We're home

We arrived at home about 12:30 AM Sunday. The flights were very long and we were up over 24 hours. The kids did very well considering. With the exception of a few minutes on the last leg they were up the entire time. Maria got a bit bored and antsy on the Amsterdam to Detroit leg, which is to be expected.

Getting out of Ukraine and into the US was relatively painless. It took about 10 minutes in Kiev leaving Ukraine and 10 minutes in Detroit entering the US. They asked for the birth certificate and court decree in Kiev. There were no questions asked. In Detroit, we were expecting to have to go through the 'special line'. As we were in line I told one of the officers the situation and he said we would be taken to another office to complete the process but everything was completed at the normal passport control desk. We forgot and packed a couple of oranges in our luggage. That caused us to get an extra luggage screening and our oranges taken away.

Maria was very excited to be home. Now that she's in an English-only environment she seems to be trying harder to learn English. She's speaking more, though she understands a lot more than she speaks. She has been exploring everything and is settling in. She immediately wanted a sign on her door just like the boys. They have been playing non-stop. It's much louder with 3 children in the house. There's been a little friction between Maria and the boys when she gets into their 'stuff'. It will be an adjustment for them and her to learn to share and respect each others' things.

We took her to Ponderosa yesterday and let her pick her own food from the food bar. She seemed to really enjoy that. She doesn't have the desire for fast/junk food. She'd rather have roasted chicken and soup which is good. Hopefully it will last.

We're coming home!!!

We're finally coming home. We got Maria's US visa this afternoon so we are leaving tomorrow morning. We will have been here 50 days. Now it's time to pack of the last time. We're trying to decide which things we can leave behind to make room for souvenirs and gifts. We're so tired of packing. Counting this time and the original packing at home, we've packed 7 times on this trip. It seems like we've been getting rid of and using items but our luggage doesn't seem to be getting any lighter.

Back in Kiev

We're now back in Kiev, back in the same apartment we had when we left for the region. The train back from Donetsk was so warm it was hard to sleep and Maria was so excited that she kept everybody awake. I (Larry) actually had a separate compartment. Our facillitator negotiated with the attendant to allow me to be in the same car as Mary and the children. With 5 of us now, we don't fit into the standard 4 person compartment. I initially was in the compartment next to them but I was moved to the attendant's compartment and shared it with them. One came in about midnight and climbed up in the top bed and went to sleep. About 5:30 am, the attendants switched. At different attendant came in and went to sleep and the first one got up to deal with the arrival. I couldn't figure out the timing. Since we arriving at 7:00 AM and Kiev is the last stop, why did the second attendant go to sleep at 5:30?

We submitted our documents to the US embassy yesterday (Thursday). We go back today for the interview and to get the visa. Assuming we get the visa, we leave tomorrow to go home. Even though we're really ready to go home, I feel kind of oddly sad about leaving. We've been here so long I've grown kind of attached to Ukraine. Saturday will be the 50th day in Ukraine, more than we thought it would be.

Maria is doing well. She's a very sweet child and very smart. She's getting along quite well with Ryan and Evan. She seems to be a kindred spirit with Evan. They're both very active and playful. It's a huge adjustment for her, and us. She's had a couple of incidents when she really tried to test us with her behavior by blantantly defying us. We held our ground and she seems to be better. It's hard to balance constantly correcting her behavior. Because almost everything she does right now is a new experience and doesn't know how to act we need to correct her. But she also needs time to learn things on her own without us constantly correcting her. Add in that she doesn't understand a great deal of what we're trying to tell her and it's very stressful for her. It will be some much easier when she speaks English.

Back home tomorrow ....

Introducing Maria Parker

Today was the day. We were able to pick up Maria after the 10 day waiting period. All went very smoothly. We had a busy day. We'll update more later but wanted to get something up on the blog today.

We were able to get her new birth certificate and passport also. We were very lucky that the Donetsk region reissues passports rather than issuing new passports. It took all of 30 minutes to get the passport.

