WE ARE HOME

Sorry its been so long since the last post.  I finally had time to take a look at the blog and realized we stopped blogging on November 19th. 

On Friday November 20th, we did some last minute shopping of the craft/souvenir stands nears the SDA and were told to come to the US Embassy at 2pm.  It was a dreary, rainy day and literally we were running around picking up last minute gifts for our translator and the Doctor who performed the kids Embassy medical exams.  We arrived at the Embassy in record time and went in and waited.  We were the first people there, but somehow ended up 3rd in line.  We finally walked out of there with VISAs in hand at 4pm.  We were supposed to meet Lev and Elena at the SDA at 4 to show the kids to Maria and the others who work in the SDA office.  We had to rush there through traffic and pick up some bouquets as well.  It was a very hectic day for our last full day in Ukraine. After showing the kids off at the SDA, I did a little bit more shopping for keepsakes for the kids and then we went to dinner at Pizza Celantano.

We put the kids to bed as soon as we got home because we had to be up at 2am to get ready to leave for the airport at 3am.  Andrew and I did last minute packing and organizing, took showers and fell asleep at 10pm.  Two o'clock came way too early.  We woke up and woke the kids up, got dressed, and ate a bit of breakfast.  Andrew had the bright idea to give them grape juice.  Well, Aidan spilled it all over his pants, so we had to change his pants, rinse out his old pants and find a shopping bag to place them in.  Luda came with the driver at three and we took the luggage downstairs as quietly as possible.  We loaded it up and my OCD required me to review the packed luggage and count all the pieces before we loaded ourselves up and headed to the airport.    We made it there it record time because there was no traffic. 

We checked in at the airport made it through security and passport control.  We did have to wait awhile for the passport officers to review our adoption decree and make a photocopy.  The kids were getting a little antsy.  We finally made it to the terminal and waited a bit until boarding.  We were flying from Kyiv to Frankfurt at 5:35 am.  We boarded on the tarmac.  We had a 3 hour flight to Frankfurt, where we then had a 5 hour layover until we left for Philadelphia.  The kids were exhausted as well as Mama and Papa.  Somehow we made it through the 5 hours and we were on the last leg home.  The 9 hour flight was very trying and stressful because the kids were cranky and sleepy.  We made it to Philly went through immigration in 1.5 hours and then drove home for another 2 hours.  We got home around 8:30 and were up and traveling for a total of about 23 hours.  I was so happy to see my sister and Jason at the airport.  Most of our families were at the house and we spent an hour or two with them.  We were all exhausted.

We went to bed around 10:30 and everyone slept until 8:30.  Luckily we didn't have too much jet lag.  The kids naps throughout the day let them stay awake this long.   The kids love their new rooms!  We'll have to post pics.

Andrew was back to work on Monday and I found out the same day I had to have surgery on Dec 2. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving on Thursday.  We had so very much to be thankful for.  Friday we had our huge Welcome Home Party.  It was absolutely fabulous and everyone put so much thought and time into throwing us a wonderful party.  The kids loved it!  Thank you everyone for coming and for all of your thoughtful gifts, they are much appreciated by us all. 

We spent the last two weeks getting into a routine and starting our family life.  Wednesday I had surgery and what was supposed to be outpatient surgery turned into an overnight stay at the hospital.  I am at home recovering and all of our family has pitched in to help while I am recovering and Andrew is back at work!  Thanks Everyone.

We are looking forward to Christmas and sharing this special holiday time with our children.  We have been blessed!

We will post some pics!

We're Almost Home

We had an early morning today and then a very busy day.  Both Andrew and I are totally exhausted.  We woke up at 4:30 and headed to the airport in Simferopol at 5:30.  We made it there a little before 6am and they were just getting ready to start checkin.  We took off about 7:40.  We had a nice flight to Kiev of 1hour and 10 minutes versus a 15 hour train ride.

We got off the plane and got our luggage in record time and headed into the city center at around 9:15.  We sat in traffic for about an hour and a half .  We made it to the US Embassy at 11.  Lots of people were waiting to just go into the courtyard, but luckily US Citizens get to go to the front of the line and I walked through security.  Luda left with Andrew and the boys to get their medical exams done for the VISA.  I was done at the Embassy in 20 minutes and Luda was surprised to hear me call her.  They had just arrived at the hospital for the exams.  We have our Embassy appointment on Friday at 2pm.  So we will pick up the completed VISAs on Friday afternoon and then fly home on Saturday, leaving for Kyiv airport at 3am.

After sitting at a nearby restaurant for two and a half hours and drinking a pot of tea waiting for Andrew, Luda and the kids to finish up with the medical exams, they finally came back for me and we ate lunch.  We then headed for our new two bedroom apartment in Kiev and settled in.  

We thought we would treat the kids to McDonalds for dinner.  They liked the french fries, but would not eat their cheeseburgers.  Who would have thought?

Well, our Ukrainian journey is almost complete and now we will be starting our Hirschmann Family journey.

Can't wait to see everyone!

Quick update before bed...

We finally received the key documents we have been waiting for to travel back to Kyiv...the kids' passports.  Since our last post it was business as usual up through Tuesday.  Tuesday morning Luda called the passport office at 9 am to see if our passports had arrived.  The office told us that they had not yet received any passports from Kyiv and to call back at 1 pm.  Heather and I went to visit the boys with a new driver because Misha had prior appointments.  We did not go to see M as we usually do instead we returned to the apartment.  Luda called the passport office again and we were informed that our passports were here.  YEAH!

We scampered to get all of our care packages together for the orphanages and the new clothes for the kids.  Our pickup schedule had to be compressed in order to make our 7:05 pm flight to Kyiv.  We first picked up M.  Her orphanage was undergoing an inspection and her dormitory was quarantined so we were not allowed to even see her groupa for the last time.  We completed the required paperwork and left our goodies for the groupa and left to get the boys. 

The process took a little longer at the boys' orphanage largely because there were two sets of paperwork.  As we were leaving the boys orphanage to pick up the passports Luda received a phone call.  Bad news.  Another American family's passports had been mistaken for ours.  There would be no flight for us tonight.  Everyone was let down.  The kids had been excited to fly on an airplane, Luda was excited to go home and we were excited to be one step closer to home.  Waiting for an hour and a half at the Inspector's office added insult to injury but at least we had our kids now!

Our first night as a family was good.  The kids were so excited to receive their new clothes and see our apartment.  They liked their PJ's so much that they put them on at 7 pm although they wouldn't go to sleep for another couple of hours.  Each of the boys acted out a few times especially around sleep time.  Mama and Papa slept on the floor because we have no extra beds and we didn't expect to be in Simferopol another night.  Flash forward to 6:30 am, 3 sets of eyes spark to life and stomachs start to growl.  Breakfast of hardboiled eggs, bread and leftover chicken placate the little ones for a couple of hours.  We are anxiously awaiting a call from the passport office.  While we waited for the passports we took our first family walk together along the river.  It was a long and peaceful walk and the kids were tired and hungry when we returned.  Pizza and sliced tomatoes and bread sprung them to life again. 

At 3 pm we received the call we were waiting for.  The passports were here.  Unfortunately the night flight to Kyiv was sold out.  We'll have to wait until the 7 am flight tomorrow.  We will be on track to fly home on Saturday, the 21st, if we can get to the Embassy by 12 pm tomorrow.  We should land with enough time to accomplish that.  The kids keep asking when we are going to America and get super-excited when we tell them "Soon."  The orphanages both, did an excellent job of preparing the kids for the next steps in the journey.  We have had no problems so far and I have my fingers crossed that we won't have any more. 

See you all Saturday at home!

Paperwork and Waiting

Well, we had a couple of days of hurry up and wait.  Tuesday morning we headed off to the kids birthplace or "native city" as Luda says.  We left at 6:30am for a rainy and chilly drive.  We enjoyed the drive and seeing more rural parts of Crimea.  We saw a lot of huge flat fields with some gently rolling hills, not many trees to be seen.  The main crop here is wheat.  We traveled along the coast and saw a bit of the Black Sea.  We arrived in better time than expected and were the first people to arrive at the Vital Records Office.  We were concerned because they told us they were having computer problems and you never know how long that could take.  About 1/2 an hour later they called Luda in and she got everything going.  They told us to wait and will call us when they were completed.  Three hours later, we picked up the new birth certificates.  Took a short drive to the seaside to dip our fingers in the Black Sea and take some pictures.  We made it back to Simferopol in record time and dropped off the new birth certificates to be legalized, changed their names on their identification numbers and dropped off the new legalized birth certificates to have notarized copies made.  We didn't get to see the kids after this busy day.

