A short visit, adoption process goes on

Not too much to post today, it was somewhat uneventful because of such a short visit. Roman (ro MAHN) was having car problems this morning so we postponed our daily visit to the afternoon. With rush hour traffic at 3:00 and all, we only got in about a 45 minute visit with Maks and Ira (no Vala today), and we did that outside. We won't be doing the 3pm visit anymore, we spent more time in rush hour snarls than we did visiting the kids. :-P Not much time to do anything with the kids either, other than both munchkins each having a meltdown over doing things we didn't want them to do (running off to go bug other families, give up toys when time to leave), so we had a little practice session of showing toddlers who was in charge today. It was a good excercise for all, and goes with the territory.

We'll hopefully be indoors tomorrow as I think it's going to rain. We definitely have far more problems containing them outdoors (in this playground anyways), and it's easier for them to get into trouble. Of one constant source of problems is the vertical monkey bars. Ira was climbing up them with very slick shoes (but oh so pretty, see pix below) and slipped and probably would've hit her head on the pavement had Papa not been there to catch her...but in the process I wrenched my back a good one which set me back a bit in the healing department. We'll be avoiding the monkey bars till further notice.

Ira feeling pretty in pink, especially with her fancy shoes.

Showing off her shoes, she dropped her new McDonald's "iPod" which was very hard to get back from both of them at the end of the day. Maks threw his first Royal Fit in front of the nurses and everyone when we tried to retrieve his. He got a quick firm lesson in "Who's The Boss" (not the kids) in the Livingston house.

One very good piece of adoption news was relayed to us by Marina while we were playing outside. She said that they finally got all of the legal issues resolved today with splitting up our 3 from the rest of their other known siblings...apparently there had been a problem with one district's rules or something, but it's all fine now and back on track. She said we should know a court date in the next day or so, so keep praying that the process would continue smoothly.

Photos of yesterday at the playground

John posting here. Below are a few photos from yesterday in the playground, when the kids were kind of having a "fun 'n run" day outside.


This was actually a pretty fun moment with several families' kids playing in this old wagon.








"MACHINA!" One of the few times Maks didn't hear a truck come roaring into the compound and meet it halfway, this time it had already passed by (whew!)







"VALA!" We have a Vala sighting in the hospital window (she had a fever), and Talia ("Talya") Ira is quick to wave excitedly to her little sister.










I forget whoever asked for it, but this is actually the only shot I have of Valentina smiling. Of course it's through the window and you can see more of my hand's reflection than of her, but we'll take it nonetheless. :)

A Little Progress and LOTS of Photos

After all the mileage yesterday running around the playground, we decided that getting a little later start would be a good idea. So this morning we went from 10:00 am to 11:30, instead of 9:00 to 11:30, and asked if we could play inside. I knew John would appreciate a smaller field to cover. They put us in a large playroom that had a small slide, a little ball pit, a piano, and some other toys to play with. Much better. Our main nurse Oksana told us that Valentina still had a temperature and the doctor didn’t want her to be around other kids yet, so we didn’t get to see her today.



I think the hair bow is bigger than her head.











Alex Maksim stole away the pans and lids, Talia Ira started tossing stuff...would this be a Mexican (Ukrainian) standoff? That's me trying to play referee.







That's methiolate or something similar on his face. The first day we visited he fell and scraped his chin on a rock. Got up and brushed it off, of course. Tough kid.





As we played in there, we found out it was also the conference room for prospective parents to meet their little ones. We saw three different Ukrainian couples visit very small babies (6 months or less). They were tiny little blobs that were wrapped in layers and layers of clothing. Really cute. The other American couple coming to the orphanage, the Scruggs, came in about an hour later and all the kids played together the rest of the time.



This toy was a huge hit, even with no batteries or sound.









The ball pit was FUN!







We started calling the kids by a combination of their names a couple of days ago, thinking they would get used to that, and we could slowly change over to their new names that way. So, today we discovered again that Alex Maksim and Talia Ira are fascinated with toys that make sound. The Scruggs had a couple of little toys that played music, and Alex Maksim and Talia Ira played with those for about 45 minutes. They danced, they figured out how to turn them on and off, how to attach them to their pockets, etc. So on the way home we went through McDrive (of course), and got a couple of Happy Meals. Now we have our own little pretend radios.

