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.