we have a court date!!!!

Thursday, December 9th at 2pm we will stand in front of a judge and ask permission to adopt two sweet angels!  I am not nervous yet, but I'm sure we both will be when that time comes!  Today we spent time with the kids again and then went to a mall.  We had pizza and Pepsi for lunch then rode the bus back to the apartment.  It was our first trip on a bus here and it went pretty well, we almost missed our stop, but at the last minute I recognized the pharmacy that is across the street from our apartment!  It snowed Wednesday night, not much, but enough to make the sidewalks and roads really slick.  Today, it is melting and everything is a slushy mess, but it isn't too cold.  Not much else going on here, we see the kids twice a day and hang out at the apartment watching American TV dubbed in Russian.......fun!!  For those of you planning on heading this way, bring movies, LOTS of movies, we only have a few and we are rationing them.  Hope everyone is well and thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and comments!  They are very much appreciated!

day 3

We had good visits today, this morning we were able to go outside with the entire groupa to play.  Or what they consider playing!  They have a thing about the kids getting dirty,there are all different kinds of toys and playground equipment but at first all they were allowed to do was walk around on the pavement.  It has been raining here, so the toys were a little wet and the playground is not completely clean........ shocking!  So because of that, they are not allowed to really enjoy their time outside.  After a while one of the nannies brought out some hoola-hoops and that livened things up a bit.  Tonight we were banished to the hallway again.   We are going shopping tomorrow and hopefully we can find  a few inexpensive toys or books, ours are already getting boring!  The weather turned cold this afternoon and it is trying to snow a little, I hope some of it sticks.  Enjoy the pics, we had a little better luck today!

2nd visit

This morning we met with the notary and then went to the orphanage, there was only 30 min left of visiting time so we just walked around the grounds to familiarize ourselves and then we walked to the "big" store for some supplies.  I made spaghetti for lunch and then we relaxed for a while.  We went back to visit this afternoon and had a good time, the kids weren't shy at all and the boy was somewhat calmer!  Hopefully tomorrow we can spend some time outside with them.  We play in this very long hallway where there are some toys and then we have the few toys we brought, but it gets to be VERY repetative!  Here are a few pics of the orphanage and kids, we didn't have much luck getting them to stand still, so we only got a few good shots!

she had a good time "reading"

they both love this playhouse

 

 

Like I said, it was hard to get them when they weren't moving!  She runs up to everyone like this and gives them a hug.  Very sweet

we met the kids ! !

I hadn't intended on posting 3 separate times, but the computer is not cooperating.  This morning we went to the Social Services Office to get permission to go the orphanage.  We were asked some questions about ourselves and why we want to adopt and how we plan to provide proper care for the kids.  After what seemed like forever, we were told OK and good luck and then we were off to the baby house.  The social worker came with us, we met with the orphanage director where we learned a little more about the kids.  There weren't any surprises in their history, thank goodness!  Then we were shown to their groupa where they were getting dressed to go outside.  He came right up to us and held my hand, let me pick him up, felt Jon's beard, alot of smiles and laughter!  He tries to talk but doesn't have much of a vocabulary yet.  He does have a very loud scream though!  The boy's got a temper, and doesn't like it when he doesn't get his way.....fun!  He is still in diapers, I  am going to find out if they are potty training at all, I don't think so.  She was shy at first, let me put her shoes on and just wasn't too sure what to think of us.  But once she warmed up, things were fine!  She is very independent and knows what she wants, she seems right on track.  Her speech is a little hard to understand, but she is smart and kind.  we played for about an hour this morning and then went back at 4pm for another 1 1/2 hrs.  Tomorrow we have some business to do and we'll be visiting  again, we will take some pictures then, we didn't want to overwhelm them today.  It is rainy here, but not too cold.  We are settled into our apartment and everything is going well.  We miss home and our families/friends/pets.  Hope everyone had a good holiday!

more pics......

Erica, I found your nesting dolls!!!  Ha Ha

beautiful churches

Alexander the Great

Independence Square ( don't know how to turn pic)

Ukrainian painters....crazy

we've got some catching up to do!

Sorry we've been out of touch, we didn't get internet until this afternoon.  Here are some pics of what we've been up to !

view from our first apartment

our first apartment building

The old military fort

St. Andrews

referrals

Today we went exploring a little.  Right across the street from our apartment is an old fortress that is now some kind of hospital.  It is really old and interesting, we took some pictures that I will post later.  Then we decided to brave the Metro, we studied the map and had it all worked out, walked to the proper station, and then could not find where you actually get on the darn thing!  We did find a great underground mall, but no train.. then we decided to eat lunch at a Ukrainian cafeteria that Nico recommended.  Jon was brave and tried some kind of cabbage salad (very tart he said), meat balls in a reddish sauce that tasted "fishy", and a meat filled belin-kind of like a crepe on the outside but rolled up like and eggroll.  That was his favorite, he said it was really good.  I stayed simple and got a cheese belin and an apple belin, both with a little dab of fresh sour cream, very good!.  Then we walked back to the apartment to wait  for our cab.  The driving here is at best chaotic.  People turn, back up, and switch lanes whenever they feel like it!  We met Yulia at the SDA to pick up our official referral papers for the kids.  Now we have permission to ask the orphanage director and social services in their town to visit them and move forward with the adoption.  We decided to stay here until Saturday evening so tomorrow we can go sightseeing ( all the stuff we didn't see today )  This time I used Google maps to figure out where to go.  There are street signs here, but they are all in Cyrillic and hardly anyone speaks English.  So tomorrow we are going on a walking tour of the city then back to the apartment around 3pm to clean and pack, then to the train station for our overnight journey.  We should arrive at like 6am and our new facilitator Sasha will meet us and get us settled into a new apartment.  The days are VERY short here, it gets dark at 4:30!  We enjoy reading your comments, Keep them coming PLEASE!! 

