Hi,
We are back and in one piece (explain later)!! Yalta is a beautiful area/city and we along with Olga enjoyed ourselves. More on the trip a bit later.
Today is Saturday and we went back to the O to see the boys for the first time since Monday afternoon. We didn't know what type of reception we would receive but to say the boys were giddy to see us would be an understatement!! They were in a "playpen" with all of their classmates and when they caught sight of us they both started jumping up and down and calling out "Momma & Pappa". It was cute and encouraging for sure. We wish we had the video camera to catch their excitement but it will just have to remain fresh in our memories.
After the morning visit we stopped by the toy store and picked up the strollers we have been eyeing for the past four weeks. These will help us to get around the airports and Kiev as well. We are going to be running around like mad on Monday and Tuesday anyway in hopes of still getting everything done so we can leave this week. We are skeptical but hopeful. We also have gotten the boys a couple of outfits to wear home. We still need shoes and another shirt or two but we are pretty close to being ready - at least we think!!!! :-)
As for Monday here is what needs to "break" just right for us. Monday at 8:30 we go to court to pick up the decree - this is about the only easy thing for Monday. We should have it in hand and be out the door in minutes. After this we head to the registrars office to get their birth certificates re-written essentially to show us as the parents. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. Olga has been in contact with the woman at that office and as usual she has been greasing the wheels beforehand. This part of the process should go off without a hitch the question is how long will it take. The next step is heading to a notary office to get the petition for the passport notarized. We tried to get this done today but were unsuccessful. This is the wildcard - flashback to our first week here and how we described our first "notary" experience - not pretty. Once this is done we are off to the passport office; they are expecting us due to Olga's prep work once again. If we are able to get this done quickly (which we have been told is possible) we are off to Dnipropetrovsk (40 minute drive) to get the birth certificates certified - confused yet??
So...best case scenario. All of this gets done by 5PM after which we run back to pack our gear, pick up the boys from the Orphanage (sure to be an emotional time for you know who!!) and jump a night train to Kiev. We are exhausted just thinking about this but we are prepared to do what needs to be done so we can head home. Tuesday morning would be spent at the US Embassy and getting physicals for the boys - required by the USA. IF all of this was to get completed we should have the boy's visas Wednesday morning and we could theoretically make our original flight on the 27th. As you can see a lot of "if's" and a lot of things that need to go perfectly. We are still preparing ourselves to fly out Monday July 2nd. Stay tuned.
Ok back to our excursion to Yalta. Andrea and I are not really world travelers so keep this in mind as we pass along a few thoughts on travelling within Ukraine.
The first thought that comes to mind is how insanely dangerous their roads and drivers are. When I think back to my teen years I can remember some of the dangerous and utterly stupid things we did on the road. That is everyday travel here and then some. We drove some 300 miles (give or take) to Yalta and during this stretch of road we saw at least 30 to 40 memorials of where people died. It is probably safe to assume that is just a fraction of the actual number people that have perished - unbelievable. Our driver gave us fits a couple times - we had a couple near head on collisions with semis and he was constantly taking corners at 80+. Mind you these are two lane roads that are falling apart. I was amazed that the car held together on some of the bumps we hit. It was a BMW 5 series - probably anything less of a car and it wouldn't have held together. Anyway - you get the point. We would highly recommend taking trains and or planes rather than driving in this country.
Yalta is a beautiful hillside city on the edge of the Black Sea. The water was green much like you would see in the Caribbean. It is a growing city - several new hotels and high-rise apartment buildings are being constructed. I have never been to anyplace like it but if I were to compare it to a place that I have seen pictures of it would be the Greek Isles.
We took a boat tour and an aerial tram tour on separate days. The boat tour was nice as it took us along the coast line of the peninsula. The tram ride itself was great but the tour was a waste of time and money. The tram rose up from almost the sea shore to the top of the highest peak on Crimea (some 1400 meters). It was amazing how high above the ground the tram was on the ascent.
The beaches were very rocky - no sand whatsoever. The attire was interesting - shall we say very European. I think I was the only man not wearing a Speedo. The theme here is less is more - which is as we expected it would be.
Olga told us to expect poor service in Yalta and in fact they (the resorts and businesses themselves) publicly recognize that very fact. Everyone was right - the restaurant service was absolutely dreadful. We did have a very nice apartment. The owner was a very nice woman and she was very intent on ensuring our satisfaction. Generally speaking we have met some very wonderful people during our travels.
That is it for now - we will blog on Monday if we have a chance to let everyone know where ended up. Monday is the determining factor. We'll keep you all posted!!
C&A
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Heading out of town for a few days...
Hi Everyone,
Andrea and I are headed to the Crimean Peninsula with Olga for a few days of R&R before the last big push comes prior to flying out. We are going to a town called Yalta which is the most southern point of Ukraine.
