The weekend

Since I didn't post any pictures of the court date. Ashley did well though it was nearing all she could stand. Amber was a bit deer in the headlights. It was all really quick... I didn't think it could be quicker than our last one. This judge was no nonsense and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a single unnecessary word spoken in the entire proceeding. I'm told that most judges don't like their pictures taken and she didn't stick around for one.

Today we went shopping for DVDs and a DVD player. I only found two players that support US voltage also and fortunately they were the cheapest at $35. We got about fifteen Russian DVDs... Hopefully Amber will like them. It is kind of hard to pick out movies for a 14 year old who is between liking twilight and barbie. They all look legal but it is really hard to tell over here. I will replace the plug on the player when we get home and we will use it as a way for Amber to just relax after all the school and home work is done on the weekend... Something she can listen to without having to work to understand it. Most can be listened to in English or russian and mix/match with English or Russian subtitles.

We also picked up one of those magic pots... Though it turns out the cheap one we got isn't all that magic. Takes nearly as long as the gas stove to boil water. So they all aren't created equal by the magic pot fairy. When we went to the market we found some English books that help teach the alphabet and reading but explain it in Russian. Most things including Rosetta stone and what she will get in school are primary language agnostic... So we grabbed both lesson books they had and may look for more on amazon.

Tonight we went to the local carnival... The rides looked safer than the ones that show up in our home town. It was fun... Maybe go again tomorrow after the circus.

Today the temperature suddenly dropped and it got windy. In virginia I would be looking for the thunderstorm... Not sure what was up here but it was a relief. The last couple of days have been warm and humid... And me without shorts. In zap you can see the industrial areas spewing out smoke and pollution that hangs over the city... To make matters worse, the air settles in the evening and everyone and their uncle seems to want to create a random bonfire in the nearest field. We even saw people carrying wood and a rock to sit on from their apartment tonight to the embankment next to the main road... Before we left the market they had a good fire going.

Found a close restaurant today with a reasonable variety of food. I liked the pizza but it was close to a meat pie in taste and Melissa did not like the dill they used all over it. Our favorite place to eat is over by the open market but I doubt we will walk the 4.5km to get there at night.

Lastly... I really like the yogurt over hear. Not the stuff they put chocolate on that makes me feel ill, the normal yogurt... Even finding three of the containers having blue mold in them hasn't dissuaded me from eating the others. I also love the fruit juice... Pineapple in particular.

Court done

Yippee

Court tomorrow

Court is at 10a tomorrow... Please pray it goes smoothly.

The deputy director showed us their newly redone computer lab and a speech therapy room. Apparently the staff is doing all the labor themselves to save money and they are doing a really nice job. I will add pictures once I get them off the camera.

Court

Another great few days... I haven't written much simply cause it has been fairly uneventful besides having fun.





We spent more time today with the kids. We brought two basketballs and two soccer balls which were really well received.

There is one really sweet girl there I wish could find a family... She has like five siblings over various ages though and would probably have to be separated to be practical. She was hanging out with us periodically, always has a smile, and has a very meek/mild personality. Unfortunately I don't think she is on the hosting program this time.

We got this Friday the 23rd as a court date.

Praises
- early court date
- all the paperwork made it out last Friday
- Melissa is doing much better but still under the weather

Prayer requests
- the next few days go well, especially with Ashley who was really tired today
- for a great court... The main adoption judge is out so we aren't exactly sure what to expect




I think this picture says it.

Just keeps getting better

Our translator is awesome and all the documents made it on a bus to Kyiv so we can get a scheduled court date.

We got to the school at 8am and went out playing with Amber shortly after. Some of the kids seem took take the opportunity to use our being there as yet another excuse to ditch class. Amber's best friend actually asked and got permission to spend time with us. Once I caught on to what was going on I took the iPad away from the boys getting in trouble and told them to go to class. Apparently some kids have a half day on Friday and some a full day... Had one trustworthy kid who could speak English ok -- the one who actually asked permission -- help me figure out which was which :)

The iPad is a huge hit and since there is no internet there I don't have to worry about the kids getting into trouble with it. I don't put anything on there i wouldn't let my 11 yr old daughter use. The boys tend to play one of the racing games and the girls alternate between barbie fashion studios and cake doodle. I frankly just leave it and let them play with it... Ashley doesn't mind letting them use her toy and the only "problem" I've had is forcing things so the less assertive kids get a chance.

We have been able to spend a lot of time with Amber and gotten to see her with her friends... And not so friends. Had some good conversations with the caregivers too.

Looking forward to tomorrow... Especially not having to get up at 6a to head out. Keep in mind it takes me two weeks to adjust to a timezone... Always been that way... And 6a here is 11p back home.

Location:Zaporizhzhya,Ukraine

A really great day

Today was just a really fantastic day... Probably in the top ten ever. We got to the orphanage around 8a. Anya wrote the letter saying she wanted to be adopted, we got a question on the birth certificate answered definitively the way it needed to be, got nearly all the documents we needed, and of course spent a great day with Anya and all the kids.




Anya insisted on changing her entire name... A little sad because I actually love her name Anya but happy she was comfortable telling us that much. She chose Amber Noelle. It will take some getting used to.

We talked and played a lot. UNO... The iPad was a huge hit. Delivered the NHFC packages... Except one where the girl moved to the trade school. The iPad has been great... Not only the games but we showed some picture and video of host families as well as one girl used it to write a short letter back to her host family... Which I was already able to send.

The kids and staff liked to talk and look at the photos a lot. I have not ever heard of such a supportive orphanage... Not even close. For whatever reason the kids understand that families are good, the realities of their situation, but at the same time have a healthy relationship with their school mates. I can assume it is a culture built by the staff and it is very healthy... And it is a poor orphanage so they do with little.

Our daughter Ashley instantly found several new best friends. She was having such a good time she asked if she could stay... Um no... But I did smile... I didn't want to leave this evening either even knowing I'll be back bright and early tomorrow.

This summer Amber had asked us if we were going to adopt any more kids after her... Wanting a no, and no was our plan. Today she asked if we were going to host or adopt any more after her... And then said she had several suggestions, specifically the adorable little girl standing next to her and wearing a pair of the ear rings we gave her yesterday.

Some of the other girls we know were giving me hugs... At one point Amber said to one of them "my dad"... I noticed she had been a little jealous and cuddling closer most of the day, wasn't minding and she was clearly happy. They were all her good friends. At the end of our time Amber said she was going to be standing there right at the driveway when we come tomorrow.

Current Prayer requests...
0. Melissa gets over her sinus infection
1. That the mayor is in early tomorrow and signs our document
2. That the inspector is in tomorrow and signs the corrected school documents
3. That we can get everything on the train to the SDA tomorrow evening
4. That the discussion at the courthouse goes well tomorrow
5. For a near term court date with a good judge

Location:Zaporizhzhya,Ukraine

Anya

Us right after getting Anya's SDA referral.

The train arrived this morning in Zap. It wasn't bad though I kept worrying about my daughter falling off the top bunk since she moves around so much at night... So got way less sleep than I normally would have.




Got to the inspector office around 2p and got the paperwork done shortly after for the referral and headed over to the school. Unfortunately the deputy director and director weren't there so we didn't get the official answer but it was clear Anya was coming and the inspector and social worker (?) asked her questions. We had rushed to embrace when she entered the room. It was a really good day.

Ashley had been saying, almost demanding, to go see Anya... Made it clear she didn't care about anything else but seeing Anya. We saw her smile more than any time at all on this trip. She really liked giving Anya the rose we got for her and the jewelry she had picked out in America for her.





The topic of Snezhana not going did come up... Which was good, it has been the elephant in the room on our calls for a while since we had not real answer to give her. When we told her she was only slightly bummed and was worried about losing her Ukrainian... Told her we would still go to the Russian speaking baptist church if she wanted and of course let her call Tanya her new friend from Ukraine in America... There is also Dennis though I understand he's not the level of communication she is looking for. We affirmed we want her to keep her language skills too as when she graduates from college, having three language fluent is a big step up... Especially in the DC area. I forgot to mention we are going to let her call h friends in Ukraine too.

We got as much paperwork done tonight as we could. We will be at the school at 8am to do more. We have to figure out with her what name she wants to go by tomorrow. We will also hopefully get the NHFC gifts handed out tomorrow too.

Location:Zaporizhzhya,Ukraine

Snezhana

Finally got a definitive answer from Snezhana... a no as expected. Now we can hopefully focus on a quick and fun trip with Anya... though we still have to break it to her that S isn't coming. I think she knows though and she'll be fine with it... she gets her own room and she knows S was causing some trouble in the house at the end of hosting that she was pretty appalled by.


We are still sad in many ways and wish her the best but it was good to get an answer she is confident in.  At some point we will let her know she needs to reach out to us if she wants to continue contact with us and Dennis.  We will keep sending letters to her grandmother on an ongoing basis and the orphanage director at least until she leaves... so she will always know how to get in touch with us.  I might send return postage to grandma next time in case she wants to write back.


We take the late night train to Zap tonight... hoping to see Anya tomorrow.  We have about 70lbs of gifts with us :)

SDA done

I don't think we remembered to take any pictures. It was all done quick and Ashley and Melissa are a bit under the weather with allergies.

It took a little bit of explaining with the whole Anya, Snezhana, and Dennis thing :). She also wanted to make sure we knew about Snezhana's siblings Violetta and Yaroslav... Yes yes, we know and they don't want to be adopted. It was the same SDA person who jumped in last time and seemed to be making up rules to make our lives more complicated but she was fine this time though everything by the book. I actually could tell her voice when we were outside and she was yelling down at our facilitator... Cringe.

We will get the referral for Anya tomorrow and hopefully get to the train tomorrow night. Found out some stuff we didn't know that got me choked up but the rest of the stuff was typical of SDA write ups.

Thank you for your prayers, keep them coming.

Location:Kyiv, Ukraine

What is Dennis doing?

He is out in the Sierra Nevada mountains camping with grandma and grandpa with Sam. He likes fishing, swimming, boating, and many other things.

Sam finally rode a bike without training wheels and is apparently riding it everywhere now.

Photos

Ashley with some of the players from a Ukraine soccer team at the Munich airport. They are actually deaf and were signing to each other.





The view from our apartment window. This is the golden gate... The gate to the old city at one point.



Melissa had her picture with this statue by the SDA back in December. Ashley and I posed this time.



Not a hard rock I think I will put on my list to visit. The SDA market place is dramatically more active now in the fall then it was when the place was covered in ice in December. We walked quite a bit if the market today but never did find the end.



Mom and dad trying to disgust Ashley.




Some folk parade... Busy square. An hour before there were protestors chanting to free the jailed ex-prime minister... Chanting in English for the cameras with several groups of peace officers watching on. We crossed the street and went on the other side. There was an Amway sponsored bicycling event and an evening concert here too.



A dance show that apparently happens a lot this time of year. We say the kids practicing earlier that day in independence square.



Eating dinner with a fellow adopting family. It was really late and Ashley was having a hard time coping but she did take the picture for us. The others all include her with a not so pleasant expression.

Anya has been texting a lot today and called. It took me a while to realize she is texting in Ukrainian and not Russian. It is very similar but google translate isn't happy if you don't get it right... And there are some letters Russian doesn't use and I needed to get the right keyboard enabled for the iPad. The iPad is fantastic for cross language IM.

Location:Kiev,Ukraine

SDA tomorrow

Posting with themiPad is a bit of a pain... I need to figure out the right number of pictures to not exceed upload limits. This will be a quick text blog. We met up with another couple here and ate dinner at the buffet we like. Today we hung out with part of the NHFC team. Anya has been calling and texting us constantly which has been great. With our dozen common words in our vocabulary. Yesterday she had her deputy director on the phone with her who was "very happy" we are here for her... Stark contrast to some directors who want to keep the kids in the orphanages so they can keep their jobs. Anya was disappointed it will be a few days... Patience is not her virtue her but I can't blame her... We can hardly wait to see her again and get her home. Snezhana... Well, still mostly no communication. Managed to get her on the phone for a minute to tell her we are her but that was it and she didn't want to talk. A translator will be there soon to get her to answer so we can move on... We need an actual no so we can tell Dennis. About to head back out with part of the NHFC team for dinner. Tomorrow we get up for a 9a SDA app't. Keep us in your prayers please.

Plans for Saturday

The only things we have to do today is to call people.

1. A missionary in Zap that is arranging an apartment for us.
2. Anya as promised.  We told her we would arrive on 9/10 just in case there were delays.  Given some of my revelations in past posts, we decided to hold the excitement and call her precisely on the day we said we would.
3. Snezhana as promised.  She has an answer to give.  All her interactions with us since she left hosting have given a no answer... unless we see a change in her we honestly want it to be a no.  But regardless, we promised we would call when we got to Kyiv... and us keeping that promise is important, to Anya too.

We hope to spend the afternoon with our facilitator going to see some things in Kyiv that we have not seen before.  Tomorrow I think we will take Ashley to the underground mall and the places we know... including a dry run walk over to the SDA to check out the timing. We have the first meeting of the morning which hopefully means we won't have to wait an hour.


Praises:

1. Made it here safe and sound without having left anything important

2. The boys seem to be having a blast with grandma and grandpa

3. We are here and desperately praying that the adoption experience we have is the one God wants for us

4. For the 1:1 time with my oldest daughter Ashley

5. For the phones some FB friends sent us left over from their trip


Prayers:

1. That, God willing, the process will go smoothly and quickly.  That the hearts of the people we would meet would be softened and supportive.