SDA appointment

Our appointment went well, we barely made it!  We have 3 clocks and each one said a different time.  When Nico called us to say our taxi was downstairs we were just getting dressed and then traffic was crazy.  So we didn't have to wait at all, Yulia met us outside, hurried us up the stairs, introduced us to Serge and then we went right in to the office.  At first they couldn't find our little boys file, so they flipped through  a bunch of different binders and finally found him.  It is weird to see such an archaic system in this day and age, there were shelves full of binders labeled by year, they are all full of children needing homes.  Most of the papers we saw were handwritten, no computers in site.  I recognized alot of the kids from Reeces Rainbow, Serge took down some information on some of them.  We were asked about our jobs and why we wanted to adopt and then we were shown our girls file first.  There was a color xerox picture on the front of when she was a baby, she looks pretty much the same, she had alot of hair!  There was also a picture of her at maybe 1 or so that I was able to take.  It is poor quality, the color has faded but I am so grateful to have it!  We were told she was abandoned at the hospital, has no known siblings, and her mother was born in 1987- father unknown.  For our boy we found out he was also abandoned at hospital, no know siblings, mother and father unknown.  I was able to take his baby photo too, he was tiny and thin with those big blue eyes.  There was no court decree in his file, I think saying that he is eligible for adoption, so that may take some extra time to get.  Serge didn't seem concerned about it so we'll see!  Our team of facilitators were very busy today trying to get other families dossiers submitted before the government here shuts down.  We came back to the apartment afterwords to change clothes and then we went for a walk to check things out.  We went to a market down by TGI Fridays, VERY interesting!  I wish I could speak the language better, there were some things I would love to try.  Fresh fruits and Veggies, pickles, spices-they smelled so good as you walked by.  You can also get pretty much any kind of meat there, rabbit with the furry little feet still on, cow with the tails and hoofs still on, fresh caviar, smoked fish, you name it they've got it!  We walked around for a while and then came back to the apartment, it is COLD and windy and I have a cold.  Tomorrow we hope to go do some sightseeing before we pick up our papers at the SDA.  We haven't decided if we are going to our region Friday or Saturday.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

we made it!!!!

Wow! after 4 flights and about 24 hours of travel we are in the capitol city.  I tried to write this earlier, but the laptop did not cooperate.  We had good flights, and met some nice people, just cramped for space.  Nico, our driver, was a few minutes late picking us up because there were tax protesters all over the city today.  Once he arrived we drove to our neighborhood , he helped us change some money and get some groceries then we went to our apartment.  We are on the 15th floor overlooking the city,thank goodness the elevator works!  It was 7pm our time when Nico left, we ate chicken ( really good )and potatoes and crashed.  I woke up about an hour ago and thought it was early morning.... um no, it is only 11:30...pm ! I am wide awake and I have 10 hours until we leave for our appointment.  I'm  going to   take some more benadryl and try to sleep.  I don't want to be tired for our SDA appointment today!  We are going to explore a little after our appointment so I should have a few pictures.  Yesterday was the first cold day here and they are forcasting snow for today.  Nico asked us if we had clothes that were "more hot", neither of us had our coats on and it was like 33 degrees, we assured him we did! 

and we wait.....

We are leaving in 6 days, I can harly believe it! There are so many little details to finish up but I keep finding  myself daydreaming about what we'll be doing next week so things are taking longer than they should!  While we wait I thought I would post some pics that another adoptive mom took of the kids, these were taken about a month ago... too cute

we have a date!

Yesterday I got the call we've been waiting for, our appointment with the SDA is at 11:00 am on Thursday November 25th, a VERY Happy Thanksgiving it will be!  Now we are busy trying to arrange our flights and get the last minute details of the kids' room finished.  I will post a picture when we are done.

first post ....

A writer I am NOT, but here goes!  As most of you know, Jon and I have been in the adoption process for almost a year now....  seems like forever!  Well, yesterday we were "submitted", that's a fancy way of saying that all of our adoption documents were taken to the government in our children's country and now we will wait for them to issue us a travel date.  Typically we should hear something in about two weeks, and then travel two to three weeks after that, but with this country nothing is set in stone, so we are prepared for anything.  Well...... I'm prepared for anything, Jon is still in shock that we are at this stage!  He was almost speechless last night when I told him we had been submitted, all he could say was "wow" !  We've been at this for SO long and have had a few curve balls, there were times when both of  us thought we would never get to this place.  Trust me when I say that international adoption is NOT for the faint of heart!!!  This has truly been a rollercoaster of stress and emotions and, oh yeah  ......  we're not done yet!  But we only have a few more upside down loopty loops to go through and then our family will be complete and it will be SO worth it.  Today was our little girls 3rd birthday ....... I was told from another mom adopting from her orphanage that she was playing outside today and had her little purse on, so sweet!!  HAPPY  HAPPY  BIRTHDAY  to my girl,  we love you so much already!  This is the LAST birthday you will spend without a home, a mommy, a daddy, a brother, grandmas and grandpas and a whole bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins.