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.

Viewing Comments and Older Blogs

We have heard that people have had trouble viewing comments and finding the older blog posts.

Comments: At the bottom of each blog entry there is a link for "Comments". Click on this link and you should be able to view everyone's comments associated with THAT PARTICULAR blog entry. If you want to see comments from other blog entries you have to go to the particular blog entry and repeat the process. Hope that helps. Thanks!

Older Blog Entries: If you scroll down to the bottom of all the blogs on the blog role, you will see a link for "Older Posts". Click on this and it will take you to the next page of prior posts. There are 7 posts per page.

The End of Week One

We have completed our first week in the Ukraine. Felt like a month. Lots of waiting around interspersed with sight seeing and the search for sustenance. To update on the adoption progress (or lack there of), the concerns we voiced in prior blogs has come true. There was a change in the administration of the Adoption Center this week and the center is in a state of flux. We have been working toward gaining some new contacts and trying to find new files. Our coordinator is as a bit of a loss as to what to do and our agency is working on the situation back home. This weekend is a holiday weekend, and Monday is a National Holiday (International Women's Day) so nothing will happen until Tuesday when the government opens back up. As described in our first blog this is why they describe it as a "journey" and "patience" is required.

We have ran out of reading material. Thank goodness for internet access. Writing for this blog has consumed a great deal of idle time at night. Our news comes from CNN.com and reading Ukrainian News published in English. There are no English newspapers, magazines or books in any of the bookstores or news stands. We will venture to the Hyatt to see if there is something there that we can pick up today.

Yesterday, Lara and I started our day with a meeting with our coordinator and discussed next steps. We then took a walk to get coffee and then decided to walk up the hill to the park. We stopped at a grocery store, bought some bread, cheese, wine and salami that then walked over to the park to eat lunch with the pigeons. After eating, we walked by the government building, the old summer residence of the Tsar, Dynamo Stadium (Dynamo is their soccer team), and lastly visited the National Museum of Art. We really enjoyed the paintings and learned a lot. We have not had exposure to eastern European art, so there was a lot that we have never seen. We were impressed. They had a very large and expansive collection of paintings ranging from medieval religious art to the modern day. As usual, our favorite section was the impressionist art on display from the late 19th century and early 20th century. We went to do some shopping. Lara and I have decided that the plastic "chip clip" she uses for her hair was not up to daily standard in the Ukraine, so we went in search for some bling. We did not buy anything, but hunt will continue. Ate a good pizza, came home, communicated via email back with our agency in Minneapolis on strategy, then went to bed.

All of this seems a bit surreal. We feel like "Tourists with a Cause". We are here to find a child, but the process is slow. We could sit in the apartment and wait, but that just seems like a waste of time. We should learn as much as we can about the country and culture so we can transfer this knowledge to our child. There is some guilt associated with the fact that we are sight seeing, while everyone is back home helping us with this mission. Your emails and comments are a great inspiration!

It sounds as if Jane survived her time in Minnesota. We had read that the temperature there was below zero again. But we had also read that there was snow in Dallas around the time she went back to Texas. She must have liked Minnesota so much she took it with her. Texan's must love her for that! Clarke is now at the house and suffering the ice bowl. Maxine and Norman arrive on Sunday. Thanks goes out to Andy, Missy, Gregg and Sandy for helping and keeping watch, Lucas and Emma for keeping the snow shoveled and the dogs walked. Love you all.

Happy Women's Day to you women out there reading this blog. I think that this is a great reason for you to tell your husbands or male friends to serve you breakfast in bed or bring you flowers.

Still Waiting...What is Kyiv like?

THANK YOU everyone who left comments on our last entry. We really look forward to receiving them and check for comments all the time.

We continue to wait for word from the adoption center this afternoon (Thursday). We have heard nothing yet from our coordinator, but she is supposed to be back in contact with us in the next hour or so. Lara and I continue to keep our fingers crossed. In the meantime, we wanted to update the blog as to how we are doing, and what the Ukraine is like.

First, we continue to suffer from jet lag. Not certain as to the reason it is taking us so long to feel reasonably coherent during the day. We have been getting to bed the last two nights around 11:00, but when we wake up we feel lousy. This morning we got up around 7:30, ate, and then promptly laid back down and did not wake again until 10:30. We have to somehow force ourselves to plow through a morning of no sleep so we get on track before we have to leave Kyiv for the region when that happens. We will probably stay with a host family, and they will think we are lazy Americans. We have to do a better job in order to represent our country well. We do not get the impression that Ukrainians have had much, if any, exposure to Americans. This will be even more pronounced once we leave the capital.

So how is the Ukraine and what is it like? I have to be a bit differential as to our opinion at this point. While we can describe the big city of Kyiv, we really think that Kyiv will turn out to be much different than the rest of the country, so take this blog entry as a description of our experiences here in Kyiv.