Other popular toys were the Ukrainian version of the Easy Bake Oven, the pots and pans that went with it, and a little truck they could ride around on. Some really large teddy bears kind of took a beating today, but they were well-loved. With about 10 minutes left in our time, we opened up the piano and played a few little nursery tunes. The two boys in the room thought it was fun to pound along and Alex Maksim was a little interested in playing, but Talia Ira got right in front of me, started singing and playing along, and didn’t leave until we put the lid back down over the keys. She’s definitely more interested in music than Alex Maksim.


In the ball pit, but not letting go of the radio...







Okay, so it's more of a mosh pit.










Somebody's obviously more interested in the radio...









Everything must be in its place, and stacked JUST SO.







After we got back to the hotel, we checked on a few things and found out the hotel is considerably more expensive than we thought. At $140 a night instead of $100 a night, John decided we should explore a few other options. So our translator/project manager Marina called around, and had a person come pick us up and show us a couple of apartments that were less expensive. What an adventure.

Ilona and a friend came to pick us up in a vehicle similar to a Suzuki Sidekick, and we found that they didn’t speak much English, and we still speak almost no Russian. Plus, they were both on their cell phones most of the time and that prevented conversation anyway. So we went on a fast and bumpy ride in the middle of rush hour to see an apartment in a part of town we didn’t feel all that comfortable in, and decided to stay at the hotel after all. The apartment itself was fine, and pretty spacious, but didn’t have internet access and we didn’t see very many restaurants or stores in walking distance. It was a very odd experience. In the U.S., I would have never gotten into a vehicle with people I had never met. But here, to get things done you kind of have to suspend your internal security alarms. We never did get to see the second apartment.

Tonight it’s raining, so we’ll have dinner downstairs in the restaurant again. I’ll try to post some photos of the different food here. I’m fairly adventurous as far as food goes and I’ve liked almost everything new I’ve tried so far. I’ll have to do a post just on the food sometime. We’ve heard there’s a really good pizza place within walking distance, so we may try to find that tomorrow if it doesn’t rain. We should probably buy an umbrella.

We hear it finally stopped raining in KC, praise the Lord. I’m sure everybody is really ready to dry out. Since we are still in the hotel with the free WiFi, feel free to email us and keep us up-to-date with what’s going on with you all at home. Right now we have plenty of time to do that, but that will obviously change drastically later on.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers – we really appreciate it!

JoEllen : >

Sept 15 Donetsk Picture Tour

After our visit today, our driver Roman took us on a little sightseeing tour of downtown Donetsk. All of the photos I took were from the car and on the move usually, so the quality isn't the greatest and I don't have captions for most of them as I didn't take any notes as we were going.

Our driver, Roman. It was his idea to "be like a tourist" today, which turned out to be a fun ride. Roman is the best (safest) driver we've had yet, and we get along really well. We both crack up when an idiot driver or pedestrain walks right in front of us and one of us exclaims "Crazy!"
Another thing we do together lately when Roman makes a good move in traffic is pump our right arms with a fist and go "yessssss" (ala Napoleon Dynamite).


The one on the left is the Donbass Palace Hotel, it was pretty impressive. Not sure what the building below is.











This is the opera building, it looks immaculate and beautiful with it's yellowish paint.








It's not every day you see a statue of Lenin. I'm going to try and get back to it later to get a better shot.









