Well here we are in our flat in Kiev all packed up with a few hours to kill. Hmmmmm, sound familiar to anyone?
Yesterday we slept in and then did a whirlwind shopping spree for everyone back home. Fun times were had over on Andrew's Descent as we found many uniquely Ukrainian gifts for family and friends back home who have supported us while we do this.
We have a long layover in Amsterdam tonight and have gotten a room in the Mercure Hotel inside the airport....Anyone know if we have to clear customs before we check in? We'd really like to avoid that as it would be a supreme pain....anyway we get on our flight tomorrow afternoon and should be home in time to celebrate the New Year with our family.
It is a shame that we are missing New Years in Kiev.....the whole downtown is all dressed up and there are people everywhere....very exciting and beautiful. Anton can send us pictures and we'll enjoy it vicariously through the wonders of digital photos and computers.
Talk to everyone later,
Mike and Donnna
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
12/28/07 - Train Ride from #@$& and Consulate Fun!
Hello again & welcome to another chapter of "The Lebsacks in Ukraine".
After saying a tearful goodbye to Juliyana last night we boarded the "Night Train" to Kyiv. We had a First Class Coupe' but the ride was anything but....It was seriously 95 degrees inside the train (I saw the thermometer to prove it).....no windows that would open....and we were dressed for outside weather (long underwear, turtlenecks, sweater....you get the idea). Our bags were inaccessible and we had top bunks (even hotter) and someone kept sliding the door to our coupe' shut so that it was like an oven. I got a couple of words of advice for anyone traveling the train in Ukraine....dress light and get a BOTTOM BUNK. PS - Nobody slept much (like thats a surprise). On the bright side, Helen you will love this part of the trip in January.
After grabbing a couple of quick hours of sleep we dragged our semi-comatose bodies out of bed and headed off for the Consulate. We got our power of attorney (which they said we wouldn't need....we got it anyway) and then signed the medical declaration and our I-600. Now I stongly recommend that nobody try to fill out the I-600 in a sleep deprived semi-comatose state. By the third try poor Donna was in tears and pretty much had given up. The lady behind the counter graciously accepted it despite the many cross outs etc....
For those going in be sure you know all the particulars of you child such as Original full given name, DOB, where born, region, and what orphanage they are in, what name you gave them etc. Its a really good thing I had copied all this info into my tiny notebook (for completely different reasons) because we had no phone (they take that at the gate) and it would have been difficult to call our facilitator outside.
While inside we met two other families just finishing their adoptions and getting the visa to leave. One family from Skenecdady, NY had been in country only 27 days and were leaving with their daughter tonight. They admitted to being very lucky with the timing as every element seemed to line up perfectly with business days so that there wasn't any down time waiting for holidays or weekends or someone's vacation etc...
The other family conversely had been in country for nine weeks (sound familiar Jennifer H.) and was finally getting to go home with their daughter tomorrow. Their adoption was for an older child that they had hosted last Christmas in TX.
Every adoption here is soooooo different and none are ever easy. This journey is not for the faint of heart or those with only mild convictions. Donna and I are really truly beginning to understand the bond that everyone on UA Angels share. This is an intense and truly special experience that nobody can understand unless they themselves have done it.
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
After saying a tearful goodbye to Juliyana last night we boarded the "Night Train" to Kyiv. We had a First Class Coupe' but the ride was anything but....It was seriously 95 degrees inside the train (I saw the thermometer to prove it).....no windows that would open....and we were dressed for outside weather (long underwear, turtlenecks, sweater....you get the idea). Our bags were inaccessible and we had top bunks (even hotter) and someone kept sliding the door to our coupe' shut so that it was like an oven. I got a couple of words of advice for anyone traveling the train in Ukraine....dress light and get a BOTTOM BUNK. PS - Nobody slept much (like thats a surprise). On the bright side, Helen you will love this part of the trip in January.
After grabbing a couple of quick hours of sleep we dragged our semi-comatose bodies out of bed and headed off for the Consulate. We got our power of attorney (which they said we wouldn't need....we got it anyway) and then signed the medical declaration and our I-600. Now I stongly recommend that nobody try to fill out the I-600 in a sleep deprived semi-comatose state. By the third try poor Donna was in tears and pretty much had given up. The lady behind the counter graciously accepted it despite the many cross outs etc....
