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 ? ! ? !