The Adventure Ends

Alex and Scott arrived home yesterday evening safe and sound. It is great to be reunited with "Momma" for both of us. Alex remembered Lara and immediately called her "Momma". Scott felt that "Momma" was a sight for sore eyes. When we pulled into the driveway, Alex said "dome" (Russian for "home") recognizing the house that we had shown him in the photo album throughout the time we spent with him in the Ukraine.

Alex did really well at home last night. We had a late dinner, he explored the house, played with the dogs, and slept through the night. We woke up to snow in the morning. He seems to be right back on schedule today. It feels great to have him in the house! We find ourselves just staring at him as he tools around playing and talking. We can't believe he is actually here with us. It has been soooooo long coming.

Alex was a trooper on the flight from Amsterdam. He slept half the way and spent the other half eating, watching movies and doing puzzles. The logistics of checking in for the flight and getting through passport control in Kyiv was an adventure not worth reviewing at this point. It is enough to say it is good to be home.

So, was it all worth it? We have contemplated this question over the last two months. With focus on the end game of meeting and adopting Alex, the answer to this question is ABSOLUTELY. We are very fortunate that we were able to persevere through the unknown in order to find him. We are doubly blessed that he is in such good health and normal in every way. A friend reminded us that there is a reason that everything happens. There is a reason Russia shut down their adoptions to the U.S. during our adoption process and we had to redirect our efforts to the Ukraine. There is a reason we were not exposed to all the information about the process in Ukraine prior to leaving. There is a reason there were obstacles and difficulties throughout the process right to the end. There were reasons for our first two appointments. Yes, we feel extremely fortunate. We were on the razors edge of coming home empty handed. An hour here or an hour there and the outcome of our process could have become very different. Alex was visited by a Ukrainian couple the week prior to us learning about him, but they turned him down for adoption. Their decision made him available for international adoption and available for us to meet. We know of four other couples that had appointments and in Kyiv at the same time that returned to the U.S. without a child. It feels like we were handed the winning lottery ticket.

A better question to ponder is: "Would you do it all again the same way?". If we knew we would get Alex, ABSOLUTELY. When we were at the Baby House with Alex , we saw many wonderful young children. At the time, the Baby House had 128 children 0-4 years of age. It remains difficult for us to comprehend these numbers when we know some couples leave the Ukraine without a child and others wait for months to simply receive an invitation. We understand adopting in the Ukraine is not a guarantee after traveling there and leaves an awful lot to chance. For those who may be reading this and considering adoption in the Ukraine, we wish you a happy ending such as ours and hope our blog may provide some additional insight. It is a difficult process and people should fully weigh the risks and rewards of attempting the Ukrainian adoption process, there are many young children with no major/minor medical issues in their baby houses where their only issue is they don't have a family. We strongly hope the bureaucracy continues to advance and streamline in the best interest of all orphaned children.

In the end, we are now in a very happy place. This blog was not meant to carry on forever, so this is the final entry. We want to thank everyone who helped us and supported us to get to the Ukraine, took care of our home front while we were gone, and everyone who followed our story and provided us with so much moral support. You can not know how much all of the messages of support kept us going and kept us hoping while in the Ukraine. Family, friends, the companies for which we work, and our physicians (including Clarke and Sarah). You all pitched in and were as much a part of bringing Alex to us as any individual effort that Lara and I did as a couple. A collective group can move mountains, while individuals can only move mounds. It took a team to get all of this done, and you were all a part of the greater team effort. One team member that we have not mentioned by name is our coordinator and translator in the Ukraine, Era. Era took care of us while in Ukraine in every way and facilitated our process. We can not imagine being in Ukraine without her. She did not simply translate. She managed all of the legal and bureaucratic processes we faced. Most importantly, we always felt that we had someone there in the country that cared about us, ensuring our needs were taken care of and working extremely hard to help fulfil our dreams. We became friends, having spent two months together sharing our difficulties, dreams, philosophies and cultures. Saying goodbye at the airport was very difficult. Hopefully it will be more of a farewell and our paths will cross again (next time, Scott will make the Borscht).

So with that, this concludes the blog. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it. We are happy to say that while this is the end of this adventure, it is the beginning of the next!

We're Heading Home for America

Alex and I are back in Kyiv as of Tuesday. It has been a long time since I posted anything of significance so I thought I would write about the process of finalizing custody, getting the birth certificate, obtaining a Ukrainian passport, traveling back to Kyiv and finally getting Alex's U.S. Visa. I also updated the "Photo Log", which the link to is on the right, with a lot of new photos. Read on if interested in the adventures, but the bottom line is that as of yesterday (Wednesday) Alex has a U.S. Visa and when we touch down in Minneapolis he will be officially a citizen of the United States of America!

As you know, the end of the 10 day waiting period was on the 15th. A rational person would think that from there it is a matter of simply getting some paper work finalized (which as you already know was a mountain's worth) and picking up Alex..... WRONG. The following is a real account of what happened when we finished the waiting period and woke up on that Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, April 15th: I met the coordinator and driver at 9:00 a.m. We went to the court house to pick up final decree. Got another draft of the final and then went to get 10 copies notarized. We then headed to our next stop which was the town of Bakhchysaray where Alex was born. When we called ahead to let them know we were on the way, the person in the Vital Records authority said that we needed something additional in the decree that was not there. They wanted a statement of our marriage date which was in the official marriage license provided. Apparently this is not usual. We had to then turn around and go back to the court house and beg the judge to change the decree. When we spoke to him he seemed irritated at this person who wanted this change. The decree is written from an official template so it has been used for years. He said some not so nice things about these people and told us to wait. Our coordinator called the office in Kyiv and spoke with the person she knows there and they said we did not need it either. Then after a few more calls and an hour burned in the court house, the person in the Bakhchysaray Vital Records office (VRO) decided to let it slide. One thing you should note is that everybody here seems to make up the process at they go along. Then we drove 40 minutes to Bakhchysaray. When we got to the VRO, we had to go behind the building and up some rickety old stairs to enter. When we got there, we were told we would have to wait because the power was out. Two hours passed and we had a nice lunch (really good middle eastern) at the establishment next door.

Side note on Bakhchysaray: This town is not where Alex is "from". It is where he was born. This town is the old capital where the Khan for the region ruled. There is an old Turkish style palace that is still in tact and a popular attraction.

We received a phone call and this was our signal that the power was on and to return. They had some papers for me to sign and we received a new birth certificate with Alex's new full name, an adoption certificate with the new name and a copy of his personal ID number (like our Social Security number). We then left and drove back to Simferopol to get the Ukrainian passport process started and change his ID number. With the birth certificate in hand, we went to two passport offices and also a bank to make the official government payment for the passport. After that we went to another office which was about to close and got a woman to help us to change his ID number to reflect his new name. It was the end of the day and she was kind enough to help us so we were able to get this done. There were some other stops in there to make copies, get notarizations. By the time all of this was complete, it was 6:00 and too late to get the final paperwork done at the orphanage to pick up Alex. Alex would have to wait another day.

Wednesday, April 16th: Much of this is running together, but we first went to another passport related office. Then we went to several banks to try to make the official government payments and get a receipt. The third bank decided to help us and took the payment. Then we went to pick up Alex and take him to get a passport photo at the passport office. This is where the trouble started. We were supposed to be at the office by 11:00 a.m. but with all the stops we had to make to get the payment done, we were late. The woman who ran things there, got really irate and we had to beg. Then when she allowed us into the building (you have to wait outside) she made Alex cry with what she was saying. We sat Alex in front of the camera, got him to settle down, and they snapped the photo. She then informed us that she would take the full week allowed to process the passport! I do not have kind words for her as you can imagine, but held my tongue. This process usually only takes two or three days. She had us over a barrel and knew it. Let's just say she was corrupt and would require an "expediting fee". Basically, she kicked us out after that. The possibility of returning to Kyiv in time to make our flight was held in the palms of this person's hands. Bummer. We had no idea what to expect. We returned with Alex and dropped him off for his lunch and nap. We then did the paperwork necessary to take him from the orphanage. We received our "get out of the baby house" card and took our coordinator to the train station. She wanted to go back to Kyiv to try to facilitate the process back there. My driver and I went to get a photo for the orphanage's records developed from my camera. Then we went back around 4:00 to pick up Alex. No problems with the orphanage. The care takers are really great people who seem to care a lot about these kids. They took off his clothes, I put on his new ones and off we went! Just in time for dinner.