For those going in be sure you know all the particulars of you child such as Original full given name, DOB, where born, region, and what orphanage they are in, what name you gave them etc. Its a really good thing I had copied all this info into my tiny notebook (for completely different reasons) because we had no phone (they take that at the gate) and it would have been difficult to call our facilitator outside.
While inside we met two other families just finishing their adoptions and getting the visa to leave. One family from Skenecdady, NY had been in country only 27 days and were leaving with their daughter tonight. They admitted to being very lucky with the timing as every element seemed to line up perfectly with business days so that there wasn't any down time waiting for holidays or weekends or someone's vacation etc...
The other family conversely had been in country for nine weeks (sound familiar Jennifer H.) and was finally getting to go home with their daughter tomorrow. Their adoption was for an older child that they had hosted last Christmas in TX.
Every adoption here is soooooo different and none are ever easy. This journey is not for the faint of heart or those with only mild convictions. Donna and I are really truly beginning to understand the bond that everyone on UA Angels share. This is an intense and truly special experience that nobody can understand unless they themselves have done it.
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
12/27/07 - Juliyana Anastasia Lebsack
It's offical, we had court yesterday and were granted the honor of being Juliyana's parents. As always nothing here is the same for everyone. We went to court and the Spanish couple who were adopting also had their case heard first. Their proceeding went fairly smoothly and after the hearing they were given a very quick descision.
We on the other hand were somewhat discombobulated from the start. This was the first time our facilitator had ever worked in this region and apparently the "Judge" needed a letter (before the hearing could start) from the US Consulate stating that the United States would allow the child to enter after the adoption was completed. So I quickly jumped onto the phone w/the adoption section at the consulate and they bent over backwards for us and got the letter to us in about ten minutes (wow!). That's got to be some sort of record for personnalized govt service and I want to publicly thank the consulate for their service.
Our translator also needed a complete copy of her documents (passport & document as a translator) so Konstantin had to do some additional scrambling to get these for her. Our hearing was very long and my job in the Coast Guard and Donna's as the director of a preschool did not translate well and had to be explained at length to help the Judge understand. It was also very difficult for the Judge to understand that Donna would be taking Juliyana to attend the pre-school which she directs. Initially the judge just thought Donna was going to leave her in the corner with some toys while she worked and of course she did not approve of that. This was very stressful for us as you might well imagine. The judge took a very long time to render her decision (15-20 minutes) which seemed like an eternity and even Konstantin admitted to being a little bit nervous about the outcome, but eventually it ended well (Colleen and Ali I have a very special new student for you). There were hugs and kisses all around followed by a celebratory bottle of wine with the director, the Spanish couple, and ourselves later that evening at the orphanage.
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
We on the other hand were somewhat discombobulated from the start. This was the first time our facilitator had ever worked in this region and apparently the "Judge" needed a letter (before the hearing could start) from the US Consulate stating that the United States would allow the child to enter after the adoption was completed. So I quickly jumped onto the phone w/the adoption section at the consulate and they bent over backwards for us and got the letter to us in about ten minutes (wow!). That's got to be some sort of record for personnalized govt service and I want to publicly thank the consulate for their service.
Our translator also needed a complete copy of her documents (passport & document as a translator) so Konstantin had to do some additional scrambling to get these for her. Our hearing was very long and my job in the Coast Guard and Donna's as the director of a preschool did not translate well and had to be explained at length to help the Judge understand. It was also very difficult for the Judge to understand that Donna would be taking Juliyana to attend the pre-school which she directs. Initially the judge just thought Donna was going to leave her in the corner with some toys while she worked and of course she did not approve of that. This was very stressful for us as you might well imagine. The judge took a very long time to render her decision (15-20 minutes) which seemed like an eternity and even Konstantin admitted to being a little bit nervous about the outcome, but eventually it ended well (Colleen and Ali I have a very special new student for you). There were hugs and kisses all around followed by a celebratory bottle of wine with the director, the Spanish couple, and ourselves later that evening at the orphanage.
