Castle and Kids

July 31, 2004 Saturday

First a wonderful trip to the out-door market. I wish we could come her every day. It is filled will all kinds of things to see and buy. Interesting people, interesting fruits and veggies that we’ve never seen. Old ladies selling beautiful red roses, gladiolas of every color, and countless others that I don’t know the names of. They hold the bouquets of flowers upside down here. If you buy them, you carry them upside down all the way home. Makes perfect sense! That way you don’t stress the stems with the weight of the heads of the flowers. John and I have noticed many things here that we wish we did back home. Like parking spots in the city that you save by raising a metal level thingie out of the concrete and locking it upright so nobody can park there. When the spot-“owner” wants to park there again, he unlocks the metal thingie and it lays flat. Brilliant.

Also, if you are shopping for watermelon or other melon at the market, instead of tapping it and hoping it is good, the little babushka will cut a cork-like shape out of the end of it and let you try it. Peaches are eaten pealed here. Much better without the fuzz on it.

Also, (and this is John’s favorite), if there is a faster way to get from here to there, then that’s what you do. You can cut through anywhere, driving (or even parking) on sidewalks, on the opposite side of the street, etc. You can swing U-turns, you can go as fast as your car can take you and you don’t have to wait for the guy in front of you; you can just invent-o lane and go around him. Just maeks sense to do!

Anyway, we went to the orphanage again today and had a wonderful visit inside that tiny room where we first played with Valya and Zena. We asked them if they wanted to hear their new names today and they all smiled and wanted to know. The liked them, though it is going to take a while to get them used to them. We colored, took pictures (got our first family pic today – it’s so cute!), played and talked. Valya, er Liana, sat on my lap lots and I gave her lots of extra hugs and kisses that I think she wanted but couldn’t bring herself to let me give yesterday. She’s coming around. Today’s visit was wonderful.

Then we went to the supermarket and got water and laundry detergent. After that, we went to the fortress. How BEAUTIFUL! It had a turret or two, a view of the sea, a moat, huge beautiful doors at the entrance, etc. The castle was built in the middle ages and later added onto by the Tatars. All along the top of the castle are the stereotypical “castle” shaped edges where they would have stood to use their arrows, etc. There were narrow ledges you could walk along there, all without fences. IN the states it would have been prohibited from anyone climbing on or walking on, but we could and we did. I nearly panicked half-way across the wall. One side is a huge drop and the other side is the sea (well there was still wall on that side, but there were many cut-aways, so you could see sea. Hard to explain. We bought a small 8x12 oil painting of the castle for about $25. The same thing in the states would have been 2-3 times that. It’s beautiful and I’m thrilled to have it for the kids. I wanted to buy more stuff, but we were out of grivna (UA currency).

We stopped by the money-exchange on the way back to the hotel. We had melon for lunch. John and I had never had this kind of melon before. The outside looked like green/yellow squash, but the inside looked like cantaloupe. It tasted like neither. Vika said it wasn’t any good. Not sweet enough.

Tonight’s visit with the children also went well. Valya let me carry her to where we would play and she hugged my neck extra tight and wouldn’t let go. Zena wouldn’t let John hold her tonight. Only Mama and Tyotya (Auntie) Vika. (It’s actually a great sign that she isn’t indiscriminately friendly, so I was glad to see that. Valya’s affection is also difficult to win. She doesn’t give her smiles away to just anyone. Another good sign.

Misha is doing great. He is having a great time settling into his new family – een though we can only be a family 2 times a day. When we left tonight Misha ran to the outer gate and waved goodbye to us. When we asked him how his day was, he said he didn’t get enough to eat. I gave them all snacks, but it broke my heart. The orphanage grounds are also heart-wrenching. The is broken glass EVERYWHERE and cigarette butts. I picked up a bunch of glass just around the tiny area we played tonight. Misha likes to kick off his sandals so I was worried he’d step on some.


John and Shelly at the castle/fortress

Meeting the kids

July 29, 2004 11:00

Ok, I don’t mind admitting that I’m a nervous wreck right now. No sign of Vika anywhere yet – she is still off getting papers signed and last night she said we’d leave for the orphanage by 11:00. *sigh*

We slept like rocks and the roosters outside our window woke us up this morning. It is hot, but we have a fan which we’re really thankful for. The mattresses squeak really bad whenever we move, and since my bed (there are two twin beds in here) was on the wall adjoining Vika’s room, I was afraid I’d wake her up each time I rolled over.