After that, the passport office in Kyiv sent their end of the passport paperwork via train on Friday night to Simferopol. We were told by the old battle axe to call at noon on Monday. At noon, she told us to be there at 5:00. Before that, my driver took me to the train station to get our tickets for the train to Kyiv. We were at the passport office 40 minutes early. The woman came out a little early (my coordinator was not there but had given me instructions) and waved me in. She was pleasant this time, gave me the passport. It all checked out OK. I left the building and headed to the train station with Alex for our 6:30 train.

The train ride was nice. Alex had not taken a nap, so he was tired. We booked a first class birth for the two of us. Much more comfortable with better bathrooms and amenities. Alex really enjoyed looking out the windows and bouncing around. He fell asleep (passed out) around 8:00 and did not wake up until 7:00 the next morning. Photos are in the photo log.

Back in Kyiv 17 hours later at 11:30 in the morning, we went directly to the hospital to have the required physical done on Alex. The doctor said he was in great shape and did not display any of the delay kids can have that come from these institutions. I could have told her that myself, but was glad to get a professional opinion from someone who meets a lot of these kids. That only took 45 minutes, so we went to the U.S. Embassy to get the ball rolling on the visa. Did some paperwork, paid my $400 and that was it for the day. We were told to come back the next day at 2:00 for the "interview" (which turned out to be nothing) and pick up the visa. The next day it took longer to get to the embassy than to do the interview and get the visa.

One more day and we will be on a flight and back in the U.S.A.!

Introducing Alex!

This was our first day meeting Alex:

Later Photo:
The day before Lara left for Kyiv and home:

Last Day of the Waiting Period

Today is the last day of the official waiting period. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will go back to court to sign some more papers and get the final decree and permission to take custody of Alex. If all goes as planned, I will be picking up Alex at the end of the day and taking him to the apartment for his first night away from the baby house. I am very excited to get on with everything and have Alex with me full time. In addition to court, we will need to drive to the small town where Alex is from in order to get his new birth certificate. This birth certificate will have his new name (Alexander Scott) and have our names as the parents. Once we obtain the birth certificate, then we can go to the passport agency on Wednesday and apply for his Ukrainian passport. It will take a few days to get the passport so we will be in Simferopol through the end of the week or Monday. I am very anxious to get back to Kyiv and finalize everything so we can go home.

Yesterday afternoon, Alex and I went outside and ran around together. Had fun. Played ball, found some new bugs (ants and a box elder beetle). Before the crowd came, we whistled at the birds and learned the word "bird". He wants to call them "ipka" which is fish. He laughed because I would mimic the bird's call, and the bird would do it and then I would... etc. He thought that was a hoot and tried whistling at the birds as well.

Went shopping at the central market which is a huge outdoor market where all of Simferopol turns out to buy any and every manner of goods. A beautiful day. Warm and sunny. The place was packed! Lots of fun people watching and shopping. I bought Alex a pair of jeans, a shirt, and a pair of PJ's for about 100 Hrv ($20). Then came the big find..... a new training potty for Alex! Cost 11 Hrv ($2.10). A steal! It is a little one with a lid. I figured for the price, I would buy it and use it while in the Ukrain. I will throw it out before I come home. Alex can use it to eliminate some of the stress of transitioning from the bucket he uses at the baby house to the full size toilet. You read about these stresses, but don't know if it will be a big deal for him. For the price, what the heck. Someone can use it as a planter.

Headed this afternoon to stock the refrigerator for Alex's arrival. Once Alex is with me, I will probably not have as much of an opportunity to post until back in Kyiv where I will hopefully have internet access in my apartment. The next post will be photos of Alex.

Yalta

(NOTE: The photos are small, but you can click on them to enlarge them.)

On Saturday, I made the trip to Yalta with our new friends from Spain. Fernando and Elisa were kind enough to invite me along with them on their excursion. They are here adopting a little boy from the Fern Tree Baby House. They know a little English so we are able to communicate. This morning we discussed it and I think that we were all exhausted at the end of the day working through the language barrier. They as well as I went to be early after dinner Saturday night.

The sunny, warm weather held up and it was perfect day for a drive to the coast to see some sights. I did not expect to get out of Simferopol while in Kryme and with the routine I am now in with Alex, but I have to admit that it was good to get away for a day and see something different. We left around 9:45 A.M. and headed south toward Alushta on the coast. Our plan was to drive up the coast from there to Yalta and then to Sepastopol and back north to Simferopol. We never made it that far. We spent so much time walking in Yalta and seeing sights that we did not make it past Yalta. We were not disappointed.

During the drive, we climbed over the mountain range to the south of Simferopol. The landscape changes quickly as you drive out of town. The mountain range reminds me of the mountain range that lies along the northwest coast of Italy. It rises quickly as you drive toward the coast and then falls into the sea. The towns along the cost all all nestled into the mountain side and foot hills as they slope into the coast. Very pretty. These mountains were high enough to still have snow on their peaks which was surprising to us. The mountains are heavily wooded and this forest is the first large forested area I have seen since being in Ukraine. Apparently these forests are owned by the government and are now protected.

As we crested the range and headed down toward the coast, the first thing that becomes apparent is that the southern side of the range is the wine growing region of Kryme. Below the forests, large vineyards take up the majority of the landscape above the coastal areas. I have sampled the wine here and most of it would not be to our taste (Scott and Lara's). Most of the wine produced in Ukraine is very sweet. I have only found one dry wine from Kryme (which I liked).

After reaching the coast we headed west towards Yalta. The total drive to Yalta was about an hour and a half. We stopped along the way and took in some of the views along the highway taking our time. The first stop was to go to Yalta proper and walk along the harbor. This is where all the cruise ships dock. We put our toes in the Black Sea (very cold) so we could say we did that, had lunch and walked a little more. Like every town in the Ukraine, Yalta has a very nice statue of Lenin in the town center. Yalta is no different. And, like most statues of Lenin, this one overlooked such bastions of capitalism like an amusement part, McDonald's and high end shopping. I guess the Soviets only put Lenin statues in the best locations (location, location, location!), which have now become..... the best post communist locations! Find a statue of Lenin, and this is where you want to buy real estate. I think that this might just be the hottest real estate idea I have ever had.

After the harbor we drove up the mountain and further west to see the Swallows Nest, which is one of the best known symbols of Kryme. This castle was built in 1912 by the German Baron Stengel (no relation). This is a highly touched up photo of the castle. It hangs on the cliff face over the ocean. Nice pad! It is now a restaurant and the entire area around it is a "sanatorium". It is a large area and no cars are allowed so we did not go in.

A sanatorium is a place for people to go who are sick (not necessarily mentally ill). There are many along the coast. Apparently, the Russians used to be sent to these places when they were ill. It would be a nice prescription to get. The views are breathtaking. Now a days, these sanatoriums are largely unfilled and unused. Biggest waist of prime real estate outside of golf courses (sorry Norman).

We then went to a park that also had a castle. Sorry, I cant remember the name of the castle, but it was nice. One side was European style and the other side was middle eastern style (ocean side). Great views of Yalta and the sea.

Then we went to the palace of Nicholas II, Czar of Russia. This is where the Yalta conference was held after WWII. This is a very historical place where Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met to decide the post war direction of the world. It was also interesting to see how the last Russian Czar and his family spent their summers. I was actually a little disappointed. When you go to a palace you expect some grand architecture and over-the-top decor. This palace was nothing of the sort. More like a really big, nice house. Perhaps the decor was stripped out by the Nazis or the Soviets. Don't know. Could not understand the history from what I could read in the rooms. Additionally, there were no paintings (or very few). Nicholas was much more into the new art of photography and motion pictures. The walls were lined with many photos of his family and his life at the palace. These were extremely interesting. While it appears that perhaps they lived a simpler life while in Yalta, the photos reinforced the truth that it is good to be the king!
(Qualifying statement: It is "good to be the king" so long as you do not have millions of poor, starving people within your dominion being led by an ideology to turn your kingdom on its head, free the people from their bondage and redistribute the wealth. Nicholas and Louis would have been better off if they had read Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" (it was around) and headed the advice to always "feed the people so that they never hunger". Will aristocracy ever learn... sorry, too late. Nicholas II (and Louis) were executed.)