Andrea and the boys have both been sick over the past week or so. The boys never really got over their colds from two weeks ago and therefore they became manifested in their chest. Lucas especially was hit hard. On Saturday he could barely stand - during both the morning and afternoon visit he fell asleep in our arms and would not eat anything. He was in bad shape. We called Olga and asked her to call the O's doctor to check up on him. The doctors do not seem to work on weekends but she called in a nurse to do the exam. We were summoned to go to the pharmacy twice where we picked up at least a half dozen medications.
Andrea has had a sore throat and stiff neck the past couple days and it was so bad this morning we made yet another trip to the pharmacy to pick up meds for her!!
Anyway...hopefully everyone is on the mend and we will all be in tip top shape for the flight home. Speaking of coming home - the Canadian's called us today and said that they breezed through the process of getting their court decree, birth certificate and passport for Anton. They will head to Kyiv tomorrow morning to wrap up their business at the Canadian embassy. If we were to run into the same stroke of luck next Monday we could possibly be able to fly out of here next Thursday at the earliest. That would be fantastic!!!! We'll see...
We will probably be gone through Friday - more than likely we will not be checking email or blogging until we get back in Dniprodzerzhinsk. So that is it for now - take care and we'll be seeing you all soon!!!
C&A
Andrea and I are headed to the Crimean Peninsula with Olga for a few days of R&R before the last big push comes prior to flying out. We are going to a town called Yalta which is the most southern point of Ukraine.
Andrea and the boys have both been sick over the past week or so. The boys never really got over their colds from two weeks ago and therefore they became manifested in their chest. Lucas especially was hit hard. On Saturday he could barely stand - during both the morning and afternoon visit he fell asleep in our arms and would not eat anything. He was in bad shape. We called Olga and asked her to call the O's doctor to check up on him. The doctors do not seem to work on weekends but she called in a nurse to do the exam. We were summoned to go to the pharmacy twice where we picked up at least a half dozen medications.
Andrea has had a sore throat and stiff neck the past couple days and it was so bad this morning we made yet another trip to the pharmacy to pick up meds for her!!
Anyway...hopefully everyone is on the mend and we will all be in tip top shape for the flight home. Speaking of coming home - the Canadian's called us today and said that they breezed through the process of getting their court decree, birth certificate and passport for Anton. They will head to Kyiv tomorrow morning to wrap up their business at the Canadian embassy. If we were to run into the same stroke of luck next Monday we could possibly be able to fly out of here next Thursday at the earliest. That would be fantastic!!!! We'll see...
We will probably be gone through Friday - more than likely we will not be checking email or blogging until we get back in Dniprodzerzhinsk. So that is it for now - take care and we'll be seeing you all soon!!!
C&A
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The news we have all been WAITING for!!
Hi Everyone,
It is a beautiful day in Dniprodzerzhinsk!! We are the proud parents of young Mr's Brady and Lucas Donahue!!
Olga arrived this morning on schedule at 6:20AM. She took the overnight train from Kiev and I got up to let her in the building upon arrival while Andrea stayed in bed!! We had a driver pick us up and head to the orphanage at 9:20 as we were asked to pick up the O's doctor who would testify at the proceeding. Aside from the doctor there was also two representatives from the two local inspector's offices. From the courts perspective there was the judge, the prosecutor (that is what they call her!), two resident jurors and the judge's assistant who would also take notes from the proceeding.
Court started when Olga was asked to stand in front of the judge and give her credentials. That lasted a couple minutes after which we were asked to stand. The initial questions were basic - state our name, address, place of employment, salary etc...Olga would then translate the information to the court. After each round of questions from the judge the prosecutor was asked if she had additional questions. The first round went by without any additional questions.
The judge then read our petition to adopt which was a summarization of our home study, the kids life to this point and some other items. It was also a legal contract between us and the country of Ukraine where we agree to inform them of the boy's well-being and what not. After the judge read this he asked us to stand again in order to "ask them questions to get to know them better" - as translated by Olga - the questions this go around were more personal and pointed about family, religious beliefs, health, anticipated care for the boys medical and developmental welfare. Going into this Andrea and I discussed who would do the talking and how we would respond to the anticipated questions. I took the lead but Andrea also spoke many times to clarify and more importantly to let the court know that we both were responsive to their questions. Interesting to us was the fact that the court kept asking us "are you sure you want two" meaning do you want two boys/kids to which we simultaneously replied "yes".
The next phase of the proceeding was to have the third party's testify. They would offer their recommendation to the court regarding our petition to adopt the boys. Each party offered a favorable opinion of us as parents. During this time the judge and jurors (who were standing at his side) spent a lot of time looking at the pictures that Olga took during our first week here. The doctor from the orphanage had some kind words for us in particular.