Our breakfast was yummy. We had bananas, bread (this kind was to-die-for yummy), cheese and currant-sour cherry juice. That along with our daily Pepto tablet to keep our tummies from getting sick (so far so good!), and our cold syrup. Still fighting colds, but we’re feeling better each day. So many other things on our minds besides our colds. I’m so thankful we packed plenty of cough/cold syrup and Kleenexes. Couldn’t do without them!

There are Bible verses on the walls in the hallway. John tried to look one of them up this morning, but when he did, he figured he misinterpreted something because there was no such thing as Psalm 50:96. Hmmmmm…..

Ok, enough babbling. Too nervous to write anything else for now.


We arrived at the orphanage by about noon. The director wasn’t there *sigh*. We had to wait outside her office for another hour, maybe less. Felt like a year. There was a young (20ish y.o.) secretary at the desk doing nothing but look us over and occasionally chat with Vika. There was another facilitato waiting too. He was helping an Italian couple. I was very surprised to see a big sign on the wall with “Nido de Esperanza” written on it. That’s Spanish for “Nest of hope.”

I can’t even begin to explain how scared I was sitting there. I had the worst feeling about these kids… that we wouldn’t be able to adopt them. I didn’t even bother packing toys or games for the kids. Only a few treats. I was afraid we’d be on our way back to Kiev in just a few hours. I even repacked our bags before we took off for the orphanage.

Anyway, the director finally came. She had a cold and had a hard time talking. She got up to take some meds for it only a few moments after sitting down. I offered her one of my “Ice Breaker” breath mints that I’ve been using as cough drops. She thanked me.

She asked our occupations and then asked what the NAC had told us about the children. We told her what we knew – just their names, ages and genders and that they were healthy. She told us that they boy had the most problems of the other two. His birthmother had a hard labor and he has a little bit of a palsy in his left hand. She also said they all had some delays, etc. but that they were wonderful children. She was most delighted to tell us about Zena. This orphanage is for older kids (not babies, I mean), but because she was a part of a sibling group the director got special permission to let her be here with her sister and brother. (BLESS HER HEART!!! Normally, they are separated, so this is the case for THIS orphanage and maybe a few token others.) That meant that when Zena came to live there, she was the youngest and tiniest child in the entire orphanage. So, all the care-givers had a soft-spot for her and consequently Zena is a “little spoiled.” (The director said this with a sly smile.) Aparently, her favorite thing to do is pound on the kitchen door and holler in asking about what they had for her to eat. She didn’t have a lot to say about Valya; just that she was a nice girl and would catch up quickly and would do well in a family. Nothing was said about the “Monkey Wrench” problem that I had been so worried about, and as she talked I was getting less and less scared, and more and more excited. She got very serious though and asked us if we knew other families who had adopted. I lit up remembering that Brenda had called and told me this was “their” orphanage. I told her we knew the Reynolds who live near us and that they had adopted twin girls from this orphanage this winter. She was TICKLED TO DEATH! (Thank you so much, Brenda for calling and telling me that!) She asked how the girls were doing; if they knew English, etc. I told her they were great and that they did speak English. She was really happy to hear the good report. As she looked through our pictures, I pointed our some of our “angel pin” pictures. She liked them, so I reached in my bag and gave her one. She loved it.

Misha is at a camp for disabled children this summer. It is five hours away. We’ll have to go there to meet him. She asked us if we wanted to meet the girls. Of course we did!

They sent the dr. out to get them. Before too long they brought in two little beauties. The older one was excruciatingly shy and wouldn’t speak unless spoken to, but wouldn’t show much/any emotion. No smiles, etc. The weight of the world on her shoulders, poor girl. She looked down and was really intimidated by us. I wanted to put her in my pocket Right Now and go home. She is wonderful. She shyly looked up at us and said hello. She was happy to be there, but wouldn’t let herself be too happy yet.

The little Zena, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. She is a ball of fire! I gave them each a box of raisins right away and Valya was shy about eating them – though she did eat some. Zena chowed them down and wasn’t going to put the box down and play until she was done. She’s also a little CHUBBY! Which is amazing because the other children we saw on the way into the orphanage were skin and bones (as is Valya). The director was not exaggerating in her description of her! We left the director’s office and went to a nearby quarantine room. Zena thought I was going too slow, so she let go of my hand and nearly skipped/ran down the hall.