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
12/26/07 - Impact of Holiday Shutdown
All,
Holiday shutdown in UA is delaying our adoption significantly. We go to court tomorrow and then we'll be sitting on our thumbs unable to make any further progress on the birth certificate or passport until no earlier than the 9th and potentially the 20th (yikes!) for the region we are in. That said, we've decided to come home during the waiting period & UA gov't holiday shutdown. Anyway...we have a 15 HR layover in Amsterdam and were wondering if anyone had suggestions on where to stay (vice the concrete floor of the airport)?
We're bummed about the delay but we'll be able to square our daughter's room away and get the clothes that we want to bring back....Donna will return without me but with a friend in mid-Jan and her mom has said she may tag along with her too. We miss our boys a bunch and seeing them again will be great! In the end, I will stay back and manage work, hockey, indoor soccer, boy scouts, tae kwon do, and our daily life at home and Donna will come back to UA and bring our daughter home.
We'll update everyone as best we can.
Sandra, I guess this answers your question.
Take Care,
Mike and Donna
Holiday shutdown in UA is delaying our adoption significantly. We go to court tomorrow and then we'll be sitting on our thumbs unable to make any further progress on the birth certificate or passport until no earlier than the 9th and potentially the 20th (yikes!) for the region we are in. That said, we've decided to come home during the waiting period & UA gov't holiday shutdown. Anyway...we have a 15 HR layover in Amsterdam and were wondering if anyone had suggestions on where to stay (vice the concrete floor of the airport)?
We're bummed about the delay but we'll be able to square our daughter's room away and get the clothes that we want to bring back....Donna will return without me but with a friend in mid-Jan and her mom has said she may tag along with her too. We miss our boys a bunch and seeing them again will be great! In the end, I will stay back and manage work, hockey, indoor soccer, boy scouts, tae kwon do, and our daily life at home and Donna will come back to UA and bring our daughter home.
We'll update everyone as best we can.
Sandra, I guess this answers your question.
Take Care,
Mike and Donna
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
12/25/07 - Christmas Day
Hello from UA.
Donna and I had a very good visit with our daughter this morning. She spends most of our visits laughing and smiling. Her favorite foods so far are yogurt (yoghurt), bananas (banan), apples (yablaka), oranges (angelo), juice (suk, pronounced sook), and sweets (confety). We played soccer for a while in their gym today and spent about a half hour outside. She got the picture book out on her own today and has momma, poppa, and Jacob down pat. She also knows what her house looks like. She needs a little bit of help to tell Jesse and Jeremiah apart yet but mostly I think she's just having difficulty pronouncing their names as the is no "J" sound in Ukrainian.
We talked to our boys this afternoon and their Christmas Day was a very big hit. We heard all about it while we were out buying a coat and snow pants for our daughter.
Shopping here is very difficult....nobody has everything you need. Some stores have socks and underwear while another has the coat and finally another might have pajamas. You end up going all over creation just to get a few things. The stores are ultra-tiny as well...they are more of stalls rather than stores. When you go in you get swarmed by two or three people trying to help you find what you are looking for. We have found that if you don't see the right size you have to ask because they only put out "display" items (kinda like shoe shopping) and have to dig around in back to get the size you want. This is a new concept for us when it comes to clothes shopping.
We both talked to our families in Rhode Island and Washington tonight as well. We miss you all and we'll be home before you know it. Merry Christmas everyone.
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
Donna and I had a very good visit with our daughter this morning. She spends most of our visits laughing and smiling. Her favorite foods so far are yogurt (yoghurt), bananas (banan), apples (yablaka), oranges (angelo), juice (suk, pronounced sook), and sweets (confety). We played soccer for a while in their gym today and spent about a half hour outside. She got the picture book out on her own today and has momma, poppa, and Jacob down pat. She also knows what her house looks like. She needs a little bit of help to tell Jesse and Jeremiah apart yet but mostly I think she's just having difficulty pronouncing their names as the is no "J" sound in Ukrainian.
We talked to our boys this afternoon and their Christmas Day was a very big hit. We heard all about it while we were out buying a coat and snow pants for our daughter.
Shopping here is very difficult....nobody has everything you need. Some stores have socks and underwear while another has the coat and finally another might have pajamas. You end up going all over creation just to get a few things. The stores are ultra-tiny as well...they are more of stalls rather than stores. When you go in you get swarmed by two or three people trying to help you find what you are looking for. We have found that if you don't see the right size you have to ask because they only put out "display" items (kinda like shoe shopping) and have to dig around in back to get the size you want. This is a new concept for us when it comes to clothes shopping.