Maria is doing really well. She seems quite happy and is getting along with Ryan and Evan. She was very patient as we went from office to office today. Ryan and Evan were as well. We took her to a restaurant tonight. We're not really sure if she's ever been to one but she did quite well. She got cheese pizza but also ate everything we put on her plate to just give her a taste of different food. We were worried she might be overwhelmed by everything but so far so good.

The plan is to leave Donetsk for Kiev tomorrow night on the overnight train. We'll then get her medical examination for the US embassy on Wednesday and apply for her visa. We should get her visa either Thursday or Friday. We have tickets to return to the US on Saturday. We can't wait to get home. The boys missed Halloween, which we really felt bad about, but at least Ryan won't miss his birthday at home on Nov. 15.

Kyiv Post and local economy

We've seen the exchange rates changing every day. The hryvna for dollar exchange rates back mid September were about ~4.80 and now are ~6.05 hryvna. The inflation is hurting the people here.

I was scanning the Kyiv Post to read about the Ukranian economy and spotted this editorial on the U.S. elections ... here is a link.
http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/30681 . I enjoyed the comments about GWB!
(Larry and I tried to get our absentee ballot mailed to our facilitator here but we have not received it yet, so we will not be able to vote this election.)

Public transportation costs in Kyiv/Kiev are raising from 50 kopecks to two hryvnia. We've seen some very poor struggling people. Most of the people you easily notice are well dressed, fashionable, skinny people and walking quickly. If you sit and watch for awhile you will notice the older people. I've seen an old woman standing by a corner of a building standing with her head down and holding a small plastic cup hoping for some spare change. Yesterday I saw an old woman with several plastic bags (which looked full of more bags) looking in the trash can outside of an eatery. She found something and ate it. Her coat was nice but her shoes were house slippers, no socks on a cold day. We've heard that the elderly are really hurt by inflation and are trying to exist on small pensions. (We heard that when Ukraine became independant the people lost their bank accounts that were in Russian banks.) In Torez I saw a woman taking her trash out to a dumpster in a grocery bag. She dumped her trash out of the bag into the dumpster and carefully folded up the grocery bag to use it again. (stores charge for bags here) We also saw women on the sidewalk selling milk in 'reused' bottles. I am guessing it might have been goats milk since we have seen small herds of goats. In Kyiv we saw people in the square silently gathering beer bottles. (There must be some sort of recycle or deposit value.) I saw one well dressed woman stop at a trash can and carefully unload about 8 beer bottles from her bag into the trash can and go on her way. About 5 minutes later an older woman with several big heavy plastic bags full of bottles stopped at the trash can and loaded those bottles into her bags, filling a third bag. She then carried these heavy bags one at a time over to the next trash can to find more bottles. I got a photo as she was going back to pickup the next bag to carry to the next trash can on her route. She was dressed nicely. I never would have guessed she needed extra money.


(In Torez we left our beer bottles in a clear plastic bag outside of a dumpster and they were quickly picked up by someone walking by.) People walk around here drinking beer from bottles, setting the empty bottles down anywhere. Now I understand why. They know someone will pick up the bottle.

Days in Donetsk - continued

Shopping has been fun, enlightening, hilarious, and very time consuming. I could not have gotten it accomplished without Heather Smith's help and Ryan & Evan's patience. Heather had to shop for two girls (and I only had to shop for one!) and spent a lot of time and effort looking at clothing in the mall stores, normal stores, and the street vendors. Heather found all the best places to shop and let me know where to look. She even kept an eye on Ryan and Evan so I could concentrate on sifting thru racks of clothes to find what I needed. (Heather picks up her 2 girls today and they will take the overnight train back to Kiev.)

So far I've gotten 3 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, coat, scarf, undies, shoes, socks, and a backpack. The backpack was a challenge. Anything in a 'girl' color was tiny. I finally spotted one that wasn't black/brown/maroon and decided to get it because it has lots of extra pockets. The shoes were another challenge. Here's a photo of what I purchased here.

We had brought a few clothing items from home but had planned on a younger girl. We left those small items already at the orphanage. I have some lightweight leggings & T-shirt Maria can sleep in but I might try to find a pair of pjs too. We also have some toys for her that we brought from home.