So - there you are!!! We are now in the ten day waiting period. We did find out that we can pick up our court decree one day earlier than expected however unless the registrar's office (that issues birth certificates) agrees to open for us on Monday June 25th we are not in any better position to be out of here sooner. Stay tuned for more on this - as of now we are still looking at July 4th to fly out.
Regardless - we are very happy to be where we are and to be through with court. It is just a matter of time at this point.
We are now off to buy the orphanage's doctor's office the fan and heater we agreed to purchase a couple weeks back. We are still trying to gather information on donations and how or if they can be sent directly to the orphanage. The question revolves around custom's duties and fees. We will get to the bottom of it as many of you have expressed an interest in sending items here.
That is it for now - thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers and kind words throughout this process. Without your help and support we wouldn't be in the position we are now!! The boys thank you too!!
C&A
PS: the boys are feeling better although they are still congested. Hopefully this will clear up over the next week or so.
It is a beautiful day in Dniprodzerzhinsk!! We are the proud parents of young Mr's Brady and Lucas Donahue!!
Olga arrived this morning on schedule at 6:20AM. She took the overnight train from Kiev and I got up to let her in the building upon arrival while Andrea stayed in bed!! We had a driver pick us up and head to the orphanage at 9:20 as we were asked to pick up the O's doctor who would testify at the proceeding. Aside from the doctor there was also two representatives from the two local inspector's offices. From the courts perspective there was the judge, the prosecutor (that is what they call her!), two resident jurors and the judge's assistant who would also take notes from the proceeding.
Court started when Olga was asked to stand in front of the judge and give her credentials. That lasted a couple minutes after which we were asked to stand. The initial questions were basic - state our name, address, place of employment, salary etc...Olga would then translate the information to the court. After each round of questions from the judge the prosecutor was asked if she had additional questions. The first round went by without any additional questions.
The judge then read our petition to adopt which was a summarization of our home study, the kids life to this point and some other items. It was also a legal contract between us and the country of Ukraine where we agree to inform them of the boy's well-being and what not. After the judge read this he asked us to stand again in order to "ask them questions to get to know them better" - as translated by Olga - the questions this go around were more personal and pointed about family, religious beliefs, health, anticipated care for the boys medical and developmental welfare. Going into this Andrea and I discussed who would do the talking and how we would respond to the anticipated questions. I took the lead but Andrea also spoke many times to clarify and more importantly to let the court know that we both were responsive to their questions. Interesting to us was the fact that the court kept asking us "are you sure you want two" meaning do you want two boys/kids to which we simultaneously replied "yes".
The next phase of the proceeding was to have the third party's testify. They would offer their recommendation to the court regarding our petition to adopt the boys. Each party offered a favorable opinion of us as parents. During this time the judge and jurors (who were standing at his side) spent a lot of time looking at the pictures that Olga took during our first week here. The doctor from the orphanage had some kind words for us in particular.
So - there you are!!! We are now in the ten day waiting period. We did find out that we can pick up our court decree one day earlier than expected however unless the registrar's office (that issues birth certificates) agrees to open for us on Monday June 25th we are not in any better position to be out of here sooner. Stay tuned for more on this - as of now we are still looking at July 4th to fly out.
Regardless - we are very happy to be where we are and to be through with court. It is just a matter of time at this point.
We are now off to buy the orphanage's doctor's office the fan and heater we agreed to purchase a couple weeks back. We are still trying to gather information on donations and how or if they can be sent directly to the orphanage. The question revolves around custom's duties and fees. We will get to the bottom of it as many of you have expressed an interest in sending items here.
That is it for now - thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers and kind words throughout this process. Without your help and support we wouldn't be in the position we are now!! The boys thank you too!!
C&A
PS: the boys are feeling better although they are still congested. Hopefully this will clear up over the next week or so.
Monday, June 11, 2007
2 days until court...
Hi Everyone,
It is Monday morning here in Ukraine. We hope everyone had a good weekend.
The boys have picked up a tough chest cold. Andrea and I were asked to go to the pharmacy and pick them up some medicine after yesterday morning's visit. They have been battling this for about a week now but as of Saturday it had set in them pretty well and they were clearly not themselves. We did not even go to see them last night or this morning in hopes that some rest and the meds would make them better. We'll go up tonight to see how they are - if they are still under the weather it will probably be a quick visit once again.
Andrea has also picked up a cold although not as severe as the boys have. It was pretty funny watching her try to explain cough drops to the pharmacist! Actually all of the locals get a "kick" out of us and our hand gestures/pointing and my Ukrainian accent as we try and get across what we want. The girl at the pizza house laughs at us - as do many others!! Oh well!!