We both talked to our families in Rhode Island and Washington tonight as well. We miss you all and we'll be home before you know it. Merry Christmas everyone.
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
Monday, December 24, 2007
12/24/07 - Christmas Eve
Hello again from UA,
So today was a trip back to reality. Our daughter was not the perfectly well behaved angel that we have dreamed of for so long but more of a typical 5 year old child pushing all the limits and all her parents' buttons. She had a rough day and that made it rough on us....for once the three hours didn't fly by. Lots of Nyet today and a few time outs as well as the loss of outside time because of the misbehaving. All that said, she is cute as ever and her smile lights up the whole room...even when she is being mischevious.
So for Christmas Eve Donna and I went looking for a little something sparkley for her without success. Instead we found a very cute outfit for our daughter and had Dinner in McDonalds. I can say for a fact this is the first time we've ever had double cheeseburgers for a holiday dinner. All that said, at least we were together. Tomorrow will likely be tougher for us as this is the first time (and hopefully the last) we have ever been away from our children on Christmas.......sigh.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Michael and Donna
Sunday, December 23, 2007
12/23/07 - Wireless Solutions and Daily Routine
Hello again everyone.
We finally have our wireless solution up and running. It's a 3G DVDO USB modem running off of peoplenet here in Ukraine. It took about 4 taxi rides and 6 hours to solve all the issues (including returning a pc/mca card which was not compatible with my computer...the blonde "helping" us is pictured in Webster's alongside the definition for "Dumb Blonde". Does anyone have a prescription for high blood pressure meds they can send to me?). On the up side, The DVDO Modem should be compatible with our wireless broadband providers in Duluth. If not, it will go to somebody else in UA Angels.
Not a whole lot new to report otherwise. Our Daughter is cute as ever and getting a lot more comfortable with us. Today we had our first battle of wills ending in tears for her as I "held her" in time out. All was forgiven in a moment and I got a hug and a kiss after our little disagreement. She has the "1....2.....3....or else" thing down and comes running when we get to "Dva" or two in english. She is quite the strong willed pistol and really will fit in perfectly with our family.
Our routine for daily visits is play for about an hour, send her to breakfast (zaftrak), go outside for a while, then come in and play until noon when she goes for lunch (obed) and we leave to run daily errands and so forth.
Today we found a couple of children's books in english at a sidewalk vendor near the orphanage. They are quite old but one in particular is quite appropriate as it has rhymes for teaching the alphabet. This will be very good for our daughter. She is picking up a few words of english here and there already. Today she changed the batteries in the camera with almost no help at all. She is quite the budding photographer and in fact anything electronic is a big winner with her. I think we are going to be in the market for an MP3 player this week.
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
We finally have our wireless solution up and running. It's a 3G DVDO USB modem running off of peoplenet here in Ukraine. It took about 4 taxi rides and 6 hours to solve all the issues (including returning a pc/mca card which was not compatible with my computer...the blonde "helping" us is pictured in Webster's alongside the definition for "Dumb Blonde". Does anyone have a prescription for high blood pressure meds they can send to me?). On the up side, The DVDO Modem should be compatible with our wireless broadband providers in Duluth. If not, it will go to somebody else in UA Angels.
Not a whole lot new to report otherwise. Our Daughter is cute as ever and getting a lot more comfortable with us. Today we had our first battle of wills ending in tears for her as I "held her" in time out. All was forgiven in a moment and I got a hug and a kiss after our little disagreement. She has the "1....2.....3....or else" thing down and comes running when we get to "Dva" or two in english. She is quite the strong willed pistol and really will fit in perfectly with our family.
Our routine for daily visits is play for about an hour, send her to breakfast (zaftrak), go outside for a while, then come in and play until noon when she goes for lunch (obed) and we leave to run daily errands and so forth.
Today we found a couple of children's books in english at a sidewalk vendor near the orphanage. They are quite old but one in particular is quite appropriate as it has rhymes for teaching the alphabet. This will be very good for our daughter. She is picking up a few words of english here and there already. Today she changed the batteries in the camera with almost no help at all. She is quite the budding photographer and in fact anything electronic is a big winner with her. I think we are going to be in the market for an MP3 player this week.