First impression: We got off the airplane and the first sensory descriptor was "smokey". Cigarette smoking is extremely common and even though the airport has "no smoking" signs and symbols everywhere, people simply ignored them. This has become less common over the years throughout Europe, but here it is common to ignore such signs and enforcement is non-existent. Our next impression was formed while in the customs and declarations area of the airport. We entered the customs hall and there was a large crowd of people that were waiting to clear customs. While we were in the hall, there were no fewer than 5 flights that had arrived so it was extremely crowded. At the end of the hall there were three customs agents clearing through all of these people. Very chaotic! The "line" all merged in the three places where the agents were located. People were crammed in like sardines and we pushed toward the agents. The best I could tell each person was taking about 2 minutes to clear through customs. It took about an hour as I mentioned in my previous blog. Chaos reigns supreme! Probably the savior of this first experience was that after getting our bags and going through the declaration line, the agent in that part of the process sincerely wished us good luck after seeing that we were there to adopt. It was touching.

Since this first impression, we have found Kyiv to be a very interesting city and its people friendly and gracious. Language is a larger barrier than we had expected in a European capital. We have only ran into a two people who speak English. One was in a department store last night and the other was a young girl from California working for the Peace Corp. That's it. Lara and I now take the translation book everywhere and are trying to pick up a few key phrases and words. We like this sort of thing so it is fun for us (although frustrating for the Ukrainians we're certain). The writing is in Cerulean Script so it is a bit like going to Japan or China. The biggest difference being that you can find a great deal of English writing and English speakers in Asia. The Ukrainians have been more isolated behind the curtain and under the rule of Russia until recently, so they really have had minimal direct exposure to the western world (other than material goods).

Kyiv is a growing metropolis. The Russians left them with poor infrastructure and very little in the way of Ukrainian culture. The skyline and streets are filled with construction equipment and workers, but there is a lot that still needs to be done here. Under 70 years of Russian rule, the Russians sought to remove any semblance of Ukrainian culture and religion. We have visited several sights, mostly Orthodox churches. We thought we would be seeing ancient buildings and relics. What we have found is that most of these were destroyed by the Russians. The ruins left in place for the Ukrainians to see for posterity as a reminder that they and their cultural and religious beliefs were unimportant and fleeting in comparison to the power of Moscow. The churches we have visited have all been rebuilt since Ukrainian Independence so they are all new but based on the original buildings. Much of their initial efforts have been focused on restoring pride in their Ukrainian heritage and establishing an independent government. It is very apparent that life here centers around the churches and their importance can not be overemphasised. More on the beautiful churches we have seen and some photos later.

Some additional points and impressions:

Architecture: I would characterize it as a mix of stark old communist, mixed with old style (rebuilt) Classic Ukrainian and then more modern buildings. You can walk from one block to the next, if not building to building, and see all of these within eye's view. One building will be new and up-to-date and the next one look like it will fall into the street. The building we are staying looks average from outside, but when you walk into the front door into the stairwell, the interior looks old (and a bit scary at first). Then all of the apartment doors are covered in padded leather (nice) and the apartments are clean, new and gleaming inside. The contrast from step to step in every direction is amazing.

Food: If you are looking to go low fat, diet food and loose weight, the Ukraine is not for you. The food is hearty and rich. It is like the comfort food we crave on a cold winter night. Borscht is huge... really. They eat it as a part of every meal. If you don't know what this is, it is essentially beet soup with meat or vegetables. It is very tasty. Heavy breads, meats, and potatoes make up the rest of the menu. We have yet to find a nice plate of steamed/stir fried vegetables. Vegetables are contained in dishes that come strait out of a recipiet book of Minnesota Hot Dish. All that is missing is the crumpled potato chip topping (but they will add this once they learn that it exists). Generally, food is very inexpensive. Our average grocery bill or dinner bill has been less than $10 and for some reason eating in a restaurant seems to be a bit less expensive than trying to track down a grocery store and making it yourself. We have really enjoyed the food so far and luckily we have walked so much that we have probably burned off the calories.

Restaurants: The restaurants we have been too have been packed with people and very good. There are many restaurants to choose from and the most popular seem to be cafeteria style, theme restaurants. Last night we went to a Middle Eastern Theme Cafeteria. We were hoping to see Middle Eastern dishes, but it was Ukrainian food. The interior was decked out in desert tent decor with middle eastern mosaics on the walls. Stylish and utilitarian, the food in these is very good and very reasonably priced. We have also been to sit down restaurants that were equally good, with a bit higher price. Dinner for two in any of these restaurants have been less than $10 including wine. The cafeteria style is good for us because we can see the food and simply point to what we want. With a few key words, it is easier than trying to read a menu in Cerulean Script and after a long day of walking around, and has seemed to be an easy choice. One disappointment that continues to disappoint everywhere Scott goes in the world is the McDonald'fication of culture. McDonald's is everywhere here and extremely popular. People wait 5 deep at the counters to order the exact same food we order at McDonald's back home. Burgers, fries, chicken McNuggets, sodas, etc. What is missing is the "healthy" choices we have in the U.S. You can even get "Supersized" if you want too and it seems many go for this choice. Lara went out to exchange some money one day and she came back with an extra large fry. Hard to resist a change of pace from Chicken Kyiv (yes, this is a real dish here) from time to time.