After Nicholas' palace, we headed home. We were all very tired after a good, long day. Thank you Fernando and Elisa!

Yalta Delayed, A Banana Fiend Emerges, Four More Days

Apparently it was raining at the coast today, so we have delayed our Yalta day trip until Saturday. There are now four more days until the waiting period of done!

Alex and I had a wonderful morning together. It was nice enough outside to go out, but the play room was open and thought I would try to get a little one on one quality time with him. He seemed to like being inside today. When he is outside he runs away constantly with me chasing after him yelling "Alex! Alex!, Ne nada! Ne nada!" The Italians love watching this spectacle. There is just too many distractions to get in some serious bonding time. Splitting the day may be a better idea in order for him to get socialization and for us to get one on one time.

Alex has become the banana fiend. I bring one every day in the morning and he now goes in search of them when we settle into a spot for our visits. "Banana, Banana" he says as he rifles through the bag. He likes to peel them himself, hold it and then devour it. Just starts cramming it in. This morning he also ate the entire box of Animal Crackers, cheese and an apple juice. Glad I brought some food.

Alex and I have been working on his ball throwing technique. I don't think that this is a skill they teach the kids (probably for good reason). When we play with the ball, he tosses it strait up in the air in an under hand fashion. Not effective. No distance. No accuracy. We have been working on throwing overhand and he has caught on quickly. He can now throw a ball across the room, fairly accurately, and he is very excited about his new found talent. I have also started taking the all important slippers Lara bought me in Kyiv when I go to visit. You can not go back into the main groupa area with your street shoes or socks. It is customary in the Ukraine to put on slippers when entering anyone's home. It is bad form to wear your socks or your shoes. This is not all that dissimilar to Minnesota, where we take off our shoes when entering someone's home no matter how dressy the event. By taking my slippers, I can walk back into the groupa area and see Alex on his turf. The care takers seem surprised, but not unwelcoming. They always want an update on when we are headed back to "America". They pull out the calendar and make me explain. (Now that I think of it, it might be because they are anxious to see me leave.)

It is good to be able to take Alex back there to get a toy or take him to use the potty (a small bucket on the floor). We usually have to ask someone to help us. Back in the potty room, I must take a photo of those kids back there using their buckets. It rates a ten for cute factor. At specific times during the day, they put the kids on these little plastic buckets (think beach bucket) in a semi-circle to pee and poo (pecit and kacat). When you go back there, they all look up at you smiling and giggling. It's a hoot. They have to sit there with their legs closed (so everything goes down) with their hands on their thighs. Amazing that they stay in this position for a long period of time. They are not allowed to get up until told to by the care givers. When they stand up, they touch their toes, get a wipe, up goes the pants and their done. I have never seen a more orderly group of two year old children in my life. Lara went back there to look in one time. One of the kids saw her and wanted to go to her. Instead of getting up, the little boy had the presence to scoot that bucket across the floor towards her, butt in position, legs closed, and hand on the thighs. He never broke that position. Now that's skill!

Two more Italian couples have shown up to look at kids. One has been there for two days so I am not sure if it means that they like the child or not. They happen to be visiting one of the younger boys in Alex's groupa. Another couple visited him and decided not to adopt him. I hope this one works out for him this time. He is very cute. It has to be hard on both sides of the equation to visit and not have a good match. Not certain about what happened to the second Italian couple. They were not there today. Keeping my fingers crossed that they were working on the never ending stream of paperwork and approvals this morning.

Norman and Maxine are headed back to Florida on Sunday. They were in Minnesota for a Month! I know they are ready to get back to sunshine and warm weather. We only wish we could have returned with their new grandson earlier and they would have had a chance to meet him before heading out. Thank you Mom and Dad for taking care of the home front! We love you!

If anyone reading this has some news from back home at Lake Sarah or work, please email or comment. Would love to hear from you.

Here's A Teaser

We have received a lot of requests to post a photo of Alex. We have another week before we can do that, but thought I would post a teaser photo that was taken the first day we met him. When we met him, we were taken into the Groupa's play room and were allowed to spend some private time with him. A part of this time was over lunch and we were able to watch him eat his lunch and feed him. This is Lara feeding him for the first time. You only get the rear view, but if the back looks this cute, the front has to be even better!

The weather has been very nice the last couple of days. I am feeling almost 100% again, and Alex and I are spending our time together outside chasing butterflies and picking up rocks. As many of you who know me will understand, I am hoping he becomes an avid outdoorsman and all around nature boy. Lara bought him a game where a small fishing pole and line are connected to a magnet. There are several fish that he can catch with the magnet. This game has been a big hit. A very good sign. I can't wait to get him to the end of the dock, back home on Lake Sarah, pulling in sunnies and crappie. He will love it.

I was invited to go on Friday for a day trip to Yalta with my new friends from Spain. Yalta is on the Black Sea about a two hour drive from Simferopol (go to the maps link). If the weather is good, we'll leave around 10:00 in the morning and come home late in the afternoon/early evening. I will post next on Saturday so you all can check back into the blog on Saturday morning when you wake up.

Dos Vadania!

Privit. Hello.

Since Lara left, I have spent my days in bed trying to get over a cold. I visited Alex in the morning yesterday for a few hours, but did not go back in the afternoon. It seems as if I am on the upswing of recovery from this bug, so hope to feel well enough to go visit him this afternoon. With this slow internet connection and antiquated computer that is available to me here, I was able to upload some new photos with captions to the photo log at the right.

Alex is doing well. It is supposed to be a warm and sunny today, so Alex and I can go outside. It has been raining steadily, off and on, for over a week. Yesterday was cloudy, but the rain broke early in the morning. We are on a good weather trend for the next few days. Alex and I had our first disagreement yesterday. He wanted to blow bubbles but would not let me hold the container. I let him hold it, but he spilled it all over himself so I took it away. He threw a tantrum. Strangely, I look at this as a good sign. He's catching up to his two year old age quickly (good development). He ate an entire banana and yogurt in one sitting and drank his juice box. We are trying to get calories into him. All the kids who are being adopted seem to devour everything you put in front of them. They do not develop picky eaters at the baby house. They eat what is served. I think we tend to select only what they like to eat in the U.S., but they do not have that luxury with 130 children to feed. He is getting better at using the equipment in the yard and is readily climbing with more confidence (Lara move everything in the house 5 feet off the floor!).

There is a steady stream of families here adopting. There was an American family that recently left so we are the only Americans in the bunch. New families arrive, some do not choose to adopt the child they visit. Of those that have chosen to adopt their referrals, one is Spanish, one is Swiss, and three are Italian. I have struck up a good relationship with the Spanish couple. Very nice, fun and personable people. They are from the Atlantic coast of Spain and know some English so we tend to hang out together when the kids are playing together. They live near the water so we have something in common with Lara and I living on Lake Sarah.

If you have not seen the photo of our bathroom/laundry room, you should check it out. As reported, I broke the mirror off the wall while in the bathroom last week. The landlady came yesterday and replaced it. Nothing unusual about it, but she knew I was sick and brought me 6 liters of water and ibuprofen. Apparently, our coordinator had talked to her and she wanted to help. I knew I needed more ibuprofen, but had failed to translate it correctly when I stopped at the pharmacy (Aptica) downstairs. She and her husband own the apartment and are a very nice couple. She seems to manage the customer interface and money, while he is the handyman. I only wish I could talk to him. He obviously has a kindred love for tools! Through our pointing and grunting we also are now understanding that the shower needs to be re-caulked. The water runs out all over the tile floor when the shower is running. They did not know this was occurring and were appreciative. In the end, we found a few words that translated. This included "silicone" which got the ball rolling. Thank god for small miracles.

