judge. She said that we would have a chance to see the girls again tomorrow. On the way to the courthouse, I realized that we were turning in our documents for Khrystyna and we hadn’t made a decision on how to spell her name or what her middle name would be. Fred and I decided in the car that her “new” name would be Khrystyna Ann Thompson. We decided to use our mother’s middles names as the girls middle names. Amina’s middle name will be Lynn. The court building is a very old building that smells inside. We waited for a few minutes and then we met with the judge’s assistant. She asked us what name we wanted to Khrystyna and we wrote it down on paper for her. She said OK and asked us a few quick questions about our relationship with Khrystyna. She then asked Fred and I if this was our first marriage. I’m not really sure what it mattered, but we answered her and she dismissed us. Mark and Christine headed into the office next and picked out their name and spelling for Masha. We had hoped to discuss Khrystyna’s middle name and the spelling of her first name with her before we gave the info to the judge’s assistant, however, we didn’t have time. When Masha and Khrystyna had been called into the orphanage earlier, they were writing their letters that state that they agree with the adoption and that they think of us as parents. When we got back to the orphanage, the girls were finished with their letters and were playing outside. Svetlana translated for Mark and Christine as they told Masha her new name. They chose Maria Elizabeth. Masha is a nickname for Maria although her Russian name is spelled Mariya. They chose to go with a more traditional spelling of Maria because they were afraid that people would mispronounce it. When the told Masha the name they chose, she said she really like Elizabeth and could they call her that. We’ll have to see what she ends up going with. Next Svetlana explained how American names work to Khrystyna and that you have a first and a middle name. We told Khrystyna what her name would be. The only piece of paper I had with me was one of my Master Spas business cards, so I wrote her new name on the back of it. After we told her new name and showed her how to spell it, she and Masha were comparing their names. Another friend came over and Masha was telling them her full name and Khrystyna was telling her full name. It was quite cute. We played some more Frisbee and then said goodbye to Khrystyna. We headed for the grocery store, picked up a few things for dinner and then headed back to our apartment. When we got back to our apartment, we called Sasha, our facilitator in Kiev to get an update on the process of adopting Amina. He said that the orphanage director was not feeling well today, so he hadn’t been able to talk to her for long, but that we should be able to talk to Amina tomorrow to find out if she wants to be adopted by us. If she does (which we are seriously hoping is the case), Ludmilla will call the SDA in Kiev to let them know that we are here to adopt Khrystyna, but we met another girl and would like to adopt her as well. The SDA will then pull her paperwork and make sure all is in order with her and then they will give us a date to go get our referral. We could leave as soon as tomorrow afternoon. If you don’t hear from us for a few days, it’s probably because we are spending hours and hours on a train.

