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!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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!
*
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!
*
Saturday, May 19, 2007 Part 1
The sun comes up really early in Ukraine. By 5am, it is quite bright in our room! Fred got up and immediately started playing on the computer. He’s been trying to figure out a way to get internet in our apartment. Hopefully, he will be successful and we’ll soon be able to update you more regularly! If not, at least our apartment is within walking distance of an internet café, so at least we’ll be able to post more regularly. Our apartment lost power last night for most of the night. Apparently, that is pretty normal here. We were told by other families that have adopted from this region that the power is not reliable. I’m glad they provided us with that info because we packed a flashlight and it came in really handy! We are going to eat breakfast and head out for the day, but we will post more as we have time.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Today is finally the day! We are in Khrystyna’s region and will finally be able to go to the orphanage! When we arrived this morning and got off the train, we thought we’d have a chance to get a little rest. We were quite wrong! When we got to our apartment, we were given an hour to shower and change and get settled in. Our translator didn’t even have that luxury! She hit the ground running and headed off to get documents prepared. When she returned, we headed out to the notary to get our adoption documents notarized. We were supposed to go meet with the social worker from the city and the assistant to the mayor after we finished at the notary, but the social worker and assistant mayor were busy in meetings! We headed to lunch instead! By this point of the day, we were starving. We had brought a small amount of food onto the train with us, but had not eaten since sometime in the middle of the night! Svetlana took us to a wonderful café called Papa Karlos! It had a variety of traditional Ukrainian and Russian dishes as well as what I would call “regular food.” The food was out of this world. I had a mushroom salad, a chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, and some garlic rolls. Fred ate salad, pork and rice, a breaded chicken breast, and some rolls! We were so excited when Svetlana finally said we could go to the orphanage.
When we arrived at the orphanage, Svetlana told us we could all (Mark, Christine, Fred, and I) wait in the green room. The green room is a room filled with plants. It’s quite homey and has a large aquarium with fish and a frog as well as a large, very loud bird! On our way into the green room, we saw Vika and little Masha, two sisters who were also in Fort Wayne this past summer. One of the sisters was diagnosed with a brain tumor this past fall and not expected to live more than a few weeks. When they took her to a hospital in a different region, they were able to operate successfully and remove the tumor. It was the miracle we all prayed for! It was great to see her looking healthy!
We waited for a while before being invited into Ludmilla’s (the director of the orphanage) office. I felt like I was waiting for a first date. I had butterflies in my stomach and was totally nervous. When we arrived in Ludmilla’s office, we sat down and she immediately pulled out a picture frame/clock that she had on her desk. It is the gift we gave her when she visited us in Fort Wayne in March. It has pictures of all the children from the orphanage who are being adopted by families in Fort Wayne. Ludmilla told us that she had a man who came to the orphanage and saw the picture frame and decided he wanted to adopt Khrystyna. Khrystyna told the man she already had a family and did not want to be adopted by him. He tried bribing her to be part of his family and offered her nice gifts, but she still refused. He ended up adopting another child instead! During our meeting, Ludmilla had the orphanage doctor and orphanage social worker join us so they could give us background info on the kids. Also, she invited some other children to come to her office to get candy. The children she invited were children that she thought would potentially be good siblings for Khrystyna or Masha (the little girl being adopted by Mark and Christine).
***As we have gone through this process, we have heard from a number of people that it is often easier for children to adjust if they have a sibling. We have been praying about this for the last 6 months, however, we knew we wouldn’t be able to make any kind of decision before coming to Ukraine. When the orphanage director visited us in March, we told her we were considering adopting a second child. We told her that we were interested in adopting a little girl who would be a few years younger than Khrystyna. She told us she would look into it. A few weeks ago, we were told that they did not have any little girls in that age range that were available for adoption. We broadened our age range to be from 3 to 8. They still did not come up with any other little girls, however, they suggested a little boy who is almost 5. They didn’t provide any info other than a name and age, so we didn’t feel like we could make much of a decision. We decided to wait til we got here.***
When Ludmilla brought up the subject of second children. She reiterated that she did not have any girls younger than Khrystyna that were currently available for adoption, but that she had a little boy named Stanislav. She also mentioned an older girl named Amina that she thought would make a great sister for Khrystyna. We really hadn’t even considered adopting an older child, however, we agreed to see both of the children. When Amina came into the room to pick up some candy for her group, I was immediately struck by how much she looks like a Thompson. She has dark hair that was pulled back in a ponytail and she definitely looked like she could be Fred’s daughter. Ludmilla explained to her that our families were from America. Amina told her that she knew who we were…we were Khrystyna’s mama and papa. She said that she had seen pictures of us. When Stanislav came in, he was so shy he wouldn’t even look up. He just stared at the ground and would barely even talk to the orphanage director. Neither of us felt much of a connection with him!