I didn’t quite know what to do with myself! I can’t really talk to them, and I didn’t bring any toys. But here we all were in a sterile room with nothing in it but two tiny beds and a small table and chairs. I envied John warming up so fast with Valya. He got out his pocket PC and let her draw. She LOVED it. She’s gonna be a techie, just you wait! Her facial expression barely changed, but you could tell that she liked it. I’m a little scared for her, for me, and for us all. Life as we know it has changed forever. I put angel pins on the girls and they appeared to like them. Valya took hers off after a while and stared at it.

When we got up to leave, I picked Zena up and she clung to me really hard. Death-grip-like even. Maybe I wasn’t such a flunk-out mom after all? She would not let me go. We went into the director’s office to let her know if we liked the girls or not. Of course we love them already. She asked us if there would be any chance of us saying no to adopting Misha. No way. If they let us have him, we’ll run with him.

Then the director asked the girls if they understood who we were and what we wanted, etc. She asked them if they liked us and if they wanted to come to America. It was so cute to hear the girls talk – they said “dah” to all her questions. (yes). The director then told them it was time for their lunch so they needed to get going. Vika was holding Valya at that point, and I was holding Zena. Valya started shaking and got reallllllly sad-looking and said to John, “Come back Papa.” When Vika translated that we both teared up. How could we not!?! John reached out to her, looked her in the eye and said, “I PROMISE, Valya, I will always come for you” or something close to that.

Later we heard that as they were walking out, the secretary in the lobby asked them how they liked their new parents and Valya told her that Papa was hers and Zena told her that Mama was hers. Cute.

Next, the problem with getting Misha back from camp. The director wrote us a letter to give to the came as permission to take him, but one of the employees had to come with us anyway. (Aisya, the bored secretary). (She wound up to be a sweetheart, btw). While the director was telling us about the letter that was being prepared, I noticed her angel pin stuck on the wall! She put it under an award for excellence from Ukraine, and she told me she considered her angel pin an award for excellence from America. Since there wasn’t anything else n the wall, I was pretty flattered! :O)

Straightaway we took off in a taxi to wherever Misha was. We left at 3;30ish. The trip there was absolutely gorgeous. Fields of sunflowers as far as the eyes could see alllll over the place. We saw the Black Sea again too. Beautiful.

Each road we took kept getting more and more interesting. The taxi driver realized she was going the wrong way down a 6 lane highway so she did a U-turn right there. It must have been ok to do so because she did it in front of two different cop cars and nobody blinked.

We kept turning off the main roads onto more and more rural roads until we commonly saw thatched roofed houses, flocks of geese in the road and in yards; cows, goats, horses, etc. trotting along the road wherever they wished, or with an old man or woman behind them with a stick/staff. I looked up once to see an old woman in her front yard milking her brown cow. She had the traditional kerchief on her head and was sitting on an upturned bucket. We saw horse-drawn hay carts and tons of flowers in peoples yards again. One yard I saw had coral-colored gladiolas planted all throughout the yard. Gorgeous.

Another highlight was when a bull charged toward us at full speed. It would have run into us too except that it was tied to a rope. *whew* The ladies in the car (taxi driver, Vika, and Aisya all laughed at me when they “heard” my reaction!) (The taxi driver looks *exactly* like Cathy Harris, btw, only with short hair. It was freaky!)

We finally came to the end of the road and I held my breath when I started to see the boys at the camp. Some of them looked in pretty tough shape, and I felt really bad for a lot of them. I wondered if our Misha was going to be in worse condition than what we were told. We got out of the car and the boys ALLLL (and I’m talking about over a hundred kids) all looked over at us or came over to greet us. Everyone kept saying “Misha” to each other looking for him. Misha had heard earlier today that we were coming, so the word had gotten out. The camp director read our letter and said, “Ok,” and called for Misha himself. Out of the crowd comes a boy version of our Valya. He was sooooooooo cute! He was so happy, yet hesitant to show his feelings. He was slightly shy at first, though absolutely thrilled to be so completely in the spotlight. Try as he might, he just couldn’t hide that smile, though he was definitely shy with it.

I should mention that I saw no obvious problems with his left hand or arm. He may not have complete dexterity in his hand, but you’ll never be able to tell that by looking at him.

We were introduced, and John shook his hand, and I gave him a giant hug. I was crying. Half of the other ladies were crying. Vika told him he needed to go say goodbye to his caregiver, and he b-lined straight over to her. She did come over to us, but she was quiet, and looked very sad to see him go. I was sooooo thrilled to see such a bond between them. She gave him a Pooh journal and a pen and inscribed it. I took a picture of them both, but she wasn’t smiling. Very typical Ukrainian lady. Formal and emotionless in all pictures.