A McDonald's close to our hotel, woohoo! Their Chicken Nuggets aren't very good, but the burgers and fries are just like back home. :)









And back to our humble abode at the Atlas Hotel:

Toddler question to parents, sibling news

Well, we had another nice visit with the kids, outdoors in the playground again. It was a beautiful partly cloudy day here in Donetsk, with the high in the mid 60s, just a hint of fall in the air. Maksim and Ira seemed happy to see us, especially since we had more juice and food...but they mostly just looked happy to be outside. So happy in fact, they just wanted to run and run all over, which was bad because the colder weather made my back extra creaky and unable to keep up. The nurses had Vala in the open window of the infirmary again today and never let her join us, so I guess they think she's still on the mend from some virus or it was just too nippy out again for her. She even smiled a few times at us through the glass, which made me wish we could hug her in person. That said, we were kind of glad we didn't have to go into zone defense for 3 and could enjoy man-to-man coverage of her 2 energetic siblings.

So my question to parents is, what do you do when you tell a toddler to "come here" and they just keep running away? (I'm sure many of you are smiling at this). :) It's bad enough when one does it, but when both make it a game for 2.5 hours straight it makes for a tiring morning. It wouldn't be such an issue if we were in a smaller setting, but the playground is about the size of a small football field before they hit a fence. It's not the most kid-friendly place either IMHO. You have vehicles driving through the driveway in the middle of the playground all day, with the kids chasing after each one like rabid beagles barking "machina, machina"! Then there's the area by the open dumpster with broken glass all over the ground, and large feral dogs roaming in and out all the time. Can't wait to get the munchkins home where we'll at least have home field advantage and we can enjoy some sense of containment. But you call for them (in ways they understand) to "come over here", and they squeal with laughter and run off in the direction of danger going "nyet, nyet!" the whole way. I'm sure part of the issue is that although they call us "mama" and "papa", they say that to the cleaning ladies and garbage men as well, so we really don't have any major authority in their minds at this time. Bribes seem to work, so one strategy is to just crinkle the "goodie bag" or say "juice" or "cookie", and they'll descend on you like vultures. For airport containment (which is a big concern), leashes might be a fix, Idunno. I'm just kind of venting here, but any ideas from experienced parents would be appreciated. The language barrier is an issue I'm sure, but mostly it's a "terrible two" issue. That said, we did have fun playing with them whenever they did actually land from time to time, but it was tiring.

More news came from Serge today about their two other siblings that were discovered recently. One is an 8 year old girl, with whereabouts unknown, the other (no details on age/sex) is in another orphanage, but "unadoptable". So, it's really just an FYI that they have other siblings out there, and for the purposes of us adopting these 3 it's a non-issue (whew). Serge says they will be submitting some paperwork tomorrow, so the wheels of progress are still spinning right along, we'll keep you posted (pun intended).

Thanks again for all of you who are thinking about us and praying for us. It's easy to feel isolated and alone over here, and all of your emails and comments are like little lifelines that REALLY help us along.

Catch Up Day

Today has been catch-up day. Catch up on rest, catch up on laundry (not fun in a hotel room), catch up on internet news, etc. No visiting the kids until tomorrow. It rained all morning, then cleared up in the late afternoon. We spent some time in the funky lounge downstairs…well, lounging…reading books we’d brought with us. We figured as soon as we finished them, we could donate them somewhere and not have to carry them back.

Last night we downloaded the highlights of last week’s Chiefs game from NFL Films on iTunes and watched all the highlights and post-game interviews in 12 minutes. That was pretty cool, for John anyway. I like football okay, but my favorite thing about a football game is halftime (BIG marching band background) and you don’t get to see those any more unless you’re actually at the game. We’ll probably do the same for today’s game, which is getting ready to start as I’m finishing this.

Several folks have asked what the typical timeline would look like from this point on, and how we’re bonding with the kids. Bonding-wise, it gets a little more every day. Maksim and Irina are glad to see us, and I think they have fun playing with us. They’re a little frustrated that we don’t swing them in the air (that would break Papa in half), but we do hug them as often as we can, hold their hands and walk around, etc. They call every adult female “Mama” and every adult male “Papa,” and it will take awhile before they realize there are only one of each. Valentina hasn’t spoken very much – no need to with Maksim and Irina around – but she’s definitely starting to get attached to Papa. She’s not sure about me yet, the very serious looks she gives me are pretty funny. We realize it will take some time.