After the children left the room, we continued our meeting and were given Khrystyna’s medical info. We didn’t learn much that we hadn’t already been told! After they finished talking about Khrystyna, they gave Mark and Christine background info on Masha. When we were all done getting background info we were FINALLY allowed to see the girls! It was so awesome to see Khrystyna! She looked so beautiful! She was really happy to see us as well! We took a walk around the grounds of the orphanage. There was a cat on the orphanage grounds that had recently had kittens. Khrystyna showed us the kittens. They were sooo tiny. After our walk around the grounds, Khrystyna and Masha were called back inside to go practice dancing. While they were inside, Fred and I seriously discussed the possibility of adopting a second child. We felt that we still needed more info, so Fred and I headed back into Ludmilla’s office. This time, it was just the two of us with Svetlana and Lumilla. We were able to ask more questions about Amina and her background. We were told that her dad had been killed in a war and her mom had later died as well. She had been living in the orphanage for 4 years and was well liked by everyone. Ludmilla said she was extremely smart and was all around quite talented! She suggested that if we were interested in getting to know her better, we should spend time with her and Khrystyna together. She suggested we take them out for a few hours today. Ludmilla told Amina and Khrystyna that we wanted to take Khrystyna and one of her friends out tomorrow and would Amina like to be that friend. They both thought that was really cool! We don’t want Amina to know we are considering adopting her because we don’t want her to get her hopes up.
After Ludmilla talked to Khrystyna and Amina, we were able to head out for ice cream. We took Khrystyna with us in the car and Svetlana went with Mark, Christine, and Masha. We ate absolutely delicious ice cream! It may have been the best ice cream I’ve ever had! While we were there, I noticed that there were children’s books to read and little chalkboards for kids to write on. I grabbed one for Khrystyna and one for Masha. Khrystyna wrote I love you in English. She also wrote Fred and Lisa in English. Someone also taught her how to write Khrystyna in English, however, they didn’t translate it literally, they adapted it to a more “American” spelling. She spelled it Kristina…so it looks like that may be how we spell Kristina. We still need to talk to her about it, but we’ll let her decide! After ice cream, we took the girls back to the orphanage. Svetlana rode in the car with us so we could talk to Khrystyna. We asked her if she would prefer to have a sibling or if she wanted to be by herself. She got this huge grin on her face and said she didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, but she really wanted a sibling. That definitely did not make the decision any easier! When we arrived back at the orphanage, the children were outside playing and we got a chance to see Amina in her element. A bunch of kids, boys and girls alike, were chasing her around the playground and she was outrunning them all. She’s really quite cute…and she’s athletic! Khrystyna, who is quite the budding photographer, snapped photo after photo of the other kids, the playground and anything else she could, with the digital camera. All to soon, it was time to say goodbye. We hugged Khrystyna and told her we’d be back tomorrow to pick her up. After we left, we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries and then headed back to our apartment. Svetlana is sharing our apartment with us and Mark and Christine have an apartment that is 5-10 minutes away by car. After arriving home, Fred and I uploaded our photos from the day and spent the rest of the evening talking and praying about adopting Amina… We will keep you posted as more unfolds!
When we arrived at the orphanage, Svetlana told us we could all (Mark, Christine, Fred, and I) wait in the green room. The green room is a room filled with plants. It’s quite homey and has a large aquarium with fish and a frog as well as a large, very loud bird! On our way into the green room, we saw Vika and little Masha, two sisters who were also in Fort Wayne this past summer. One of the sisters was diagnosed with a brain tumor this past fall and not expected to live more than a few weeks. When they took her to a hospital in a different region, they were able to operate successfully and remove the tumor. It was the miracle we all prayed for! It was great to see her looking healthy!