We piled him into the car and we were gone. Just like that. The rest of the boys waved and hollered their goodbyes. I was in tears. Still.

Once we settled in the car, Misha asked if we were also adopting his sisters. He was visibly relieved when we said we were. He loved looking at the pictures and video of us with them. He let us know right away that he eats anything, but hates peas. We assured him that we don’t like them either. After that, we were all good! (Later on, just to be sure that we understood how bad he hates peas, he mentioned that he “might even need a doctor if he eats peas.”) Ok! Ok! No peas! :O)

We stopped at an outdoor-vendor of some tiny village in Nowhere and had some fabulous homemade apple pastries. These put the other ones completely to shame. Mmmm. We also had some liquid yogurt drinks. Very good too. Misha was too excited to sleep, and he made himself stay awake the entire drive back to the orphanage. I dozed a bit and put my head to his to test how long he’d let me keep it there before he’d pull away. He never did, and seemed to relax more and more. I held his hand for a while. He looked us in the eye a few times while talking, and enjoyed thumb-wrestling with John. He’s a keeper alright! My son is wonderful.

We got back to the orphanage after 1:00am, and I begged John to post pics of the kids on the website anyway even though it was Way Too Late. It felt good to Unpack what I had packed up this morning when I was Miss Pessimist of the World and figured we’d be on our way back to Kiev tonight. Then I went to bed.

What a wonderful, wonderful day.

First day together

July 30, 2004 Friday

This morning we did a lot of running around getting paperwork in order. We went to the notary, city hall, etc. quite a few times. Who knows what all we did, but we do know that Vika works hard for her money. We officially petitioned the city/court to allow us to adopt the children, and it was a good thing we had the childrens’ names picked out because Vika gave us about 3 minutes heads-up to have them ready for the document she needed to submit.

There are train tracks near our hotel. We’ve had to stop for a train almost every time we have crossed the tracks so far. The trains, thankfully, are very short though, so it doesn’t take long.

The taxi driver and I say, “ni hooligan” to each other every time we see each other. She’s a sweetie (I was showing off my Russian last night on the way to get Misha, and oh how she laughed when I rattled that one off). (It means “Behave yourself,” btw).

We went to the orphanage around noon and finally had all three kids together. Misha was so happy to be with his sisters again. He gave them each hugs (un-provoke). He had told us last night that he missed them and hadn’t seen them since June. Long time, poor kids.

We broke out the balloons today and the LOVED them. We got our first real smile out of Valya and Misha couldn’t contain how happy he was. Zena was thrilled just to have attention of any kind. When we first got there, some other kid had hit her and she was crying. I picked her up and she clung to me really tight and quit her crying. I think John caught that on video. When I squatted down to put Zena down, a flock of little kids rushed over at us and started digging through my purse. They found all the treats and I had to take them all away from them. It was pretty scary. I’ll have to really watch my purse there from now on. They’ll empty it in no time flat. The kids literally flock to you like birds. There is a little Roma girl there that has burn scars on her face and she kept wanting me to take her hand and love her. She had short hair, and since everyone was in undies, and nothing else but maybe shorts today, I thought she was a boy. Nothing girly about her. She is a pretty sick girl. Skin and bones. Distended tummy. Hard to come in and see, especially when she keeps finding me to ask me to pick her up.

We didn’t stay long and were off again. The orphanage can’t write up one of our letters we need because they are out of ink for their computer. So, they asked us to buy them some. We did. There was a cute little Xerox shop in town. Vika had to make photocopies of our dossier anyway, so we did it there. In all the shops, offices, hotels, restaurants, etc., there are potted houseplants in the windows and sitting around everywhere. They are very proud of their plants. I love that! Outside the Xerox shop thee is a single sunflower growing wild along the path and it is all fluffy, like a double sunflower. Or a sunflower with no brown middle. All fluffy petals and all bright orange. Beautiful. The shop-worker pointed it out to us.

