Merry Christmas

I hope Santa came to visit everyone today.

Today was so much fun. Chris/Kola was outside playing with his groupa (about 10 kids), so I just stayed outside and watched him play. It gives you a much better idea of who they are when they are with others instead of in a small room with you. He seems to be the oldest of the group, so pretty much the helper. There were a couple of groups outside, so I would say I got between 10 or 15 hugs and kisses today from different children. They range in age of 3-7 and they are ALL precious. Yes David, I immediately used the germ stuff...especially since it is cold season and almost all of them needed to blow their nose!!!

I have found about 5 other kids to adopt...anybody up for it?

When I got back inside the orphanage, there was a couple from Canada there. They spoke very good English since he works for an American Company. They are looking to adopt a little boy Sergi that is 5 years old. He is about 2/3 the size of Kola....so he is very tiny. This is the third child they have visited. They have been in Ukraine now for 2 weeks. The first child they felt had FAS (Fetal Alchol Syndrome) so they passed. The next child had a sibling that was 11 and they had only been approved up to 6 and the director wouldn't split up the family...so this is the 3rd option. Wow, 2 weeks and just getting ready to begin the back end work. YIKES. They seem very nice. She had me look at the child to get my opinion if he had FAS...he looked fine and very sweet to me. The Italian family that was here on Friday didn't show up today, so they were either in the throws of paperwork or turned down the child they visited. We will see how things go with the Canadian family...

I did get some tips on where to stay in Kiev on our way back. This family staying in an apartment that overlooked the American Embassy while they were in town and they said the best pizza they had ever eaten was next to it. I wonder if we can stay there Thursday night. It would be handy to be next to the Embassy.

They also said there was a Radison nearby...so maybe we will stay there.

Oh, one teacher speaks a little English and she told me that Kola was telling her that he had a beautiful Mama. Wasn't that sweet. Children are so bias!!!

Matthew, I love you. Dad said that you cleaned your room. Thank you!!!
I miss you bunches and can't wait to get a bunch of hugs and kisses from you. I hope grammy didn't take them all.

Jeannie,

thanks for the Christmas wish....I wonder what you were doing up at 11:30 on Christmas eve. I bet this will be a great one for Lance. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Love to all,

Carol

Linda, you are bad.

Well, I would love to say that I have wonderful friends, but then one of them sends me an evil comment telling me about making two peanut butter pies (my favorite food in the world), chess pie (my second favorite)....ok, ok..so you get the picture. Anyway, I'll have time to get over it before I see you Linda. :)

Julie, glad you think this is an adventure...ha, probably not the kind that make good books.

Marilyn, thanks for all that you have done...dropping us off, giving us emergency food, blankets, coat (by the way, this coat has added benefits...since it is reversible...I was able to stick the camera and video camera in the inside pockets and take them to town with me today) and the good comments.

I broke out and came to town today. David wanted me to take pictures of the women who are wearing the micro mini skirts, boots past the knees with 3 inch heels and fur coats. I got one picture, but it is 20 degrees today...so most everyone is covered up. Sorry Dave....no one will ever believe that this is what all the young women were in Ukraine!!

I did do something today I was told not to do. I ate a pastry puff at one of the street vendors...I know, I know...I'm not supposed to eat anything from the vendors...but it is toward the end and I am living on the edge. It was a cream filled pastry covered in Chocolate. Yummmmmm

I did not visit Kola today. It is Sunday and hard to visit the orphanage, so this is my day to hang out. I wondered if the stores would be open...but I got here at 11 am and everything was going...so I am a shopping.

Something of interest...during the day the smaller shops leave their store lights off to conserve energy, so it is hard to tell if they are open or not. In the mall, you don't have stores that have walls, you have metal rails that let you know the different stores. In the less expensive stores, the partians are like what you would see at a flea market.

It is Christmas Eve, so I hope Santa visits everyone tonight!!!! Hummm, I wonder what he will bring me. Oh, I know...a child.

I do have one more thing to tell you. I called Aunt Marilyn's house last night (1:30 your time) to see how Matthew reacted to seeing David. He was surprising him at 1pm for the White Elephant Christmas. When Matthew saw David, he jumped in the air, ran to him and jumped on him and started crying. He told me on the phone he had only asked for 2 things from Santa when he sat on his lap and that was for a Nintendo DS and for us to come home. He said at least part of his wish came true.

A true adventure.

Okay, I did it. Jennifer, you are right. Staying the in apartment was just not working for me. I decided to try to communicate my way downtown to shop. It took 4 taxi drivers before one asked me if I wanted to go to the Centre. Maripol is broken into 3 sections, right bank, left bank and centre. I wanted to go to the Drama Theatre...but hey, I figured it is located in Centre Maripol...so I should get close. Well, low and behold once we crossed the water way he asked which way to go. OMG...I don't know, so I guessed and about 3 minutes later I saw the theatre and pointed.