Wednesday we were hoping to apply for the passports, but the director of the passport office was out of the office.  That meant we had to wait until Thursday.  We went to visit the kids and made arrangments to pick up the kids on Thursday morning for the passport applications.

Thursday, Luda went to pick up the kids and Andrew and I walked to the passport office to meet her and the kids.  Luckily its just down the street from our apartment.  We applied for the passports and the kids had their pictures taken.  They were all hamming it up.  The Director of the passport office said that Mollie looks like her mama and she thought the boys were twins at first because they were sitting on Papa's lap.  Luda asked how long for the passports and she said a week.  We need to have the passports in hand no later than Wednesday or we will NOT make our flight on Saturday back to the USA.  Please pray that everything falls into place and we can get them on Tuesday.  After the passport office we all piled into Misha's car for a quick drive to the local picture place.  We needed to get pictures taken for the kids' US VISA we need to get in Kiev.  We also had our first family portrait taken to give as a gift to the both of the orphanage Directors.  Once again, the kids were excited to have their pictures taken.

A couple of hours later we picked up the pictures and were surprised to see such an "interesting" background on our family portrait.  We were expecting black, white, maybe even blue.  I guess we will never forget we were in Crimea in October/November 2009...haha.

Today we had our normal visiting routine with the boys and then M.  C started acting up as soon as he figured out he was going back to his Groupa.  Only a couple more days and they will never have to go back.  Today was weekly shower day at M's orphanage, so we did not get to spend much time with her.

After we got home we decided to be adventurous and try and find our way to McDonalds, which is a pretty long walk and we weren't sure how to get there.  After a 1/2 hour fast walk, we found McDonalds, wolfed our food down and headed back because it was almost dark.   The food was good, Andrew said the walk was worth it!

For the next couple of days we will be visiting the kids and relaxing.  Everything is done here except for picking up the passports.  Hopefully our next post will be us picking up the passports and kids and having their first plane ride back to Kiev.  At least its a short flight; 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we get the passports by Wednesday so we can make our flight!

We added some pictures to the web album of their native city and their VISA pics!

It's been a while and people are worried...

Sorry it's been so long.  The last week has been pretty mundane.  Wake up, visit kids, come home, make dinner, read, listen to music, watch TV, and sleep.  Rinse and repeat the next day.  The kids are doing great.  The boys are now more affectionate with us which makes Heather and I very happy parents.  M is doing great also. 

We've had a few interesting moments with the boys this last week.  We are really having issues when it is time for them to go back to the groupa.  The boys seem to sense when it is our time to leave and they start acting out.  Both A and C had to go back to the groupa with tears streaming down their faces for different reasons this week.  A likes to have things done his way so when Papa made him put his coat after A had taken it off there was 15 minutes of fake crying and sobbing.  C likes to evade Mama and Papa when it's time to go. Papa caught up with C and walked him back to the groupa during which the waterworks (and the noseworks also) got a work out.  We're not sure exactly what is going on but we hope that it means that it is difficult for the boys to leave Mama and Papa at the end of the day.  We hope. 

M's visits typically include many of her friends.  Her favorites are Lena, Nastia and Bogdona.  We play "Go Fish" and "Memory" with the Carebear cards Heather picked up at Ollie's before we left.  The kids really like playing those games.  M and Papa bonded over sunflower seeds the other day.  She loves them and Papa loves the seeds from home much better than those available in Ukraine.  Wait until you taste the yummy goodness of roasted and salted sunflower seeds little girl.  M was amazed with Papa's ability to stick a handful of bland seeds in his mouth and crack the shells to extract the seed and split the shells like a ball player.  Everyone here cracks seeds one at a time which takes foooooooooooreeeevvvvvvvvvvveeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr!

Each of the kids now know their American names.  "Kak vas zavut?" (what is your name?) is answered with their first and last American names and they also know each other's American names.  For a while C thought that his American name was Andrew Hirschmann.  It was cute while it lasted.  M seems very excited to be reunited with her brothers in America.  We show the picture of our house and point to the bedroom windows of the house and show each kid which room will be their's.  Auntie Kristen and Uncle Jason have ensured that the kids will be returning to wonderfully decorated rooms.

Luda is back from Kiev and has our tasks for the week setup.  Tomorrow we are traveling to the kids' birth town on the western shore of Crimea to have the kid's names changed.  We are leaving at 6:30 am which is the earliest we've had to get up since we've been here.  For some of you night owls, we'll be getting up before you go to bed back home!  It's roughly two hours to the birth town and we should leave later that day with new birth certificates in hand.  We plan on taking many pictures and some video of the birth town so we can share them with the kids in the future.  Wednesday we'll be applying for passports and then waiting for them to be completed.

We will pick up the kids from the orphanages when we get the completed passports and are ready to leave for Kyiv because we don't have enough room in our apartment for everyone.  There is one very important fact that I haven't mentioned yet and that is "WE'RE OFFICIAL."  Luda picked up our court decree this evening from the courthouse.  Heather and I have been flying high ever since the court date so getting the final decree is more symbolic than anything to us.  So officially as of November 9, 2009 at 5:00 pm Andrew, Heather, M, A and C have fulfilled our blog's namesake... Hirschmann Family.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday

Well, there has not been much to report since court on Friday.  Luda headed back to Kyiv on the train Friday afternoon, so we have been using hand signals and writing some things down to communicate with the orphanage personnel and the locals.

Saturday and Sunday we did our weekend visiting routine, which includes going to see Aidan and Callan from 10-12 and then Mollie from 12:30 to around 3.  It has gotten much, much colder recently, so we've had to play indoors during our time with the kids.  The boys have a lot of energy, so we have to amuse them inside with puzzles and crafts.  Mollie is on an extended fall break because of the Swine Flu (4 weeks), so some of her groupa plays with us and we do crafts or puzzles.  Mollie, Andrew and I skyped Assumpta and Charlie (Andrew's parents) on Saturday from the orphanage.  It was cute, but I am not sure if she entirely understood what was going on.  Saturday after visiting with Mollie, Andrew said "I really could eat McDonalds".   I said sure and told Misha (our driver) McDonalds.  I thought it was an universal language all on its own.  Apparently not.  I had to call Luda and tell her to tell Misha to take us to McDonalds. I must have been saying it a bit too Americanized or something.....McDonalds was a MADHOUSE.  It is right beside the train station and everyone must have been traveling on Saturday afternoon.  No place to sit.  We had to eat outside and it was very, very cold.  Oh well, it tasted great!!

Sunday we visited with the kids.  The boys seem more and more reluctant to go back to the groupa after our time together.  They try and run away when we are walking to their rooms at the orphanage.  Callan likes to go limp and melt like a puddle on the ground.  I try to pick him up and explain we will be back tomorrow and that we love him (ya te-ba lu-blu).  We get to pick them up from the orphanages next Tuesday, so hopefully that time passes quickly and we can be a family and get them started on the Hirschmann Family Routine.  Mollie continues to be loving and gives big hugs and kisses to Mama and Papa.  Especially when she is in front of her groupa.  We stopped at the Supermarket on the way home and Misha dropped us off.  We unpacked the groceries and headed out to Pizza Celetano.  Today I had a pizza with cheese, mushrooms, tomato, and green pepper.  It was crispy and cheesy and delicious.  Andrew was courageous and got cheese and salami.  He said the salami tasted like deer bologna (we all know Heather did not try it).

Today it is really cold and was actually flurrying.  Today we started our weekly routine of visiting Mollie from 2-4 and the boys from 4-6.  The lobby was really cold at Mollie's orphanage, so we were invited to play in her groupa's area.  The caretakers left and I used that time to take a few pics of her living quarters.  From 2-4 is naptime for Mollie's groupa so all the kids were sleeping (or pretending to sleep) except for Mollie.  I am amazed that 7-8 year olds take naps from 2-4 in the afternoon.  School in the USA won't be having siestas.  We looked at pics on the computer and shared our picture book with some of the other caretakers who were around. 