We waited for a while before being invited into Ludmilla’s (the director of the orphanage) office. I felt like I was waiting for a first date. I had butterflies in my stomach and was totally nervous. When we arrived in Ludmilla’s office, we sat down and she immediately pulled out a picture frame/clock that she had on her desk. It is the gift we gave her when she visited us in Fort Wayne in March. It has pictures of all the children from the orphanage who are being adopted by families in Fort Wayne. Ludmilla told us that she had a man who came to the orphanage and saw the picture frame and decided he wanted to adopt Khrystyna. Khrystyna told the man she already had a family and did not want to be adopted by him. He tried bribing her to be part of his family and offered her nice gifts, but she still refused. He ended up adopting another child instead! During our meeting, Ludmilla had the orphanage doctor and orphanage social worker join us so they could give us background info on the kids. Also, she invited some other children to come to her office to get candy. The children she invited were children that she thought would potentially be good siblings for Khrystyna or Masha (the little girl being adopted by Mark and Christine).
***As we have gone through this process, we have heard from a number of people that it is often easier for children to adjust if they have a sibling. We have been praying about this for the last 6 months, however, we knew we wouldn’t be able to make any kind of decision before coming to Ukraine. When the orphanage director visited us in March, we told her we were considering adopting a second child. We told her that we were interested in adopting a little girl who would be a few years younger than Khrystyna. She told us she would look into it. A few weeks ago, we were told that they did not have any little girls in that age range that were available for adoption. We broadened our age range to be from 3 to 8. They still did not come up with any other little girls, however, they suggested a little boy who is almost 5. They didn’t provide any info other than a name and age, so we didn’t feel like we could make much of a decision. We decided to wait til we got here.***
When Ludmilla brought up the subject of second children. She reiterated that she did not have any girls younger than Khrystyna that were currently available for adoption, but that she had a little boy named Stanislav. She also mentioned an older girl named Amina that she thought would make a great sister for Khrystyna. We really hadn’t even considered adopting an older child, however, we agreed to see both of the children. When Amina came into the room to pick up some candy for her group, I was immediately struck by how much she looks like a Thompson. She has dark hair that was pulled back in a ponytail and she definitely looked like she could be Fred’s daughter. Ludmilla explained to her that our families were from America. Amina told her that she knew who we were…we were Khrystyna’s mama and papa. She said that she had seen pictures of us. When Stanislav came in, he was so shy he wouldn’t even look up. He just stared at the ground and would barely even talk to the orphanage director. Neither of us felt much of a connection with him!
After the children left the room, we continued our meeting and were given Khrystyna’s medical info. We didn’t learn much that we hadn’t already been told! After they finished talking about Khrystyna, they gave Mark and Christine background info on Masha. When we were all done getting background info we were FINALLY allowed to see the girls! It was so awesome to see Khrystyna! She looked so beautiful! She was really happy to see us as well! We took a walk around the grounds of the orphanage. There was a cat on the orphanage grounds that had recently had kittens. Khrystyna showed us the kittens. They were sooo tiny. After our walk around the grounds, Khrystyna and Masha were called back inside to go practice dancing. While they were inside, Fred and I seriously discussed the possibility of adopting a second child. We felt that we still needed more info, so Fred and I headed back into Ludmilla’s office. This time, it was just the two of us with Svetlana and Lumilla. We were able to ask more questions about Amina and her background. We were told that her dad had been killed in a war and her mom had later died as well. She had been living in the orphanage for 4 years and was well liked by everyone. Ludmilla said she was extremely smart and was all around quite talented! She suggested that if we were interested in getting to know her better, we should spend time with her and Khrystyna together. She suggested we take them out for a few hours today. Ludmilla told Amina and Khrystyna that we wanted to take Khrystyna and one of her friends out tomorrow and would Amina like to be that friend. They both thought that was really cool! We don’t want Amina to know we are considering adopting her because we don’t want her to get her hopes up.