What a great move. They are having a big festival downtown, I am assuming getting ready for the New Year since they don't celebrate Christmas until Jan 7th. I found a place to exchange money and headed down the street. Now let's see if I can make it back to the apartment.

I did walk for quite a while and it was extremely cold today. The weatherman says it is about -7 so that is about 25 degrees. My legs are freezing from walking a mile before finding a taxi...I'll wear those leggings tomorrow!!!

For all of you who have made comments...thanks so much. It is so nice to hear friendly words and familiar words. :)

I took the DVD player to the Orphanage today. I didn't feel like playing outside today so we watched Chicken Little in Russian. The neatest thing happened while we were watching the video. One of the workers was talking to Chris/Kola and who knows what they were talking about, but I do know that he said Mama and then Miracle and he gave me two big teethless kisses (sometimes he doesn't close his mouth all the way and he is missing his two front teeth) and he massaged my head. Oh, did I tell you he LOVES to give massages. He's not that good, but I appreciate the effort. He had learned almost all of the main body parts in English and was proud that he learned the word "shoulders" today.

I am missing all of you so much, but now that I have an end in sight...it doesn't seem so bad. I spoke with Matthew yesterday just after he got off the plane from Florida. Yeah...that warm state. I told him that I would be coming home next Saturday and I could hear his joy all the way in Ukraine. He exclaimed "Mom, that is just one more week, can you believe it...my prayers have been answered." Better yet, he told mom that he asked Santa that David and I come home for Christmas. How awesome will that be when David surprises him at Aunt Marilyn's house today at 1:00.

I love you guys..........