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
Saturday, December 22, 2007
12/22/07 - Our Life In-Region
Hello again,
Our landlord came to the flat yesterday to fix our kitchen sink for the second time. It appears our sink might not have been designed to actually wash dishes in
:-). This was the second time that it had backed up but at least she left us the sink plunger so we can unstop it ourselves. We have hired our Translator to stay with us for a few extra days just to get us through the bumps of acclimatizing to life in-region. The town we are in is very spread out and it is difficult to get anywhere without a taxi. This make little things like getting back and forth to the Detsky Dom (orphanage), the grochery, or the internet cafe' quite an adventure.
We bought a cable for our translator's cell phone today and that is how we are updating the blog currently. I think we may just dive in and buy a G3 Card because the speed of a GPRS card will be similar to a cellular connection and two words describe that, SLOW and UNRELIABLE. Konstantine is looking for a GPRS card for us in Kiev so we will talk to him tonight to see if he was successful. The G3 card is roughly the equivalent of DSL so thats probably where we need to go.
Our visit with our daughter was awesome today. The three hours literally flew by and too soon it was time to go. She continues to amaze us. Today we introduced her to the computer and she was a very quick study. I hazard to guess that Click-n-read will get quite a workout back home. I can't wait until our waiting period is over so that we can post photos and such for everyone to see. I think we're going to head downtown in a little while to buy tea and sugar. Mostly we just want to get out of the apartment and walk around for a little while.
We miss our boys more than I ever imagined. Mom and Dad are doing great with them and really holding down the fort. Already we have missed a few firsts though and that is tough. Jesse scored his first hockey goal of the season last weekend and won his first belt in Tae Kwon Do two Wednesday's ago. Jacob is our first teenager and we missed out on being there for that too. We missed Jeremiah's Christmas program last week though mom and dad video taped it for us. (thanks!)
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
Our landlord came to the flat yesterday to fix our kitchen sink for the second time. It appears our sink might not have been designed to actually wash dishes in
:-). This was the second time that it had backed up but at least she left us the sink plunger so we can unstop it ourselves. We have hired our Translator to stay with us for a few extra days just to get us through the bumps of acclimatizing to life in-region. The town we are in is very spread out and it is difficult to get anywhere without a taxi. This make little things like getting back and forth to the Detsky Dom (orphanage), the grochery, or the internet cafe' quite an adventure.
We bought a cable for our translator's cell phone today and that is how we are updating the blog currently. I think we may just dive in and buy a G3 Card because the speed of a GPRS card will be similar to a cellular connection and two words describe that, SLOW and UNRELIABLE. Konstantine is looking for a GPRS card for us in Kiev so we will talk to him tonight to see if he was successful. The G3 card is roughly the equivalent of DSL so thats probably where we need to go.
Our visit with our daughter was awesome today. The three hours literally flew by and too soon it was time to go. She continues to amaze us. Today we introduced her to the computer and she was a very quick study. I hazard to guess that Click-n-read will get quite a workout back home. I can't wait until our waiting period is over so that we can post photos and such for everyone to see. I think we're going to head downtown in a little while to buy tea and sugar. Mostly we just want to get out of the apartment and walk around for a little while.
We miss our boys more than I ever imagined. Mom and Dad are doing great with them and really holding down the fort. Already we have missed a few firsts though and that is tough. Jesse scored his first hockey goal of the season last weekend and won his first belt in Tae Kwon Do two Wednesday's ago. Jacob is our first teenager and we missed out on being there for that too. We missed Jeremiah's Christmas program last week though mom and dad video taped it for us. (thanks!)
Our best to all,
Mike and Donna
Friday, December 21, 2007
12/21/07 - Happy Birthday Jacob
Happy Birthday son! Mom and I are so proud. Have fun at the movies with you brothers and friends tonight!
Today we got word that our Court Date will be the 27th of December. This is a huge relief as it means our 10 day mandatory wait will run concurrently with the holiday closure for Gov't services here. Whew! Anyway, the next hurdle will be Birth Certificates and UA Passport for our Daughter. After that will be a medical exam and getting the visa from the US Consulate. We are now moving from being exhausted to being bored as we wait, wait, wait, oh yea did I mention wait.