Our trip to the orphanage this evening to visit the kids was a disaster. We made the mistake of staying outside with the rest of the children. Ours became wild animals. They ran away from us, got moody with us, etc. They fought with each other, etc. Vika had to drop off some paperwork somewhere, so we were all alone with them with no way to communicate. Vika was only gone 20 minutes but John and I got a taste of what 3 kids who were overstimulated was like. Not a pretty sight. Valya got mad at both of us and wouldn’t come to us at all. Kept running away. She sulks too. Gonna be interesting! Little Zena is bossy. She kept telling everyone to Go Away; including one of her caregivers. I assume that’s what she told her caregiver, because her caregiver looked shocked, and started laughing and then turned around and walked off. Who knows exactly what she said, but it was obvious that she wanted her Mama and Papa to herself.

We came back to the hotel and made a game plan for tomorrow. Calm activity away from the groupa. Lots of holding the kids, hugs, kisses, etc. of all three children equally. We’ll see how it goes!

More pics, and About Names

I don't have my journal typed yet, so I don't have that to post, but I do want to comment on the kids' names.

We have been going Round and Round about names for the past year+. We could think of two boys' names that we liked, Alek (Aleksander) and Adam. But for girls' names, we could only think of one. So, I just thought that must have meant that if we wound up with three kids, that they'd be two boys and a girl. If two girls, I thought we'd never give the poor Second Girl a name. "Hi, this is Liana and The Other One." Anyway, once we heard that there WERE two girls, Panic set in. (That's why I made Vika look further for another set of three... "We ain't got no name for this one!") Anyway, as we were sitting at the city inspector's office, I mentioned to Vika our problem, and asked her what her favorite girls' name is, and she told me Aleksandra. So, we took our "Alek" and made it into "Aleksa." And that's that. (Even if John can't always spell it right!) ;O)

Love Shelly

P.S. Here are two more pictures that we took during the first meeting on Friday. Many of the kids at the orphanage were in their undies and caps today; ours at least had shorts. (Aren't they going to love these pics some day?) (Check John's blog entries to read about them today.)

Balloons 1
Balloons 2

We've seen them!

Well, everyone, THEY’RE OURS!!!! (Ok, well, not quite yet!) ;O) We met the two girls this morning, and they are gorgeous! The oldest one will be Liana Valentina, and the youngest will be Aleksandra “Aleksa” Zenaida. We met the boy tonight after a loooooooooooong drive into The Sticks where he was away at a camp-like place. (More on that later.) Our son’s name will be Adam Mikhail (sp?) We are exhausted after driving almost 10 hours (It’s after 1:30 a.m. right now), so the juicy details have to come tomorrow.

We drive to the childrens’ birth-town tomorrow to start some more paperwork, so hopefully we’ll be posting more by tomorrow night (our time).

Love you all!

John, Shelly, Adam, Liana, and Aleksa

If we can, we'll put their pictures at the following links. John's not sure he remembers the passwords he needs in order to get them up when we're not home.

Adam
Liana
Alexa

Long post from my travel journal

July 27, 2004

Well, today is the day. We got very little sleep last night. I was up coughing. I had heartburn from my cough syrup and so I was up and down several times looking for my Tums.

We woke up at 8:00 with a phone call from Vika, who told us she was sending a taxi to us and that she’d met us at the NAC. She assured us that Alex the driver spoke good English and was a good friend of hers. He and John chatted all the way to the NAC.

When we got there we waited a little bit outside in the alley, and then Vika took us up the stairs just outside the Scooby Doo Hallway (the the Ukie adoption world we call it that because it is a long dark hallway with doors that keep opening and closing.) We had to write up a document saying that we would like our updated paperwork submitted, and then we signed it and Vika translated it n the back. We didn’t wait long. There were two women there too. They looked like mother-daughter.

It was fun looking at all the pictures on the walls of the children who have been adopted, and it tickled me that I knew a few of them.

I saw two pics of Cathy Harris’ family, two of the Transoes, and some others that I’m not sure of their names.

We were asked to come inside by a beautiful lady (“the psychologist”). She had dark hair, dark complexion and wore black fishnet blouse with a solid black bodice embroidered with pearls. Not American “business attire.” We were glad for the air conditioning in there. (Or at least I think it was AC… it was very cool in there.)