Another good day, long post

December 22, 2006
The day looks a lot different when you are by yourself. I slept really good last night. I am sure that it is because the night before I was so stressed that I didn’t get much sleep and tonight, my body didn’t have a choice.
The lady of the house called today and she is going to come tomorrow and clean at 1:00, so I need to have a plan to be somewhere else.
This morning I headed to the Orphanage. No luck like yesterday, I had to get to the crossroads to catch a taxi instead of having one outside the apartment. The taxi driver that was there was the older gentleman that smokes and has a car that is basically taped together, but he is nice and knows where we are going. It’s funny, the first thing he asked me is where was my husband. David is the front seat rider and I always am in the back. He has been the one to give them the address, etc. He is sorely missed by the taxi driver, because I am definitely not the entertaining one.
There was another couple from Italy at the Orphanage today who were looking at a three year old little boy. He is very tiny and Chris/Kola looks like a giant compared to him. We had to go outside for our visit today so that the other family could have the space. We skipped, played chase (OMG…it was a long two hours), and played a game of hopscotch. Oh, we played hide a seek with some of the other kids. They were outside and we were constantly looking around corners and hiding from them. I tried having Chris/Kola play with his friends so that I could take pictures, but that didn’t go over too well. He became very possessive telling them that I was his “mama” when a couple of the kids tried to hold my hands.
I have also found another similarity between Chris and Matthew. When Matthew was leaving his daycare, I came and took some pictures of him with his friends. There were two boys in the pictures. Then some girls came over to get in the picture and he had a meltdown. Well, guess what…same bat time..same bat channel. Yesterday when we were taking pictures of his groupa, he only wanted his two friends that were boys and when a couple of girls came to get in the picture..he wouldn’t smile and just pouted. Today, I was taking pictures and he was happy when his friend was in the picture..even holding his hand..but some girls came up and he pushed them away. Once we are on the same page with our language, we’ll have a talk about this!!  I love watching Chris and his little friend play, they are really sweet together.
As always, I headed back to the Internet and spent an hour online and then went to our favorite pizza place for lunch. They even wanted to know why I was by myself. I did go to the market, just because I didn’t want to go back to the apartment. The market is an interesting place. In the front is the food section and in the back is dry goods. When you start from the right, you run into the fresh meat section..you know chicken hearts, liver, pigs heads, and anything else you don’t want to smell…chees is on the right of that isle. As I get to the dry goods as soon as possible, you find many of the things you would find at an American Flea Market. Then to get out you go out on the other side of the front where all the fresh fish are out on the counter. Now talk about smell. There is no safe place.
Once I got outside, I did head to the bread portion of the market and purchased some of that sweetbread. It is in the shape of a heart!
Matthew, they had a two hour special on Beckham. They had many of his games from 1996 to the present with Manchester United. That was a lot of soccer for me to watch without you or Dad being around.
I have to tell you that when you are by yourself, you have a great deal of time to reflect and I reflected on food today. Mainly the food that I will be missing during Christmas. Talk about poor planning! I was thinking about the deviled eggs and peanut butter pie at Aunt Marilyn’s, the chicken and broccoli casseroles at Mom’s, the Squash Casserole and green beans at Nanna’s and the Pumpkin roll that I know Teresa Tipton made and brought to the bank. Shoot, I have even been thinking about the food that they serve us at Makers Mark during the 7 Habits training…especially their corn pudding.
Well, it is time to put in something to watch on the DVD player. We brought lots of movies, but David watched them all before he left…so I am left with Bonanza, Andy Griffith, The Dick van Dyke show and Our Gang episodes.
The count down is in my head. It is Friday night and in 5 days I will be on the road with my translator and Chris to Donesk. We will pick up that paperwork Thursday morning and fly to Kiev to get everything done by 5:30. Then Chris and I will hang out until Friday morning to pick up his VISA and then our flight heads out Friday at 5 pm. Right now we don’t have a room at the hotel in Amsterdam…the online reservation says that they don’t have any rooms, but I will call them tonight…another person who adopted said that it said there were no rooms online, but they got one when they called. Cross your fingers..there are only 33 rooms. If there are no rooms, then we will have to sleep in the chairs at the airport and I have to tell you, that does not sound appealing.
I hope everyone has fun at the White Elephant Christmas celebration at Aunt Marilyns on Saturday and at Mom’s on Saturday night. I miss you guys.
Linda and Teresa, I know you are cooking like crazy….enjoy your Christmas.
Allison…I hope you have a Merry Christmas with Phil. Tell him, your mom and your sister Merry Christmas for me. Enjoy your vacation.
Julie, wish Jacob, Jeremy and the gang Merry Christmas for me.
Stephanie, I hope your first Christmas with Haley is wonderful.
Harris family, this is going to be a good one with Emma…enjoy it!
Dad and Linda…I know that it will be another big crowd this year. I hope it is as fun as last year.
Mom and Ren…after the week you have had, I’m guessing you will nap all day and dream of Mickey and Minnie!!!
Kerry and Marshelle, Give Jes big kisses for me, I’m sorry Marshelle that you are on call.
Take lots of pictures.
Renee, I’m sorry that you won’t be able to be home…I hope that you enjoy your Christmas!
Marlene, Michelle and Steven…I know this is late, but Happy Belated Hanukkah and Happy birthday Steven!!!
Diane and Bob…Happy belated Haunkkah as well, but I know that you will be entertaining on Christmas as well with Bob’s family…so I hope you have fun with all your cooking.
To all the people at Farmers Capital……I hope you have a Merry, Merry Christmas…believe it or not…I do miss work…I know, I’m strange.
To all past and future adopters….May those of you who are home with your children enjoy your time with your family and those who are about to adopt…hold on, you will soon be blessed with your own child/children.
David and Matthew….I hope you are back together by now. David, I miss you already…but I do enjoy the Ukrainian TV being turned off!!  Matthew, I want and expect bunches of kisses and hugs when I get home. I love you both very much and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Happy Holidays
Carol

Thursday morning

This morning has been great. I meet Chris/Kola at 10:00 and he must have played with the remote control car that we gave him for the first hour. That got me about 5 hugs and a couple of kisses. Sorry that you weren't here to get any David!!! The orphanage psychologist took me around the orphanage today to let me take pictures of Chris/Kola in the different rooms and with some of his friends and teachers. I have to tell you, I don't know if it is a good thing to take him, this orphanage is great. They are very clean, organized and really care for the children. The money they get goes into their well being, I feel very good about the money that we gave them. They have a sports room, and ecological room, a relaxation room a general play room and many others. Everyone was so warm and welcoming to me as I went around and the children were just precious. I saw about 60 and if I understand correctly, there are about 80 in the orphanage. Chris/Kola is one of the oldest children in the orphanage at 6. Most are much smaller than him.

He was very sweet and held my hand as he took me around, but I didn't get much of a good bye as he was hanging onto that car!!!

Just before I left, David called me from the Embassy. Since Jeannie got in touch with Jamey's brother who had Mitch McConnell's office call the Embassy, they are being a little more helpful. David told them they were very concerned that we would not be able to get off the plane, get the physical exam done and get to the Embassy before 5:30. They were working with David today and suggested that we get one person to deliver all the paperwork that we have as soon as the plane lands and then as soon as we finish at the doctor, we will only have Chris's paperwork to complete to get the Visa. They will finish it after 5:30 so that we can pick up the paperwork Friday morning.

We got the last two tickets on Northwest for Friday evening. We will have to spend the night in Amsterdam (we can't leave the airport, because we would have to get a VISA in that country for Kola) so I am trying to get a reservation for the hotel located inside the airport and then our flight leaves at 8 am Saturday morning and we will arrive in Louisville at 2:00pm. Whew.