Ukrainian Style: Men dress basically. Blacks, greys, neutral tones. There is little story with men's fashion. Women on the other hand are dressed to kill, all the time. It does not matter if it is a teenage girl or a 50 year old woman. High heeled boots (minimum 4") with all the bling bling that rise above the knees. The higher the better, the more bling the better and if they go all the way up to mid-thigh the better. With the streets and sidewalks in a poor condition or made of brick or cobblestone, we are amazed at the Ukrainian woman's sense of balance and the lack of broken ankles. Add to these boots decorated tight pants or mini-skirts, belts, jewelry, etc. Lastly, and most importantly, the coat. We have never seen more fur coats in our lives. Mink with fox trim, mink with mink, fox with mink, beaver with whatever, etc, etc.... It would be tough to be an animal in the Ukraine. There are very few dogs or cats, so it makes us wonder! While the men are basic (and austere), the women are beautiful (Lara has approved my writing this and agrees). This is the land of the supermodel wana-be's (SMWB). Where the average Joe has a better than average chance of hooking up with girl that looks like she came off the pages of a magazine. These SMWB's spare no cost to look this way as already pointed out. I hope these men have really good jobs! They will need them!

Shopping: Any concern we had had for finding what we need in the Ukraine before we left is now gone. If you want it, you can get it. Shops, stores, whatever are everywhere. They tuck in a shop in every available space. The variety of goods is astonishing. For example, we went to a local department store down the street and were surprised at the amount of choices within each department. With all the jewelry, china, chandeliers, kids clothing, women's suits, men's wallets, kitchen gadgets, fur coats... we strongly suspect the # of SKU's in this department store may be significantly greater than the average US department store. Separately, we are also surprised at the number of very high-end stores, too. I think there are more fur coats, expensive cars (you name it, we have seen it here - including a Bentley), Louis Vuitton, D&G and Prada per capita than Mpls/STP and some large cities in Texas. What is hard to find? A decent grocery store (in the city proper), and office supplies (Office Depot is needed).

Money: The Hrivna (Greevnya) is the unit denomination of Ukraine. The exchange is approximately 5 Hrivna to the Dollar. The Hrivna is pegged to the dollar so it remains constant. Looking at a graph of the currency fluctuations, it is totally flat to the dollar while they let it fluctuate to the Euro, Ruble, and other currencies. All transactions here are done in either dollars or hrivna. We are told that all major transactions for cars, houses, appliances, etc are done in dollars, while everything else is done in hrivna. An observation about money here is that they decorate it with some rather scary looking men from the last epoch. No warm and fuzzy fatherly looking guys like Ben Franklin or George Washington here. More like Vladimire the Great and Igor the Really Great. I don't think that these men were truly in touch with their softer sides like our founding fathers depicted on our currency.

Coffee: Really good espresso. Like mud. Kophi Americano, OK. Tastes like espresso with some more water in it. Best Kophi Americano... you guessed it... it is at McDonald's.

I'll get to the sights in our next blog. Time for bed.

Our First Appointment at the Adoption Center

Hi all. We had our first appointment at the Adoption Center yesterday. We met our coordinator and walked to the center from our apartment. It was only a 7 minute walk. There are many conflicting reports about this part of the process so we did not know what to expect and we were very nervous as you would imagine.

Walking up to the government building, one would think that you would walk into the large front door and then make your way to the Adoption Center. As it turns out, potential adopters go to the small side door of the basement of the building. There is a nice brass sign outside of the door that says it is the Adoption Center. Inside is a very small waiting area that consisted of a couch, a short hallway and a flight of stairs. People were sitting in the waiting area as well as standing in the hallway and on the stairs. Minimalism at its best (perhaps Minnesota's government could take a lesson from these people).

Our appointment was at 3:00 and we got there about 30 minutes ahead of time. A little after 3:00 a woman came to the head of the stairs and called down for our "case" to come up. We went into an office and sat down on a couch in the corner. A woman who is a psychologist with the adoption center sat down in front of us across the coffee table and began talking through our interpreter/coordinator. Other people were in the office and others were coming in and out throughout the discussion. No privacy during this discussion. If one began to cry for joy or sadness while reviewing the children available, it would be there for all to witness!

In any event, she began describing the children available that were in the files she had in hand. Keep in mind that we are looking for a child under the age of 4 years old and healthy. This is a difficult age group to find and there are more boys available than girls (girls are "more adoptable"). We had read a great deal about these appointments and we were not expecting much success with our first appointment. Per our expectation, we were not presented with any children that met our minimum criteria. There were 5 children presented. All older than 4 years old with 4 of them significantly older than 4 years old. All 5 had significant confirmed health problems. We understand that the Adoption Center has a responsibility to these children to try and find homes for them and that these would be the first children presented. The entire meeting lasted less than 30 minutes and they had no more children available.

We will be waiting now for another appointment. Our coordinator is terrific and we feel is working hard for us. We don't know how long it will be before we are invited back. We remain hopeful that this will happen quickly, but there are no guarantees (as everyone keeps reminding us). There is a child out there for us. It is a matter of time in order to find him or her.

Over the next few days, we'll keep updating this blog as we learn more. In the meantime as we wait we will be visiting some sites in Kyiv and learning about the culture in the Ukraine.