After Ludmilla talked to Khrystyna and Amina, we were able to head out for ice cream. We took Khrystyna with us in the car and Svetlana went with Mark, Christine, and Masha. We ate absolutely delicious ice cream! It may have been the best ice cream I’ve ever had! While we were there, I noticed that there were children’s books to read and little chalkboards for kids to write on. I grabbed one for Khrystyna and one for Masha. Khrystyna wrote I love you in English. She also wrote Fred and Lisa in English. Someone also taught her how to write Khrystyna in English, however, they didn’t translate it literally, they adapted it to a more “American” spelling. She spelled it Kristina…so it looks like that may be how we spell Kristina. We still need to talk to her about it, but we’ll let her decide! After ice cream, we took the girls back to the orphanage. Svetlana rode in the car with us so we could talk to Khrystyna. We asked her if she would prefer to have a sibling or if she wanted to be by herself. She got this huge grin on her face and said she didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, but she really wanted a sibling. That definitely did not make the decision any easier! When we arrived back at the orphanage, the children were outside playing and we got a chance to see Amina in her element. A bunch of kids, boys and girls alike, were chasing her around the playground and she was outrunning them all. She’s really quite cute…and she’s athletic! Khrystyna, who is quite the budding photographer, snapped photo after photo of the other kids, the playground and anything else she could, with the digital camera. All to soon, it was time to say goodbye. We hugged Khrystyna and told her we’d be back tomorrow to pick her up. After we left, we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries and then headed back to our apartment. Svetlana is sharing our apartment with us and Mark and Christine have an apartment that is 5-10 minutes away by car. After arriving home, Fred and I uploaded our photos from the day and spent the rest of the evening talking and praying about adopting Amina… We will keep you posted as more unfolds!
Thursday, May17, 2007
Today we got together with Andy and Sherry, another family from the Fort Wayne area. They live in Auburn and attend church with Lisa’s parents and are adopting a little girl from another region. We ate at a small restaurant within walking distance from the SDA. Andy and Sherry had their appointment in the afternoon, so we all arrived early for lunch. Lunch was quite delicious. Sherry and Andy ate borscht and Chicken Kiev and Fred and I ate what they called spaghetti in tomato sauce, however, it was penne pasta in slightly sweet tomato sauce. We also tried some of the chicken kiev and it was fantastic!
After our lunch meeting, we hurried back to our apartment to pack for our trip to Khrystyna’s region. We only had a few minutes to pack so we quickly stuffed everything back in our suitcases and headed for the train station. Our train departed before 5pm for the long journey to Khrystyna’s region.
Fred and I had a train compartment to ourselves. Each compartment is 5 feet wide by 7 feet long and has really skinny bunk beds and a little table. It was extremely small! Also, each compartment was not air conditioned and was quite stuffy. We were told that it was OK to keep our door open during the day, but that at night while we were sleeping, we needed to have our door locked. One of us needed to be in our compartment with our stuff at all times so we didn’t get to venture out in the hallways together, but when we each ventured out separately, we saw that we not the only people who were hot! People were sleeping in their cabins and walking around the train in various stages of undress! Grown men were walking around the train in their underwear! When we finally arrived in Khrystyna’s region, we were exhausted. It was 9am and we had not had much sleep!
We headed for our apartment to take showers and prepare for the day!
After our lunch meeting, we hurried back to our apartment to pack for our trip to Khrystyna’s region. We only had a few minutes to pack so we quickly stuffed everything back in our suitcases and headed for the train station. Our train departed before 5pm for the long journey to Khrystyna’s region.
Fred and I had a train compartment to ourselves. Each compartment is 5 feet wide by 7 feet long and has really skinny bunk beds and a little table. It was extremely small! Also, each compartment was not air conditioned and was quite stuffy. We were told that it was OK to keep our door open during the day, but that at night while we were sleeping, we needed to have our door locked. One of us needed to be in our compartment with our stuff at all times so we didn’t get to venture out in the hallways together, but when we each ventured out separately, we saw that we not the only people who were hot! People were sleeping in their cabins and walking around the train in various stages of undress! Grown men were walking around the train in their underwear! When we finally arrived in Khrystyna’s region, we were exhausted. It was 9am and we had not had much sleep!