Below is a picture of the outside of the 'mall' in Donetsk. (taken from the fountains across the street.) It is easy to bypass the mall. It is across the street from the cannon and the fountains.

The mall is multi-level maze of tons of expensive shops. The upper level (level 3 from the elevator but more than 3 floors up) has a childrens clothing/toy store. At the opposite end of this store there is an arcade and pizza place (Cherry Pizza). There is also a grocery store. The grocery store is big and modern and has an entrance from the side street near all the atm machines. The boys like stopping in the playground outside near the parking lot.

This is not far from 'Sun City' restaurant (Aptema, 96a phone # 062-38-104-38). This resaurant has great food, nice prices, an English menu, pizza, chicken, and other foods. This restaurant also has a playground outside !

Days in Donetsk

Larry is working in Lux and the boys and I are in Donetsk during our 10 day waiting period. We are sharing an apartment with Heather Smith who is here adopting two girls. (see our list of other blogs) We are both being challenged by trying to find clothes/shoes/coat/pj/etc and a backpack to fully outfit our new family member(s) to provide clothes to wear leaving the orphanage plus enough to wear for the rest of the time spent in Ukraine. The street vendors are more affordable than the big retail stores. The fancy clothing stores are expensive and still do not offer the full range of sizes. It has been difficult wondering thru the maze of street vendors looking for girls clothing. Finally finding a vendor shop stacked with girl items then trying to communicate what we are looking for, sizes, colors, styles. Girls jeans here are decorated with all kind of 'stuff' and I am having trouble finding any that are just jeans. Shoes have been a real problem. Limited girl styles and sizes. Socks too, nothing is plain and simple. The boys have been so patient with all of the walking and shopping.

If any of you noticed the Ukraine time clock difference, daylight savings time ended here 10/26. So we will be temporarily 6 hours different from EST until your clocks fall back next week.

We have a new daughter !!

The court ruled in our favor today, granting us custody effective 11/03. We're very relieved. The hearing continuation went very smoothly. We had the original documents and the prosecutor who objected to things in Monday's hearing was not present. The local inspector even tracked down our child's 20 year old sister, who has had no contact with her since she has been in the system, and got a written statement from her that she supported the adoption. We really appreciate that.

So now we wait until Nov. 3rd. We're not quite comfortable showing pictures or stating our child's name until the waiting period but as soon as we're past that we'll post pictures. I (Larry) booked our return flights. Since the Donetsk region reissues existing passports rather than issuing new passports as other regions do, we're told that it will be a one day process and then we're back to Kiev to deal with US embassy. I had hoped I hadn't jinxed things by booking a flight for our child but I guess I didn't.

Days 29 and 30 - 10/19 & 10/20/08 - Court round 1

The 'fun' continues ...our court hearing did not go as planned. We only had a copy of the SDA approval rather than the original and the judge would not accept it. Our facilitator could not get the original document to us in time for the hearing and thought he had made arrangements with the judge to accept the copy. However, a prosecutor objected to the copy so we have to go back to continue the hearing Wednesday morning. We know have the original so we're ready for tomorrow. Everything at the hearing seemed to go okay aside from the document issue. We were there for about 90 minutes and had support of the local inspector and the school's social worker who were present. Hopefully, it will be a smooth hearing tomorrow.

We moved to Donetsk anyway so it will be a day trip tomorrow. We had checked out of our hotel and they had no vacancy, which is fine. We had made arrangements for this apartment and didn't want to mess it up. The apartment is very nice, even has a dishwasher and wide-screen TV. Our US DVDs won't work here though, wrong region. By far, this the nicest apartment we've had so far.

(Found out later the dishwasher does not work, but the washing machine spins at 1000 rpm so our clothes are drying almost overnight. But these wonders have a trade off ... we have a few roaches. We've got all opened foods now either in the fridge or the microwave and are keeping the clean plates, silverware in the fridge too.)

Day 28 - 10/18/08

Today's visit went well. She was a bit bored at first, we didn't bring the laptop this time, and she wasn't really interested in the stuff we brought. We started playing hide and seek, which she seem to enjoy. For the first time, she really started playing with Ryan and Evan. There was running, laughing, and wrestling. It's a glimpse of what our house will be when we get home. We brought Kinder Surprise eggs, which she knew exactly what they were. She kept saying 'Kinder Surprise. Ryan, Evan, and her started working together to put the toys together which was good to see. Also, for the first time, she really started to try to speak English. All of sudden she started copying our speech. It's a start.

The boys cold/allergy problems seem to be getting a bit better. Ryan has been taking Claritin which seems to help. He's not using his asthma inhaler quite as much. We still may run out have to try to get another inhaler in Donetsk or Kiev.

We met the 3 Italian families who are adopting in the area that are staying at the hotel. Two of them are adopting in the same school as we are from same group as our child. We've seen one of them there and actually thought he was the boy's father. They look alike. We're having dinner with all of them tonight at the hotel.

Day 27

Not a lot to report. The court date is still on.

We took our laptop today during our visit. She was really excited about it. I'm not sure if she's every really had much time on a computer but she caught on quickly. She did some math games and we tried to work in English as much as we could. She didn't want to quit. We were asked not to bring in gum anymore. Apparently, there was some incident. I know she likes to share her gum with her classmates. We're thinking it some may have gotten stuck some place it shouldn't have.

We took some clothes that we brought but they were all too small for her. We left them with the school for other children but she was initially upset until we told her we'd bring her clothes that fit her. Mary took her measurements so we'll be seeing if we can find some clothes for her here. If not here, while we're in Donetsk.

One of her classmates came in during the visit for some reason. He was smaller but not sure of his age. He was non-stop energy, talked the entire time and didn't really seem to mind we couldn't really understand him. By the end of the visit he was organizing play with Ryan and Evan.

2 days until court ....

Days 25 & 26 - Oct 15 & 16

We have our court date!!! It's this Monday, Oct. 20th. The plan is to head to Donetsk Monday after court. Mary and the boys are going to be staying in Donetesk during the 10 day waiting period. They are going to be sharing an apartment with Heather Smith, who is now in the same hotel as we are. It's really good to have her here. We've been going to dinner every night. I (Larry) have to go to Luxembourg to work during the 10 days. My employer has offices there and I need to work a bit as I'm almost out of vacation. During the 10 days, Mary and Heather will venture out here every few days to visit our respective children. We're worried that they'll think we've abandoned them even though they've been told what is going happen. It seems like a good plan.

The visits have been going well. It seems like we're starting to communicate a bit more. It's probably a combination of her learning some English and us learning some Russian. We're having to cut down on the snacks we bring. She has a huge sweet tooth. We're not going to be able to visit her today (the 16th). Our driver is off transporting the school director to Donetsk for the day and can't take us over to the school. She was a little upset when we left yesterday but she did wave good bye to us. I made the mistake of not remembering that we weren't coming today and originally told her that we'd be there at the normal time. Our facilitator called to smooth things over.

Days 23 & 24

It seems we're getting close to our court date. Our facilitator has returned this morning and is now off negotiating with the judge. He's hoping that it will be next Tuesday. It can't be too soon for us.

The visits are going okay. She's always glad to see us. Yesterday she walked us out to our car when we were leaving and we were worried that we were going to have a repeat performance from a couple of days ago but she opened the doors for us and waved good-bye. We've been playing card games. She seems to pick up on the concept of the games pretty easily and is usually winning, even without us letting her win. The language barrier is really tough. It's so hard to communicate but we'll keep working on it. She doesn't seem to have a great desire to learn English. We have the 'First Thousand Words in Russian' book that we're using to go over words with her. Part of the problem is that she doesn't really read in Russian yet. Even though she's 8, she had practically no education and her previous orphanage and is now in the first grade just learning the basics. It seems like it would a bit easier if she already read some Russian. Since she's not, we're going over numbers, time, colors, etc.

Days 20,21, & 22 (I think)

We took the overnight train to Donetsk again to move out to the region to be with the 8 yo child we're trying to adopt. The train is getting really old. We arrived Friday morning but she was having a medical examination on Friday so we didn't actually visit her until Saturday morning. On Friday, our facilitator received the approval from the town's inspector and the boarding school for us to adopt her. He took the train back to Kiev Friday to file all the papers with the SDA on Monday morning. Hopefully, things will move quickly and we can get our court date soon.

The town where we're staying in is pretty rustic, especially compared to Kiev. It's about 20 km from the school. We're staying in the only hotel in the area. The hotel is okay, though the water is pretty flaky. We have no water occasionally for a few minutes and then it's back. We have a two room 'suite' with a refrigerator but no microwave. The only internet connection is an internet cafe about a 3 minute walk from the hotel. The biggest problem is food. We've only found 2 restaurants in town, one at the hotel and one about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. The food is okay, especially at the restaurant in town but neither have English menus, which makes things very challenging. We're eating a lot of bread, cheese, and yogurt. The boys have been real troopers. Ryan is having some allergy/asthma problems that we're trying to manage. I think all the dust here is causing him problems.

The visits have gone fairly well but both Mary and I (Larry) are exhausted after each visit. The language barrier is pretty formidable. The staff has been very supportive. On the first day, when we pulled up she was outside playing and she jumped up and down. She grabbed Mary's hand and wouldn't let it go until we got inside. We were in the room of an older student. They kicked him out of his own room for a couple of hours, felt bad about that. She's very inquisitive, looking all around the room, looking in anything she could. We did a puzzle, she drew, we showed her pictures of our house and family. Our digital camera was a big hit. She started to take pictures of everything and everybody. We practically had to pry it our of her hands. Our facilitator called at the end of the visit and talked to her, asking if she understood what was going on, if she liked us, and if she would like us to adopt her. She said yes to everything. He also explained that we would leaving shortly and come back tomorrow. She was fine with us leaving and gave us a hug and waved goodbye.

Today's visit was interesting. She gave us a hug when we arrived. She had a bag of her stuff, pictures & dolls, that she wanted to show to us. We spent most of the visit outside playing on the playground and with some rocket balloons we brought. Everything seemed fine. She and Evan were playing together. When it was time for us to leave, she put her coat and shoes back on and walked outside with us. Our driver was there and she climbed in the car and wouldn't get out. Apparently, she thought she was leaving with us today and her bag of stuff was packed to leave. She became pretty upset when she had to get out of the car and come back inside. Both Mary and I felt horrible. We don't know if we said 'da' to something that led her to believe she was leaving today. Nobody spoke much English but I tried to explain the situation to her teacher who talked to her and explain things. She was a little better after that but still very upset and wouldn't actually say goodbye to us when we left. I'm sure she will be fine tomorrow. Our facilitator is going to call the school tonight to talk to the teacher to make sure everything is okay.

Day 16 & 17 - visit to orphanage boarding school

We took the overnight train last night (Sunday) from Kiev and arrived at Donetsk early Monday morning. Larry and I (Mary) and the boys shared a sleeper car for 4. If you have allergies (feather pillows and bed mats) or problems with others smoking then prepare yourself for an exhausting trip on the train.

.. more later today .. (or so I thought - we had unexpected internet connection problems)

The visit to see this 8 yr old girl went well. It turns out there are no guardian problems as we were first told. The school is about a 90 minute drive from Donetsk in what appears to be a pretty poor region but the school is relatively clean and well-maintained, considering the age of the buildings. The children appear to be well-cared for. Our facilitator brought along a psychologist to test the girl's development and she did quite well. She did better than I (Larry) would have considering she was brought in before 6 strange adults and asked questions and performed tasks for about an hour. After the 'test' she wanted to show us her room and proceeded to give us a tour of a large portion of the school. She has only been in this school for about a month. She is just starting to learn her letters and numbers. She was not receiving any formal schooling at the orphanage she lived at prior to this boarding school.