The other small miracle was that I was able to negotiate a hair cut. It had gotten to the point where I could sport a pony tail and with the warm weather coming, I wanted it short. After discovering a new pedestrian street not far from the apartment, I came across a shop that was cutting hair. I stuck my head in for a closer inspection. There were about 9 seats lined up on one side with a wall made up of a mirror. There were men, women and children getting hair cuts. This did not look like a "barber shop", but I had the good fortune to run across the Ukrainian version of SuperCuts only retro style. The walls were covered in dark brown simulated marble tile that was right out of the 50's. Everything else looked standard issue, so I figured "what the heck". I have a few more weeks before returning to the U.S. and 4 more weeks before I return to work. Therefore if it was bad, nobody would ever see me again here, and I could recover my high fashion style (right) once I get back to America. So I walked in and stood there staring until someone stepped up and greeted me. All the stations with fashionable stylists were busy, except the one with the babushka sitting in her chair and waiting for a customer. She said something and motioned me to sit down (authoritatively). She asked me what I wanted and I grunted and signed my way to an understanding that I wanted a short haircut like the guy two seats down the row. Then she dove in. I am used to getting a number three shearing around the bottom at the hairline and then blended into the top where it is longer. She free handed a perfect number three at the bottom (no guard) then began to cut her way to the top. Pretty much the same techniques used back home, but she took her time and was much more careful. One thing she did not like about my hair was that she was convinced it was too thick. She went at it with a thinning shear like a hedge trimmer possessed! Nobody ever thinned my hair like that, so I held the chair firm and prayed for the best. Then she trimmed up the side burns in perfect alignment to one another. Then she pulled out the strait razor and started shaving the back of my neck and used it to cut off any remaining fly-a-ways. After some moose, gel, and something else (?), she blew my hair dry and styled it differently than my normal. 45 minutes later, I really liked the cut and what she did to it. I want to take her home with me. All that for six U.S. dollars. Deal of the century.

Lara's Gone, Now What?

Given we are on the long road program to getting this adoption completed (as we have stated in our prior post), and after much deliberation, Lara is heading back to the U.S. in order to conserve her leave time after Alex returns home. This was our plan if we ran into difficulties finding a child (and we did). We seriously considered her staying, but when we calculated her remaining leave and weighed the fact that our time with Alex here is a few hours a day in a crowded room with six other families, it made more sense that she head back and spend more one on one time with Alex at our house and helping him to get settled in. Now that we know we have a boy and know his age, she is no doubt going to do some damage buying lots of the right stuff a young boy needs before we return home!

It was with a tear in my eye that I watched her pull away in the car headed to the train station last night. We have spent so much one on one time together over the last 5 weeks that the apartment seemed very quiet last night and today. I will miss her greatly. We have gotten along famously here and this trip really confirms that we are best friends and life long partners. When two people have only each other to talk to (nobody else knows English) and have so many obstacles to overcome and problems to solve on the fly, any crack in the partnership would be devastating. We found no such cracks. When I was down, she became the rock and vise versa. (I love you honey!)

After her first class train trip last night, I am glad to report she arrived at the apartment in Kyiv safe and sound without a glitch. She shared the cabin on the train with a babushka (grandma) and it sounds like they got along well and found some way to overcome the language differences. I will leave it to her to post the details of her trip and the woman she met on the train. She will spend two nights in Kyiv (she's there now) and then board a flight Tuesday morning arriving in Minneapolis Tuesday evening. During her stay there she will be going to the U.S. Consulate to sign some official paperwork for the adoption to go into our file. Friday afternoon we ran down and received the three Ukrainian agency approvals needed in order for me to handle the rest of the adoption on my own.

Many of you have asked what is left. After the waiting period (ends on the 15th), I can take custody of Alex. After that we need to apply for his Ukrainian passport in order for him to leave the country at the Vital Records Office here in Simferopol and in the small town where is originally from. This will take about 3-5 days. (If you are wondering, Alex will remain a Ukrainian Citizen until he is eighteen. After that he can decide whether to keep this dual status or revoke it.)

Once we have his passport, we will travel back to Kyiv and go to the U.S. Embassy to finalize our documents, obtain a U.S. Visa for him, and get a required physical examination. This should take 2-3 more days. After that, we are headed home!

We Have A Decree

Today at 1:00 was our court hearing for the adoption of Alex. Our coordinator arrived at our apartment in the morning, and we left for a day of running around to get various approvals and documents prior to and after the court hearing. We arrived at the court house around 12:55 for our 1:00 hearing (they like to cut things close here). At 1:20 we were called into the court room. Along with us was our coordinator/translator, the local inspector (Olga), and the orphanage lawyer. First the secretary and the computer guy showed up to set up the desktop computer system to take notes. That took 10 minutes. Then the Judge and two witnesses entered the room. The three of them sat at the front of the room slightly elevated from our position in big black leather chairs. The lights were not on, so the room was dim. The light from the windows was dull since it was raining outside (again). Nobody looked at each other as the secretary struggled to get the information required to start up on the screen. Everyone just stared at the floor except us. The Judge looked perturbed at the fact that the computer was delaying things. Then, as if a silent starter gun went off, the Judge spoke. Our translator translated what he was saying. He read through some formalities for what seemed to be forever. Probably not long but seemed that way since we had no idea what he was saying until it was translated. He then asked us if we understood our rights.....Yes. Then we were asked to rise and state our names, addresses, date and place of birth. Then we were asked to sit down. He said some more, then we were asked to stand back up. Stated what we did for a living, the companies we worked for, our titles, and our incomes. They then started into the additional questions after we sat down and were asked again to stand (you get the drill). What living arrangements, how we would provide for the health of the child.... etc. They asked what qualifications Lara has to be a mother after asking Scott if Lara had any biological children. Then one of the witnesses was allowed to ask some questions. He asked how we would overcome the language barrier and do we have any support in the community to help with the language. The Judge seemed a bit bothered by these questions. Then the Judge turned to the Inspector and the orphanage lawyer and asked for their opinion on what was best for Alex. They stated that being adopted by us was in Alex's best interest. This was great news!

We now had the approval of the Adoption Center, the Inspector and the baby house and now it was the moment to find out if the Judge/Court approved. The Judge read some more formalities and then stated that he felt it was in Alex's best interest to be adopted by us. We all stood as the Judge and witnesses quickly walked out, and that was it. The entire hearing with formalities and questions lasted 45 minutes.

We then left the court house to sign some other documents at the notary down the street. Then we returned to the court house awhile later. We were then taken back to the Judge's chamber where he read us the decree they had written. This was formal and was being recorded. The decree was long so we stood and listened to him read it while he stood next to a big black and white photo of Leonid Brezhnev (surreal). When he was done, it was more relaxed and we thanked him and asked to take a photo. He seemed pleased that we asked. We won't post the photo as we don't want to risk offending the Court.

With the decree in hand, we now wait for ten days before we can process more documents. The waiting period will last until April 15th. At that point we can to to the Agency for Vital Records and get a new birth certificate and Ukrainian passport. Most importantly, we can take custody of Alex at the end of the ten day waiting period and take him from the baby house!

Our Journey to Simferopol and, of course, an Alex Update

This entry will be to tell you about our trip to Simferopol, our lifestyle here and give an update on Alex. There are also some new photos on the photo log link. First the important stuff:

Alex:
We have continued to visit Alex every day with continued progress of his development and our attachment to each other. He now readily runs across the room when we arrive yelling "Momma and Daddy!" and dives into our arms. Many people have written saying how lucky a little boy he is, but actually we feel extremely fortunate to have found him. He is more wonderful and the feeling is more wonderful than we had ever expected. It has taken so much to get to this point that we were worried that there may be an anti-climatic effect, but that has not occurred and we are elated by being with him. We are extremely fortunate.
Right now Alex is a bit under the weather. Yesterday he was put in the infirmary of the baby house to separate him from the other children. After a lot of really bad Russian and sign language on our parts, we were able to understand that he was running a fever and had a sore throat. Today we asked if there was any medicine that would help him and were given a prescription that we were to take to the Pharmacy (Aptica) and have filled and return it to the doctor. We were off this morning on another journey to fill the prescriptions (3). We had to go to two pharmacies to get all three filled since one was not available at the first pharmacy. Scott's medical experience in no way helped him to communicate or understand any of the medications. The language on the prescriptions and labels were totally foreign so we were left to leave faith to the doctor and deliver the meds without question. Mission accomplished. We will return today to see of Alex's progress, but he looked much better this morning than yesterday so we don't expect any further emergencies. Poor little guy. They take really good care of these kids and give them a lot of attention so we feel he is in very good hands.
Speaking of poor little guy, Scott came down with the crud this week as well. Was in bed for a day and a half with bad headaches and feeling very run down. He stayed away from Alex for a day and a half and after feeling better got back to the schedule of visits. We're not certain if it is the climate, allergies, or a real illness, but were worried it could progress to something requiring medical treatment so he laid low until it passed.