It was interesting to see that when I picked up another child while we were playing, Maksim wasn’t having any of that. I couldn’t understand what he said to the other little boy exactly, but the tone and the motion were definitely “That’s MY mama!” So that’s progress. Irina is one independent girl, but when another papa made fake growling sounds and pretended like he was going to “get” her, a favorite game between Maks and Ira, she thought he was serious and yelled and ran to me. That’s definitely progress too. At the end of our time they happily join back in with their little age group that has been elsewhere on the playground, but they’re starting to look back and wave to us and say "pa KAH" (Bye).

As far as timelines go, that’s pretty much a moving target. The way I understand it, we are currently submitting documents in Kiev and waiting for approval (I think?) and a court date. Not sure how far out the court date would be. Then after court approval, there’s a mandatory 10-day waiting period, where we continue the same routine we’re doing now, and after that we can take custody of the kids. (At which point we’ll DEFINITELY need a bigger room.) We’ll need to get birth certificates and Ukrainian passports for them while we’re here in Donetsk, then we all go back to Kiev for a few days. We’ll need to go to the American Embassy and get basic medical exams and travel visas for them, then fly home from there. And then the REAL craziness begins, but at least we’ll be on our home turf. Did that all make sense? I’m sure I left something out, or got something out of order, but that’s basically it.

This might be a potential issue - we found out today that Maksim, Irina, and Valentina have two additional siblings. (I assume they’re older, as Valentina is not quite two.) No, we’re not interested in adopting FIVE, there’s no way we could do that. The government typically tries to keep siblings together, so I don’t know if this will throw a wrench in our plans to adopt these three, or not. We’re supposed to find out more details tomorrow, or soon after. That’s definitely something to pray for. There have been so many indications that these are the right kids for us – that will be another post for later – that right now I’m not too worried about it. I’m sure that whatever God’s plan is, it will be the right and best one.

Something else to add to the prayer list – thanks to the nonstop rain, we had water coming up in several spots in our basement. Our friend Terry Wells is handling it – THANKS TERRY!!! – but we’d sure like to see the rain stop, as I’m sure everybody back home would, too.

We’re enjoying our time here in Ukraine, and the slower pace. In Kiev and here in Donetsk, people have been very gracious, the shops/restaurants/apartment/hotel have been nice, and we’ve felt very safe. Our Russian is terrible, but we’re adding a few new words every day, and the Ukrainians seem to appreciate the effort when we try. We get a little bolder as we feel more and more comfortable, and try new things, and go new places. Oh, and John wants to walk up the hill to McDonald’s tomorrow, so I think his stomach is back to normal. He even tried to get mashed potatoes and gravy with his dinner tonight. That’s a good sign.

More tomorrow –

JoEllen : >

Kids dancing video

Check out Ira and Maksim dancing with some of their friends yesterday, it's pretty darned cute (and yes, we need more synonyms for "cute.") You'll probably only be able to run this video with a high speed Internet connection...


Posted by John

First Week Wrap-Up

I started today’s post in our fabulous Euro-lounge in the hotel – see pics below:





The entrance doors








This is the funky decor -
it's surprisingly comfortable.





I’m finishing up in our room, with Star Wars/Queen Amidala giving a speech dubbed in Russian on tv in the background. Somehow it works with that particular movie.

Today we got up and went to breakfast, and John was able to eat more than watermelon. Although, he said we should take a picture of his plate, as Scott & Bernadette at work would never believe he was eating a plate of fruit. On the way back from the orphanage, he asked Roman our driver to stop at McDonald’s. So, his stomach is almost back to normal. He got Chicken McNuggets, and they were pretty close to the ones at home, but not exactly. I thought it was funny that the McDonald’s drive through is called McDrive. When he starts looking for biscuits and gravy I’ll know he’s really back to normal. His back gets a little better every day. It’s still pretty painful, but he’s able to play with the kids without too much pain if he doesn’t lift anybody. He's quite ready to take a nap when we get back to the room.