As the subject line says - we are only 2 days from court!! We have spoken with Olga and she is returning which makes us feel a whole lot better than having someone else finish up with us. There was some question as to whether Olga would be in Crimea working with Cathy Harris on her 8th and final adoption. One plan was that Olga would work with Cathy and we would use another translator but instead Cathy will be using a local translator and we get Olga back - YAY!
Assuming all goes well in court (no reason to think it shouldn't) we may take a few days during the 10 day waiting/appeals period to travel down to the coast of the Black Sea (Crimean Peninsula) just for a change of pace. This will probably be the only time we ever have this chance so why not take the advantage of the opportunity.
We are off to take a walk and see some new areas of town. We'll blog after court on Wednesday and let everyone know where we stand - we think we can actually see some light at the end of the tunnel!!
Take care.
C&A
It is Monday morning here in Ukraine. We hope everyone had a good weekend.
The boys have picked up a tough chest cold. Andrea and I were asked to go to the pharmacy and pick them up some medicine after yesterday morning's visit. They have been battling this for about a week now but as of Saturday it had set in them pretty well and they were clearly not themselves. We did not even go to see them last night or this morning in hopes that some rest and the meds would make them better. We'll go up tonight to see how they are - if they are still under the weather it will probably be a quick visit once again.
Andrea has also picked up a cold although not as severe as the boys have. It was pretty funny watching her try to explain cough drops to the pharmacist! Actually all of the locals get a "kick" out of us and our hand gestures/pointing and my Ukrainian accent as we try and get across what we want. The girl at the pizza house laughs at us - as do many others!! Oh well!!
As the subject line says - we are only 2 days from court!! We have spoken with Olga and she is returning which makes us feel a whole lot better than having someone else finish up with us. There was some question as to whether Olga would be in Crimea working with Cathy Harris on her 8th and final adoption. One plan was that Olga would work with Cathy and we would use another translator but instead Cathy will be using a local translator and we get Olga back - YAY!
Assuming all goes well in court (no reason to think it shouldn't) we may take a few days during the 10 day waiting/appeals period to travel down to the coast of the Black Sea (Crimean Peninsula) just for a change of pace. This will probably be the only time we ever have this chance so why not take the advantage of the opportunity.
We are off to take a walk and see some new areas of town. We'll blog after court on Wednesday and let everyone know where we stand - we think we can actually see some light at the end of the tunnel!!
Take care.
C&A
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Stop thief!!!!!
Hi,
Funny story from yesterday at the O. Andrea and I were feeding the boys their normal snack of Cheerios and crackers when we were raided by hordes of little rugrats!! (I say that affectionately!) Andrea decided that we better run for it - so we packed up our hysterical boys and headed for the back of the O. I put the baggie of food in the left leg pocket of my cargo shorts, grabbed Brady/Daniel and ran for it. Andrea grabbed Lucas/Yevgen and ran in the opposite direction. When we met in the back the boys calmed down as they knew we were going to pull out the goodies. BUT - come to find out during the chaos and mayhem of the moment I was pickpocketed by some wiley little 3 year old. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?! So I ran back around the building to find Dasha distributing the last crumbs of our daily offering!! Luckily we had lollipops stashed away so the boys didn't completely melt down. When I got back around to Andrea and the boys I was clearly out of sorts but Andrea talked me down off the ledge!! She hasn't stopped laughing about it since!!
The caregivers have been bringing out the pools the past couple days. The boys both tried to jump in completely clothed - in fact Brady did make it - on Momma's watch not Pappa's! Andrea and Brady were then rightly scolded and made to stand in the corner with their nose against the wall! Andrea was crying louder than Brady --- Ha-ha j/k!!
Anyway at the end of the morning play time the kids were stripped down naked and allowed to go in the pool. The water must have been a bit chilly by the looks on their faces - quite priceless indeed!! Unfortunately we did not have the camera but we will next time!! Both of the kids loved the water - I am going to have make them the pond they rightly deserve.
The boys are getting more and more attached to us. We think Lucas more so than Brady. Lucas cries when it is time to go in where Brady just walks right in, takes his shoes off and goes about his business!! Occasionally he will turn around and throw a wave our way. When we go to meet them each visit Lucas always come running for me and Brady for Andrea. There is no doubt that Brady is a Momma's boy!! I have already warned Andrea that Momma's boys get beat up in school though - :-)
This morning's playtime had visitors from the US. A mission group from all over the US and Canada had arrived with gifts in hand. There were bikes and blankets and each child received their own bag containing shoes and an outfit as well as candy and a toy. It was pretty neat to see such caring people in action. Andrea and I spoke with a couple of the missionaries - they were two young women from the states. They were gushing over the boys and how lucky we were. This was their first trip to an orphanage but they have been to cancer treatment and TB hospitals as well. Their journey will be taking them to Latvia and Moscow as well.