We have decided to proceed with the adoption process. She seems very smart and energetic and we're quite taken with her, probably more than we should be at this point since a lot can yet go wrong. We returned to Kiev on the overnight train Monday night to start the process. We will be moving all of our 'overpacked' stuff out to the region to stay closer to this wonderful little girl. We spent 2 hours today in a government notary office getting the forms notarized to officially notify the SDA and the region that we intend to adopt her. I have no idea why it took so long. There seemed to be a lot of activity and I was expecting a stack of papers to be signed but there were just the two forms. We leave tomorrow on the overnight train to Donetsk to stay in the region until the court date.

Hopefully, the process will be smooth. The school director, social worker, and local inspector seem to be very cooperative and supportive. They really seem to want what is best for her.

This is taking longer than we had hoped and I'm now requesting more vacation time. Fortunately, I have a couple more weeks but after that I'm going to have to figure out what to do. My job allows me to work remotely so it's possible if I have a decent connection I can actually work from Ukraine. We'll see ....

Day ??

Neither Larry or I really wanted to post. We've been waiting. We are still in Kiev. Our representative has been really working hard for us. He took an overnight train to meet the young girl whose file we where shown at the SDA. She is actually in a small village and not the city like we thought. Sunday we are all taking the overnight train to get a chance to meet her. We are not staying out there but are taking the next train back to Kiev. Maybe I will understand when I see the village ?

We stayed so much longer than expected at our original apartment that we had to move out because their next tenants will be arriving. We were moved to a smaller apartment closer to the square and SDA. It is in an older building so is a whole new experience. No microwave here, smaller fridge, had to go out and buy matches to light the old gas stove. But the big plus is cable TV with some English speaking channels. We are on the 4th floor but the ceilings in this building are so-o-o high that I think we are climbing the same number of stairs as when we were on the 7th floor.

We've had requests for more photos. Here's a link to some touristy photos from our explorations around Kiev.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21558405@N05/sets/72157607629940155/show/

Day 10 - 09/30/2008

Setback. We found out that the girl has very recently been transferred to a 'boarding school', not sure of the official term. Our facilitator spoke to that school's director who said one of the girl's relatives had applied to be the girl's guardian. We're not sure what that means or what is the situation with the relative. Our facilitator is taking the overnight train tonight to Donetsk to meet with the director and the relative to discuss the situation to see if they would still be agreeable to us adopting the girl. We'll find out more tomorrow so for now we wait.

Tonight we felt a need for pizza. We went to Vesuvio Pizza near Khreschatyk (Хрещатик). I've never seen such a variety of toppings. The menu included English. Prices were great. Our 'vegetarian' pizza included thin pieces of tomato, onion, green beans, carrots, corn, peas, (mushrooms?), and cheese over pizza sauce. I don't think we read the description fully on the menu so we were surprised with the variety of vegetables. It was really good. They also had a spinach sauce option.

Day 9 - 09/29/2008 - 2nd SDA appointment

It looks like we're going to Donetsk. We had our 2nd appt late this afternoon. They asked again what our preferences were age-wise to which we replied we would like a healthy girl 4 - 6 yo. They again explained how difficult that would be and that since our last appt a week ago they had no girls that met that criteria. They also explained most children come off of the database at around 2 - 3 yo and don't remain available long. Children also go into foster care so would not be available for adoption. Since we cannot (because of my (Larry) advanced age - 49) adopt a child younger than 4, which we knew, there are few children, particularly girls in our preferred age group that would be available for too long after they come off the database. It would have to be a special situation that would get us a girl in that age range.

They showed us two options. One was a sibling group of a boy 6 yo and girl 8 yo, and the other was a single 8 yo girl. We felt the sibling group would just be too much to handle considering we have a 6 & 8 yo already.

The girl is healthy, social, and according to the orphanage director our facilitator spoke to, she's a 'good girl'. So, we decided to go for it. We're now making plans to travel. We get our referral to visit her tomorrow afternoon. Any advice about Donetsk would be appreciated.