It’s a little hard to believe that this is only the fourth day we’ve been visiting the orphanage, it seems like our regular routine now. We come in, go upstairs to nurse Oksana’s office and check in (lots of smiling and charades as she pretty much only speaks Russian and our Russian is still terrible). We go downstairs to the atrium, a caregiver brings out Maksim and Irina, and we go outside to play. Most times they will bring out Valentina a little later, but not today. It might have been a little too chilly for her, it was only about 65 degrees. Chilly but beautiful. We normally see one other American family (the Scruggs), and 3 or 4 Ukrainian moms that are adopting. Saturday is apparently busier, since today we saw the Scruggs and the Ukrainian moms we regularly see, plus their husbands, plus a couple of new couples.

Everybody carries some type of sack or duffle bag full of goodies, and anytime a bag is opened – or even crinkled – all the kids near enough to hear it come running. I wish I could understand what they’re saying, I’m sure it’s hilarious. They’re so earnest…they’re sure whatever’s in the bag is the coolest thing possible, or maybe something to eat, which is even better. They all play with whatever toys they can get their hands on, regardless of who it belongs to, so at the end of the time we all have to segregate out what toys we each brought and re-pack.

When we stopped at the supermarket the other day, we bought a ball, a bucket and shovels for the sandbox, paper and crayons, a doll, and a plastic tractor (“machina”). And, apple juice, animal crackers and cookies (biscuits). We bring a few toys each day and rotate. The Scruggs bring their Blackberry, which also plays music, and it’s hilarious to see the kids all start dancing the minute they hear “musika.” It’s more like modified jogging in place, but they really enjoy it. It gets big giggles. (See video above.) Anything remotely technological is fascinating to Maks and Ira, so I can see we’ll be going through huge amounts of batteries. Who’s got our name for Christmas???

It’s funny that the wipes we use to clean their hands and faces are almost as fun to them as regular toys. They love to wipe their own faces, although we have to coach them to clean their hands too. And Irina is very particular about the wipes – they’re only for hands and face cleaning. She gave me quite a look when I tried to wipe her nose with one yesterday. I guess that would be logical, since they’re wet and smell differently. Today I used an actual Kleenex, which went over fine. Whew, passed THAT mom test.

Today’s English word was “cookie.” They all know that word now – and it’s one of the few that will stop them in their tracks when they’re about to run their dirty hands through the drying laundry hanging on the line. And we’re now convinced of the sugar effect. Ten minutes after a cookie Maks is running around in circles. It may not help that today he stuffed almost the entire cookie in his mouth. The orphanage folks told us that the kids get very good nutrition, and to only bring cookies and apple juice. The other parents bring juice, but also bring fruit. That’s apparently a huge treat. Irina and Max will inhale whatever fruit they can get their hands on. When she found a mom with grapes today, Irina shouted to Max across the playground, he came running, and they just about cleaned out the grapes. Guess we need to go back to the supermarket.

Tonight we’ll wander down to the hotel restaurant for dinner, but when John’s up to it we’ll probably walk around to see if we can find some less expensive food. Next to the McDonald’s, about a 10-minute walk from our hotel, there’s a group of vendors, almost like a farmer’s market with crafts and other goods. We may wander over there if we can make it up the hill that far.

Tomorrow, Sunday, there are no visits so we’ll have the whole day to ourselves. John took some video today, he’s going to work on uploading that to the blog. We seem to be managing very well here, the language barrier hasn’t been too much of a problem. Plus, I’ve got a Russian-English dictionary. We’re in a very nice hotel and we feel very safe, almost safer than we do in parts of Kansas City. Hopefully we’ll hear how our paperwork is progressing in the next few days, and if we’ve run into any unexpected delays. But for now, everything is going smoothly. We miss home, American culture, people that speak English, our sleep number bed and really good chocolate (okay so that’s me), but most of this trip has been an adventure we wouldn’t miss and a real faith-building experience. We SO appreciate the emails and comments on the blog, they’re helping us feel connected to everyone back home. We’ll keep posting photos, I know that’s the best part of any blog. Have a great weekend - and thanks for keeping us in your prayers!

JoEllen : >

Friday 12th visit

We took a few more photos of us and the kids today, enjoy!