The boys visit started out a little crazy.  The assistant orphanage director brought the kids to the playroom from their groupa, but Aidan was crying.  When she brought them in, Aidan walked away into a corner and Andrew went and picked him up.  He really started crying and the assistant director came back and took him back to his groupa.  Apparently, she had made him wear the wrong sweatshirt and he was upset.  He seems to have a fetish with certain clothes and constantly tucks his shirt in and gets all upset when his tights and underwear and two tucked-in shirts all get bunched up and annoy him.  I think he will be happy to have some properly fitting underwear when we pick him up from the orphanage and when we go home.  I think Grandma H is picking up undies, t shirts and socks for the kids (yay, no more tights, especially pink tights with flowers on them).  We bought some balloons and watched a bit of the movie Cars on the laptop.  That held their attention for most of the time.

We headed home and prepared Andrew's Greek salad and spaghetti with marinara and sausages.  It seems like our appetites are finally back.

You asked for pics of the Simferopol, so here are a few.  I get worried about looking like a tourist (even though I know we do) and taking pictures of everything.

Nice building near our apartment

Park across the street from our apartment - Remembering those killed in Afghanistan

St. Nicholas, under construction

Pedestrian only street with TWO Pizza Celetanos!

Court Date

We are now officially the Mama and Papa of Mollie Rose, Aidan Kurt and Callan Kurt!  We had our court hearing today and the Judge and the two jurors approved our request to adopt our three little darlings.  We will be "official" after our ten day waiting period.

Our day started a little earlier than a normal day because we had to have time to dress in our nice outfits for court and we had to walk to the courthouse from our apartment.  Our driver, Misha was off picking up the kids and their orphanage representatives.  We arrived at the courthouse at 9:15 am well ahead of our hearing time of 10 am.  It's better to be earlier rather than later for something like this!  The kids arrived a little after 9:30 am and we all waited for 40 minutes until the Judge was ready for us.  The boys were reunited with Mollie for the first time in over a year.  Unfortunately for the shutterbug in me they were reunited in the car without us present.  Shucks.  The kids were all smiles when they entered the room where we were waiting.  Each child was dressed nicely and Mollie had her hair pulled into pig tails for our important day.  The boys were cute in their blue jeans and sweaters although Aidan was wearing hot pink socks and Callan was wearing pastel pink socks.  Either someone at the orphanage is color blind or pink socks were all that was clean today.

The actual proceeding was very official.  At 10:10 am we were invited into the Judge's chambers.  In addition to Heather and I, Luda, our translator, the kids, one representative from each orphanage, the local inspector, a prosecutor, two jurors, a court secretary and the Judge were present at the hearing.  The official language of the hearing was Ukrainian even though everyone in the room, except us of course, spoke Russian outside the Judge's chambers.  The Judge started off by informing us of our rights as they relate to the proceedings.  After that the Judge read, word for word, our application and reviewed the passports and indentifications of everyone in the room.  The Judge asked Heather and I both if we had anything to add or to edit in our application. We had nothing to add or edit.  The Inspector next read to the court her approval of the adoption and the reasons for her approval.  Each orphanage representative then also indicated their approval of our adoption to the court's satisfaction.  Next the Judge read into record each document in our dossier.  I didn't remember that there were so many documents in our dossier.  At this point Aidan became a little restless. The Inspector was kind enough to give Aidan a pen and some paper to doodle on for the rest of the proceeding.  Mollie and Callan were great throughout the hour and 20 minute hearing.  Luda had warned us that even though everyone in the room is supportive and happy for our adoption application, it was going to be all business and there would be no smiling.  Well the charm and happiness of our children were too much for everyone in the room except for the Judge.  I'm sure he would have cracked a smile too if he wasn't so busy reading the dossier.

After reading our dossier the Judge had some questions for Heather and I.  He asked the following questions:

• Do we have an biological children?
• Why we are adopting?
• Why are we adopting from Ukraine?
• Did we receive the medical condition of the children and are we prepared to provide medical care for them?

He did ask us a few other questions that we don't remember right now because we were nervous during the hearing.  Many of the questions were open ended and very general.  We were well prepared by Luda to answer them though.  Thank goodness for Luda.  Our Judge is new and he does not have a lot of experience with adoption proceedings.  Luda mentioned that the Judge was lucky that she prepared the documents so well for him to move along so smoothly.

After we successfully answered the Judge's questions he asked Mollie if she wanted to be adopted and if she wanted to be adopted by us.  She had earlier written a note that was part of our dossier indicating her desire to be adopted by us and she reiterated that desire to the Judge.  The Judge asked the boy's orphanage representative to interview the boys.  The representative asked the boys who we are.  The boys answered with our names and then with "Mama" and "Papa.'  The boys were then asked if they wanted to live with us in America.  They said yes!

The Judge once again asked the Inspector, the Prosector and the two orphanage representatives for their approval of our adoption.  They said yes again!  The Judge then turned to the two jurors and asked them if they approved.  They said yes!  Finally the Judge also indicated his approval of our adoption.  The proceeding was quickly wrapped up and we adjourned to the waiting area where we received hugs and handshakes from everyone.  We snapped a quick picture of the kids before they left for their orphanages.  We are super excited today for the result of our hearing. 

Luda left this afternoon on the train to head back to Kyiv.  She has been with us for a long time and she was eager to get back to her apartment.  She will be back the Monday before the end of our ten day waiting period to run down some loose ends.  The end is near and soon we'll be flying back to the States.

Heather and I had a nice celebratory lunch at the Flamingo.  A Greek salad and a ceasar salad for starters followed by marinated beef skewers and mashed potatoes for each of us filled our growling stomachs.  We took the afternoon off and we will start fresh tomorrow with our weekend visiting routine.

While we were waiting for court to start, the boy's orphanage representative told us a funny story from the orphanage.  One of the boys in Aidan and Callan's groupa asked her to find him a "Big Papa" like Aidan and Callan's.  I think that either qualifies me as a rap star or a proud Papa.  The representative told the boy that she would try to find him a "Big Papa."  If there are any "Big Papas" out there, there is boy in Simferopol waiting to be adopted.  Along those lines, earlier in the week I took pictures of 24 other children at the boys' orphanage for their annual picture update.  There are a lot of very nice children in this orphanage.  I don't know what their availability for international adoption is but they need good homes. 

That's about it for today.  Heather and I are very excited for our new journey in our lives as Mama and Papa to Mollie, Aidan and Callan.  We can't wait to get them home to our house and to introduce them to our families.  Aunt Kristen and Uncle Jason are preparing the best bedrooms imaginable for the boys and for Mollie at home.  We can't wait to see how they turn out. 

Dopobachenya

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

Well, once again we have fallen behind with the blog posts. As Andrew said in the last post, we have fallen into a routine, where we visit the kids, eat and chill.

Tuesday
Luda met with the judge finally, but he told her to come back tomorrow to discuss things in more detail....We visited the boys and M in the afternoon and then headed back to the apartment to make some pierogies and greek salad (cucumber, orange pepper, tomato, onion and a bit of oil, salt and pepper).  This is Andrew's new favorite dish to make. 

Wednesday
Luda met with the judge again and he finally agreed to court on Friday.  Thankfully, we can get the next part of the process going.  Our amended Home Study reached Vlad on Monday and the VISA for the 3rd child finally arrived in Kiev on Tuesday and the Embassy was able to draft a letter for the court saying they guarantee issuing VISAs for the kids.  Thank you all who helped get the home study addendum notarized, apostilled and fedexed to us as well as follow up to Philly Immigration (thanks Joni, Michelle and Kristen).  Luckily everything has fallen into place and we will have court on Friday at 10am.  Not sure what to expect because the hearings differ between judges and regions...

I wasn't feeling well and Luda had a lot of notarizations and paperwork errands, so we were only able to see the boys from around 4-6.  They were having a special assembly, where some older students from the local religious school sang songs, did skits, played instruments and handed out lollipops and juice boxes.  We only saw the last 10-15 minutes.  It was cute to see all the kids dressed up and sitting around with ballons.  We then played inside with the boys for another 1.5 hours.  Unfortunately, we were not able to see M today.