We headed for our apartment to take showers and prepare for the day!
Wednesday, May 16,2007
Today proved that the phrase “Adoption Adventure” is an appropriate one! Today was our appointment at the State Department of Adoption (SDA). Our appointment was at 10 am and because traffic in Kiev rivals that of any major US city, our translator and driver picked us up at 8:30 am. We encountered a major traffic jam on the way into downtown. Cars were at a complete standstill on the freeway! Cars began jumping the 8 inch curb and hurtling down the sidewalks at 30-40 mph. After sitting in traffic for a while and not moving much, Svetlana and our driver became worried about making our appointment. They decided we should try a “different way.” Boy, was that an understatement. Our driver cut through various parking lots and apartment complexes before hopping back onto a normal road. We didn’t get very far on the road before we encountered standstill traffic! That didn’t deter our driver. He backed up, turned around and headed down a dirt road. The road was not meant for traffic and ended in a field that was separated from the freeway by a steep 100 foot tall hill! Our driver told us to hold on, floored it, and headed up the hill and onto the sidewalk! We drove down a portion of the sidewalk at 80 kilometers per hour before jumping a curb and heading back into traffic. Our driver probably saved us at least an hour of sitting in traffic. Although the drive was a little crazy, we thoroughly enjoyed it and Fred tipped him generously when we got to the SDA…25 minutes early!
We were told that our meeting at the SDA would take approximately 5-10 minutes. Our facilitator told us that we would go in, they would ask us a few questions about why we wanted to adopt Khrystyna and then they would tell us that we could come back tomorrow for our paperwork. The SDA provides their own translator for all meetings and does not allow translators or facilitators to accompany prospective parents into the meeting. Our meeting started out with the psychologist and translator asking for our passports. Unfortunately, our passports were not easily accessible. I had a money belt under my dress with my passport in it and had to pull up my dress to my hip to access my passport…needless to say it was not my most ladlylike moment! Fred had his moneybag under his shirt and had to unbutton his dress shirt to get his passport out. I’m sure they thought this was strange, but they seemed to act like it was no big deal! We were quite embarrassed, but after the stress of the meeting was over, we found it to be quite funny. Fred said they were probably thinking, “We only want to see your passports…not your whole body.” After the passport fiasco, we sat down and the translator said “So you would like to adopt three children, yes?” I said we’d really like to adopt Khrystyna, the little girl who stayed with us this summer on her vacation, however, we were approved to adopt 3 children just in case there were siblings we didn’t know about, etc. The translator and the psychologist began speaking to each other rapidly. They told us that they did not have our request to adopt Khrystyna and that they had chosen a group of siblings for us…3 girls! Fortunately for us, our facilitator had made us a copy of our request for a specific child before we went into our meeting. We gave them the copy of the original document and they told us that this is not the way they normally operate, but they would see if they could find her file and if she was available for adoption. They left the room and came back 5 minutes later with her file. After that, they sat down in the room with us and called the orphanage to check on Khrystyna’s status. The orphanage director, Ludmilla, spoke with the psychologist at length and then the psychologist hung up. Fred and I prayed the entire time she was out of the room and on the phone. Things were looking a little precarious! After the phone conversation, they told us a little more about Khrystyna’s background and told us that we could come tomorrow to pick up our referral! They also showed the picture in Khrystyna’s file. The picture was taken in 2004 and Khrystyna had a buzz haircut! She was so little and sad looking! Fred didn’t even recognize her…he thought the picture must be of Khrystyna’s brother! We were thrilled when we left the SDA knowing that we will be able to pick up our paperwork tomorrow evening and head to Khrystyna’s region! Our friends Mark and Christine had their appointment at 11 am. They were in and out in under 6 minutes…we were in and out in 45 minutes!
After our appointment, we headed back to our apartment. Fred was in need of a haircut, so we headed to the salon in our apartment building. Fred’s haircut only cost 25 grivna which is the equivalent of $5 USD. After the haircut, we walked to McDonald’s. It’s a little less than a mile away, and it was totally worth it. I got wonderfully yummy cheese sticks that tasted very similar to brie and came with a berry sauce. For those of you who have had the fried brie at Saunders in New Hampshire, that’s what it tastes like and it only cost 6 grivna ($1.20). Fred was quite happy with his double cheeseburger and we had Kit Kat McFlurries! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting. We had a really yummy dinner tonight. Sasha’s (our landlord) mom made us yummy breaded fish fillets and rice! Last night she made us a wonderful soup without potatoes and we ate it with crackers! Meals are definitely getting tastier!
