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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!

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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.

We Made It!

After 36 hours of being awake and traveling, we are safe and sound in our apartment in Kyiv! We ate our last American meal in the Minneapolis Airport at Axle's (same owner as the one in Loretto near our house). Not sure why, but we ate Walleye. I guess that is something we will not be able to get in the Ukraine. After a perfect flight over the Atlantic, we had a 6 hour lay over in Amsterdam that became an 8 hour lay over when high winds in Amsterdam slowed air traffic to a crawl. Lara and I passed the time shopping, eating, reading and people watching. Lara purchased a new pair of Euro sun glasses and I found a small set of speakers for the iPod. After the delay we took off and arrived in Kyiv around 6:30 pm. After a one hour wait to clear customs and another half hour to go through declaration, and we were met by our coordinator and driver. We drove to a grocery store to purchase staples, a phone card for the cell phone, and exchanged some money, we drove the rest of the way over the river (Dnipro) and into the heart of Kyiv. We pulled up to our apartment and, as advertised, it was right off of Independence Square and a short walk to the adoption center. Very reasonably priced for the location and very clean and tidy. After unloading the groceries we were met by a fireworks display right outside our window. You can click on the "play" arrow below the fireworks image and a movie of the fireworks should play.

Tonight we are exhausted and I will not go into all the sensory detail. Now it is time to sleep. In the morning we will meet with our coordinator and go over the game plan and perhaps see some of the city. We are anxious to get going, but we'll have to wait.

Our hearts are warmed by the tremendous support from everyone. Thank you for all of the well wishes. Please keep them coming! They are very motivational and have kept us going throughout!

r

T - One Second and Counting

One day before we leave! Today is our last day of work and finalizing everything we need to take with us. Never thought it would be this hard to walk away from our lives for a couple of months. We take for granted all the little details and nuances in our day to day lives. Simple stuff we feel we should communicate to our parents so their stay in our home will be easier. We created a reference sheet of everything we could think of to provide. We keep thinking up more every day. I thought of a few more items that we did not put on the reference sheet on my drive into work this morning. Small things; they should know the location of the dog towels and know to put them in the shower downstairs to wash the mud off of their feet when they come in.... and that the recycle bag for the newspapers that come daily is in the front closet.... and that there will be a Wall Street Journal delivered every morning and the Star Trib on Saturdays and Sundays so my Dad does not drive to the store every day to buy them. Really seems ridiculous to worry at this point and I need to let it go. These just won't make it on the reference list at this point. They will figure it out after mopping one too many times and the papers are falling out of the box up at the street. Just might take a couple of days.

Lara and I are working on taxes. We realized that this is due while we are gone. We hope to be back by April 16th, but who knows. Should be done with this painful task tonight when we get electronic confirmation that our taxes were personally accepted by George Walker Bush. I could not bare to write the check last night and asked Lara to do it. We cant make money fast enough right now (or should I say spend it fast enough?) to keep up with the cash demand. Enough rant.

Jane is flying in tonight. House sitter number one. Just in time to be met by a snow storm that is coming in today. Texans love snowstorms.... Looking forward to having her up. Lara is picking her up at the airport and they should be at the house by 7:00. A quick visit and then we need to start packing.

Everything that needs to be packed is staged at this point. It will be interesting to see if we have enough luggage to carry everything. I think that we'll pack for about 5 days worth of cloths. Once we get there, we'll hit the stores and buy some Ukrainian fashion so we don't stand out. They say to wear dark cloths. We'll leave the sneakers home. I can see a vision of Lara wearing something dead, like the character Lara in "Dr. Zhivago". She would be smok'n in that fur number. If you did not know, "Dr. Zhivago" is where she got her name.

We have an apartment now in Kyiv. Just receive confirmation from the agency. $70 per night, right by the main city center, and 10 minutes from the Adoption Center. Sounds centrally located. We have no idea what it looks like. It does have Internet access so for the time we are in Kyiv, we'll have a line to the outside world.

It will be strange to be gone and miss the rhythms of life on the lake. The ice houses are coming off now and then there will be ice out, open water, the waterfowl migration and the return of the white pelicans and loons (not referring to Clarke). We will be back just in time to push the dock in and get our boat out of storage. Then fishing opener, warmer weather, and a new family member will usher in the event of summer. Can't wait.

Up, Up and Away! The next post will be from the Ukraine.

Meeting with the Agency

Lara and I met with the adoption agency on Friday. More changes in the Ukraine apparently! It turns out that the new administration of the Ukrainian Central Adoption Authority (CAA) is on the way out and a newer administration is taking over. Actually the "newer" administration is actually the "older" administration personnel that were in place prior to the current administration. The current administration is less than two years old. If this is all confusing to you, that's OK because it is to us as well. "Everything old is new again" as the saying goes. Not much rhyme or reason to it communicated. The timing of the change could not be better or worse depending on which side of that coin we land. The current administration is done the day we board the airplane on Friday, February 29th and the "new" administration starts the day of our first appointment on Monday, March 3rd.

We are counting on the "worker bees" at the CAA, to still be working on March 3rd and hoping they have done their homework and are as prepared as we are. Other options exist for us, but with this new turn in the road, we are going to keep plowing ahead vs. postponing. Too many wheels are in motion at this point and too much disappointment if we don’t go. I think this is where many people fall back on faith, so I'll do the same. Something has to go right at some point. Sort of the “double down” strategy of adoption. Keep going until you have no more go. Never quit. Eventually either the odds or a higher spirit will intervene and make things right. Faith.

On a less stressful note, I am happy to report that the child-to-be's room now has furniture and is looking less sparse. There is a dresser, mirror and night stand. It is looking more like an inhabited space every day. Now we just need the inhabitant!