2. God to protect and drive our finances both here and at home

3. That we would stay healthy

4. That Anya would stay strong understanding we love her and will support her through this and her entire life.

5. That we will be able to show love to the other children at the orphanage.

6. That I will be able to get reliable internet connectivity by Sunday night so I can work.

7. For all our kids and care givers back home for safety, health, and sanity.  That we can communicate regularly.

We have arrived

It was a very uneventful trip.  We had 1 hour delays for both legs but we had a long layover so it didn't really matter.  Everyone did well though Melissa looks like she has been hypnotized.

We got picked up, drove to the new apartment just down the street from the SDA, changed and went out to a local restaurant.  Melissa and I had borscht which was pretty good but not as good as home.  Melissa and Ashley had Pelmeni but the sour cream was definitely different so they didn't like it much.  This restaurant is more expensive than the buffet by the previous apartment so I may see about walking to the other one from here... and this one has english menus which feels like cheating the experience.

The nearest money changer was open to 8:30p so I, and 20 other american tourists from a tour group, decided to us it.  I'm not sure I could ever do the tour group thing... 20 people walking around like they were part of a high school class with a bunch of preplanned group excursions... just doesn't seem like me.

We got the dossiers from other people and the peanut butter we take into the right hands.

Ashley did really well on the flight... better than Melissa.  After dinner she started getting stubborn but once we managed to get her in the shower, she came out and zonked on the bed completely.

Speaking of beds... I'm weird, to people who know me that comes to no surprise... I tend to look at certain things in upside down ways.  They had a two bedroom apartment available but we chose the one bedroom.  It was more expensive but I already told Melissa I didn't feel comfortable with Ashley sleeping in a room by herself.  But even in this scenario, I took the couch... as soon as I sat on it I knew I wanted it. It is a hard foam couch.  One of my problems traveling and sleeping are the mattresses... I don't even like our 10yr old one at home.  I like very firm beds and they help my back not hurt.

That said... I'm the one who woke up after 5hrs of sleep at 2:30a feeling refereshed.  Just took an Ambien to get back to bed so if this gets loopier than normal that is why.

Let down

We got to talk to Anya yesterday with a translator at the school. I think it was uncomfortable for her a little... She knows the translators we use in the US. It is cool when we call that two girls ran to go get her. It does mean she probably hasn't kept quiet about being adopted but we had no expectation she would... But it likely means these girls are excited for her.

She was a bit bummed in the phone and just wanted to know when we are coming. The hosting interview team was there that day and she ran out to meet their vehicle so we got a nice picture. Unfortunately the bag with the gifts was delayed so they didn't have the gift bag she was expecting. We have watched a pattern with Anya that she can shift in attitude quickly to sadness when a disappointment comes... Even minor depression. I suspect it is just due to having been let down so many times over many years. She doesn't even care why, she just knows she was let down again. Melissa and I are going to watch that with her and make even a bigger effort to focus on making sure we come through every single time... Part of it will being careful with our plans too as even simple things like not being able to go to a park because of it raining will likely bother her. It'll be part of the bonding process.

We are really excited... Melissa is in the air taking the boys to grandma and grandpa who are camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains right now. She comes back today... Yes, four legs and over ten hours in the air today. They slept at a hotel at the airport last night so she didn't add an extra two hours of driving in traffic to it. They seemed to do really well last night. Packing is nearly done and we are awaiting a few more things we are taking with us for people. We are thinking of taking the gifts as carry in given the trouble people are having with bags though we aren't totally sure all the contents are allowed on carry on so we will see.

Right now just finishing off work and hoping the weather forecast is wrong and it will dry up for a few hours so I can mow the lawn one more time before we leave. Thank you all for the prayers.

Calling All kids

Wasn't sure what to write here tonight. I think the feeling is relief as well as sadness over immaturity and the lack of examples of successful and healthy lifes to point the way.

We called S yesterday.. We got a no pickup, then a pick up with Dennis stating hi Oleg. A bit later Melissa tried again and Oleg answered talking with Dennis for 90 seconds. Eventually Oleg started yelling at S to get on the phone to talk with Dennis. She came reluctantly with a bad attitude and decided to be sassy over his use of English to talk. Fortunately there phone died shortly after.

We will still try to call her when we arrive in Kyiv as we have promised when we have a translator with us. We expect a no... Which is the best answer for my family unless she has a significant change of heart.

We caught Anya last night but she was truly tired and it seems they left for the circus today. We will keep trying now that we know a cell we can call.

Ashley has a great idea on a personalized gift for her from Ash.... We will get that weds.

We are just really excited that we should be hugging Anya in ten days.