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!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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!
Friday, November 13, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, November 9, 2009
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.
Monday, November 2, 2009
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
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!
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