She asked us how many kids we have already, why we came to Ukraine, our occupations. Then she asked us what kind of kids we wanted and John told her 2 kids ages 0-9, and I added “or 3!” Well, then she was ALL SMILES and told our interpretor that we were a “nice young couple” and that she liked us. *whew* She started pulling out sets of 3 siblngs left and right and said, “not many people come for 3.” I could tell she was genuinely thrilled that we would consider that many and she was bending over backwards for us. She found a set of three young boys age 3, 4, and 6, and they scared me, but we kept them aside. (They were in two orphanages so that officially nixed them later). We found many, many other sets too, but there was not one set with two boys and a girl who weren’t much, much older. We finally found one though, and we had the psych. Call about them. (Actually, she didn’t wait for us to ask about the, she called the orphanage on her own initiative. We pretty much decided on them and then I asked their names. “Mikhail, Zena, and … Valentina. Valentina?” Valentina, the second “boy” turned out to be a girl. Her picture looks like a little boy picture. Poor kid. I then began to have my doubts so I asked Vika to look through the rest of the book we were looking through and see if there were any other set with two boys and a girl. She was surprised – she said that most people wanted girls. Oh well! Anyway, Vika didn’t find any, so we looked at each other and John and I greed to go meet these kids. They are in the Odessa Region, and Vika told us that it was a good region. We’ll soon see! Vika also said there was a castle there. How’s that vor a clincher? :O)

We stopped at the train ticket place and found out there was n more tickets for Odessa tonight. Vika took us to an internet cafй and we blabbed the news. Probably shouldn’t have yet since we haven’t even met them. There are so many things that could go wrong yet. Oh well. It was a weak moment. I was a bit frustrated that I didn’t have time to check my email though. *sigh*

Then we went back to the apartment. Vika told us that she was going to find us a ride to Odessa tonight. We then crashed. Mom Fisher called us, so that was nice, and Brenda Reynolds called us too. Her twins (see the Reynolds website) came from that orphanage just in December/Jan., and they live only a few hours from us. She gave us the scoop on where to stay, etc. Maybe our kids will remember each other.

We tried takig naps (we’re both exhausted, but too wound up to sleep). I did a load of laundry and hung our socks and undies in the window to dry. We’re on the seventh floor and the windows have no screen, but are huge. Great breezes in the evening.

Vika called and told us that Dima is driving us to Odessa tonight at midnight. She’ll call later again with the detals. I sure hope our socks and undies dry!


July 28, 2004 Wednesday

We left Kiev at 1:00 am in Dima’s jeep. I knew immediately that this would be a long night because he lit up a cigarette and put on sound loud funk/rock/techno music. John and I just looked at each other like, “boy is this going to be a long night.” We were so relieved when Dima had Vika find a new cd. It was so nice to hear Vivaldi’s Four Seasons instead of the other stuff.

The road was incredibly bumpy. I was so thankful that I don’t usually get car-sick. Between the bumpy road, the speed we were going, (!!!!!!!), the lack of sleep, the stress, and the smoke, I would have been toast. It was hard as it was. (The smoke left the window almost immediately though, so we barely noticed. Good thing too because John is allergic.)

At about 4:00 a.m. we stopped for a break at the CUTEST little diner/restaurant. It was decorated in traditional Ukrainian style and served trad. food. An artist painted everything onto the walls. Instead of hanging an actual plant on the wall, it was painted; that kind of idea. I wish I had taken more pictures as it is really hard to explain, especially when you are as tired as I am! John had a fruit drink called Kompot. It is a typical/traditional homemade drink made of different fruit juices. Really good. I was a zombie, so I didn’t have anything. It was all really neat though. I just wish I wasn’t as dead to the world as I was!

We drove further on and by daylight we were driving through enormoughs fields of sunflowers (absolutely GORGEOUS). There were also watermelon fields (not patches, FIELDS). At the end of the rows along the road they set up stands to sell them. It was neat. There were corn fields too and many other vegetables. All looked in Great shape.

The people are so poor here. Anyone over 50 looks ragged and defeated. Anxiety is etched on their faces. The old women look worried, and the men look distressed too. One man’s old car stalled right in front of us once, and he got out of the car looking rather unsure of how on earth he was going to get out of that situation.

The houses are modest and there are no lawnmowers or tractors (very few if at all. They use horses for farming or do it by hand. The peoples’ yards are overgrown, and though they aren’t “week-wacked,” they all seem to take pride in their flowers. Trumpet vines, sunflowers, black-eyed susans, daisies, zinnias, cannas, etc. fill their yards. There are gates along the front of most yards and the style of each gate is different. They are scrolled metal and the flowers grow up it and on it. Very pretty. It’s like if they can’t mow or trim their yard then at least they can do is put some flowers there. I like that. Words to live by almost. “If ya can’t pull the weeds, plant extra flowers.” Anyway, I’d love a yard that I didn’t have to mow but could grow all these beautiful flowers in.