Thursday
Today we were back to our normal schedule.  We saw the boys from 10-12.  Playing outside today was a bit nippy as the weather has turned colder, but it still was beautiful.  We did a craft project from construction paper and played with the ball and on the swings.  A was in a bit of a funk today.  Not his usual self.  C did not want to go back with the Groupa after our play session.  They seem to be more and more reluctant to do so.  After we visited with the boys, we headed to M's orphanage/school.  Their school is on vacation this week, so the only kids hanging around are the orphans.  Sad to see so many beautiful and smart children there.  We did puzzles again and some of M's favorite friends joined us.  We then drew some pictures and wrote english words for the girls to copy.  The kids headed to lunch, but I think they made it pretty quick, because they were back in 15 minutes.  We painted fingernails, handed out treats and got the IPOD touch out for about an hour of fun.  I tried to explain that Da Zaftra (tomorrow) M would see the boys at court.  I don't think it made it through translation.  Hopefully, we will witness the reunion tomorrow and get some video or pics.  They haven't seen each other for over a year and their orphanages are only about 15-20 minutes apart.

We made it back to the apartment before dark, so we thought we would head to Pizza Celetano for dinner.  The pizza was extra cheesy, extra crispy and EXTRA good.  You can't beat dinner for $8 bucks.  We also stopped at the grocery store for more toilet paper (its OK, but not as cushy as at home).  The TP we bought today is green and actually apple scented, we thought we would try it.

Headed home to blog and read the news.  Its only 7:24.  I guess its time to start my second book.  I am trying to space them out so I don't run out of reading material.

Remaining process - Court; 10 day waiting period; new birth certificates; legalization of documents; passport application, receipt of passports, fly to Kyiv, Embassy medical exam, VISA, fly home to good ol' USA.  We will be here for 3 more weeks.  Looking to fly home on Nov 21......

We will try to let you know tomorrow evening how Court went! 

Love and miss you all!

Andrew and Heather

Saturday, Sunday and Monday

We've settled into a routine lately over here.  We wake up and spend a few hours relaxing by ourselves, visit the boys and M for a couple of hours and then head back to the apartment for the day.  During the week we spend the afternoons with the kids and get back to the apartment around dinnertime.  From there we spend time reading, watching the two TV channels we can understand, make some dinner and respond to emails and blog.  We live such an exciting life now!  On weekends we start earlier with the kids and we are back at the apartment early enough to walk into town for a meal or shopping.  Our apartment is centrally located and it's an easy walk to the downtown area.  We haven't gone exploring that much in Simferopol and the sites are not that really spectacular unless you like scenes of old smelly buses and traffic.  A few of you have asked for pictures and we'll try to oblige you as we can find some scenes of interest.

On Saturday we finished building the Lego motorcycle with the boys much to their enjoyment.  C had first crack at playing with the bike which left A in a fit.  Both boys are competitive but A reacts much stronger when he doesn't get his way.  We'll be spending some time with A on understanding the sharing concept.  A's fit was quickly tempered with 10 minutes on the swingset with Mama.  C was off in his own little world playing with the toy motorcycle.  Papa held back to let C play by himself until the motorcycle decided to "fall" apart.  Lego projects don't seem to be made to stand up to our boys.  This unfortunately made A's time with the motorcycle difficult.  Without superglue or duct tape Papa could not get the pivot point for the steering or the front wheel to stay together for very long.  A seemed to enjoy working with Papa to get the motorcycle roadworthy again.  We had another sharing incident with A and C over the swing later in our time with the boys.  A and C are 14 months apart which is similar to the time between my brother and I (Andrew).  If my experience with my brother is any indication we are going to have a few interesting years coming up.  We'll definitely have to protect M from the boys ganging up on her like me and my brother did to our sister.

At M's orphanage we spent some time at the playground and then watched the end of a football (soccer to us Americans) match held on the orphanage grounds.  M polished off the rest of the animal crackers we bought the day before.  All threes kids have excellent appetites.  It's a shame that M's orphange does not have better outside facilities for the kids.  There are very few benches and poor playground equipment outside.  Obviously older children do not need the same equipment that the boys have at their orphanage but there is really nothing for the kids to do outside except play on the crumbling concrete walls.  The weather was beautiful so it's a sin to be indoors in a cold, dank orphanage lobby when you can soak up some rays outside.  Weekends at M's orphanage are less hectic. There are a large number of kids that stay during the week to attend classes and then leave on weekends to be with family. The orphans are the only ones left on the weekends.  M is great.  We spend a lot of time teaching her english and reading through first words books.  It seems very simple but we have to start somewhere.  M can only take so much before her eyes start to wonder elsewhere.  We try to teach in spurts and mix in fun stuff like craft projects.

After visiting the kids we ate dinner at Pizza Celetano downtown. The Pizza Celetano in Kyiv has an English menu, the one in Simferopol does not.  We were able to crudely communicate our order to the counter person well enough to have a good meal. Our first meals of the day have been between 2 pm and 3 pm lately with a light dinner in the early evening.  Both of us have been satisfied with our food intake so far although both of us have lost 10-15 pounds.  Foreign language menus and the exercise of wrangling two young boys helps the pounds come off.

Sunday was a repeat of the day before only that the boys were late getting outside and when they did come out they were wearing winter hats.  We didn't think it was odd because the caretakers dress the kids very warmly and it was a little cooler than the day before.  C was scratching his head when we noticed that he had significantly less hair than he did the day before.  Overnight both boys had their hair cut short.  They both look better although they will need a quick shape up before they are introduced to the professional hair stylists in the family when we get home.

We had a few more competitive moments between the boys and C was very upset that the motorcycle was not in our bag of goodies today. We were able to take over two swings so each boy could swing.  We don't understand much of what the boys say in Russian but we can decipher the taunts that they say back and forth.  One will same something about swinging higher and faster than the other and the other will talk about counting with Mama or singing the ABC song (although only Mama and Papa can actually sing it).

M was outside playing with her friends when we arrived.  We sat back for some time and let her continue to play until she was ready to bring us into her group.  We gave her some treats to share with her friends which were welcomed graciously.  We were surprised that she was playing mostly with kids 4-5 years or more older than she.  The group settled down to put the three puzzles together that we brought.  We didn't have a lot of alone time with M but it was good to see her interacting with the other kids at the same time.

Luda came back from her visit with her family for a couple of days in high spirits in spite of a five hour bus ride back to Simferopol.  Heather and I ate a late lunch downtown and made it home before the increasing winds made the walk too unpleasent.  We had to turn back the clocks one hour Saturday night and of course now the days turn to nights much more quickly.  By 6 pm it is pitch black now.  Note:  We are now 6 hours ahead from EST until the clocks are turned back in the States.

Luda was up early on Monday to go to court to visit with the Judge. The Judge was not available today and Luda will try again tomorrow.  Luda was able to pick up our approved files from the SDA from the train station so all was not lost today.  Our updated homestudy also arrived in Kyiv today.  Thanks Joni and Michelle for the time and efforts in helping us out.  We are still waiting on the Visa Center in New Hampshire to wire over our updated visa approval form which should come tomorrow.  We had pizza again today for lunch at the shopping mall.  Heather said it was the best yet here in Ukraine.  I was indifferent.  We also picked up a beading kit for M's visit today.  She loved it. She also loved the new jeans and turtle neck that she tried on today.  She is going to be stylin' when she leaves the orphanage.

It was cold and blustery today. We should have brought hot cocoa for the kids but they were stuck with juice boxes and peanut butter crackers instead.  M didn't care for her crackers so Papa had to clean up the rest. Yummm. The boys devoured their crackers and didn't come up for air once they started on the juice boxes.

Since it got darker earlier today we had to bring the boys in earlier.  At first they protested but we found a nice spot in the lobby and A laid in Papa's lap and reviewed our photo book of our lives back in the U.S.A. while Mama and C worked on puzzles.  Both boys got some alone time with Mama and Papa but we were no further apart than a coffee table length.  A and C laughed hysterically at the mention of babushka.  We don't know why but they did multiple times.  Don't be offended babushka's back home if they laugh when we introduce you.

Paka

Its been a while...