Days 7 & 8 - Sept. 27 & 28

Still waiting. We have nothing to do but explore Kiev. I (Larry) realize this blog right now is sounding more like a travel blog than an adoption blog. Saturday we went to the Kiev Zoo, which wasn't too bad. It covers a lot of ground and looks like an older zoo. They appear to be working on refurbishing various exhibits. The boys were quite 'taken' with the dead chicks they feed the raptors. They have a quite nice exhibit of various kinds of eagles and hawks. We got a bit lost coming out of the zoo. We were looking for the Metro station but it was on the opposite side of the road. We started down the street the wrong way, turned back, crossed the road, and proceeded to walk by it again. Mary was looking for stairs leading down so never would have found it. We were lucky Larry saw the Metro doors. We didn't see the 'M' sign and this station looks like any other building except for those plain 'Metro' doors . Our 'long way' to the Metro took us past some very interesting street vendors (saw some raw fish and meats being sold). .

Sunday we went to Lavr. Our facilitator arranged for a English speaking guide to take us into the caves. It was all quite interesting. We also walked to the War Museum (thanks Lisa) which is nearby. The boys liked the tanks, cannons, etc. and really liked climbing on the tanks and cannons that are set up for that purpose. Last night it seems an outlet burned out. It had the TV and DVD player plugged into it. They quit working so we thought we blew a fuse again but didn't. The plug and outlet were very hot and smell like something was burning. We hope it will be fixed today.

Hope we hear something soon.

Our apartment

We are renting a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a building that is just a few blocks from the American Embassy. We are in an older building on the 7th floor. The elevator works and is clean and nicely lit. I (Mary) have been taking the stairs (trying to get my legs ready for ski season). I get Larry to ride up on the elevator with the boys if they are too tired for the stairs at the end of a long day...

Our apartment is very nice. All the basics plus washing machine, internet access, and home entertainment center.

(sorry - I didn't straighten the beds before I took pictures. Everything was perfect when we got here!)

The building next door is being completely renovated. (Interesting watching the work.) On the other side is an empty lot full of 'stuff' and beyond that is a nice looking restaurant. Across the street is another apartment building.

The washing machine is similar to a 'front loader' but you load this one from the top. Anyone not familiar with a front loader style, they use less water, less detergent, easier on clothes but take longer to wash. Our apartment has an enclosed balcony with a clothesline and also a drying rack. Jeans are taking at least 2 days to air dry. (never wash more clothes than you have space to hang them to dry!) We are still trying to figure out all the buttons. It's Whirlpool but not in English.

Day 5 & 6 - 09/24 & 09/25/2008

Still waiting so not much to report. We've been exploring. We found a couple of playgrounds for the boys to blow off steam and wandered down by the river. We went to TGI Friday's for the first time last night. It was good to have something familiar. I've been making an attempt at speaking my pretty pathetic Russian. It's odd that now that I (Larry) can't really speak English here that I now remember a lot more French from college than I ever did while taking the classes. In my head, I can now have pretty much complete conversations in French.

We had the meter reader show up at our door. She knew no English and we really didn't understand what she wanted. It was rather comical but we finally figured it out, her pointing up at the lights, showing her clipboard, finally the word electric we both understood. Luckily we knew where the electric meter and fuse box was hidden, she read the meter and went on her way. I saw her in the building the night before and thought she was some kind of solicitor going door to door.

We had learned early in our stay here that the fuse box is hidden inside the wall behind a large mirror next to the front door. Mary blew a fuse using the hair dryer (the second night?) and we went that night without lights in the bathroom and half the power in the kitchen knocked out. (the fridge was on a different fuse) We both searched the apartment and the hallway and could not find the fuse box. All we could find was the gas meter and phone lines. Our coordinator called the apartment manager for us the next morning to find out where the fuse box was located. We (Mary) blew that same fuse probably a half dozen times over the next few days.

Rules for our apartment:

-do not use the hair dryer and the microwave at the same time

-do not use the hot pot and the oven at the same time

-do not use the microwave and the oven at the same time

You get the idea ....

I am glad that we found the gas meter too. The stove has gas burners and an electric oven. The 'off' for the burners is easily confused with super low which puts out the flame but still lets gas flow on one of the burners. We check the meter now when we are done using the burners to make sure they are really turned off.