It looks like it may work out, please pray very hard for us!!!

Kola

Linda,

Kola is short for Nicholai. His given name is Nicholai (something) ChinChin. Everyone calls him Kola for short. They have asked us at the orphanage not to call him Chris yet, that it will be easier to transition the name once we are in America. From time to time we call him Chris Kola, just so he gets used to hearing the name. We asked him if he wants his American name or Ukrainian and he says he wants the American name, but it can be stressful sometimes. He has had some crying spells when we leave and when he doesn't get his way!!!

Julie,

Thanks for your good dreams ...tell Jacob that today was my first day all by myself, it is 2 oclock and I have eaten 3 M and M's and walked about 5 miles. Yes, this is the diet that I have heard about. Yesterday, I had one coke, 3 m and m's and a piece of bread and 4 cups of coffee and you know that is not my favorite drink, but it fills you up when the options are slim!!

Our busy schedule

December 20, 2006
Boy have things been busy since the last time we posted. We got our paperwork from the SDA (adoption center) quickly and Yes, we had a court date the next day. Thank you for all of our prayers and thanks to our translators and the Judge.
Once we get done at the Court House, then we are off running. (By the way, our translator had to drive all night to get to us…he got here @ 5 am after an 11 hour drive and took a short nap to get us to the orphanage by 9 to be at court by 10 for our hearing.) The town inspector and the orphanage psychologist served as the jurors for our hearing and were very supportive. The Judge asked us quite a few questions about our ability to financially be able to take care of the child. The questions were pretty straight forward. The main question that he asked was how we were prepared to help Chris/Kola to transition to life in America.
After our court hearing, we were off and running again. We had to take the Orphanage Psychologist back to the Orphanage AND take a gift to Kola. This day was special for so many reasons: 1st. It is St. Nicholas day in Ukraine and a day that all children celebrate. The church was at the orphanage holding a service and bringing small gifts to all the children in the orphanage. It was very sweet. 2nd…It was a special day for Kola because he is named after Saint Nicholas (Nicholai) and anytime you are named after a Saint, you celebrate that Saint’s day just as you would your own birthday. 3rd, it is our official gotcha day since he officially became our son today. Talk about a very BIG day!!!
We also took Kola quickly to a photo shop to get his passport picture taken. This only took about 30 minutes. We were then headed to Donesk. (By the way, we didn’t know this was going to happen.) Donesk is a little over one hour away from Maripol and in order to get his new birth certificate and passport, you have to go the main city in the region he was born in. That would be Donesk. Our translator had purchased 3 pieces of sweet bread(small Danish) and 3 drinks. We thought we were headed around town and had no idea we were going away until we noticed we were headed out of the city. The bad news is since that we didn’t know this, we didn’t have our trusty backpack with us that is ALWAYS with us and has toilet paper, tissues, and all other emergency supplies. For those people who might be adopting in the future….keep that stuff with you always, even if you think you are just going to court!!
In Donesk, we ran into a problem. A new law has gone into effect that doesn’t allow for immediate execution of a childs paperwork. This means that we will not be able to get the birth certificate or passport today, but we have to wait until after the 10 day waiting period and then we can get the paperwork. Oh no, we had planned to take Kola on Wednesday night and to drive to Kiev over night and then be at the doctor’s office early on Thursday and then to the Embassy to get his VISA so that we could fly out on Friday. Now, we can’t pick up the paperwork until Thursday morning in Donesk and this process will take a couple of hours (even if we have the paperwork filled out in advance) and the drive to Kiev is 10 hours. The Embassy is closing at 5:30 on Thursday and is closed to the public on Friday, and closed for the Holidays on Sat, Sun and Mon. That means we won’t be able to get an appointment until Tuesday and leave on Wednesday. Oh no, that means we will have to stay in Kiev for an extra four days just hanging out. The medical office is also closing at 2 oclock on Thursday. For every hurdle we jump over, a brick wall gets in front of us.
Here is where we really need your prayers. We have found a flight out of Donesk at 1:00 on Thursday. This will get us to Kiev at around 3 oclock. We pleaded with the doctor to stay and wait for us, he has agreed to stay, but it is a great inconvenience to him (we all know what that means). Hopefully since everyone will be gone, the appointment will go quickly. Then we have to get to the Embassy by 5:30…if that happens, they have two people who will be working in the VISA office at the Embassy and they will process the paperwork and will leave the VISA with the Security Guard at the Embassy on Friday.
Please pray that there is NO FOG on Thursday. If there is FOG, the planes do not fly and we will not make it to Kiev and we will have to stay in Ukraine and extra 5 days. Please send prayers that this doesn’t happen and that all the other steps go smoothly. We are on such a tight schedule, that one delay and we won’t make it in time.
The next day, we had to run around more by going to the court house to get some more paperwork fixed. We also had to get David’s flight changed. God has been with him on this, he got the last seat available…so he will be coming home early.
David and our translator left this evening for that long drive back to Kiev. I am now by myself. I must admit, that right before they walked out the door and about an hour after they left, I started to feel a small amount of panic. I am now by myself and NO ONE hear speaks English and I speak so little Russian…how will I make it. Then I started thinking about it and we really do have our routine down well. David has insisted that I only visit Kola during the morning visit. The late afternoon visit would make it too dark outside and it really isn’t safe when it is dark. After the morning visit, I will go to the restaurant where they have gotten comfortable with me pointing at the picture dictionary to tell them what I want to eat, then I will go to the Internet (it is 6 gryvnas per hour …1 dollar) and this will take care of my need to communicate with someone. Then I will get a Taxi back to the apartment and stay in for the evening. David seems to think that I will stick to this plan for one day and will begin to figure out a way to find someplace to shop. We will see.
Kola is very excited that we are his forever Mama and Papa…but he was much more excited about the remote control car that he got for St Nicholas day!! We called Matthew to tell him that he officially had a new brother. His immediate reaction was to find out if Kola said in court that he wanted a brother!!! Our phone conversation ended very quickly since his grandparents had taken him to Florida and he was getting ready to get on the Beauty and the Beast ride and had just gotten off the Tower of Terror. He went from being our little boy that was crying everyday after we left and was wearing one of my necklaces and had one of David’s coins with him always so that he would have something to let him know we were always with him….now he is the boy that said, “I have to go…it’s time to get on the ride…bye!!” I guess he isn’t missing us anymore. 