We are now six days away from court - yeehaw. The days are going by pretty quickly however we would be lying if we said boredom did not exist on occasion. Thank you to those who offered ways for us to entertain ourselves. We will be trying some of your recommendations for sure.
The Canadians had their day in court yesterday but not without drama. At 9PM the night before their translator calls them and says "I cannot make it down there to translate for you"!! She went on to say that she lined up another person to step in for her though. They were dumbfounded to say the least. They met their step-in translator an hour before their appointment and she starts to breeze through their documents. She said "you are missing two key documents - they are going to have to reschedule your appointment". Darrell said "no way, that is not acceptable". So off goes the translator to chase down the judge's assistant to tell them the story. The assistant told her to go and get the missing docs. Amazingly she was back a little over an hour later and finally court went off without a hitch. These poor people have had one glitch after another but they appear to be heading for home - finally!
Two other families have successfully completed their process and left for home. The German and one of the Italian families both left with their little boys this week.
As we walked from the orphanage to here today a man stopped us on the sidewalk and said with an accent "where are you from" to which I replied "United States" - "yes but which one" he said and Andrea and I both blurted out "Vermont". "Ok - thank you" as he went on his way! Andrea keeps saying we stick out here but I don't know why!! So to blend in Andrea is going to get a micro-mini skirt (and I mean MICRO!!) and 4" high-heels - ok that isn't going to happen even though I am constantly harrassing her to!!!
Another BIG thank you to those of you helping pick up the mess at our house from this past weekend's storm. Your generosity is incredible and so greatly appreciated!
That is it for now - talk to you all in a day or two.
Take care,
Chris & Andrea
Funny story from yesterday at the O. Andrea and I were feeding the boys their normal snack of Cheerios and crackers when we were raided by hordes of little rugrats!! (I say that affectionately!) Andrea decided that we better run for it - so we packed up our hysterical boys and headed for the back of the O. I put the baggie of food in the left leg pocket of my cargo shorts, grabbed Brady/Daniel and ran for it. Andrea grabbed Lucas/Yevgen and ran in the opposite direction. When we met in the back the boys calmed down as they knew we were going to pull out the goodies. BUT - come to find out during the chaos and mayhem of the moment I was pickpocketed by some wiley little 3 year old. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?! So I ran back around the building to find Dasha distributing the last crumbs of our daily offering!! Luckily we had lollipops stashed away so the boys didn't completely melt down. When I got back around to Andrea and the boys I was clearly out of sorts but Andrea talked me down off the ledge!! She hasn't stopped laughing about it since!!
The caregivers have been bringing out the pools the past couple days. The boys both tried to jump in completely clothed - in fact Brady did make it - on Momma's watch not Pappa's! Andrea and Brady were then rightly scolded and made to stand in the corner with their nose against the wall! Andrea was crying louder than Brady --- Ha-ha j/k!!
Anyway at the end of the morning play time the kids were stripped down naked and allowed to go in the pool. The water must have been a bit chilly by the looks on their faces - quite priceless indeed!! Unfortunately we did not have the camera but we will next time!! Both of the kids loved the water - I am going to have make them the pond they rightly deserve.
The boys are getting more and more attached to us. We think Lucas more so than Brady. Lucas cries when it is time to go in where Brady just walks right in, takes his shoes off and goes about his business!! Occasionally he will turn around and throw a wave our way. When we go to meet them each visit Lucas always come running for me and Brady for Andrea. There is no doubt that Brady is a Momma's boy!! I have already warned Andrea that Momma's boys get beat up in school though - :-)
This morning's playtime had visitors from the US. A mission group from all over the US and Canada had arrived with gifts in hand. There were bikes and blankets and each child received their own bag containing shoes and an outfit as well as candy and a toy. It was pretty neat to see such caring people in action. Andrea and I spoke with a couple of the missionaries - they were two young women from the states. They were gushing over the boys and how lucky we were. This was their first trip to an orphanage but they have been to cancer treatment and TB hospitals as well. Their journey will be taking them to Latvia and Moscow as well.
We are now six days away from court - yeehaw. The days are going by pretty quickly however we would be lying if we said boredom did not exist on occasion. Thank you to those who offered ways for us to entertain ourselves. We will be trying some of your recommendations for sure.