The Trip to Simferopol and Our First Day:
Before leaving, we went shopping and purchased our first new kids toy in the Ukraine. One of those donut stacking puzzles. We're glad we bought it because Alex absolutely loves it. The other puzzles we had brought were a bit more advanced, but we have found that he is doing every these with ease already. He has great focus.
We left for Simferopol a week ago on a late afternoon train. We purchased an entire 4 bunk compartment for about 600 UAH ($120) for us and our coordinator. The trip lasts overnight and is about 15 hours. The train makes many stops during the night so sleeping is a bit tenuous, but all in all it is very comfortable and was fun. When you first get in the train, you are provided fresh linens, pillow and a bed role. You put the bed role down on the mattress, then the sheets, pillow cases and then a blanket. The bunks are very comfortable compared to our bed in the apartment in Kyiv. The girls took the lower two bunks and Scott got one of the top bunks. Everybody brings on their own food and drink. You eat your dinner (cheese and bread for us) have tea, then it is into bed. It was interesting how everyone seemed to hit the hay right around 9:00 pm at the same time. It was non-smoking and the bathrooms were at either end of the train car. The bathrooms were clean and kept that way by the attendants. In the morning, everyone gets up, changes and gets off at their stops in Crimea. People get on the train at the stops and sell drinks, cured fish (really) and lots of stuff. We stuck to eating protein bars.
Once in Simferopol, we were met by a driver who took our bags to the car. We then proceeded directly to the inspector's office and met with Olga. She interviewed us as to our interest in adopting Alex and we gave her the proper documents to process. Once she gave us her approval, we were given permission to go to the orphanage to meet Alex. We then went to the orphanage directly where we were then required to meet with the director and the orphanage's lawyer. Again, the same questions and permission to meet Alex. We then spent the next several hours with Alex getting to know him. We then were off to meet the staff doctors and their staff neurologist. Over the course of the afternoon we pieced together his medical history, requested more tests, and then were able to proclaim our request to adopt him (there was no question we were going to adopt him after meeting him). Once decided the rest of the afternoon was spent running from the court house, to the "notary" (a lawyer in our definition), to the inspector and back to the courthouse, ect, ect,,,, you get the idea. Lots of running, red tape and paperwork. We finished the day at 8:30 pm and exhausted.
The following two days our coordinator handled everything and would include us only if she needed signatures. We were able to focus on Alex. She is now back in Kyiv working that end of the never ending paperwork and process and will not return until this Friday for our court date. We just got off the phone with her and she said we should have our approvals from Kyiv by Wednesday. More good news.

Simferopol:
Simferopol is the capital of Crimea (Kryme). It is the largest city in Crimea (an Oblast of the Ukraine which is the equivalent to our States), and is a working town. Crimea's other cities of note include Yalta which is very famous and known as the "Russian Riviera". The rest of Crimea is either farming or tourist driven. As of now, we have no plans to get out of Simferopol and see the other places here, although there is a rich history to learn. We have other priorities. Thus far we like our apartment better than the one in Kyiv. It has a dramatically better bed, a kitchen that works, a real shower and a laundry machine and only costs $35 per night. It is conveniently located in the central city so everything is in walking distance that we need. The baby house is a bit farther, but we take a driver there every day which costs very little. We got a bit of political reality about Crimea on Saturday. We were walking to the grocery store and walked up on a very large, very organized and very staged political rally in the main town square across the street from our apartment. One thing you notice about this town is that all the old Soviet symbols on the buildings, in the parks, or anywhere else, have not been removed. You still see the sicle, hammer and star everywhere, and Lenin still has the biggest statue in town (in the main square). Our cab driver told us that 60% of the population is Russian and they contest the Orange Revolution and the 2004 election results. Crimea does not want to join the EU, does not want to join NATO and wants to get closer to Russia. Apparently they even want to break away from the Ukraine. So this rally was a demonstration against aligning with NATO. We did not want to break out the camera and take photos, but imagine a sea of old Soviet Union red flags (with sicle and hammer) flying along side of the Crimea state flag around the gigantic statue of Lenin! Wow. We just were not expecting that. We don't think that this a common sight for most visitors to the Ukraine so we think we witnessed something very special and different. There were people dressed in their old Soviet Union military gear with medals and red striping and all. Very much a throw back scene from the nightly news in the 1970's. We gave it a wide birth and headed to the grocery store.
The last impression we have of Simferopol for this entry is that the prosperity of what we saw in Kyiv is not happening elsewhere. This was also confirmed by our trips out to the suburbs of Kyiv and our overnight trip to Uman. The housing and infrastructure here has not been kept up. The buildings are all post WWII, but they look much older. This city was built by the USSR from the ground up, but they must have forgotten to send the maintenance check. It is with some humor that our drive to the baby house is much like a real life video game where the objective is to not get swallowed up by the holes in the streets, hit stray dogs as they cross or miss oncoming traffic as it swerves to do the same. We just close our eyes and ignore the excitement! There is one pot hole that is our favorite. It is about the diameter of a large dining table and has a tree growing out of the middle of it! It is so large and deep that nobody has gone near it for years.

A Good First Week

First of all: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM and DAD! Maxine and Norman are celebrating their wedding anniversary today. Wish we were there with you guys!

Everything is well here in the Ukraine. Thank you everyone for the comments and emails!

We have fallen into a daily routine that will be what we do everyday until we are able to take Alex from the baby house. We get up, eat and plan for the day. We translate some new words to try and teach Alex during our visits. A driver comes to pick us up at 8:45 for our 9-noon visit with Alex. We play with Alex for three hours, get picked back up at noon and go back to the apartment for lunch. Run errands or whatever until 3:45. Are picked up by the driver and go back for our 4-6 visit. Play for two hours, get picked up at 6:00 and go home or dinner, computer games, a movie, fashion TV, BBC (there's not much else) or whatever. Very structured, but a welcome change from the waiting/persistence game we had to play in Kyiv. We now have purpose to our stay and look forward to what new discovery we experience with Alex and his progress. Each day we see cognitive and physical development with the 1-1 time we are spending with him, so he is doing really well. He has also began to be warmer to us upon arrival and is getting used to being with us. He is leaving his groupa and care givers more readily and giving us a hug when we arrive and depart from our visits.

One game we are playing with him is to use the photo book we have brought and teach him the names of the people in the photos. He now readily points to the pictures and identifies "Mommy, Daddy, Zach, and Lauren". He says these words with the accent of a two year old Ukrainian kid which is very cute. He refers to our furry children as 'backa' (he is trying to say "sabacka") which is Russian for dog. He has not yet changed over to "dog" or calling them by their names, but this will be a goal of this weekend. He still uses a lot of Russian words and probably will not start to really learn English until he leaves the orphanage. We are told he will quickly pick up English and will quickly forget his Russian (we are not certain we want him to lose his start with Russian).

We also learned yesterday that we have a court date on April 4th (Friday). This is where we will have our court hearing to approve the adoption and receive a decree. A very important step. After we receive a decree, there is a 10 day waiting period (we have not deciphered whether this is working days or calendar days). This period of time is required to allow the birth mother, birth father or direct family members time to contest the adoption. We are told by the inspector in their small town that they would have to be able to provide a good living environment for the child which she did not feel would be possible. This apparently "almost" never happens. Of the fifty some odd adoptions our coordinator has facilitated it has never happened, but the suspense continues.

A little about the orphanage system and system results:
You may notice we have stopped using the term orphanage in favor of "baby house". This is what the Ukrainians call these institutions where healthy babies are taken to be cared for until they are adopted. These baby houses are for children up to 4 years old. If they have not been adopted by the age of 4, they are then sent to an orphanage in the area for ages 4-10. They proceed through several of these orphanages until they "graduate" from the system at 16 years old. After that, they are on their own. It is amazing that there are so many healthy, beautiful children here that are not available to be adopted. We are not 100% certain as to the reasons, but inefficiency of the system probably plays the largest part. It is a travesty that these kids are not put up for adoption more quickly. After 4 years of age, the statistics say that fewer and fewer of these children will ever be adopted. Those that are not adopted will end up on the street fending for themselves when they "graduate". A high percentage die, and those that survive live a nightmare of a life. Only about 10-15% go on to live a normal, productive life free of death, crime and substance abuse. A total waste of human potential/life and something that angers us when we look into the eyes of these adorable, healthy kids.