Good news

The good news is that we got our paperwork from the SDA today and will have a court date tomorrow!!! After court, we have to run around all day and get more paperwork done. David and the translator will then head to Kiev on Wednesday night (that 12 hour drive). Then David has to go to the Embassey on Thursday and hopefully will catch a flight out on Friday morning at 6:45.

Marilyn, we are going to the Northwest office on Tuesday or Wednesday and will let you know what the change will be. (We will call you). If so, the flight will get in sometime late on Friday.

Kola is getting more comfortable with us everyday. He and David spend most of their time wrestling and I put puzzles together with him. I'm the one that gets all the hugs and kisses (well, David gets a few).

If all goes well and fast, we might be able to get home on New Years Eve. There is a mandatory 10 day wait after the court date and then we go to Kiev to visit the doctor and the embassey to get a visa for Kola/Chris. Cross your fingers that we get an appointment at the Embassey on the 30th and don't have to wait through the US and Ukraine holidays that are coming up!!

Love to you all,

Carol

Not much happening

Not much has happened since our last post. We took a translator with us to the orphanage and that was a big help. He was able to ask us some questions, we were able to talk to him and ask the orphanage some questions. His teacher said that he is the big helper in class and likes to straighten up. The psychologist said that he is very smart and has not been delayed mentally from being in the orphanage. Our visit today was calmer, but he tried to takes some snacks out of our backpack and when I told him no, he did it anyway. WE had to have a firm conversation with him.

Julie,

FYI...you need to have more red in your hair to fit in over here!! I hope everyone is getting ready for a great holiday. We really miss you guys.

Our translator has been working VERY hard and is trying his best to get us home before the new year. If we don't we will get stuck in a government shut down (Ukrainian holidays) and may not get out until the 9th. YIKES

Pictures

 

An Internet

We found an Internet.

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated to the blog, but we are not near the inner city and don’t have easy access to the Internet.
It has been 4 days since we updated and boy has it been a whirlwind. The orphanage is located about 2.5 miles from the apartment. We walked it on Sunday to make sure we knew where we were going (we didn’t), but eventually we got a taxi to take us there. We were headed in the opposite direction (we had driven round in circles while Kostya was here, we thought we knew what we were doing, but we were just wrong. We did walk back and after 4 days know about 4 ways to get there (every taxi takes a different route). We decided that it is just best to take the taxi everyday. The cost is 2 dollars a trip, so we think it is 8 dollars well spent. We still get lots of walking in by going to the market and the one and only restaurant that we have gone to. Markets are everywhere, but the restaurant is about a mile away. The people are friendly there and are used to me pointing at the picture dictionary (thank you Marshall’s for letting us borrow it…it has been a life saver).
David even went so far to go to the hair salon and get his hair cut!
Okay, now about Chris/Nicholai. So much for the sweet, shy child that we met initially. He is one big ball of energy. The first meeting (we get to visit with him from 10-12 and 4-6 everyday) was spent a great deal going over a picture book and teaching him body parts. By the second meeting, he was climbing all over David, laying on him, giving him a massage, jumping off the chair into my arms and just all around moving. It is scary how much he is reminding us of Matthew at that age. There is not a muscle inside his body that is content with sitting still. What can I tell you about Chris? He has the most incredible smile. You can tell he is so smart by his actions. He is very neat and tidy. He always puts his things away and perfectly. He loves to put our things away for us to. We found out last night that we can take him outside to play. This will be good, because it is hard on him being in such a small spot with all that energy. He was definitely bundled up! We played hide and seek (well, Chris and I did). We played chase and I have to tell you at 43, I am never going to catch a 6 year old child, but I gave it my best. Finally, I got him to chase me, but he would catch me too fast. It was snowing a little so it added to the fun. After an hour we came in. I pulled out the books to study English and he promptly took the book out of my hand, closed it and put it in the backpack. Oh no, this wasn’t a good sign. So we did play a little more (30 minutes) but got the books out again and he just left us. David made him sit down by picking him up and putting him on the chair (we were telling him to sit in Russian and he just ignored me) and got very firm with him the third time when he didn’t do as we said. He burst into tears and picked up our backpack and put it (threw it) in David’s lap and grabbed David’s coat and told us goodbye. Hummmm, I guess it was time for the visit to end. He gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye, but refused to give one to David.
It is a little tough on all of us. Obviously, the language barrier is hard. He hasn’t had any male influence. His mother wasn’t married and they didn’t know who the father was and it is all women at the orphanage except for the maintenance men).
At our afternoon visit today, we have hired a translator to meet us at the orphanage so that we can talk to Chris. She helped us with paperwork earlier and gave us her number if we needed anything. She is great, her English is very good (she is an English teacher) and she has an easy manner. I have made a long list of questions that we would like to ask Chris and the orphanage. I think this will help us.
Soccer fans, you are living in the wrong country. Everywhere you look outside, kids are playing soccer. We have watched 1 or 2 soccer games every day. Matthew we wish you were here to see the games. We have watched France, Iraq, Ukraine and Russia play. Some other teams have played, but we couldn’t figure them out.
The weather here IS gloomy, but until today the temperature has been in the high 30’s or 40’s. The fog is always thick here near the sea. If I had to use one word to describe the area, it would be gray. The buildings, sky, ground…everything is gray. Trash is a big thing too…and I don’t mean it in a good way. Obviously, they haven’t seen the 70’s commercial with the Indian crying because of litter. Trash is EVERYWHERE. People are walking on the street drinking beer and smoking everywhere. The majority of the women have on knee high boots with short skirts on. The heels are about 3 inches high. They are all beautiful!
I don’t know when we will be able to post again. It probably won’t be until after our court date. Kostya turned in our paperwork to the SDA today. He received the rest of it on Monday afternoon, but the SDA only accepts paperwork on Mon, Wed and Fri. He is hoping that they will finish their part and have it back to him on Monday. He said they can take up to a week to complete it. Once he gets it from them, the inspector thinks we can get a fast court date. We are praying…please pray that we are able to get our paperwork through quickly so that we can leave before the Ukrainian holidays. We don’t want to get stuck here because offices are closed.

Pictures

Okay, here is a picture of Christopher Nicholas. The other picture is of the SDA. David took some other pictures of him, but for some reason we are getting errors when we try to download them.

long drive

Okay, here are some of the pictures from the time we were in Kiev. This Internet cafe will allow us to upload pictures....it is just hard to use the computer and remember the icons and hope my Russian is good enough to read the words that pop up!!!

The top two pictures are of local churches. The one on the left is of St. Paul and is the prettiest church in Kiev. The one on the left is St Sophia and is the oldest church in all of the pre existing USSR...it was build in 1099-1107. Can you image how old that is. It is really neat to see the existing paintings and stone that made it through many wars...of course there have been fires too. I wish we could have taken pictures of the inside, but it wasn't allowed.

The next picture is of our apartment that we stayed in during our time in Kiev. It had hot water and from what I understand, that is a good thing. Definitely 60's-70's style. The next picture is of a portion of Independence Square downtown Kiev. The next picture is of David in a very expensive restaurant downtown Kiev...we didn't know how expensive it was...but wow.. for 3 people it was 85 dollars without any alcohol or dessert...our next dinner was 10 dollars for 3 people...it was a costly lesson. :) The last picture is of David and our translator Kostya who has been taking care of us. He is extremely kind and for those of you who know me well, you will not be surprised to know that I am already eating from his plate!!! He shares part of his food with me at each meal so that I can try it. Who else would eat someone elses food when they have known them only 24 hours!!! David thought it was a hoot.