Anyhow, connectivity in region is awful and I'm working on a wireless solution. Hopefully this will be done by Wednesday. I have a better post on the flash drive....but alas the Internet Cafe' will not allow me to hook it up to the system.
Our best to everyone,
Donna and Michael
Today was a milestone! Konstantine was able to get the last signature from the Regional Inspector and left for Kiev this morning. He should be arriving there soon and submit our package to the SDA. Konstantine should get the approval back from the SDA on Wednesday and then he will take the train back here so that we can go to court at 11AM on Thursday the 27th. Getting court scheduled before the close of business on the 28th was the biggest hurdle we had to get over......Whew! Of course there is a lot that could happen between now and then (knocking on wood right now).
Today is Jacob's Thirteenth Birthday. We called him at 6:40am his time today and woke him up. He is excited to be thirteen though about all he wanted to tell us this morning was that he was tired and couldn't we just let him go back to sleep. Nothing like having your kids take your love for granted :-)
I think the big plan for him was to go to see Nat'l Treasure II tonight with his brothers and grandparents. On the bright side here in region.....Donna and I are visiting the Orphanage (Detsky Dom) from 9-12 each day. After that it gets pretty dull as we do our daily stuff around the apartment and try not to die of boredom! The good news is we have a computer....the bad news is that we only have one! (Sharon, thanks again for loaning us your movies before you left). Not much else to report. I think the next hurdle after court and the 10 day waiting period will be getting the birth certificate and the UA passport. I suspect some expedite fees will be needed as most of the country seems to take the new year holiday pretty seriously until around the 15th of January or so. We have our fingers crossed that our 10 day wait won't turn into 15 or 20 days. Doncha just love the way they do things here!
All our best,
Donna and Michael
Boys - Be good for Poppy and Grammy over the holiday's. Jesse, only an hour of video games per day buddy...don't abuse grammy's good nature. Tell Poppy to take you to the skating ring or out sledding. Jacob, stay on top of the garbage for Grammy...she shouldn't have to ask. Jeremiah, make sure Beanie gets a can of the "good stuff" every now and then. We love you and can't wait to bring your sister home to meet you.
Today we got word that our Court Date will be the 27th of December. This is a huge relief as it means our 10 day mandatory wait will run concurrently with the holiday closure for Gov't services here. Whew! Anyway, the next hurdle will be Birth Certificates and UA Passport for our Daughter. After that will be a medical exam and getting the visa from the US Consulate. We are now moving from being exhausted to being bored as we wait, wait, wait, oh yea did I mention wait.
Anyhow, connectivity in region is awful and I'm working on a wireless solution. Hopefully this will be done by Wednesday. I have a better post on the flash drive....but alas the Internet Cafe' will not allow me to hook it up to the system.
Our best to everyone,
Donna and Michael
Today was a milestone! Konstantine was able to get the last signature from the Regional Inspector and left for Kiev this morning. He should be arriving there soon and submit our package to the SDA. Konstantine should get the approval back from the SDA on Wednesday and then he will take the train back here so that we can go to court at 11AM on Thursday the 27th. Getting court scheduled before the close of business on the 28th was the biggest hurdle we had to get over......Whew! Of course there is a lot that could happen between now and then (knocking on wood right now).
Today is Jacob's Thirteenth Birthday. We called him at 6:40am his time today and woke him up. He is excited to be thirteen though about all he wanted to tell us this morning was that he was tired and couldn't we just let him go back to sleep. Nothing like having your kids take your love for granted :-)
I think the big plan for him was to go to see Nat'l Treasure II tonight with his brothers and grandparents. On the bright side here in region.....Donna and I are visiting the Orphanage (Detsky Dom) from 9-12 each day. After that it gets pretty dull as we do our daily stuff around the apartment and try not to die of boredom! The good news is we have a computer....the bad news is that we only have one! (Sharon, thanks again for loaning us your movies before you left). Not much else to report. I think the next hurdle after court and the 10 day waiting period will be getting the birth certificate and the UA passport. I suspect some expedite fees will be needed as most of the country seems to take the new year holiday pretty seriously until around the 15th of January or so. We have our fingers crossed that our 10 day wait won't turn into 15 or 20 days. Doncha just love the way they do things here!
All our best,
Donna and Michael
Boys - Be good for Poppy and Grammy over the holiday's. Jesse, only an hour of video games per day buddy...don't abuse grammy's good nature. Tell Poppy to take you to the skating ring or out sledding. Jacob, stay on top of the garbage for Grammy...she shouldn't have to ask. Jeremiah, make sure Beanie gets a can of the "good stuff" every now and then. We love you and can't wait to bring your sister home to meet you.
12/20/07 - The Washing Machine
All,
I have a much more comprehensive post on my flash drive but the internet cafe' won't allow me to hook it up. I am working on a wireless solution (GPRS Card) but I probably won't have that until next Wednesday.
We are completely wrung out. Today was full of emotional highs and lows. We played with our daughter for 2 hours (high), found out the final signature on the orphanage medical certificate was missing (low), spent most of the afternoon in a taxi with our interpreter going to the city center to finally get the signature (high), our translator got the appointment with the judge (high) but found that the expedite fees for court would be exhorbidantly high (low), our translator drove 300km round trip to the city of our daughter's birth and got the final document completed for the court file (high) but they wouldn't give it to him because it must be mailed (low), we completed all the papers for signature by the regional inspector (high) but she was gone when we got to her office (low). Tomorrow is a new day. Our Translator (Konstantine) is going to get the Regional Inspector's signature in the morning and then get onto the Judge's schedule for next week (Thursday we hope). After all is said and done he is driving to Kiev to submit our package to the SDA before they close at 5pm.
We are wrung out and so is our facilitation team. I know we will be bringing our daughter home soon but this process is very exhausting. Hurry, wait, hurry, wait, I don't know, No not that way but this way, I don't know....that is just the way it is done here.... This is the flavor of life here and it is very tiring.
We are keeping our eyes on the prize. Boys, we love you very much. Be good for Grammy and Poppy. Happy Birthday Jacob. 13 years old is a very big deal. I'm so proud to have you for my son! Thanks for everything you are doing for us Mom and Dad. keep the comments coming and we will be home before you know it.
Photos are of our daughter's bedroom and classroom at the orphanage.
All our best,
Michael and Donna.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
12/19/07 - The Festival of St. Nikoli
Today was filled with paperwork like you wouldn't believe....and there is still more to do tomorrow. We visited briefly at lunch today w/our Daughter and really enjoyed our time with her. They put on a very very darling pagent today and our little bundle of joy was just beautiful as she danced and sang. The battery of our video camera ran out just as she finished her dance..perfect timing. We have so much to say but very little time as I am using my facilitator's Konstantine, a relative miracle worker with the red tape here in the region!) computer and Cell phone to post this. Rest assured we are doing our very best to keep information up to date and we post it whenever we get the chance. We'll post again soon.
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
Our Best,
Donna and Michael
12/18/07 - Getting to know our Daughter
Hello Everyone,
I wanted to open by apologizing for being cryptic. We are not yet comfortable printing the name of our referral or the region we are in….however, rest assured we had a great day with our Daughter-to-be. She is a dynamic and wonderful child. She is very strong willed; in short, a real pistol. These traits probably have allowed her to succeed within the orphanage system. She is quite the little leader…perhaps a little too forceful from time to time, but certainly nothing that time, love, stability, and boundaries can’t solve. We are truly blessed. We got to see her in rehearsal for a St. Nicolas pageant and played with her for a couple of hours. The director here is a bit cautious and does not sign permission without watching your interactions with your perspective child for a couple of days so like everything else in Ukraine we wait. We are hoping to have her permission by Thursday so that Konstantine will submit it the balance of our paperwork to the SDA on Friday. If all goes well, we will have court before the end of the year. We have found that nothing is shut down until the 30th of December and then it gets crazy with the Ukrainian holiday. As you can see, we have been busy and have not had any time to get to the internet cafe'. We will continue to post as often as we can but bear with us we are trying to write and save in the evenings so we will not forget what has happened along the way. Keep posting your comments, we really enjoy reading them.
Amy,
Donna and I really messed up the time zone thing this morning. We hope you were able to get back to sleep.