We are headed to see Alex again this afternoon. Juice boxes, bananas, cheese, books, puzzles, toys and pictures in hand. Everything a growing boy needs!

It's a Boy!

Hello all! We finally had a chance to get to an internet cafe. We do not have internet in the apartment that we rented. We know you have been anxiously awaiting an update.

We have some very good news! Our 15 hour train ride paid off and we have met a delightful little boy named Alexander! He is two and a half years old, has brown eyes and blondish/brown hair. He is healthy and has a mind of his own. He is very bright and is able to concentrate for a very long time on tasks given to him. We are already very proud of him.

We have spent the last two days visiting him over a period of about 6 hours. He is starting to get used to us but is a bit shy (a good sign and totally normal). More than likely he is still testing us and wondering who are these funny talking big people coming to see him. They tell us he does not know the concept of "mommy and daddy (momma and pappa)" since he has spent his entire life with care givers at the orphanage and the hospital where he was born. The orphanage here is wonderful (in comparison to others we have read about). Alex loves to play kick the ball and play on the slides. He is very curious and also likes to do things on his own often saying "let me,,niet". Twice he dumped out the crayons Lara brought him and put them all back in order in the right direction. He seems very particular about things having their place (this may be the orphanage environment with lots kids, he did not get this from Lara).

Today we played outside. It snowed here yesterday, but today is warm and sunny. Alex learned to drink from a straw (juice box) after we showed him how to suck on the straw. He mimics well. He also loves bananas.

We are now in the process of running around and getting documents together, drafting applications, and waiting for a court date. Lots of activity the last couple of days. We are able to visit Alex from 9-12 and 4-6 everyday and plan to take full advantage of this. We will let you know when the court date is assigned. Should be in the next week.

We would love to put a photo on the blog, but we will not be posting the photo on the blog until he is legally ours. We still have a few hurdles to clear before everything is official so we still have a bit of pucker factor going on.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! It is about 2:00 a.m. back home in Minneapolis as we write this entry so we want to wish everyone a Happy Easter so when you get up you'll find this message. We know you start every day with a hot cup of coffee and a read of this blog (right). We got to speak with Maxine, Norman, Zach and Lauren last night. Zach and Lauren are visiting grandma and grandpa at our house (feels strange to say that) while they are house sitting for us in Minneapolis. It was good to hear their voices. It sounds like the lake is still frozen, and it is still snowing. We have been here so long it felt strange to speak English to someone other than each other. We spend so much alone time together, we have begun to be able to predict what each other will do and say in any particular moment. Scary!

Before we plow on, the other celebration today is that Clarke and Jane are celebrating their wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary!! Hope you guys enjoy some Easter romance. Clarke, I think it is time to break out some of that champagne collection you have behind the bar. You did buy it for a reason????!!!

Norman and Maxine sound like they are making the most of their time in Minneapolis as you would expect. They have been out and about quite a bit and enjoying lunches around town. I am certain, although not stated, that Norman has taken over the kitchen table with his art supplies. We are still hoping for that new painting of the barn outside of Loretto with the muddy cows (inside joke). Hopefully the cows cooperate and stand in their places. Remember Dad..... Production!

Zach and Lauren sound good. Lauren was playing a video game and extremely engrossed in what she was doing. A few mumbles and a grunt indicated that she was fine, had played with many friends this past week, and school was going well. No new skating competitions. Zach has been quite busy as usual. Besides hanging out with Vanessa, he has been trying out for Lacrosse. He forwarded a request for coaches and a meeting notice for such that was being held. Had to pass given I would miss most of the season being here in the Ukraine (bummer). His other big news was that he got a job at Interlachen Country Club (now he may have to get his hair cut). Way to go Zach! Lastly, Zach turned 16 a few days ago. Can't believe he is that old. Here's a picture of him at his 16th celebration we had for him before we left.

Maxine reports that our furry children are doing well. They have all fallen into a routine. Bella, our talkative, sensitive one, requires the most attention, and Maxine is beginning to be able to understand "Bella speak". Bella keeps everyone on track with what is supposed to happen routinely during the day. This includes notification of 7:30 wake up time (Norman loves this I'm sure). Sota is content with getting her attention in the morning and early evening with the double paw paw notification of her wishes at 5:30. Buddy is reportedly a "character". He is our grump, occasionally growls at Bella and Sota and growls after 7:30 at night at anything when he's ready to retire to the Buddy bed. We have theories about his grumpiness, but he is a sweet guy and would not hurt a flea. Emma has been walking the dogs regularly and earning the bucks. Thank you Emma!

Sandy and Gregg are having Max, Norm, Zach and Lauren over for their annual Easter celebration with their family today. We will miss being there and seeing everyone for this Easter tradition. Hello goes out to Bea, Ruth, Don, Judy and the rest of the clan. Eat some extra turkey for us! (Don, next year we'll bring extra smoked pheasant.)

We miss being home at times like these and have a lot of time on our hands to think about home. We are leaving Monday for Simferopol and are simply waiting for that time. Yesterday we took a 5 mile walk around town just to get out. Not sure what we will do today. It is Easter, but there's not a protestant church in sight.

Chris' emails have a quote on the bottom of each. We believe that this is something very meaningful to the current situation, our adventure, and everyone's support back home. Chris is the best in our family at finding meaningful words for any situation:

"In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

WOW!!!!! A Wild Ride!

We did not post on Wednesday night after our second appointment. We apologize to those checking in to get an update on our status, but could not bare to face the outcome right away and put it in writing. Unfortunately, the second appointment went the same as the first. We were devastated. We were presented two children, both with deformities and major medical issues and had to turn them down. After a long sleepless night, a morning meeting with our coordinator to write an explanation letter as to the reasons we did not choose either of these children, and discussions of next steps, Lara and I came back to our apartment very discouraged.

Then, sometime around noon today, we received a call to be at the Adoption Center at 4:00. We had no idea what the reason for the meeting was or what to expect. Were we being called in to be shown more children, or were we being called in to be told there is not a child for us and to go home? Our coordinator did not have any idea what was going to happen, but said we were told to be there. We spent a quiet afternoon at the apartment waiting to get ready to leave. Scott read while Lara putzed on the computer. As you can imagine our anxiety was high. It was snowing in Kyiv today so we did not venture out for our usual walk.

We arrived at the Adoption Center at 3:45 and met up with our coordinator. We were very nervous and made small talk as we waited in the hallway of the Adoption Center for over an hour. We were called upstairs and were met by the same psychologist that met with us for our unsuccessful appointment yesterday. We went into her meeting room and she had two files in her hand. It was apparent that we were going to be shown two more children. Both were a bit over two and relatively healthy compared to those we had been shown before. One child that is 2 1/2 years old grabbed us from the moment we laid eyes on his photo. Smiling and gregarious looking, he has blond hair and brown eyes. His name is Alexander, and he is in an orphanage in Simforapol, Crimea, in the south of the Ukraine (see the maps link). He just recently became available! We are checking into the reference more thoroughly, but our coordinator knows this orphanage, the director and their staff very well. It is one of the orphanages that takes very good care of their children. If anything major was wrong, it would have been in the report or this orphanage would do whatever is necessary to correct any problems the child may have.

Finally, we have made major progress! Our coordinator is pulling together the necessary paperwork to gain permission to go visit the child. We will leave either Sunday or Monday night. The train ride will take well over 11 hours and be an overnight trip. We are so excited! We are headed to TGI Fridays (the only American restaurant outside of McD's) for a bit of American style food to celebrate!

Tidbits of Living Day to Day in the Ukraine

Just waiting here in the apartment for our appointment at the Adoption Center. Will post tonight (Kyiv time) on how that appointment goes. If you have not checked in in the last 24 hours, see the prior entry from yesterday below.

We have been wanting to add a few bits of information on day to day general observations and how we get along here in the Ukraine.