The Canadians had their day in court yesterday but not without drama. At 9PM the night before their translator calls them and says "I cannot make it down there to translate for you"!! She went on to say that she lined up another person to step in for her though. They were dumbfounded to say the least. They met their step-in translator an hour before their appointment and she starts to breeze through their documents. She said "you are missing two key documents - they are going to have to reschedule your appointment". Darrell said "no way, that is not acceptable". So off goes the translator to chase down the judge's assistant to tell them the story. The assistant told her to go and get the missing docs. Amazingly she was back a little over an hour later and finally court went off without a hitch. These poor people have had one glitch after another but they appear to be heading for home - finally!
Two other families have successfully completed their process and left for home. The German and one of the Italian families both left with their little boys this week.
As we walked from the orphanage to here today a man stopped us on the sidewalk and said with an accent "where are you from" to which I replied "United States" - "yes but which one" he said and Andrea and I both blurted out "Vermont". "Ok - thank you" as he went on his way! Andrea keeps saying we stick out here but I don't know why!! So to blend in Andrea is going to get a micro-mini skirt (and I mean MICRO!!) and 4" high-heels - ok that isn't going to happen even though I am constantly harrassing her to!!!
Another BIG thank you to those of you helping pick up the mess at our house from this past weekend's storm. Your generosity is incredible and so greatly appreciated!
That is it for now - talk to you all in a day or two.
Take care,
Chris & Andrea
Monday, June 4, 2007
More of the same - 9 days til court
Happy Monday everyone,
We spent the morning playing with the boys and some beach balls. They nearly wore us completely out!! They were having a good old time bouncing up and down on the balls - they were almost in hysterics as they were laughing so hard.
This afternoon we are going with one of their caregivers to get their passport pictures taken. The administrator at the orphanage was trying to tell me this in Russian but all I could make out was "passport". Thankfully I was able to call Olga right up and she translated over the phone for me. For some reason they seem to think we should be speaking their language by now!!
For us there is just more sitting around and waiting. Unfortunately this is going to be the case for the next 20 days or so. If you have any ideas how we can keep ourselves entertained be sure to comment for us!! Keep it clean boys - Mom reads this you know!! We contemplated coming home for the 10 day waiting period (at least one of us) but that is highly unlikely.
Dniprodzezhinsk had it's "town" day which as the best we can tell is like homecoming or something. They had fireworks, bands and other stuff going on. We missed most of it because we forgot about it that was until we heard the fireworks going off.
Meals are getting boring as we tend to eat the same stuff over and over. We have been living on pasta and sauce, we also eat ham and cheese sandwiches alot. They do have some of the finest ham we have ever eaten. So while you are having your steak dinners and bbq's please think of us!! Actually the biggest problem is that we do not have an oven. For some reason the landlord does not know how to light it and I couldn't figure it out either. This limits us to stove top meals and/or microwave.
We would like to thank the clean up crew who dealt with the mess at our house following the storms this past weekend. It sounds like one helluva storm blew through. We are glad no one was hurt - trailers and snowmobiles are replacable.
The weather here has cooled for the past couple days which certainly makes us happy. It was almost unbearable for a couple days last week - it was so humid it felt like a sauna.
That is it for now - talk to you all in a couple days!!
Chris & Andrea
That is it for now -
We spent the morning playing with the boys and some beach balls. They nearly wore us completely out!! They were having a good old time bouncing up and down on the balls - they were almost in hysterics as they were laughing so hard.
This afternoon we are going with one of their caregivers to get their passport pictures taken. The administrator at the orphanage was trying to tell me this in Russian but all I could make out was "passport". Thankfully I was able to call Olga right up and she translated over the phone for me. For some reason they seem to think we should be speaking their language by now!!
For us there is just more sitting around and waiting. Unfortunately this is going to be the case for the next 20 days or so. If you have any ideas how we can keep ourselves entertained be sure to comment for us!! Keep it clean boys - Mom reads this you know!! We contemplated coming home for the 10 day waiting period (at least one of us) but that is highly unlikely.
Dniprodzezhinsk had it's "town" day which as the best we can tell is like homecoming or something. They had fireworks, bands and other stuff going on. We missed most of it because we forgot about it that was until we heard the fireworks going off.
Meals are getting boring as we tend to eat the same stuff over and over. We have been living on pasta and sauce, we also eat ham and cheese sandwiches alot. They do have some of the finest ham we have ever eaten. So while you are having your steak dinners and bbq's please think of us!! Actually the biggest problem is that we do not have an oven. For some reason the landlord does not know how to light it and I couldn't figure it out either. This limits us to stove top meals and/or microwave.
We would like to thank the clean up crew who dealt with the mess at our house following the storms this past weekend. It sounds like one helluva storm blew through. We are glad no one was hurt - trailers and snowmobiles are replacable.
The weather here has cooled for the past couple days which certainly makes us happy. It was almost unbearable for a couple days last week - it was so humid it felt like a sauna.
That is it for now - talk to you all in a couple days!!