Please continue to pray for us! We have really appreciated all your prayers and your e-mails. I apologize that I have not been able to respond to every email you have sent. We have been very busy and our time at the internet café is not always productive. During our 30 minutes in the café today, the internet was down for about 20 of those minutes. When it finally came back up, I started typing a message, but before I could get anything done, our time ran out. Anyway, we are so thankful for each of you. Some of have asked how you can specifically pray for us, so here are some specifics…
*Pray that our conversation with Amina will go well
*Pray that Khrystyna will be happy that we have chosen
Amina to be her sister.
*Pray that our process will continue to go smoothly and
that our court date will be very soon!
*Pray for our translator and facilitators. They are
working round the clock to make our adoption happen as
quickly and smoothly as possible. They are amazing!!!!
*Pray that those we spend time with on this trip will see
Jesus in us and that we will be able to share God’s love
with them.
*Pray that Amina’s paperwork will be in order and that
we will get an appointment with the SDA quickly.
*Last, but definitely not least, please pray that we will
continue to bond and grow as a family. The time we
have here is really special and we want to make the most
of it!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Although we have started the process to adopt Amina, we haven’t been able to ask her if she wants to be adopted by us or even to mention it to her! Until that time, we are only allowed to take Kristina (or is it Khrystyna?) Who knows?!?!? Anyway, Mark and Christine and Fred and I decided that it would be fun to take Khrystyna and Masha to the Extreme Fun Park. It’s like Funspot (for those of you in Indiana) or a very, very small Six Flags! Since we will probably start including Amina in all of our outings within the next week, I figured it would be more fun for Masha to go with just Khrystyna. It’s really hard to take 3 girls somewhere without 1 of them feeling left out…especially in a place where most rides are designed for 2 people! We decided that it would be best to go to the park after lunch so the girls would have more time. We picked up Khrystyna and Masha at the orphanage this morning at 11 and headed for the center of the city to get lunch. We had a little bit of time, so we walked around the center of the city with Svetlana and she showed us where the stores were and a few good restaurants so that we can walk around in the city during the day without her. After walking for a while, we stopped at a pizzeria. The menus were in Russian, but Svetlana helped translate what was on the various pizzas. Fred had pizza with chicken and pineapples and I got pizza with chicken and mushrooms. It was out of this world. Khrystyna doesn’t like pizza, so she ordered a salad. When her salad came out, it was in a goblet. Her salad was made up of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and crabmeat with a big glob of mayo on top that was covered with cheese. Not exactly what I was expecting when she ordered a salad. After lunch, we loaded back up in our cars and headed to the Extreme Park. When the translator was telling me about it earlier this week, she told me it was an indoor amusement park. When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t decide whether to wear jeans or shorts, but since we were going to be inside all day, I figured I’d save my shorts for a day when we would be outside. I checked with Svetlana again before we left our apartment this morning since she was in shorts and a tank top, but something must have gotten lost in translation. When I asked if the park was inside, she said yes so I wore my jeans! Needless to say, when we pulled up to the amusement park, it was outside…and it was a really HOT day. It cost 1 grivna per person to enter the amusement park which is the equivalent of 20 cents. Each ride in the park cost 1-3 grivnas per person depending on the ride. We let the girls pick which rides they wanted to go on. They picked out a ride with swings that fly around in a circle…something you see quite regularly at carnivals and Fred and Mark agreed to go on it with them. They also wanted to go on a ride that looked like a waterslide and that’s what it was except instead of wearing a bathing suit, you go down the water slide in a little inflatable rubber raft. We let them go on that by themselves…it looked fun to me except I was burning up and you had to go up a zillion steps to get to the top of the slide. After the slide, we headed for a freefall ride. Mark and Masha and Khrystyna and I rode together. It didn’t look very high from the ground, but once we got up in the air, it was really quite scary! After the freefall ride, Khrystyna, Masha, Mark, and Fred headed for one of those rides that is shaped like a banana where 4 people sit in each car facing each other and the ride pivots on an arm and goes up and down in a U shape. I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about because I described that horribly, but if you look at the pictures, it might make sense. While waiting in line for that ride, the girls noticed we were next to the bumper cars, they bought tickets and headed for the bumper cars with Mark and Fred. Khrystyna and Masha started out together in one car, but then when Mark and Fred were let in, Masha got out and got in a car with Mark. That left Khrystyna and Fred together in one car, however, there was one car left, so Khrystyna hopped out and rode by herself. They all seemed to have a really fun time. We had bought tickets for a few rides before heading for the freefall, but after the last ride, Masha decided she didn’t want to go on the roller coaster. She said she wanted to go down the slide again. Khrystyna said she wanted to go down the slide again as well. We told Khrystyna that she could go on the slide and the rollercoaster if she wanted and she quickly decided that she wanted to do them both. As Masha and Khrystyna headed for the slide, they made a strange detour and headed for the swings again. We knew they didn’t have tickets for the swings and when we asked the girls what they were doing, they told us that the lady who operated the ride said they could ride for free. I was a little concerned that they had made that up, but it was apparently true since the lady didn’t make them pay. They headed for the slide next! When they were finished on the slide, Khrystyna told us she wanted to ride a children’s ride where these logs float around in this track of water. It looked extremely boring!!! We asked Khrystyna if she wanted one of us to go with her or if she wanted to go with Masha, but she told the translator she wanted to be by herself! We let her go on the ride and I expected her to look extremely bored, however, instead of being bored she was paddling like crazy with her hands. She got to the point where she was bumping the kid in front of her and he was turning around and telling her to stop, but she just kept paddling and bumping him until he decided to start using the walls to push himself along. Who would have guessed a children’s ride could be so fun? After she got off that ride, we headed for the rollercoaster. Fred and Khrystyna went on it together and had a really good time. From the rollercoaster, we moved on to bumper boats. After we got off the bumper boats, we re-connected with Mark, Christine, Masha, and Svetlana. The girls went on the slide a few more times, on the small children’s ride, and then Khrystyna, Fred, and I went on the ferris wheel. After the ferris wheel, we all got some ice cream and the 7 of us headed to the park. We dipped our feet in a fountain and tried to cool off a little. By this point, the adults were all pretty sunburned, so we didn’t stay long in the park. Our drivers came and picked us up and we took the girls for a bite to eat before bringing them back to the orphanage.

After dropping the girls at the orphanage, Fred and I headed back to the apartment. I was so ready to change out of my hot sticky clothing!!! Svetlana went by the internet café with Mark and Christine and they found out that we can bring laptops to the internet café. When Svetlana got home, she decided to rest and Fred and I headed for the internet café. It’s about a ten minute walk from the apartment. Fred felt a little conspicuous carrying a laptop bag so we’ll probably try to pick up something a little less obvious tomorrow. We were able to get on blogger with our laptop! WOOHOO! I should be able to update daily now! We stayed at the internet café for an hour and a half uploading photos and catching up on our blogging. Our time at the internet café cost us 6 grivna…the equivalent of one dollar and twenty cents! We walked quickly back to the apartment so that we would be here before dark. We folded some laundry and hung more up to dry. As I sit here finishing my ramblings for the day, Fred is sound asleep in the other room. He went in to add more air to our air mattress and fell asleep in the middle of the bed. Oh well….we all had a long day and are quite tired. I should probably follow his example! Sweet dreams!