Telephones: This is the most complex system we have experienced outside of Italy. As indicated in a prior blog, we are purchasing time for a mobile phone on loan from our coordinator. We have had to purchase two cards: One for local/Ukraine calls and one for international calls. We have to switch the card out in the phone and punch in the access code when we go from one to the other. There is also a land line in the apartment. Everyone here seems to carry three or more phones with them. It is crazy. To make it more complicated, cell phones can call cell phones as well as land lines. Land lines can only call land lines. Land lines are free locally. Cell phones can receive calls for free, but it costs money to make a call from your cell phone. Therefore you see people having extremely quick conversations with no pleasantries when making calls from their cell phones. If they receive a call they are very chatty, it's free. The cell phone business is totally different in the US. We sign a contract with a carrier, receive a phone specific to them and pay them monthly after being billed. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, you buy a phone and then buy prepaid cards to put into the phone. All phones work with all companies/cards. It's pay as you go. This is the reason we have so few choices in phones compared to what we see over here. Stores here are crammed to the rafters with every conceivable shape, color and size of phone.

Laundry: Originally, we were sending our laundry out with a person for about $10 a pop. Very cheap, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. We would get the cloths back and they would look and smell like they had been washed in the Dnipro river on a stone and hung up to dry. Stiff, smelly and if there was a stain it was still there. We now hand wash everything ourselves in the sink, wring them out, role them in a towel, step on them and hang them around the apartment to dry. They do not smell and they look clean. A box of Tide costs about 65 cents. It gives us something normal to do as well... therapeutic.

Music: The most annoying element we have to deal with is loud EuroPop. Think Rave Dance Music. This is played in every restaurant, coffee house, bus, on the street, etc. It does not matter the venue or the time of day, the pounding, driving beat of EuroPop everywhere, 24/7.

Trash: Littering is an art form in the Ukraine. Food litter is taken care of by birds and stray dogs, but the paper, cigarette butts, glass and bottles seem to not make it into the trash receptacles. These trash receptacles are everywhere, but it must be simpler to simply throw it on the ground. The good news here is that the labor to clean up this mess is cheap and they are always cleaning up the streets in the main area of town. Another interesting phenomenon is the commonly burning trash can. For those people here who do throw away their butts, they seem to forget to put them out. The trash cans smolder as the refuse catches fire and the damp contents do not completely cumbust. Outside of the city center, trash is everywhere and must not ever be cleaned up.

More Food News: We have become braver and have been sampling food that can be commonly found in booths along the streets. We thought we'd take the risk since everyone seems to eat this stuff. So far so good. We have not had to break out our emergency gastrointestinal kit (Imodium and compozine). This type of food has been a very pleasant surprise. It is usually a baked pocket with meat or cheese or something sweet inside. There are also "wraps" that look like tortillas with cabbage/cole slaw and meat. All this stuff has been yummy. At the bus station in Uman on Monday morning we watched a woman with a cardboard box sell hundreds (not an exaggeration) of these pockets to people. It almost seemed like a part of everyone's routine to buy one of these from this woman. We got up the courage to go get one and try it. It was a bread pocket that was stuffed with cooked cabbage and then deep fried. Right out of the Minnesota State Fair with a Ukrainian twist. Scott has his cholesterol medicine, but we would not make a habit out of this. It was absolutely wonderful!

Transportation: We continue to learn to be proficient at public transport. It is very convenient with lots of buses and trains. The cost to ride the bus or train is 10 cents a ride. Everyone here rides public transport so whatever they loose on having low prices, they must make up in volume. You have to be able to decode the language, because all signs are in cerulean, but you commit the writing to memory and it starts to become easy to follow the signs. Even when we traveled to Uman on a bus and had to figure out how to get home, we were able to simply hop on a bus with "Kyiv" in the window and we ended up at the central bus station in three hours. There is also a wide variety of buses that include everything from a modern "hinged" bus on the heavily traveled lines, to electric trams, to "normal" looking buses, to small vans for very local or low volume routs. We have only taken one taxi during our visit but will not do it again. At 27 Hrvna it was too "expensive" by Ukrainian standards. Our coordinator seems to be getting a kick out of seeing us figuring all of this out, but still worries about us all the time and makes us call her when we are back from our excursions.

Our next blog will be the update from our appointment! We will post that tonight (Kyiv time).

Perseverance!

The title of this blog entry is compliments of Sarah and Mike. They used this word in their messages to us after the last posting. We like this word, because it describes where we are at this moment in time in our process and is action oriented and empowering. We want to thank those who continue to follow this blog and provide their support. We added a data tracker and are able to see that we are getting views from 10 states and two different countries - US and Canada. Interesting and exciting metrics to read and track!

We are sorry that we have not posted in a while. We decided to bug out of Kyiv for a more rural setting this past weekend. And are glad we did. Took a three hour bone crushing bus ride to Uman to stay in the hotel there over night and visit Sophia Park. Getting there and back was an adventure in itself, and we definitely got another viewpoint on Ukraine. New photos are posted on the photo log link to the right. We will save this story for later because we have some good news we want to share.

This morning our coordinator called and told us she was called to the adoption center for a meeting. We just received a message from her, and it appears that we have a second appointment tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2:00! We have few details, but hope that this means that the perseverance has paid off! This is really the first good news we have had since implementing our revised strategy/approach. If all goes well and there is a child for us, we could be on the way to the region to visit the child by the end of the week! Yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not for the Faint of Heart

This international adoption thing is not for the faint of heart. Tonight we heard that there are people here working hard for us and that by next Wednesday or Thursday, we should know more. We discussed heading home to come back at a later time, but were asked to "hang in there". This is the hardest part of the process and going home to return at a later time would jeopardize our chances. Therefore we will stick it out and drive through our worst case timing scenario. The worst case scenario means getting through the court date in mid April, Lara going home to conserve leave time before Scott, and Scott staying in the Ukraine to finalize the process. Our hopes and dreams lay in the hands of others and to fate in the next week. We are unable to sleep, unable to fathom the consequences of this decision other than to hope that the best in human nature holds victorious and people do what is truly best for these children. God help us.

Friday Morning Update - Hopefully a Big Day

It has almost been another week. Our team here is working towards an appointment that would have children that meet our requirements. If you are thinking that this is a very strange process, you are right. We had hoped to hear some new news last night (Thursday). Our agency says everything is working so to be PATIENT (there's that word again). Our next appointment has to go well or we're probably coming home until a time when we will have a better chance of adopting a healthy child. We are trying not to think of that possibility right now, but are working at keeping our wits about us so we make a good, unemotional decision if that time comes. We'll re-post on Friday night whether we get any news or not.

Thank you everyone for the comments on the blog. We have heard from some new bloggers and some old friends. Appreciate the offers for care packages of books, DVD's, etc.! We are OK in that regard now having found a source for English language papers (Hyatt.. Good to be a gold member) and the bookstore we mentioned in a prior blog. We have also been downloading movies off of the iTunes store and have been watching a movie almost every night. The 17" laptop and the new portable speakers we purchased in Amsterdam is a very good system for watching movies in bed. The iPod with those speakers gives us non-stop music, and we have been playing the photos from home on our TV through the iPod. We have a good mobile entertainment system.

Hopefully the new photo log link on the blog is working for everyone. It is easier and faster to upload the images and provide a description. We will reserve future photo entries next to this blog text for when we have adoption related information. We are updating it daily with photos, so go to the end if you have already visited the photo log to see the new stuff. We also added a link for some maps of Ukraine.

We'll update you tonight. Until then, have a great Friday!

A New Link to View Photos!

This is a symptom of not enough to do and time on my hands. I need a project so figured out a way to post more photos more efficiently. If you look just above the lovely photo to the right of Lara and I you will see a link to our new photo album. In the album are photos and descriptions of the sights that we have seen. You can run slide shows or look at them individually. Have fun with them and let us know if you have any trouble with it and if you like this format.

Our Really Long Weekend

Saturday:

On Saturday we decided to go to the Great Patriotic War Museum. We went down to get a shot of energy at the Double Coffee down the street and took the train to the Dnipro river stop and walk to the museum from there. On the way to the train station there was a folk dance/song performance going on outside of city hall. You can view a video clip of it below. Once we got to the stop we realized we had made a mistake. Looking up the high bluff over looking the river, we would have a long climb ahead of us in the opposite direction from where the museum was located. Oh well....