Chris & Andrea
That is it for now -
Saturday, June 2, 2007
T-minus 11 days til court...
Hey Everyone,
Big news yesterday! We have our court date and it is scheduled for Wednesday June 13th at 10:30. This is the start of the end if that makes any sense!! All of our paperwork came in which allowed Olga to get the date scheduled.
So...we are essentially in waiting mode now. Olga has gone back to Kiev as there is nothing for her to do here. She will take some paperwork to the SDA in prep for court and then she will come back here to take us through the proceedings on the 13th.
With court on the 13th it looks like we will be coming home (assuming all goes well from here on out) around the 3oth of June. This is about 7-10 days later than we had originally hoped and planned for. I am not sure if we mentioned this or not in earlier blogs but there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period after court which is called the appeals period. This is meant to give time to any remaining family members to contest the adoption. In our boy's case there is no known or interested family yet we still have to wait the 10 days.
One of the Italian couples has court right after us on that Wednesday. They are adopting a 4 y/o girl named Dasha.
The Canadian couple (Darrell and Kelly) also got their date yesterday. They finally go this coming Wednesday - we are very happy for them as they have been here WAY to long!! Andrea and I went out to dinner with them to celebrate over pizza and coke! We traded war stories and I have to say that their trials have been much tougher than ours. First of all they have been at this for over two years where we have been working on it for about 10 months. They have had to redo their paperwork (start to finish) about 3 times which has propelled them near the $40K mark in expenses. They are certainly ready and deserving to be through with this. They invited Andrea and the boys out in November when I go hunting!! They live about 20 minutes from the Winnipeg airport where I fly into when hunting in Kenora.
We spent the morning with the boys. Lucas said "banana" and Brady was talking more as well. He was saying "pappa" for the first time. Once again the morning was spent watching the boys stuff their faces with crackers, cookies, lollipops and a banana. They are like two little eating machines. The kids are fed well in the orphanage so it is somewhat perplexing as to why they crave food so much. Perhaps it is their way to bond with us or it provides them some level of comfort??
That is it for today - we actually were not going to blog until Monday but we wanted to give everyone the latest news on the court.
Enjoy your weekend - das vedana!
Chris & Andrea
Big news yesterday! We have our court date and it is scheduled for Wednesday June 13th at 10:30. This is the start of the end if that makes any sense!! All of our paperwork came in which allowed Olga to get the date scheduled.
So...we are essentially in waiting mode now. Olga has gone back to Kiev as there is nothing for her to do here. She will take some paperwork to the SDA in prep for court and then she will come back here to take us through the proceedings on the 13th.
With court on the 13th it looks like we will be coming home (assuming all goes well from here on out) around the 3oth of June. This is about 7-10 days later than we had originally hoped and planned for. I am not sure if we mentioned this or not in earlier blogs but there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period after court which is called the appeals period. This is meant to give time to any remaining family members to contest the adoption. In our boy's case there is no known or interested family yet we still have to wait the 10 days.
One of the Italian couples has court right after us on that Wednesday. They are adopting a 4 y/o girl named Dasha.
The Canadian couple (Darrell and Kelly) also got their date yesterday. They finally go this coming Wednesday - we are very happy for them as they have been here WAY to long!! Andrea and I went out to dinner with them to celebrate over pizza and coke! We traded war stories and I have to say that their trials have been much tougher than ours. First of all they have been at this for over two years where we have been working on it for about 10 months. They have had to redo their paperwork (start to finish) about 3 times which has propelled them near the $40K mark in expenses. They are certainly ready and deserving to be through with this. They invited Andrea and the boys out in November when I go hunting!! They live about 20 minutes from the Winnipeg airport where I fly into when hunting in Kenora.
We spent the morning with the boys. Lucas said "banana" and Brady was talking more as well. He was saying "pappa" for the first time. Once again the morning was spent watching the boys stuff their faces with crackers, cookies, lollipops and a banana. They are like two little eating machines. The kids are fed well in the orphanage so it is somewhat perplexing as to why they crave food so much. Perhaps it is their way to bond with us or it provides them some level of comfort??
That is it for today - we actually were not going to blog until Monday but we wanted to give everyone the latest news on the court.
Enjoy your weekend - das vedana!
Chris & Andrea
Friday, June 1, 2007
Children's Day in Ukraine - our day 13
Hi,
It is Friday June 1st which also happens to be Children's Day here. The orphanage had a special pageant for the kids today. Brady and Lucas were not in the pageant but they were spectators along with the rest of their age group. The next group up (older) were the performers and quite a performance it was!! The kids were dancing to Ukrainian music, waving pom-poms and having a good old time. We took some video and we look forward to watching it when we get home. In addition to the pageant the kids also received candy and sweet bread this morning as a treat. In typical fashion our boys were at the front of the line with their hand's out!!