There are fruits and veg. sellers all along the roads. We got to see the Black Sea driving to (wherever it is we are right now). I sure never thought I’d see the Black Sea! Amazing! There are many turists here, and people walk around in bikinis. One small town had as many vendor carts/stands for inflatable beach accessories as they did for food. Interesting.

We had to cross a bridge that had the middle raised so a boat could go under. We were stopped a good long time waiting for that, and there were eole selling icecream and other things to the waiting cars. We bough some apple-filled bread sticks with turquoise and yellow dyed coconut on top. The bread is very heavy and almost stale-feeling to me here. I thought it needed actual frosting on top, but the others seemed to enjoy them.

We finally reached the city of Bilgorad-nethaehihe;;ie;dkdjlk and Vika said that last night she had called the city inspector lady who needs to give us permission to see the kids. She is officially on vacation but would come in anyway at 9:00 a.m. We waited and waited but she didn’t show for hours. Dima, John and I strolled up and down the streets peeking into shops and restaurants/cafes to see what was what. There were mulberry trees heavy with berries lining the street, so our shoes were covered with mulberry muck after a while. They were good though. Not as seedy as the ones I’ve had back home, and the trees here are enormous. The streets are gravel with stone or brick here or there. Nothing smooth at all. Stray dogs and cats everywhere.

The lady finally did show up though. She gave us more of a raking over than the NAC did. She asked our ages, and was concerned that the oldest child was 9 and that we were only 32/30. Big whoop, we thought and assured her it didn’t bother us. She asked if we thought we could handle three kids. She asked our occupations, etc.

Anyway, there was something in the file that I think might put a monkey-wrench in the process for us, but until we know for sure, I’ll keep it quiet. Just please pray that it goes smoothly when we actually make it to the orphanage. (Tomorrow).

Our hotel is actually a medical clinic that rents rooms on the top floor. It has internet access!!!! *Happy Shelly* (Same place that the Reynolds’ stayed!)

We went to the grocery store after settling in in our rooms. We walked in, and I was immediately hollered at by two clerks. They didn’t like my purse. Too big I guess. Dima and Vika got into a shouting match with them while John and I stood there wondering what on earth I did. Dima and Vika finally agreed that they could search my bag when we left. More security there than at the Kiev airport! They missed their calling! The heat, my nerves, my exhaustion, the stress of being hollered at, and not knowing if there was a problem with getting the kids, etc. all made me pretty light-headed and not feeling well. I probably could have fainted if I’d let myself. Kinda early to be homesick, but I guess I’m just scared.

We’ll be going to the orphanage in the morning (10ish)… so please pray that this is the end of the road in our search! Thanks!!!!

Love,

Shelly

What a DAY!

Well, we got to the NAC in plenty of time, and I enjoyed looking at the pictures hung in the hallway. It was nice to see familiar faces of children that I knew from our adoption group. I saw the Transoes, Cathy Harris', and a few other families. We didn't wait long though. The lady invited us in (dark hair, young, very pretty). She was in a great mood *whew*, and asked us three questions. The first one was "Why did you want to adopt from Ukraine?" - To which I answered, "Because there are beautiful children here." She grinned as if she liked the answer. Then she asked our occupations, and then she asked who we wanted to adopt.

The last question sold her on us, I guess. Lemme do some confessing before I go much further. This spring when we received our approval, I thought, "ya know, we should get our INS/homestudy approval for three kids and just see what happens." After that, everyone and their grandma kept saying, "So, are you getting three kids?" It was rather FREAKY actually. (Especially because we weren't sold on the idea yet either, we just wanted the option open.)

Ok, fast forward to today. We told her we were open to 2 or 3 children from 0-9 years old. The lady broke into a huge grin, and excitedly started to flip through books looking for the "good" children to show us. She told our interpretor that she liked us and that we were a nice young couple. *shrugs* Anyway, once she heard "THREE" there went the "twos" out the window! (Well, not really, but she was excited to find a home for a sibling group of three and she said that "not many people come looking for three") She first showed us three *very* young boys ages like 2,3,6 or so (maybe younger, not sure). They were nice, but we wanted to look ourselves. So, we looked through hundreds of pictures/files of children and she handed us a few others to review too.

Sooooo.... *drum roll here*..... We have decided to go and visit a little boy of 9, and two little girls ages 3 (almost 4) and 5 (almost 6). They all look like blondies, and one child has green eyes (if I'm remembering right... we looked at a bajillion files today, so they're all blending together right now). They are in the Odessa Region and in the village of Bilgorod-Dnesdrovsky down by the Black Sea. Tickets will be hard to find, I'm afraid because it is summer, so it looks like we'll be hiring a driver. Vika is working on that.