Day 4 - 09/23/2008

Not much to report today. We're playing the waiting game for our second appointment. We rode the subway to the mall and let the boys play in the arcade. It's a large arcade. The games themselves are all in English. Once again, language differences made things interesting. You purchase a card for 5 Hryvna and then load the card with whatever amount you want to play the games. Simple enough except when you don't really understand what they're saying. Fortunately, they were very helpful at the arcade and after a bit of trying to break the language barrier they called, whom I assume, is the manager and she spoke enough English to explain the system to us.

A word of advice for anybody bringing a Nintendo DS Lite along. The AC adapter is not dual voltage so just using a plug adapter doesn't work. I'm really surprised that Nintendo doesn't provide a dual voltage adapter but they don't. We're plugging a 110 volt item into a 220 volt outlet, which could actually burn out the adapter. Fortunately, it appears the AC adapter just shuts down before it's burned out. We're now trying to find either a European Nintendo AC adapter or a voltage converter - so far no luck. I thought about bringing a converter but didn't think we needed it. Live and learn ...

(Photo of the Kapabah mall. This is the mall with the 'Megastore'.)

(Yes, women here are wearing a lot of high heels and pointy toe shoes.)

Day 3 - 9/22/08 (SDA appointment day)

We had our appt today which took about an hour. We were advised in advance that the type of child we were hoping for (girl, healthy physically/mentally, 4 or 5 yrs old) was probably not immediately available. We were presented with information on 3 children: 1 boy - healthy and 2 girls - not so healthy. We initially considered one of the girls very close in age to our 6 year old son. After receiving additional information from the orphanage about the girl's condition, and considering how close in age this girl was to our son we decided to decline. We requested a second appointment and have a tentative appt set for next week. It was an experience ... even after reading other adoption blogs I still wasn't prepared. Everyone was very nice. It was suggested several times that we consider a little boy since more healthy younger boys than girls are available. But if we have a chance at finding the girl that was meant for our family then we'll wait for the second appointment.

(The street outside the SDA is constructed of stones of all shapes and sizes. It is amazing. The photos show the gate to access the entry door into the SDA building and the sign outside the door. )

Day 2 - 09/21/2008

We walked to Independence Square yesterday. It wasn't a bad walk. We broke down and ate at the McDonalds. Fortunately, they spoke some English there. The architecture is very nice. We picked up a few things at a little grocery store. (3 separate vendors in what looked like 1 store - so look for multiple cash registers when you shop here!) We happened to pick one where nobody seemed to speak a word of English. The clerks tried to be helpful and we got what we wanted after a lot of pointing and hand gestures. We also found the US Embassy in case Mary gets wild and we need help.

Today, our facillitator took us to a very large mall. Inside the mall was a super 'megastore' that actually had more than any super walmart I've ever seen. (An entire row of just different types of tea, bulk items, clothes, electronics, everything imaginable including 'Tide' and 'Kleenex'.) If it wasn't for the language I would have thought we were in the US. We rode the subway back to the apartment. Never thought I'd ever be riding a Ukrainian subway.

Tomorrow we get down to business. We have our appointment at the Adoption Center (SDA).

Day 1 - 09/20/2008

Well, we made it to Ukraine. We're very tired but happy to be here finally. The flights were uneventful and on time. We had no problems with immigration or customs. The passport control person even smiled a little, which I guess rarely happens, when I lifted Ryan up so she could see him. We walked through customs with nobody saying a word to us. Our apartment is nice - 2 bedrooms, hardwood floors. It's about 2 blocks to the US embassy and a 20 minute walk to Independence Square. This afternoon the plan is to walk to Independence Square.

Travel preparations

Monday, 9/15/08. We are trying to get everything ready for our big trip. We leave Thursday for Ukraine. Our appointment with the SDA is on Monday Sept 22 .... one week from today !

I've got a big big really big pile of most of the things we 'might' need for the trip. It's going to be Larry's job to figure out how to fit things into suitcases and the carry on bags and the difficult decision on what gets left at home. Do you think 3 bottles of tylenol will be enough ? ! ? !

We have our appointment date !

It has been a hurry up and wait process for the last year. We now have our appointment date in September with the SDA.