Sorry, its been a while since we last posted.   Andrew likes to hog the computer in the evening and by the time he is done checking all his mails and reading his google reader, I am in bed for the night.

Wednesday, Luda checked with the courts and they said all the documents are in order, but we must wait for the judge to return on Monday to look it over in detail and then schedule our court appointment, hopefully for Tuesday.  We also have to see whether it is necessary to travel to the kids birthplace before court, or if it is something we can do during the 10 day wait.  We bummed around and Luda went to the town center to do more shopping.  Around 1:30 we headed to see M and then around 4 we drove to see the boys.  M had just taken her shower, so she had a wet head and had to stay inside.  M's caretaker asked Luda if we would buy their groupa a hair dryer.  Of course we agreed.  Wednesday it was a bit rainy, so we stayed inside and did puzzles and playdoh.  A**** is the hardest to handle when he does not get his way.  He likes to throw a little fit and walk away.  Timeout seems to be working, however, he always wants to get his way.  C***** just goes with the flow and does not object too much.  Likes to do what his big brother does and always compares what he gets to his brother.  Luda is finished with her paperwork responsibilities, so she is heading home this afternoon and will return to us on Sunday afternoon.  She lives in Kiev, but her family is about 2.5 hours from here, so she will visit with them until Sunday.

Thursday we decided to walk into town and eat at Pizza Celantano, stop at the grocery store for more water and Orange Fanta.  We also needed to find the hair dryer for M's groupa.  After a fantastic lunch of Chicken Soup, Cheese Pizza with Mushrooms and of course Orange Fanta (all for 49.5 grivna and less than McDonalds --- $6), we decided to buy M one of the gorgeous bouquets they sell in the underground street crossings--so to cross the street near the big traffic circle, we have to go down some steps and cross over underground.  I saw some gerbera daisies, so we inquired how much they were.  Of course we don't understand, so they have to show us how much on the calculator.  25 grivna for a beautiful bouquet ($3).  I thought this would make M feel special.  We headed to her school first and were told by the director that they were practicing for a concert, to be held later that day.  We sat through practice and then watched the concert.  It was really cute and we have some neat video of it to share with everyone and keep for memories.  Luckily enough I gave her the flowers after their performance and she was tickled pink.  We also gave her the hair dryer and her newly washed clothes (it took 3 days to dry outside) as well as her groupa treat of cookies.  She was in 7th heaven.  After that we headed off to see the boys.  It was a bit muddy out from the rain the night before and they got a little muddy.  They are really conscious about trying not to get dirty and brush their pants off all the time.  We played outdoors on the equipment and slides and ate their bananas.  They had a groupa treat of biscuit cookies.

Today, we woke up and walked into town to get Legos or something similar to do with the boys.  We ended up getting a Lego motorcycle to put together.  About 1:30 we headed to see M.  She is always happy to see us.  We gave her a banana and Vitamins and then walked outside.  We showed her video of her concert, played on the jungle gyms, looked at some flashcards and hung out.  It was a beautiful day.  Her groupa came to the playground so we gave her the treat to share with them.  It was a big hit!  Of course she started giving the treats to her favorite first, and I made sure everyone got one, with a little prompting to M.  Around 4 we drove about 15 minutes to see the boys and gave them a pear.  They really enjoyed the pear.  They seem to like bananas and pears the best.  We also had some animal crackers which they kept sneaking when they thought we weren't looking.  They almost polished off the whole bag.  I pushed A on the swing for quite a bit and then we settle down to put the Lego motorcycle together.   Andrew definitely had to help out.  It was quite complicated for 6-12 years old.  We didn't get to finish it at 6 and we had to leave, so A had a small fit.  I kept trying to explain we will finish tomorrow, but he wanted it today.  He quickly forgot during our walk into the orphanage and we got hugs and Andrew even got a kiss.

We got home and made some dinner of ramen noodles and cup o soup and a tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion salad.  It was tasty.  Its Friday night, so the kids are partying upstairs with some techno music and jumping around.  Hopefully they don't do it all night.  I am pretty tired because I am sick AGAIN.  Its a small cold, I probably picked it up from one of the kids.

Check out the pics and video from the last couple of days on the picasa web link!

Miss you all!

McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

Today was Luda's day off.  She arranged with our Driver to pick us up at 9:30 and then we were off to see the boys from about 10-12.  We played outside again to enjoy the beautiful weather until it gets colder.  We have been very lucky with beautiful weather, no coat necessary. 

While we were playing with the boys, our driver took the Orphange Director into town to have another form completed for the boys.  After playing with the boys and running around, we sat down for a little while to practice writing their new names.  They are really quick learners!

After we visited with the boys, we headed off to M's orphanage/school to visit for a while before her lunch time.  We gave her a banana and we looked over some first words books and looked at our family scrapbook.  She has Chas and Jake down, but is still working on the other family members.  She enjoyed showing off her new family and house to her friends and favorite caretaker.  We also gave her a treat to take back to her Groupa.  When we left she gave us big hugs and we always say Da Zaftra for "tomorrow".  We also brought home some of her clothes she wears at the orphanage because she has to hand wash all of her clothes, so they are never really clean.  We ran them through the washer a few times and they are still a little dirty.  She will have all new clothes in about two weeks hopefully.

After visits with the kids, we asked to go to McDonalds for lunch.  Finally, we were in heaven.  Tastes just like at home.  I even had an ice cream cone to go with my Big Mac.  Bill at McDonalds for 2 big mac meals and ice cream cone 52,50 grivna.  At an exchange rate of 8.22/$$ we ate for about $6.40.  Pretty good.

On our way back to the apartment, we picked up Luda.  We took a short break and then decided to go walking about Simferopol, so we can go to the supermarket, shop and eat pizza, without the driver or Luda.  Our apartment is centrally located and convenient.  We are not supposed to walk at night though... After doing some more window shopping, we headed home ourselves.  Luda wanted to do more shopping and eat dinner out on her day off.

Now we are back blogging and resting.  We finally turned a TV on because we have satellite and Andrew has found the ESPN Classic channel (in english) and is once again in heaven.....

Tomorrow, we may go visit the kids' birthplace, which is about 200km away.  It will be a long and bumpy ride!!!

Paka
Heather

Saturday, Sunday & Monday

It's been a while since we last posted.  On Saturday we visited the boys in the morning and M***** in the early afternoon.  While traveling in between the two orphanages we stopped at a restaurant suggested by our driver for lunch.  Lunch was good as were our visits with the kids.  During our visits we measured the kids so we can start thinking about getting some clothes together when they leave the orphanages.  A**** and C***** are very close in size with C***** just a bit smaller than his older brother.  Both are well built and very strong for their ages.  M***** is tall and skinny.  After our visit with M***** we headed to the mall to do some "window" shopping as our facilitator called it.  "Window" shopping turned into actual shopping and two hours later we walked out with shoes for the kids to try on for sizing and a couple of shirts for the boys to try on.  I (Andrew) got quite bored quickly.  I was able to scout the entire childrens store in 30 minutes while the ladies could leave no stone (or clothing rack in this case) unturned.  Clothing shopping in Ukraine is about as fun as it is in the States... for husbands.  Children's clothing is also very expensive in Ukraine.  Many of the winter coats were over 300 grivna and jeans were over 200 grivna.  In my extra time I scouted out the stroller section since we have a few stroller collectors in the family.  Some were over $1,000 (1,000 american dollars)! 

We were able to sleep in on Sunday.  We also moved to another apartment that is more convenient to a local market and the orphanages.  This will be the last apartment that we'll be in while in Simferopol.  It is quite nice.  We have an instant hot water heater which makes it nice when three people are trying to take a shower in the morning.  For lunch we stopped at a popular downtown restaurant.  Heather and I were very hungry because we did not have dinner the night before.  We both ordered a greek salad, soup and dish from the garnish (side dishes) menu.  Heather had fried potatoes with onions and garlic and I had rice with peppers and peas.  Our translator relayed to us that the waiter was questioning why we only ordered a dish from the garnish menu and did not order any meat.  Apparently nobody orders garnishes without also selecting a meat.  We have found that a salad and soup will satisfy our hunger most days for lunch. The extra garnish on this day stuffed us full.  I don't know where we would have found room for the meat the waiter wanted us to order.  For dinner we stayed in and ate some of the remaining fruit that we had from before.  I also tried a dried meat product from the corner market which was ok.  In between meals we visited both orphanages to test fit our previous days purchases.  M***** needs a shoe size bigger than we purchased and C***** needed a shoe size smaller than his bigger brother which meant more shopping.  Let's just say the second trip to the same store was even more boring than the first for me.  I should have stayed in the car and napped with the driver.  We left the mall with the correct shoes and even a couple of outfits for each of the kids.  It is warm here in Simferopol but back in Kyiv it is very cold, a fact that is pointed out to us very frequently.  I have never seen kids dressed so warmly to play in 70 degree weather!

