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.