Well, I have to tell you Chris...you are right about the driving. It was scary when we drove all night, but especially when we were stopped by the cops a couple of times to check our papers. YIKES. The drive actually took us 11 hours. We were exhausted, but we didn't have anytime to waste. We headed to the inspectors office (who gives us the papers to approve us to visit the orphanage). He laughs a great deal and processed our papers very quickly. From what I understand, there is one family here who has been in the region for a couple of days and they still have not been able to get these papers to visit the child. Then the inspector went with us to the orphanage. This is the moment we have been waiting for. I can't describe the feeling that came over both of us when this little boy walked into the waiting room. He is SO sweet and little with the most adorable smile. It was hard to get a picture of him because he was shy, but he did like looking at the pictures on the digital camera after we finished taking them. He wrote down letters for us to show us how smart he is. David tickled him alot and I think that made him comfortable with us. Aunt Marilyn, we also gave him the stuffed animal that you gave us. This was a BIG hit and he hugged on it alot. We only got to visit with him for 1/2 hour. We did ask him if he wanted us to be his mama and papa and he said yes.

Christopher Nicholas (his given name) Raskin is going to be his name and his birthday is October 7, 2000. This is also David's fathers birthday. I am going to post pictures of him next because I need more space.

After we finished with Chris (we will have to call him Nicholai until he is comfortable later) we had to jump in the car and pick up another translator to put together many more documents. Then we rushed back to the Inspectors office to do more documents then we rushed back to the orphanage to meet the director and get her blessing. She was very kind and very pretty. By the way, this orphange is wonderful. This place is not run down and is actually used when Ukraine does commercials for adoptions. She does a wonderful job with what she has!

We finally got to our apartment at around 8 oclock. The Inspector was kind enough to take us there since we had no idea of where we are. (We have made many wrong turns, but it has been an adventure).

David was a little surprised to find out that a lady lived in the apartment and she was moving out and renting it to us. Her son came to pick her up. It is strange, but a good price. The cost is 30 dollars a night as opposed to the 60 dollars a night for the apartment in Kiev. The place is older, but is all we need and only a couple of miles from the orphanage. We will take a Taxi to the orphanage two times a day, every day to visit. The walk is rough and the area is not the best if you know what I mean?

I want to thank EVERYONE for the comments. It is good, because I have to say that it does get very hard when you hear Russian all day long. You really feel like an outsider. You would be proud of me, I started using my limited Russian today and people could understand me. I just can't understand them when they respond!!! We have found a restaurant that is inexpensive and the waitress is very friendly...so I think this will be our spot. Oh, and they have a western bathroom. After going to the squatters...you don't know what a relief it is to see a regular toilet!!

By the way, David is no different here than he is at home. We actually got into a fight in the street because he wanted to go to the apartment so bad and I told him that I would just go by myself to explore. Can you imagine his stress. He went with me, but he wasn't happy. When we got to the apartment, he immediately headed to the DVD player!!!! Just like home!!

Teresa,

Tell Tracy welcome home and Kelly hello. Chris, good luck on your adoption. Linda...I will eat everything, just for you. :) Everyone else, thanks for the well wishes.

Okay, it will be a long trip

Well, we won't be travelling by plane (too much fog and planes are cancelled), we won't be travelling by train (24 hour trip due to 2 three hour stops) so car it is. Kostya's car has 315000 miles on it, I hope we make it. It is approximately 650 miles, so he is picking us up at 10:00 this evening to drive all night. I guess we will head back to the apartment and sit. :(

We did hit McDonalds...we figured along with the Internat we could order. You know, point at pictures. Well, the lady that waited on us knew a little English and we were fine. They have the most wonderful fried bread at McD's by the way.

David has had a couple of allergic reactions since we got over here and we are trying to control it with Benedryl, but his face was very swollen this morning. Keep him in your prayers. We are trying to narrow down what he has eaten that might be causing it. Unfortunately, we don't know what we are eating!!!

Hopefully we will be able to get in touch with you to tell you more when we get to the region!

As far as my diet plan...it's not working. The bread and cheese are wonderful and I am not walking THAT MUCH to get past it.

Thank everyone for your kind thoughts.

Oh and for those who know David, walking around outside the apartment without the translator is stressing him out!!!

For those who are betting...it is a 6 year old boy

Okay, I just had to throw the title in for the bets. Anyway, we have selected a 6 year old boy from the region of Donetsk. In fact, the psychologist(at the adoption center) had spoken with the Director of the Orphanage that morning and he/she said that he was a very nice boy who was very smart and really liked to learn. Hummm, bingo! No really...we were shown 5 files. 4 of the files were boys ranging from 4-6 and one was a 4 year old girl. The girl was a leader and liked to give direction (nope, we already have one leader and home), one boy might have Hep-C, the other two boys were 4 years old and blond. This boy is brunette and favors David.