Early Monday our translator was off to court to start the paperwork necessary for our adoption which left time for Heather and I to read and relax.  I am reading the new Dan Brown book "The Lost Symbol."  I find it hard to put down and I expect to finish the book up later in the day.  We were picked up closer to 12:30 pm today to go back to the inspector's office to sign another document.  We ate lunch at the canteen located in the basement of the building where the inspector is located.  More soup for us today; although we did add a side of chicken and a side of noodles.  The food so far has been very good and cheap.

After lunch and the inspector's office we visited both orphanages to have the kids try on the clothes and shoes we purchased at the mall.  The boys were so eager to try on their new clothes that they stripped down to their tshirts and stockings in a flash. A***** was so excited for his new clothes that he broke out in dance.  C***** had a smile from ear to ear.  Their personalities are so different yet they blend together very well.  A***** is outgoing and a leader while C***** is shy and happy to follow big brother...for now.  M***** loved her new outfits, so much we got two big hugs from her in addition to the big hug we got when we arrived.  She is more affectionate then her brothers are but most five and six year old boys don't care much for hugs.

For the boys today it was more jungle gyms and playground equipment outside and for M***** it was Barbie dolls and dress up.  All of the kids got apples today.  The boys ate the whole apple, core and all.  Apparently that's what Ukrainians do.  M***** had better sense and gave back the core to Mama and Papa.  After our visists today we went to the big market to stock up the pantry.  We filled up a cart at the store and judging from the looks from the cashier and the other market goers Ukrainians don't shop for food for a period of time longer than a few days.  $45 later and we're set for groceries and orphanages snacks for a while.

Tomorrow we travel to the orphanages without a translator for the first time.  It should be fine because we have not had difficulty communicating with the kids.  Communicating with the orphanage staff and our driver is another story.

See you tomorrow.

Two Busy Days

For all of you with a blog addiction, I thought I better get posting.    Yesterday and today have been two very busy days running from inspector, to orphanage, to copier store, to inspector, to orphanage, to court, etc.  We have left both days about 8am and return to the apartment at 7pm.  We also moved to another apartment today, but we will only be here until Sunday, when the apartment that Luda really wanted becomes available. 

Lets start with Thursday.  We woke up and left to go to the orphanage to see the little girl.  We reviewed her file with the Deputy Director and then the Orphanage Doctor.  They then brought her in and she had a big smile, but kind of looked away shyly.  The Director had spoken with her the day before to explain we were coming and the first thing she wanted to know is if we were seeing the boys as well.  Someone tried before to only adopt her and this was denied.  She came in and we said hello.  She looked through our scrapbook though we did not have much time to communicate.  The Deputy Director then took her back out and asked if she would like to be adopted by us and have us become her new Mama and Papa.  They came back quickly and we could tell by the expressions and smiles that she had said yes.  We only saw her for a bit and then we had to run some errands and pick up some toys/gifts for the kids when we saw them later in the afternoon.

We came back to the little girls' orphanage and spent a few hours getting to know her.  We drew pictures (she loves to draw), we played with a Play-Doh fruit salad set we brought along.  She really like that.  We watched a bit of Cinderella but that didn't hold her attention.  We then drew more pictures and then played Go Fish with Care Bear Cards we took along.  We also gave her gummi bears.  All the kids like to share and will give Mama and Papa one everytime they take one.  She does like to take charge and was impatient with us opening the Play-Doh and the cards and grabbed them from me.  Next time we meet, Luda will have to explain to her that Mama and Papa do not like that and she must wait and be nice.  Luda also had a book to test her development, reading and reasoning skills.  I believe the book was a 4-5 level and she could not read some things and had a hard time explaining (finding the right words), so her vocabulary is not as developed.  She also pronounces words the easy way or wrong way because she was not corrected or taught properly when she was younger.  I think she is a bit further behind her age then the boys, because she had spent more of her early development at home with her biological parents.  I think she will be a quick learner though.

After we visited her, we stopped at the boys' orphanage for some paperwork, but it was not ready, so we only had a brief visit.  We were able to put together a rocket ship kit that was like a Konnectx set or a Lego set with the boys.  Holy cow were they excited about that.  Both boys were very analytical and detail oriented.  The project had to match the picture on the box exactly.  Sounds like we have some future engineers on our hands.

Today we visited the boys for a couple of hours.  They rambled down the hall dressed in head to toe denim with a playground ball each under their arm.  We were allowed to take them outside for playtime and bonding.  We kicked the ball around a bit and chased each other all over a small section of the grounds.  These two guys really like the attention!  They were swinging from the playground equipment like monkeys.  We taught them how to count to three using some games.  We'll have to continue with the counting on another trip.  After running around, we settled down with some peanut butter crackers that Heather made the night before.  We're not sure that they had peanut butter crackers before but they sure did like them. We also gave them some vitamins discretely disguised as gummi bears. After snacks we gave the boys the trucks we bought them in Kyiv.  There was a Land Rover for A**** and a open top Jeep for C*****.  Immediately they were enthralled with doors that opened on the Rover and the flip down windshield on the Jeep.  I caught C***** doing a quick comparison of his Jeep to A****'s Rover.  I think when we get home we'll have to get some Tonka trucks or Fisher Price trucks because these guys know how to "play" with their trucks.

Interestingly A**** put down his truck to curl up against my laptop bag like he was sleeping which was cute.  He then spotted Heather's magazines and led C***** through the picture advertisements.  An advertisment with a dog standing on a pool table caught their funny bone.  A**** has a very deep gutteral laugh with a giggle finish to it that you can't help but to laugh along.  C***** is a giggler and when he giggles, he giggles a lot.  They are both very sweet and funny.  We'll have to find better magazines than "Better Homes and Gardens" to read through when we get home like "Trucks" and "Motor Trend."

We spent more time on the swing sets and jungle gyms until we settled on a big slide set off by itself.  There were three slides all told and many climbing ladders and ramps to the top platforms.  Platforms we use loosely because one platform was missing entirely and one was mangled so badly we did not want the boys to walk on it. Thankfully there was one good platform for the boys.  We were on that apparatus for over an hour alone.  The boys were yucking it up for the camera. A**** loves to have his picture taken.  He was posing for pictures by propping his head up with his hand and elbow and C***** was imitating his older brother.  Both boys had to see the digital display of every picture that I took.  The point and shoot camera we have with us is doing well but I would love to have my DSLR from home.

We did have to correct each boys behavior once during our play time.  Both instances centered on the mangled platform.  Both boys had gotten closer to the platform than we liked and we warned them each not to go further.  A**** stepped out on the platform and disobeyed our instructions so he got a timeout.  He did well in timeout and seemed to understand that he did something wrong from Papa's expressions and actions. In no time he was back to playing with C*****.  C*****'s timeout for the same offense was a bit different.  Papa had to reinforce his timeout position twice which led to C***** crying with both hands over his face and sobbing.  It was painful to watch him cry.  After some time to reflect, Moma and Papa reassured and hugged C***** and cleaned him up to play again.  Both boys made subtle moves towards the bum platform again which were met with "Nyet."  We think they understand the mangled platform is off limts now.

During our time we noticed that the boys were dressed for playing outside in late fall with cooler temperatures.  Each had thermal long pants underneath their thick denim jeans, flannel shirts and heavy denim jackets aka "the dreaded jean jacket."  The actual temperature was somewhere in the 70's.  The boys visit was great and we look forward to tomorrow's trip.

After our visit, we ran errands all over.  Back to the inspector's office, switch apartments, to the copy office, to dinner and to the big market.  The newest pictures of the boys are uploaded.  Can't wait to see M***** tomorrow. Luda has been great.  She is definitely on her game and is very organized.  She seems to have good repoire with the inspector and the orphanage staff at the boy's home and girl's home.