...Maksim (mak SEEM) and Ira (EER Ah) are usually brought out together, with Vala (VAHL ah) being brought out later, usually with a great flourish of excitement from her siblings.







Vala is always a little stressed when first coming out, so Maksim is always there to comfort as a big brother should (OK, you can say 'AWWWWW' now.) :)

Maksim is pretty sharp, he figures out the juicebox setup pretty quickly. (Does every parent think that their kid is the smartest kid ever born?) :)












Here's papa helping Maks with is latest sand project. Today we learned the words 'sand', 'bucket', 'shovel', and 'sit down'.


Is this cute or what?!










When in the sandbox, Ira is all business.

Future Chiefs fan in the making. He really likes wearing papa's hat.












I'm sure most of you who are parents already can appreciate the level of effort it took to herd all the cats into one picture, but we finally got it done! :)

A trip to the orphanage

Another trip to the orphanage this morning from 9:00-11:30. It was nice and cool out today, so I didn't mind that the staff put us in the playground like yesterday (as opposed to the indoor playroom). We are allowed an afternoon 3:30-4:30 visit, but we are going to opt out on that for a few days until I'm at 100% (getting there BTW), plus, each trip costs about $11 for taxi (not a biggy though to see your kids.) :) We can only visit in the morning on Saturdays anyway, and no visits allowed on Sunday. Anyway, here's a photo trip of a typical ride to the orphanage.

Here's our usual taxi driver, Roman (ro-MAHN):











Streetcars are a typical sight along the way:










The front of the orphanage:










A close-up of a big sign on the front,
check out the website:










A view of the atrium inside:










And looking the other way:










This teddy bear is really huge,
that's a regular adult-sized chair:













A view from the playground
of the back of the building:










Some of the playground
(it's pretty big).










Some of the playground is taken up
by laundry, how it stays clean is beyond me. :)










One of the ever-popular swings:











Posted by John

One Long Day - But Good

Today started off on a better, if cautious, note. We went down to see what was on the breakfast buffet that’s included with our room, and it was pretty nice. There are some things I can’t identify which is interesting. I’m sure we’ll try most of it before we leave here. John has been pretty nauseous since the painkiller shot yesterday, and he didn’t eat anything yesterday. At breakfast he managed some watermelon, and food is starting to sound good to him again. When he starts asking for McDonald’s, I’ll know his stomach is fine. He did feel good enough to go see this kids this morning – the first time he’s been able to meet them in person. He said he’d always remember this September 11th for a different reason.

At the orphanage today we met another American couple visiting the little boy they’re adopting. Unfortunately for us, they’ll be going home in the next day or so. It was really fun to talk to them.

The caregivers brought out the three kids this morning, and we got to play outside. It was about 70 degrees and sunny. I understand in KC it’s about the same, only rainy? It was so cute to watch John interact with them. Maksim was like – cool, a man to play with, Irina didn’t really bat an eye yet – but little shy, serious Valentina took to him almost immediately. Cute! She’s still very shy with me, but she would take John’s hand, climb into the swing, and give him this royal look that said, “okay, you may swing me now.” She is a darned serious girl. Here’s a photo of the two of them and Maksim (who wants to be in every photo):














We played outside for 2-1/2 hours, and John was really ready to come back to the hotel. He’s definitely not at full strength. He crashed really hard, didn’t want anything to eat for lunch, and decided he’d better not go to the afternoon session. I’m thinking we may just go in the mornings for a few days until he starts feeling a little more like himself. But he couldn’t WAIT to meet them this morning, and had a ball. It’s a whole new side of John, for me.

I went back by myself this afternoon. On the way there with Román, our driver, I started thinking, “What the HECK am I doing?” It was tough enough for John and I both to corral three active preschoolers that can’t speak our language, and here I am going to do it myself?” But, they only brought out Maksim and Irina this afternoon, Valentina has some little infection so they’re keeping her mostly indoors. It worked out fine. I have learned the tricks of bribery and deflection – bring lots of snacks, and rotate toys so there’s always something new. Luckily, the supermarket we stopped at after our morning session had a few toys. Although I apparently committed a faux pas by putting my little basket with items in it on the cashier’s counter. She gave me quite a look, but loosened up when I started talking in my horrible, nonexistent Russian.