Olga continues on with her stellar work. She is pressing forward at the court as we speak trying to get us a date - right now it is looking like the week of the 11th. If all goes well we would have court that week and then be subject to a mandatory 10 day 'appeals' period. This brings us close to the 22nd of June. After this we would still have about 2 more days of paperwork here in Dniprodzezhinsk and then we leave for Kiev to deal with the US side of the equation. Bottom line...it is looking like the best case scenario would be June 27-30 for us to board a plane and head home.
We have hit one snag on the US INS paperwork that we are going to try and track down later today. We don't think it is anything major but any snags over here could mean delays - stay tuned.
We have started teaching the boys English. They know 'sit' (in order to get treats), they know 'more' (as in more treats), they know 'no' (as in don't pull momma's glasses off) but whenever they hear it they just laugh at us! They also understand walk, swing and slide and maybe a few other words.
Both the boys like piggy-backs or shoulder rides on pappa which means I will definitely need a trip to Dr Woodcock (chiropracter) when I get home! It is a struggle to keep them occupied and out of trouble when there are 30 other kids running around. Andrea and I keep getting reprimanded by a cranky old caregiver when the boys get dirty or scraped. I feel like telling her to "stuff it" but I don't!!
A boy Andrea and I call Hercules (real name Maxim) has been referred to a Spanish couple. He is a cute kid built like an mini-NFL linebacker. He is probably about 3.5 but is about twice the weight of Lucas. He is also an entrepreneur - we often see him facilitating the exchange of a dirty broken toy for food. It is a riot watching this unfold.
With this Spanish couple in the mix there is now a couple from Canada, Germany, two from Italy and us. No wonder the kids are confused as there is 4 or 5 different languages being spoken on the grounds. We are confused ourselves!!
We are going out to dinner with the couple from Winnipeg tonight. They continue to struggle on as they still do not have their court date. They have now been in country for 9 weeks - we feel so bad for them but they are doing ok. I think we are giving them an outlet for expressing their frustrations which is good.
That is it from here...take care and have a good weekend. We'll check back in with another post early next week.
Chris and Andrea
It is Friday June 1st which also happens to be Children's Day here. The orphanage had a special pageant for the kids today. Brady and Lucas were not in the pageant but they were spectators along with the rest of their age group. The next group up (older) were the performers and quite a performance it was!! The kids were dancing to Ukrainian music, waving pom-poms and having a good old time. We took some video and we look forward to watching it when we get home. In addition to the pageant the kids also received candy and sweet bread this morning as a treat. In typical fashion our boys were at the front of the line with their hand's out!!
Olga continues on with her stellar work. She is pressing forward at the court as we speak trying to get us a date - right now it is looking like the week of the 11th. If all goes well we would have court that week and then be subject to a mandatory 10 day 'appeals' period. This brings us close to the 22nd of June. After this we would still have about 2 more days of paperwork here in Dniprodzezhinsk and then we leave for Kiev to deal with the US side of the equation. Bottom line...it is looking like the best case scenario would be June 27-30 for us to board a plane and head home.
We have hit one snag on the US INS paperwork that we are going to try and track down later today. We don't think it is anything major but any snags over here could mean delays - stay tuned.
We have started teaching the boys English. They know 'sit' (in order to get treats), they know 'more' (as in more treats), they know 'no' (as in don't pull momma's glasses off) but whenever they hear it they just laugh at us! They also understand walk, swing and slide and maybe a few other words.
Both the boys like piggy-backs or shoulder rides on pappa which means I will definitely need a trip to Dr Woodcock (chiropracter) when I get home! It is a struggle to keep them occupied and out of trouble when there are 30 other kids running around. Andrea and I keep getting reprimanded by a cranky old caregiver when the boys get dirty or scraped. I feel like telling her to "stuff it" but I don't!!
A boy Andrea and I call Hercules (real name Maxim) has been referred to a Spanish couple. He is a cute kid built like an mini-NFL linebacker. He is probably about 3.5 but is about twice the weight of Lucas. He is also an entrepreneur - we often see him facilitating the exchange of a dirty broken toy for food. It is a riot watching this unfold.
With this Spanish couple in the mix there is now a couple from Canada, Germany, two from Italy and us. No wonder the kids are confused as there is 4 or 5 different languages being spoken on the grounds. We are confused ourselves!!
We are going out to dinner with the couple from Winnipeg tonight. They continue to struggle on as they still do not have their court date. They have now been in country for 9 weeks - we feel so bad for them but they are doing ok. I think we are giving them an outlet for expressing their frustrations which is good.
That is it from here...take care and have a good weekend. We'll check back in with another post early next week.
Chris and Andrea
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