The people at the adoption center were very, very nice. In fact, everyone we have encountered on our trip has been very kind. Life is good. The Donetsk region (Marispol is the city) is very far away near the sea. It is 24 hours by train and only 1 hour by plane. Our translator is working to figure out what we should do to make this trip as fast as possible.

Thank you all for all your prayers and thoughts. Thanks for sending your comments as well. David and I are starting to speak broken English to each other since we find ourselves constantly trying to explain that Kentucky lingo to our translator.

We will let you know more when we get to our region.

Love to all,

Carol and David

Tips for future adopters

A quick few notes for those who are coming to adopt.

The bathrooms that are immediately in the airport when you arrive are clean, but they do have the cardboard type toilet tissue.

The customs documents are easy to fill out. We did not use the VIP service and had no problems (and we are not world travelers.

Many signs in the airport are in English.

Ask your translator to show you around. We did and he has been GREAT! We couldn't ask for anything better. Enjoy every minute.

We are here!!!

Well, believe it or not, we are here. Things have gone so well, I can't believe it. The flight was LONG! David slept for almost half of the trip but stayed up the entire time. I did get in some good movies on the plane. You all should have seen us at the airport in Memphis. We had a 1 1/2 hour layover and David decided that we should go to the gate first before we grabbed a bite. We looked like two people from the Amazing Race trying to get to the next place...David in front with me always behind him. For those who have seen the show, you know when the man gets frustrated when their partner doesn't keep up...well, that was us, but David wasn't frustrated...just laughing. In Amsterdam, we just stayed quite.

When we arrived in Kyiv, things went well. We hit the bathrooms as soon as we got off the plane, but before customs so that people wouldn 't bother us. A missionary couple from the US were in front of us and told us what to fill out on the customs form, so that went quickly. Funny story, we didn't know what to fill out for children, so when the customs lady inquired about children David told them we had a child at home (What, where did that come from?) and the lady told him if the child was not in the bag or in his coat it did not matter. That was too funny.

Our translator, Kostya, met us when we exited customs with a big orange sign with Raskin. All of the other signs were in black and white...of course ours would be fun!!! He is extremely nice, is handsome and single. He has been very nice, professional and helpful. He took us to exchange money (the bank cashiers are at desks and surrounded by shatterproof glass in the mall), then he took us to the market. There were many familiar brands, we purchased cheese, ham, bread, pretzels and oatmeal for things to have in the apartment...oh and COKE of course. Then we went to dinner and had crepes with meat inside, cabbage rolls, chicken covered in some cheese, and bordst. It was wonderful.

Kostya has been very kind and showing around the city today after David decided to get up. He went to bed at 9:30 (not unusual) and woke up at 10:00. The trip is wearing him out!! The churches are beautiful are so are the statues. I will try to post pictures when we have time. We are at Independence Square right now.

Oh, Marilyn, thank you for the last minute food. It was desperately needed since the plane was boarding when we arrived in Memphis and we didn't get to eat dinner. David also used your blanket to sleep under last night.

Dad, Happy Birthday to you.

Mom and Ren....thank you for helping Matthew stop crying and making things fun for him.

Matthew, we love you the MOST!! I hope you enjoyed riding the bus from Perryville.

I want to thank everyone who has helped us over the past two years, I can't believe we are finally here!!

The temperature here is not as cold as it could be...it is only 33 degrees. Last year this time it was zero...so I guess this is good!

Morning of

I know you are wondering why I am up posting to our blog at 6:30 in the morning before we leave today....well, I am too! We have been so crazy this past week, there has been no time to post, but I wanted to catch up before we head out.

In the last week, everything has been up in the air! We didn't get our immigration papers until Thursday, (long story)that put us into a panic. My shots were given properly and I had to go back and get another. From what I understand, many things like this happen in Ukraine and if this was a test in preparation...I didn't pass. :)

Friday night my dad and step-mom came up to watch Matthew's indoor soccer game. This was also their time to say good bye. Saturday we had to pull a float in the Christmas parade, take the animals to the kennel, go have birthday lunch with my aunt, and take Matthew to a birthday party. Whew! but done by 3:30. Last night was Matthew's night. We told him we would do anything that he wanted before we head out. He picked bowling. We haven't done that in ?????????? It was fun and good to just be with him before we leave. Matthew will be staying with my mom and step-dad while we are gone. Boy, you know their world will be turned upside down...a 10 year old kid in the house for a month after YEARS of it just being the two of them.

Well, off to pack the last couple of items!