Das Vidanya

The First of Two Big Days

Yesterday was kind of a busy day.  We picked up our referral paperwork at the SDA, however it was not ready at 4 pm.  We met Luda at the SDA who will be traveling with us to Crimea instead of Elena who is not able to travel with us because of a foot injury. 4 pm turned into 5 pm and still no referral.  Finally at 6 pm our paperwork was ready.  We were the last people waiting in the lobby besides the security guard.  The cleaning lady at the apartment was at our apt when we arrived and our stuff was not packed yet for the driver to take us to the train station at 7pm.  We had a very stressful afternoon/evening.  No time to eat dinner and take a shower before the long train ride.  Oh, well.  We made it onto the train, although I was truly cursing myself getting on the train with all of the luggage.  We met Dr.Yuri at the station depot for the overnight train.

We arrived to beautful weather in Simferopol, much better than Kyiv where they were calling for snow.  People in Crimea were in shorts yesterday and still going to the beach swimming.

We were taken to our apartment by Misha our driver.  All 5 of us fit along with all of luggage into a Hyundai Sonata.  Our apartment is nice.  We all cleaned up and then headed to the Regional Inspector (Child Services) to get her permission to visit the orphanage.  After we had the signed documents in hand, Misha drove us to the orphanage.  We met with the Director, Deputy Director and Ophanage Doctor, to go over the information about the boys.  After we received all the information, the boys were brought into the room!

Dr. Yuri had chocolate bars for each of them and that lit up their faces.  They were dressed nicely and are blonde with blue eyes and small and thin for their age, which is typical in an orphanage.  Dr. Yuri put them through their paces to determine their development and IQ.  Their health records were in order and they both had surgery to remove their adenoids and the younger also had his tonsils removed.  These were the two items mentioned in the file at the SDA appointment, so it is nice to know that it was already taken care of .

After all the formalities, we were shown into another room to get know the kids more.  We played ball and played with the stuffed animals we brought them.  We also had gummi bears for them, so they were probably on a sugar high.  They had A LOT of energy.

It was a wonderful meeting and assuming the meeting tomorrow goes just as well with the little girl, then we will go ahead and proceed with adopting these kids.

I know that everyone wants to see pictures.  However, we will not post pics on the blog until after court, since it is a public blog, however, those who have received links to the Picasa web album from a couple of days ago, will be able to view pictures of the boys.  If you would like to receive a link to the album at our discretion, please email us or leave a comment on the blog with your email.

Thank you everyone for following our journey and thinking about us and praying for us.

Andrew, Heather, M*****, A****, C*****

Good Things Come in Threes...

Well, lets start off by saying we didn't sleep a wink last night and we were running on adrenaline this morning for the appointment.  Luba picked us up about 8:30 and we walked to the SDA.  Vlad was supposed to meet us there, but he was sick, so his wife and son Lev met us there.  Lev is working with the Wainwrights.  Lev did his father a favor and was the translator for our appointment.  He was very knowledgeable and helpful.  His english was also very good, so we were able to understand the medical diagnoses and information in the file. 

The first thing that was asked was "Would you be interested in a sibling group of 3?"  We said yes, we would consider it, but we would still like to see groups of 2.  They showed us a file of two boys (both just turned 5 and 6) and their big sister (7 will be 8 in January) from the Republic of Crimea (way down south).  After some stressful moments (55 minutes) of asking for more and more files and changing our age range to older, we finally decided that this sibling group that was first presented was the one for us.

The kids are described as socialable and quiet with some delayed speech and development, which is typical for children in orphanages.   They also have some issues with their adenoids and tonsils, but that is no problem.  We only really received limited information at the appointment.  We will know more when we meet with the director.

Luba called the Orphanage Director for the boys and the Director said they are good boys and healthy.  The little girl is at a separate orphanage not far away from the boys.

Elena will be traveling with us to the region along with Dr. Yuri.  We leave on the overnight train on Tuesday evening and will arrive in Crimea on Wednesday morning after a 15 hour train ride.  We are excited and nervous!  Can't wait to meet the kids.  We bought a toy for each child and I have a few things I brought along to give them. 

We're still deciding names and want to meet the kids before we give them their new name. 

I guess my craft room is going to need to move up into the attic and it will become the new playroom!

The next part of our journey is about to begin.

Kyiv Day 2

One day to go to our appointment at the SDA! 

After a long day of travel yesterday Heather and I slept in this morning.  We had a restful sleep on our futon with pink sheets.  Isabella would approve!  We relaxed in the apartment, browsed the internet and checked out the satellite tv available.  It appears that we get 500 plus channels two thirds of which are in Arabic. 

Vlad called while we were getting ready for the day to tell us that Luba will be picking us up tomorrow for the appointment.  Vlad will meet us at the appointment.  Elena may not be there because she broke her foot and she may not be able to go with us to the region when we receive our referral.  We will wait to see what Vlad decides to do after the appointment for a translator for us in region.

Later in the afternoon we met up with the Wainwrights at the globe monument in Independence Square to explore downtown Kyiv.  The Wainwrights have been here since Thursday and seem to know their way around.  That didn't stop us from getting lost in the underground mall shopping for chocolates.  No chocolates were found in the underground mall.  When we emerged from the mall we didn't know where we were.  A short walk dropped us in front of TGI Friday's which we couldn't locate on the map earlier this morning.  Just before crossing the busy street to the restuarant we finally found a shop with chocolates.  Still lost and hungry we decided to eat dinner at TGI Friday's.  Two nights in Kyiv and we've eaten at two American eateries.  That has to stop tomorrow.

Dinner at TGI Friday's was ok.  The food was like home but cold and the service was slow.  We didn't mind though because it gave us a chance to get to know the Wainwrights better. Two and a half hours later we emerged from the restaurant, looked right and recognized the Formula1 banner that we saw earlier.  We had to just walk one block and turn right and we were back on the main road that led us back to Independence Square.  The downtown scene is great.  We saw multiple street acts including break dancers and a guy making big bubbles for the kids to pop.  A stretch of the main road is closed on weekends and there are many people out.  On the way back from dinner I was stopped by a group of Irish lads (actually older men but I just wanted to use the word "lads") looking for O'briens Irish Pub.  We actually knew exactly were it was but after telling them that it was quite a trek back the way they came they quickly decided to move on. 

I took a couple more pictures downtown and we walked with the Wainwrights home.  We really enjoyed meeting the Wainwrights today.  They are very good people even though S. thinks the North starts in Tennesee (he's kidding of course). We chuckled about that but noted that everything is north of Florida in the USA.  The Wainwright's appointment is just after our's tomorrow and we wish them the best of luck.

So now we are back in the apartment relaxing and waiting for tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll get a good night's rest for the big day.

We're Here!

Well, we made it to Kyiv.  We made it to Philly airport in record time for a Friday afternoon, checked in and breezed through international security.  We were able to get two seats in the exit row, which on our plane was like the bulkhead.  This made Andrew very happy!

The flights were good.  Have to admit we were not impressed with Frankfurt Airport.  Had to go through security twice there and then board on the tarmac in the pouring rain.....

Our VIP processing at the airport was super speedy, but we were getting worried because our luggage was the last to come out.  The VIP guy kept saying "quickly, quickly" "keep close".  We made it throught customs and immigration and met Luba (Elena's sister) at the airport.  She had a driver friend who brought us into Kyiv.  We got our SIM card for the phone and exchanged some currency.

Our apartment is different.  I will post pics after we come back from dinner.  We have to run out and get some water and more prepaid minutes for the modem. 

The leaves are just starting to change.  I am excited to go exploring tomorrow and see more sights!

Will post more later!

~Heather and Andrew

One More Day

Its been a while since I updated the Blog, but just wanted to write a quick post.  We are flying out tomorrow from Philly.  Hopefully, we will have a great flight!  When we arrive on Saturday afternoon, Ukraine time, we will go about getting a SIM card for the phone that Jim from work let us borrow.  Then we will also try and get our USB modem hooked up, so we are online.  Saturday, we hope to recover from jet lag and then Sunday do a little sightseeing around Kyiv. 