This region has a CASTLE in it!!!! :O) Vika says it is BEAUTIFUL and that we'll love it. *excited dance*

Yesterday we went sightseeing, and it was wonderful.

Vika says we should have internet access in the region, but we're not sure yet. Our cell phone is with us 24/7 in John's pocket so here's the number, and please call us if you can! (John says I should add "during the day") 011-38-050-149-86-87

We're HERE!!!

Oh are we EXHAUSTED!!! We've been basically awake since 3:30am on Saturday. It is now 7:00pm Kiev time which is 11:00am "home" time.

We're staying at the same apartment with Mark and Maria (the same ones mentioned in the Hartly's website). They are waiting for a second appointment looking for two little boys under 5. Such sweeties they are! They have taken us under their wing and have been showing us around and Maria even washed the pillowcases for our bed herself so they would "smell like home." We're here at the internet cafe together and we'll be "doing supper" together in a little bit.

About our flights though! Many of you know I've been whining about not using my Spanish for our trip. Well, here's an interesting twist. While we were waiting for our flight out of JFK, the gate was filling up, so I took my purse off the chair next to me for a lady to be able to sit down. She immediately said, "ktgdesgyrw" to me, which was in a language I didn't know. She saw the look on my face and said, "Espanol?" Ah-ha! We had a nice long chat then. She doesn't speak a word of English, and had been visiting her daughters here in the States. She is from Sofia, Bulgaria, so Spanish is a "foreign language" to her too. I had to help her figure out her tickets and explain why on earth the flight was so delayed in boarding, etc. Anyway, we went to Prague together, and when we landed there, we were able to chat some more. She also speaks Russian, so I hauled out my "Russian phrases for Adoptive Parents" cheat-sheets and she sat there tutoring me in my Russian. The funny thing was that the cheat-sheets are written phonetically in English, so she couldn't read them... I had to translate the English to Spanish to get the Russian. John started chuckling at this after a while, and we realized that here we were in the Czech Republic speaking Spanish from a translated English to learn Russian. I got a picture of her, and I'll post it later. I'm way too tired to even think about trying to figure that out right now. (And probably this message isn't going to make any sense at all to anyone besides me and John, but oh well.)

Anyway, our apartment is great. It has a washer and even a refrigerator. Mark and Maria bought it this week! There are stray cats all over the place, and a pit bull decided to find out who we were. Big, big dog. *shivers*

I feel for Mark and Maria who are on a tight schedule work-wise, and are still waiting on a second appointment. They have super attitudes about their situation though, so that has helped us with our "pre-appointment" jitters.

Having fun, seeing the sites... Talk to you later!

Btw, our phone number is 011-380-44-270-1198. We don't have a cellphone yet. Tomorrow we'll be doing stuff with Vika.

I just noticed that John has more blog entries than I do, so I had to do something about that! I also noticed that people can actually make comments on what we say. Cool! That will be nice for while we're in UA (hint-hint!) ;O)

Please pray for John! He's got a sore throat and HAS to get better by Friday!!! I don't want him hacking all over my kids next week! ;O)

I cooked a bunch of meals to freeze for my dad today. I have a cook-off once a month at his house and make 30 meals for him to be able to just pull out of the freezer each day to thaw and heat up for lunch. (Otherwise he has bologna sandwiches three meals a day. Gotta get those veggies in him some how!) Today the grand total was 53 meals. That should hold him over until we get home! (It sure BETTER! I don't want to spend that long in Ukraine!!!)

When I got home from Dad's, I decided to repack the bags. I think it is a rule that PAP's (that's "pre-adoptive parents") have to pack and unpack their bags at least three times before they are allowed to leave their house anyway. Wouldn't want to break tradition! It's just so hard to know what to bring for clothes when you only have a little bit of room in the suitcases! Four shirts, a skirt, and two pairs of pants, I think are what I'm bringing. Any other seasoned travelers have any opinions about that? It's so weird to pack so little for such a long trip!

Only three more days!

Here we go again! We wanted our blog to be able to be more "picture friendly" before our trip, so John switched it over to this new one. Guess I get to learn this stuff all over again. (And this week I am NOT a fast-learner at anything!)

I probably won't post again until we leave, so "talk to you then!"