We walked up the road for about a mile and where it turned to head back in the direction toward the museum, we could see the Kyiv-Pechesk Lavra which is a fortified monastery with beautiful gold domes. Additionally, this is where the famous catacombs are located. We called the audible and decided to bag the museum in favor of climbing up to see this landmark instead. Besides, it was a shorter walk and we had wanted to see it anyway. We were at the central complex of the Kyiv-Pechesk Lavra earlier in the week (cathedral entry to come in a later blog entry), but were unable to find this part of the complex. Lucky break.


When we got up to the complex, we were pleased to find out that we had actually stumbled upon the catacombs directly. We entered the church where we purchased some candles and began climbing the long steps underground. The passages were lit by candlelight only. There were very narrow passageways that were lined with tombs of clergy, saints and monks. Most tombs had a glass case that you could view the mummified remains. These remains were covered in colorful burial garments. In each enclave was a painting of the person at the head and a plaque with the name and date of death. These were extremely old. Lara had covered her head with her scarf, which is proper form in orthodox churches. When she went in, a priest stopped her gave her a lesson in furthering her modesty by buttoning all of the buttons on her coat and a lesson in the proper way to pay her respects to the deceased. Scott did not get a lesson, not sure the reason for this. At each tomb we are supposed to make the "signum crucis" (sign of the cross), lean over and kiss the casket. We also got a lesson on making the signum crucis correctly in the eastern orthodox manner, with the fingers of the right hand pinched together starting from the forehead then to below the chest and then right to left. It is the right to left distinction that is the difference (not sure about the fingers pinched together). After a few coffins we observed others simply touching the coffins instead of kissing them. We felt better about this technique and followed suit. There were other people in the catacombs as well and it was very crowded. We were continuously worried about catching our cloths or others on fire with all the candles lit in these very tight spaces. Wish we had a photo to show, but no cameras were allowed. It was a very moving experience. These catacombs are something everyone should experience if they are in Kyiv.

After the catacombs we walked to a different Metro station that did not require us to walk for miles. There we found a really nice underground mall. Lara bought her bling encrusted hair clip we had been searching for and we also found an English language book store. We purchased two paperback books: "The Other Side of Midnight" (Sidney Sheldon), and "The Testament" (John Grisham). Nothing remarkable about this other than you would have thought we were purchasing a leather bound special collector's additions... pricey. Earlier in the day we had dropped by the Hyatt hotel and they felt sorry for us and gave us some English language newspapers, a Time magazine and a couple of rags on doing business in the Ukraine. We are reading all of this stuff with a great enthusiasm. I keep telling Lara to pace herself, but she blazed through the Sidney Sheldon book in a day. Now she's on the second and half way through. This blog is keeping me occupied.


We grabbed a bite to eat at a food court. Not much different than a food court in the U.S. at a mall except that you can buy beer. We then took the train back to our home station and rested a while.

Saturday night was a big night. We went to see the Ukrainian National Ballet Company perform at the National Opera House. It is a wonderful way to spend an evening. The Opera House is breathtaking and classic old world design. The most comfortable seats I have ever sat in for two hours and fifteen minutes. We saw them perform "The Vienna Dance". We are not experts in ballet, but we recognized the music, so we think that this is a classic. If any of you have any knowledge, please post. This being our first ballet, we also do not have anything to compare it too. We were told this company is one of the best in the world, and given how wonderful it was, we tend to believe it. We understood the story line of the ballet. These dancers did not only dance, but acted the story out. We had no ability to read the playbill, so had to rely on our interpretation. Lara is ready for me to put on some tights and dance around the room! We'll keep that to a private dance...... you're welcome.


Sunday:

We began Sunday lazily and spent our morning reading. Decided to go to the grocery store, but were tired of the lack of variety the minimarts offer in the downtown area. We had to meet with our translator/coordinator in order to transfer some documents that needed translation for the upcoming week. She wanted to come to us, but we decided it would be more fun to navigate the train system and take them to her in the suburbs. We asked her for the location of a train stop that had a supermarket, and she said she would investigate it. Lara and I were talking about our lack of normal things to do the other night. Our lives back home are kept busy with the kids, errands, chores and work. Here we have none of our normal day to day work that keeps us occupied and engaged on a daily basis. Like we said before, this is not a vacation so this is frustrating.

We walked to the Metro station a few blocks away. We were interested to see the suburbs and how they compared to the city. To meet our coordinator on her turf, we had to head east over the Dnipro river. We were going to the last station on the line where our coordinator would meet us. This stop is near her home. She thinks we are a little insane for wanting to leave the city and venture out in this way, but she is getting used to the fact that we are somewhat adventuresome. She is accepting this more and is always worried about where we are and where we are going. After about a 20 minute train ride, we came to the final station, got off and met our coordinator to give her the papers. We also discussed our strategy for the week ahead.

A new strategy: We had mentioned that we were seeking a new strategy to get the process moving along. Our agency is pulling in additional resources here in the Ukraine and is handling all of the details. This is welcome news after the changes in the Adoption Center last week. We can not go into details, but it sounds much better to us than the "wait and be patient" strategy we had on Thursday. We are being told we may have another appointment towards the end of the week.

After some discussion with our coordinator, she gave us very detailed directions on how to get to the supermarket near the train station. To get there we had to head back to the city (west) and transfer to another line which would take us north several stops to the supermarket. Sounded easy enough (keep in mind no English or Latin letters anywhere). She insisted we call her when we got back to our apartment.

The Suburbs: From what we could see, the 'burbs here are more what you would expect in an eastern European country. Lots of high rise apartments and few houses. The apartment buildings were mostly old with the occasional new building intermixed. They tended to be old concrete and brick structures that were built here after WWII. Very little personality. We also saw a lot more poverty there with people living in makeshift shelters. These included streets that looked very similar to what you would see in a Mexican boarder town such as Juarez across from El Paso. There were areas that looked like metal storage structures, and there were people clearly living in them with cars parked out front and garbage piles out back. Garbage collection is not well coordinated ,and it is in piles in the woods and frequently overflowing recepticals . Very different from the city proper of Kyiv.


Getting back to the city, we transferred to the north line and arrived at our grocery shopping destination. As described, the store was right outside the train station. A big, wonderful store with lots of variety. Like the department store we described in the prior blog, more variety than we have in a US store. The only area lacking was the vegetable section, but we get the impression vegies are purchased more in open air markets. We purchased fish, pasta, some vegies, bread, sausage, stuff for breakfast, etc. This should last us the rest of the week for a little less than $50. We then put it in our bags and hauled it all back home on the train. We were packed in like sardines on the train. Apparently, Monday being a holiday, everyone was headed downtown.

We arrived home. Just as we walked into the door, our coordinator called us! Just wanted to make sure we made it home. We made a pasta dinner. Yum.



Monday:
Monday was a national holiday, foggy, rainy and cold. A good day for a walk, some reading, and a few sights.

Before leaving we spoke with our coordinator. She had met with our new resources and new wheels are in motion. Good to hear the new approach is starting to be executed. Our child awaits. More on this Tuesday.

We walked to the park across the street and fed the pigeons. Then to the river overlook. Then down to valley over to the Unification Monument. The Unification Monument was erected by the Russians to commemorate the unification of Russia and the Ukraine. I will apologise for the adjectives up front for this monument, but it is an UGLY, EYE SORE (the tour books are not kind to this monument either). It is a metal arch with strips of colored neon sitting prominently on top of a high hill. It can be seen from every direction day or night. This is very unfortunate. If that is not enough, they see fit to cram a couple of carnival rides along side (The Matrix Ride and Bumper Cars!). One of these days, I am sure the Ukraine will remove this monument and put up something better in its place (or nothing, which would be fine). There are two impressive statues under the arch. One that the Russians put there and one that the Ukrainians put there off to the side after de-unification. The Ukrainian sculpture seems to be put there as a patch to offset the Russian sculpture which is centered under the arch. This monument is a bit of an anomaly. Everything else we have seen has been tasteful and very well done and thought out.

After walking around for a while longer, we headed to a cafe, had a latte, lunch and went home. Watched a movie on the computer and am now finishing this blog, which took me three days to complete. Monday was a nice, do nothing day.