They dress Irina like a girly-girl, but she’s one tough tomboy. She’s definitely more interested in playing with balls and trucks than dolls. She loves books, swinging, and I discovered this afternoon, she likes to sing. I would sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while pushing her on the swing, and she started singing along with me, a similar song in Russian. It was hugely cute. (I can see I’m going to have to enlarge my vocabulary for cute.) Here are a couple of photos of her:



Before she saw the camera.












After she saw the camera.









I expected they would come out and get the kids when time was up, as they did this morning, and just when I was running out of toys and cookies someone did. The afternoon visiting hours are 3:30-4:30, but apparently someone forgot we were outside. They came to get Maksim & Irina at 5:30. No wonder I ran out of toys. I was definitely ready to sit down for a while.

We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant (very swank, we may not be able to eat there often), came back upstairs and crashed. This will be our routine for the next few weeks, until we jump through all the hoops here and get to go back to Kiev (hopefully NOT on the train) to jump through some hoops for the Embassy there. Then home to KC. That’s theoretically how it’s supposed to work, although the process in Ukraine is a constantly moving target. So we’ll keep you posted.

We’re absolutely loving the blog comments, they’re SO encouraging. I hope these long, stream-of-consciousness blog posts aren’t too tedious! And please keep up the prayers, they are SO appreciated.

JoEllen : >

Bonus Post

Oops, found one I forgot to post while in Kiev:

Random blurbs:
- On clothing - a man wearing white dress shoes is Ukrainian. A man wearing white sneakers is American. Polos and Dockers are US/Brit, mom jeans are apparently universal. Some Ukrainian women wear tight clothing, most wear high heels, and walk everywhere in them.
- On cars - here in the city, most of the cars seem to be new, and some are really big and/or expensive. We’ve seen several Toyota Land Cruisers, Lincoln Navigators, lots of Hondas and Volkswagens (larger cars), and one Maserati. Wow.
- On television – the So You Think You Can Dance, Funniest Animal Videos and American Idol/Pop Star television shows apparently transfer very well to other cultures.
- On laundry – our apartment has a new washer, which is great. I don’t think dryers exist in Ukraine, though. Even the newest nicest apartment buildings have clotheslines on the balconies. Anyone want to make a fortune by opening Laundromats in Ukraine?

A Quick Update after the Visit

Hey everybody –

This is just a quick update to let you know John’s feeling better today. His back still hurts, of course, and wlll for a while, but we both went this morning to visit the kids from 9:00-11:30. We stopped at a supermarket on the way back, picked up apple juice, cookies (bribes!!), and a few essentials. We got back to our room, and not thirty seconds later John was snoring. He needs the rest. We’ll be going back this afternoon for the short visit, only an hour.

I’ll post more details later tonight, with photos. There’s not much to do here in the evenings, and our TV (if it worked) would only have Russian programming. That’s a good topic for a whole different post.

Thanks for the prayers – they’re WORKING!!

JoEllen : >

A Day of Extremes - and Kid Photos (long, sorry)

Yesterday and today have run into one big long day of extremes. Yesterday we met Marina, who is kind of our project manager here. She’s very organized and really good at communicating what’s coming up next, what we need to do, etc. Here is a photo of Marina:











Last night we got on the train in Kiev at 7 pm, and woke up in Donetsk at 6 am. John was thrilled, he’s always wanted to go on a train. We did have our own compartment, which was nice.

Here are a few train photos:




Train station in Kiev








The train we went on.











Goofball hamming it up.