Monday is our appointment at the SDA at 9AM.  Please keep up in your thoughts and prayers as we select a sibling set to visit.  We will try and post shortly after our appointment to fill everyone in, but sometimes, it can get very hectic getting ready to leave maybe that evening to go to another region in Ukraine, where the Orphanage is located.  I know everyone will be curious, so we will try not to keep you in suspense.

We have contacted Dr. Yuri and he said his schedule is open and he is available to come and evaluate the children we hope to adopt. 

Well, I have A LOT of stuff to do around the house, so the next time you hear from us, we will be in Ukraine.

Thanks (Spaseeba) everyone for their love and support....and comments.

~Heather and Andrew

Flights Booked!

Friday I booked the flight arrangements for our trip to Kyiv, Ukraine (aka Kiev Ukraine). It felt good to have the last stateside step completed.  We did use Golden Rule travel to book the flights.  They specialize in missionary, humanitarian and adoption fares.  We used Eldo Miller, based out of the Hutchinson, Kansas office.  When I told him our address for the airline, he said "no way"  he knew right where we lived because he used to live near New Holland in Fivepointsville.

We leave on Friday October 9th from Philadephia then on to Frankfurt,Germany and then to Kyiv, Ukraine.  We are flying on Lufthansa, which makes Andrew happy because they fly Airbuses and Andrew thinks they are better than Boeings....We'll see what he thinks after our 8 hour and 3 hour flights....

I finally have bought everything I need to start packing, so we are going to see if we can fit everything into our three bags....it might be difficult.

Our new-found adoption friends from Florida have also been given an appointment date on Oct 12th as well.  If anyone is interested in following their journey, check out http://www.thewainwrightfamily.blogspot.com/ .  They also have links to many other adopting families, that are traveling or are about to travel to Ukraine.

Thanks for all the well wishes.  Your support and interest in our adoption journey means very much to us.

T minus 19 days and counting....

T minus 28 days and counting...

We received our appointment date from the SDA today.  Vlad emailed us this afternoon to tell us our appointment date is Monday, October 12th at 9 am in Kyiv.  Mostly likely we will begin our travels on Friday, October 9th.  Heather has already contacted Golden Rule Travel to inquire about flights to Ukraine.  We celebrated with a nice dinner out tonight and visited with my parents to tell them the good news.  We are really starting to get excited.  Can't wait for the next 28 days.

Andrew

Dossier Submitted!!!

Hello Everyone,

We received word from Vlad today. Our dossier has been successfully submitted and we expect to get our letter of invitation next week. The countdown to our travel begins soon. We can't wait.

Until next week,
Andrew

Two More Weeks

Well, its been a while since we last posted, mostly due to the fact there was nothing to report. The updated Dossier was sent to Vlad at the end of June. I talked with him and he said everything looks good, so we have just been counting down the days to our September 7th submission date. The submission date to the appointment date in Ukraine has been around 3 weeks, so hopefully we will be heading over to Ukraine at the end of September.

We have been really busy at home getting the house ready and the rooms ready for the kids! My rather long and daunting list has been whittled down to a few things with the help of my brother-in-law (Thanks Jason!) and some hired help (Thanks Tony!) and of course Andrew and myself.

I finally finished my scrapbook of pictures to take with us to show everyone in Ukraine where we come from and to get the kids familiarized with faces and the house and of course Chas and Jake (our cocker spaniels). We were able to borrow a few things from my friend Joni who adopted in 2006 from Ukraine (Thanks Joni!). They should come in handy.

One bag has been packed for the orphanage, its at the limit 49.4lbs. I've been getting everything else together that's sort of miscellaneous--kids medicines, vitamins, rubber gloves, duct tape, toilet seat wipes, anti-bacterial handsoap and gel, peanut butter, cell phone, sewing kit, plug adapters. Some of these things you never know if you need, but its better to have them than wish you had them. Some things are hard to find in Ukraine.

Once September 7th rolls around, I should have more interesting news to report!

~Heather

Good News - Bad News

Well, we thought things were on track but we heard from Vlad on April 27th that our submission date of June 22 was changed to September 7th. This is the date our file was to be submitted to the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine.

This pushes us back a few months and means that our whole dossier needs redone. As of today, the whole dossier has been redone and tomorrow I plan on going to the Capitol in Harrisburg to have the documents apostilled.

The reason the date was pushed back is the SDA thought they would be shorthanded because of vacations in the summer and therefore would not be able to review and approve all the files and have the appointments for the families. In addition, the Ukrainian government and many of the officials and inspectors go on extended summer holidays. The government pretty much shuts down. This makes traveling and adopting during the summer an extended affair and can take longer than 4-6 weeks. Also, its really hot there in the summer with no air conditioning at most places.

Our best estimate at this point it to travel for our appointment sometime in the 4th quarter, possibly in November. Our hope is to be home in time for Christmas with the kids.

We're ready to prime and paint the kids rooms and finish up the furniture that we are refinishing. We have been trying to keep up with the yard work and Andrew is finally recooperated from Tax Season.

I try and keep in mind that when we are invited to Ukraine for our appointment, then that is when we are meant to go to find our children. The children that are meant for us will be there then.

Since I last posted, time has flown by, hopefully the next few months fly by just as quickly and we don't have any more hiccups in our journey....

Das Vidanya

~ Heather

News from Vlad

We finally have some more good news to report. Our Dossier was delivered on schedule to Vlad in Ukraine on March 2. Our file was translated and our facilitator presented our file to the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine to get a submission date. Vlad emailed me and let me know that our submission date is June 22, 2009. (YAY)

That date means a couple of our documents will have to be redone, notarized and apostilled and sent to Ukraine before June 22th to be translated. This is because every document we submit on June 22th has to be good for an additional 6 months. Some of our documents were as of December 1st, 13st, etc. so they have to be redone...Its only a couple, so its not too bad.

At this point, we know the SDA has up to 20 business days to review and approve the dossier and then schedule our appointment. So now, the best we know is we will be going to Ukraine in the 3rd quarter sometime. Everything can change at any point, but a family who submitted in the very beginning of February had their appointment on March 25. So the appointment was about 6 or 7 weeks from the submission date (mid August maybe, for us). We'll see.

The plaster work we had done in the kids' rooms is complete and ready for priming and painting. Hopefully, with warmer weather coming and Andrew finishing up tax season, we can get some of the furniture painted and the rooms painted.

If you're interested in looking at some of the orphanages, check out http://www.iorphan.org/ click on orphanages/Ukrainian...There are some cute pics of kids and what the orphanages are like.

Bu vai (Bye - Ukrainian)

~Heather

Its Been a While

Well, its been a while since our last post. We were pretty much just waiting for our immigration approval from Phila USCIS (sent home study to USCIS 12/22/08). We finally received the approval on Saturday February 21. I was so happy, but it also put me in a tailspin because there were still a couple of changes to be made to documents because of changes in the Ukrainian laws within the past month or two. I mapped my plan out for this week and I am happy to report that our Dossier (application for adoption) was sent, via FEDEX to our faciliator Vlad in Ukraine today, February 26th.

This week was crazy and included multiple stops to AAA for some notary work, updated employment letters from work because of wording changes, a trip to Harrisburg Capitol to have documents Apostilled with the PA Secretary of State's seal, some scanning and copying of documents for our files and then finally, with a sigh of relief, a Fedex shipment to Ukraine.

The FEDEX is supposed to arrive on Tuesday March 3, where it will be translated 7-10 business days and then our facilitator and his team will try and get us submitted to the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption. Hopefully, this will happen within the next few months......

At this point, we have no idea about exact timing, but hopefully we will know a little more in the next couple of weeks.

We hope that things go well. I have been continuing to practice my Ukrainian and Russian phrases for children. Andrew seems to have trouble with the words...its pretty funny. I keep buying clothes in various sizes for either boys or girls. We really hope to be able to find two children in the 3-5 year old range.

We are having someone come in and get the rooms ready for the kids with some new drywall and plaster. Then we can paint and get somewhat ready...With our age range 2-8, either gender, its hard to be able to plan and prepare. And of course that drives me crazy, since I am such a planner.

Now that our journey has really started and is "official", hopefully there will be more news to report on a regular basis.

~Heather