We were told that our meeting at the SDA would take approximately 5-10 minutes. Our facilitator told us that we would go in, they would ask us a few questions about why we wanted to adopt Khrystyna and then they would tell us that we could come back tomorrow for our paperwork. The SDA provides their own translator for all meetings and does not allow translators or facilitators to accompany prospective parents into the meeting. Our meeting started out with the psychologist and translator asking for our passports. Unfortunately, our passports were not easily accessible. I had a money belt under my dress with my passport in it and had to pull up my dress to my hip to access my passport…needless to say it was not my most ladlylike moment! Fred had his moneybag under his shirt and had to unbutton his dress shirt to get his passport out. I’m sure they thought this was strange, but they seemed to act like it was no big deal! We were quite embarrassed, but after the stress of the meeting was over, we found it to be quite funny. Fred said they were probably thinking, “We only want to see your passports…not your whole body.” After the passport fiasco, we sat down and the translator said “So you would like to adopt three children, yes?” I said we’d really like to adopt Khrystyna, the little girl who stayed with us this summer on her vacation, however, we were approved to adopt 3 children just in case there were siblings we didn’t know about, etc. The translator and the psychologist began speaking to each other rapidly. They told us that they did not have our request to adopt Khrystyna and that they had chosen a group of siblings for us…3 girls! Fortunately for us, our facilitator had made us a copy of our request for a specific child before we went into our meeting. We gave them the copy of the original document and they told us that this is not the way they normally operate, but they would see if they could find her file and if she was available for adoption. They left the room and came back 5 minutes later with her file. After that, they sat down in the room with us and called the orphanage to check on Khrystyna’s status. The orphanage director, Ludmilla, spoke with the psychologist at length and then the psychologist hung up. Fred and I prayed the entire time she was out of the room and on the phone. Things were looking a little precarious! After the phone conversation, they told us a little more about Khrystyna’s background and told us that we could come tomorrow to pick up our referral! They also showed the picture in Khrystyna’s file. The picture was taken in 2004 and Khrystyna had a buzz haircut! She was so little and sad looking! Fred didn’t even recognize her…he thought the picture must be of Khrystyna’s brother! We were thrilled when we left the SDA knowing that we will be able to pick up our paperwork tomorrow evening and head to Khrystyna’s region! Our friends Mark and Christine had their appointment at 11 am. They were in and out in under 6 minutes…we were in and out in 45 minutes!
After our appointment, we headed back to our apartment. Fred was in need of a haircut, so we headed to the salon in our apartment building. Fred’s haircut only cost 25 grivna which is the equivalent of $5 USD. After the haircut, we walked to McDonald’s. It’s a little less than a mile away, and it was totally worth it. I got wonderfully yummy cheese sticks that tasted very similar to brie and came with a berry sauce. For those of you who have had the fried brie at Saunders in New Hampshire, that’s what it tastes like and it only cost 6 grivna ($1.20). Fred was quite happy with his double cheeseburger and we had Kit Kat McFlurries! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting. We had a really yummy dinner tonight. Sasha’s (our landlord) mom made us yummy breaded fish fillets and rice! Last night she made us a wonderful soup without potatoes and we ate it with crackers! Meals are definitely getting tastier!