I liked the train, but it was a really hard “bunk,” and I didn’t really sleep. We knew we were getting off the train and going directly to meet with the local inspector to get permission to go visit the kids at the orphanage. We were getting the bags off the train, then I heard John yelling. The train steps are short, metal, and steep, and it had rained overnight. He slipped on them, landed flat-footed on the pavement, and heard a large POP. Which is a terrible sign for somebody with a history of spinal compression fractures. He was in extreme pain, poor guy, and still is. Somebody went and got the nurse at the train station, four official-looking guys with a stretcher came and took him off, and Marina told me to wait right there with the luggage. It was very scary. They came back about 15 minutes later. The nurse had given John a shot of a high-level painkiller, but he was still in LOT of pain. We got him into a taxi, and to the hotel to lie down for awhile. He wanted us to still go ahead with the appointments we already had, so we left the cell phone with him and went on.

Marina and I went to meet with the inspector, at this point very late for the original 7:30 meeting. Marina went in and came out with our social worker, who accompanied us to the orphanage. We met with the head doctor, who went over the highlights of the kids’ medical reports, and then went to a large playroom on the second floor, with lots of toys – and a piano. Caregivers brought each child in, one at a time. Maksim is 4, confident and very active. He wanted me to watch him go down the slide, and to push him around on a riding truck. Irina is 3, and adorable. She is quiet, but social. Valentina is 2, very shy, and will be a heartbreaker someday. They all get along well, squabbling over toys occasionally like you would expect. They were all quite interested in what I had brought in my pink bag (toys and cookies). When I got the cookies out, I had their undivided attention. Maksim asked for a cookie, Irina took one when I offered it, and came and got another one and took it to Valentina when she was too shy to come over. She’s a good big sister already.

We knew we wanted to keep their first names, possibly as a middle name, and have been bickering over names for months. We didn’t realize we’d need them quite this early in the process, so it’s a good thing we finally settled on a few while in Kiev. Their American names will be:

Alexander Maksim
Natalia Irina
Valentina Grace

And here are their photos. I put them in by age, Maksim, Irina, Valentina:










Karen & Tim - I knew you'd love the big hair bows. And Maksim reminds me of Evan at that age.
David & Amy - I think Valentina reminds me of Bess, big blue eyes.

We will be able to go twice a day during the week to visit the kids, 9-11:30 am, and 3:30-4:30 pm, and in the morning on Saturdays. Our taxi driver for the whole day today, Roman, will be picking us up every morning and afternoon. He was a trooper today – he stuck with us all day and tried very hard not to hit any potholes or bumps for John’s sake. He doesn’t speak much English, but he did try to make us feel better with “Don’t worry, be happy.”

I was really hesitant to post this much information about the kids, because our adoption is not final, and won’t be for a while. I believe it’s possible that, even after we go to court, a Ukrainian family, related or not, could decide they would like to adopt these three, and as Ukrainians would be given preference. I don’t think that happens very often, but there’s always a chance. However, this is the information everybody most wants to know. I know I would, too.

It’s been a day of exremes because it was so scary when John got hurt getting off the train, and sad when he couldn’t go to the first meeting with the kids. But on the other hand, I got to see the kids for the first time, John got to see their pictures, we got to pick their official new names, and we got the ball rolling on the paperwork processes here. And John will get to see them tomorrow morning.

John is doing a little better, in fact after we came back from the orphanage we picked him up and he went with us to the notary office (we both had to sign papers to get everything started). He’s very sure this is the same thing that’s happened to him before, and even if he went to the doctor, the doctor wouldn’t be able to do anything but prescribe painkillers and we’ve already got plenty of those. I explained to Marina and the station nurse, but neither one seemed to know what I meant by osteoporosis, brittle bones, compression fracture, etc. So I’m not sure if going to a doctor here is the best idea for us anyway.

We’re in the Atlas Hotel in Donetsk which, praise God, includes unlimited free WiFi, air conditioning, and a free breakfast buffet.

Here’s our prayer list. Please pray that:
- John will get better, ASAP, and the pain would be much lessened.
- The adoption process would be finalized very quickly, and that no one else would show up to claim them.
- The kids bond with us quickly.
- Everything will go as fast as possible – I’m really anxious to get us all home.

Thanks again for your continued prayers, and your comments on the blog. This whole process has been a huge faith-building process, and I’m sure it will continue to be. But God is faithful, we’re trusting in Him, and He’s in control.

JoEllen