Exciting News!!! Saturday, May 19, 2007 Part 3

We have decided to adopt Amina! We put in our request tonight to our facilitator in Kiev. He will be working hand in hand with our adoption agency in the US. We will also need to talk to Amina to find out if she would like to be adopted by us. Please pray for us as there are a lot of logistics to be worked out. We will have to travel back to Kiev for a referral for Amina. Also, we will have to figure out how to come up with the money for a second child. Getting more US cash in Ukraine is easier said than done!

Thanks so much for your continued prayer and support! We can’t wait for you to meet our 2 beautiful daughters!

Saturday, May 19, 2007 Part 2

When we went to the orphanage this morning to pick up Kristina and Amina, we brought some gifts that prospective adoptive parents had sent to the children that they’d hosted. Mark and Christine had gifts as well. We brought all the kids together whose parents had sent packages and we distributed the gifts. It was really neat to watch these kids open their gifts. They were so excited!! One little boy, Oleksi, who was in Fort Wayne this summer at the same time as Kristina chose me to be the one to share his fun new books with. We were able to put a few stickers in his book and do a few of the mazes. He was absolutely thrilled! We enjoyed watching their little faces light up. Mark and Christine brought their video camera and each child got a chance to say hello to their mamas and papas in America.

After the gift giving, Amina, Kristina, Fred, and I headed out to the park while Mark, Christine, and Masha went to the sea. Not only did the park have playground equipment, but it also had rides. There was a small rollercoaster, a few children’s rides, Centrifuge (or some other kind of centrifical force ride) as well as a large inflatable crocodile slide. It is very similar to one of those inflatable bouncy things, but you can slide or bounce down the back side of it! The rides were quite inexpensive, however, most of the people in the park did not speak English and figuring out which rides took money and which rides took tickets was a little over the top. Thankfully, Amina knew enough English to help us over that hurdle! We were very pleasantly surprised at how good her English is! We went on the roller coast multiple times and then headed for the bouncy crocodile. As we were getting off of the roller coaster, Svetlana (our translator) joined us in the park. Kristina and Amina had the time of their lives on the crocodile. I’m surprised neither of them ended up with any serious injuries…they were like crazy people! They were doing somersaults down the slide and falling all over each other! They interacted so well and had a lot of fun together. After our first crocodile bounce, we got water for everyone and walked down to the sea. It’s amazing how cool it is down by the sea! The girls didn’t enjoy walking nearly as much as riding rides, so we headed back towards the rides. Fred desperately wanted to ride the centrifugal force ride and convinced Kristina and Amina to go with him. I felt sick just looking at the ride. I was worried that one of the girls would get sick and it would spoil a lovely day, however, my fears were unfounded. Both girls thoroughly enjoyed the ride! When they got off the ride, the girls were walking like drunken sailors. It was really funny to watch. We let them take another time on the crocodile and then they rode a ride that I think was designed for 3 year olds. They both looked completely bored out of their mind during the whole ride. Kristina spent half the time re-doing her ponytail and Amina looked like she was ready for a nap. After we finished our morning at the park, we headed for the market so we could meet Mark, Christine, and Masha to get sunglasses for the girls and then head to lunch. Amina and Kristina decided on matching pink sunglasses. They look really cute in them and they seemed happy to have them. We took them to a café for lunch and the girls managed to pack away an impressive amount of food. Thankfully the food isn’t too expensive and the four of us were able to eat for about $12 USD. When lunch was over we headed back to the orphanage. We were only allowed to take Amina for a few hours. We spent a little time hanging out with the kids before we headed back to our apartment with Kristina. She was so exhausted this afternoon that she could barely cope. We ended up spending out afternoon watching a children’s movie. By the end of the movie, she seemed a little more like her old self. By that time, we had to head back to the orphanage. After dropping off the girls, we headed to Amstor, a large grocery store that reminds me of Sam’s Club. We were able to pick up a few items for breakfast and dinners as well as some snack foods. They had a bakery with fresh baked loaves of bread. Our loaf of bread was still warm when they handed it to us and it cost less than 40 cents. I also got a pastry…it looked like a very large cinnamon roll, but it tasted more like a donut! The pastry cost 15 cents. Some things here are really inexpensive while other things are totally overpriced. I was looking at some Nike clothing while we were in Amstor and the shirts that would cost $35 USD in the US cost the equivalent of about $70 USD. It’s kind of crazy! After Amstor, we headed to Papa Karlos, the café we had lunch in yesterday. It’s definitely not as good at dinner time! They didn’t have much of a selection and the food was cold, but it was still quite tasty! We hoped we would be able to e-mail pictures out to all of you when we got home, but Svetlana didn’t want us out again. We feel a little stir-crazy at night! Fred is still working on trying to figure out how to get an internet connection here so he can start doing some work here. Please pray that we will be able to come up with something soon!

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