Tuesday 5/15/2007
When we posted Tuesday morning, we were planning on being in downtown Kiev for only a short time. We wanted to purchase a Ukrainian cell phone, replace our electricity converter that only lasted halfway through Monday night, and pick up a few groceries. Our short trip ended up being a trip full of sightseeing and speed walking! Our translator, Svetlana (Svieta for short) asked us if we would like to see a few of the sights in Kiev after we left the internet café. We were excited to see a little more of the country so we quickly agreed. Downtown Ukraine is very similar to San Francisco in its topography…lots and lots of steep hills. After an hour of walking, Svetlana called Sasha (our facilitator) to check in with him and found out that he was in downtown Kiev with Mark and Christine so we agreed to meet up with them for lunch. We had lunch in a pizzeria that had a menu in Ukrainian, Russian, and English. The pizzas were similar to pizzas you would order at California Pizza Kitchen although some of the toppings were more unusual (Mark and Christine’s pizza had kidney beans on it!) After lunch, we strolled through the underground mall. It was a very nice mall with some upscale stores. While walking through the mall, we saw a man carrying a monkey dressed like a child. It was quite a sight to behold!!! From the mall, we decided to visit some of the churches. We visited St. Sofia’s Cathedral, the oldest church in Kiev which was built a thousand years ago! It has a large bell tower which until recently had been closed. The reason the bell tower was closed was because from the top of it, you could see into the courtyard of the KGB headquarters in Kiev. They regularly executed people in the courtyard and did not want that to be public knowledge. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and Sasha and Svetlana were a wealth of information on the history of Ukraine. Although we were gone from our apartment for over 8 hours (instead of the 2 we had planned on), it was a very enjoyable day. The people here are very friendly and the city is rich with history! When we got home, we ate the delicious soup that Sasha had brought to us. It was full of veggies and tasted wonderful! I picked up some crackers on the way home and it was “soup”er!
Important Note
This blog has become more like a rambling online journal. For those of you who don’t care what we ate or the minute details of our trip, I apologize. Just skim over the ramblings and look for important details. For the rest of you, this will give you a little more insight into our day to day life here! We’ve been taking lots of pictures and will try to post them soon. I’ve tried to get pictures of everything we’ve eaten, however, I’ve forgotten at quite a few meals. At least it will give you a little more idea of what food is like here!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
We're in Kiev!
After a long night of flying, we arrived in Kiev yesterday morning. We were met by our facilitator Svetlana and were taken to the apartment where we are staying. Our friends Mark and Christine were met by a different facilitator and were taken to an apartment that is 25 minutes away by car. We were told that we won't be able to see them very much while we're in Kiev. We are staying in a 2 room apartment. It has a kitchen and a living room with a sofa bed. Our landlord Sasha has been very nice and part of our arrangement has been that he cooks for us. This has proven to be quite a challenge since Fred is allergic to potatoes and doesn't like veggies and I'm not a big fan of meat (especially brats and sausage). We'll definitely post more when we have more time. Today we are going to buy a Ukrainian cell phone and get a few groceries (ie things that we really like!)
Tomorrow is our appointment with the adoption authorities and on Thursday we will probably catch the overnight train to Khrystyna's region. We will probably get to see Khrystyna on Friday. We're super excited about seeing her! We are enjoying our adventure in Ukraine and will try to post later with pictures!
Tomorrow is our appointment with the adoption authorities and on Thursday we will probably catch the overnight train to Khrystyna's region. We will probably get to see Khrystyna on Friday. We're super excited about seeing her! We are enjoying our adventure in Ukraine and will try to post later with pictures!
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Less than a week to go!
It's hard to believe that we will be leaving for Ukraine in less than a week. Our "To Do" list is a mile long, but we are slowly making our way through it. We are excited about seeing Khrystyna and bringing her home for good! We spoke with Khrystyna on her birthday (April 24) and she is soo excited about us coming to see her. We did not tell her that we are planning on bringing her home with us. We don't want her to be disappointed if anything were to go wrong. We just told her that we are coming to visit. Please keep us in your prayers as this is a very exciting, yet very stressful time. Please pray that we will not encounter any roadblocks along the way and that our meetings with the Ukrainian officials will go smoothly. Please pray for safety and good health. Also, please pray that we would make a good impression on the people that we come in contact with in Ukraine and that they will be able to see Jesus in us. Last, but not least, please pray for all of us (especially Khrystyna) during this time of transition in our family. We know that although adoption is a wonderful opportunity for Khrystyna, she will be leaving her friends, her country, her brother, and everything she is familiar with to come to live in a place where no one speaks her language and everything is very different from what she is accustomed to. We are thankful for each of you who has embarked on this journey with us and who have prayed for us and shared your resources to make this a reality! We are so blessed!
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