All the Best,
Donna and Michael
I wanted to open by apologizing for being cryptic. We are not yet comfortable printing the name of our referral or the region we are in….however, rest assured we had a great day with our Daughter-to-be. She is a dynamic and wonderful child. She is very strong willed; in short, a real pistol. These traits probably have allowed her to succeed within the orphanage system. She is quite the little leader…perhaps a little too forceful from time to time, but certainly nothing that time, love, stability, and boundaries can’t solve. We are truly blessed. We got to see her in rehearsal for a St. Nicolas pageant and played with her for a couple of hours. The director here is a bit cautious and does not sign permission without watching your interactions with your perspective child for a couple of days so like everything else in Ukraine we wait. We are hoping to have her permission by Thursday so that Konstantine will submit it the balance of our paperwork to the SDA on Friday. If all goes well, we will have court before the end of the year. We have found that nothing is shut down until the 30th of December and then it gets crazy with the Ukrainian holiday. As you can see, we have been busy and have not had any time to get to the internet cafe'. We will continue to post as often as we can but bear with us we are trying to write and save in the evenings so we will not forget what has happened along the way. Keep posting your comments, we really enjoy reading them.
Amy,
Donna and I really messed up the time zone thing this morning. We hope you were able to get back to sleep.
All the Best,
Donna and Michael
12/17/07 - She Had Us At Hello
As you might have guessed, today we met the little girl of our dreams. She is a beautiful, wonderful little girl with a dynamite smile. My heart skipped a beat when she walked into the room.
There was absolutely nothing normal about our introduction to our Daughter. We arrived at the Regional Inspector’s office this morning and ran into a difficulty with the document which our translator was holding. The Regional Inspector did not approve and had us use another lady as our translator for our appointment. It was minor, but an earmark of how things seem to work in this region (we can’t tell you which region we are in yet:)). We then went to the Orphanage with the Regional Inspector, our Facilitator, and Regional Translator. Initially we went to the Orphanage Director’s office and all of us crammed our way in for what I thought would be a sit down to simply meet the Orphanage Director. Our daughters’s teacher (Zora) came in and gave us a full briefing on her background and performance as a student and her prognosis for progress. It was punctuated by many references to her aggressive behavior (that scared us a bit) around the other children. She was also billed as being below normal in many areas of her studies and speech development. After this question and answer session they brought Anastasia into the office. We were very, very surprised at this. We completely expected to go to a more private room to meet her and perhaps play a bit. Instead we were put under the microscope immediately and our reaction to her was gauged by everyone there. Her smile melted my heart immediately and I had to struggle to keep myself firmly planted to the plan to meet her slowly and on her terms. We also wanted Dr. Yuri’s evaluation of her before we got carried away on our tidal wave of emotions. This was a very difficult and unexpected event. We talked with her a bit via the translator and she smiled several small smiles that lit up her entire face and our universe. After too short a bit, she had to return to her class and we were left to talk to the director. The Regional Inspector and the Regional Translator left and Dr Yuri arrived. We spoke to the Director via Dr. Yuri for quite some time. It seems this Director is very suspicious of prospective parents who immediately jump in emotionally upon meeting a child. She had a very bad experience with that reaction two years ago. We went with Dr. Yuri to evaluate her. She was eating lunch so we had to wait………… Dr. Yuri spent about 45 Minutes with her and was very pleased with his experience. Donna and I are going to be visiting her every day from now until she comes home with us. Our challenge is to win not only heart (she has ours already) but also the Director’s approval. Like we said, this meeting was completely unlike what I expected….and yet it was much more than we could have ever dreamed for. Tomorrow we will go to play with her and get to know her better. The Director has given us freedom to follow her all around the orphanage and into her classrooms so that we may see her interact with the other children as well. I am so excited that I have been awake all night thinking about her. We will post more of our experience latter.
all our
best,
Donna and Michael
There was absolutely nothing normal about our introduction to our Daughter. We arrived at the Regional Inspector’s office this morning and ran into a difficulty with the document which our translator was holding. The Regional Inspector did not approve and had us use another lady as our translator for our appointment. It was minor, but an earmark of how things seem to work in this region (we can’t tell you which region we are in yet:)). We then went to the Orphanage with the Regional Inspector, our Facilitator, and Regional Translator. Initially we went to the Orphanage Director’s office and all of us crammed our way in for what I thought would be a sit down to simply meet the Orphanage Director. Our daughters’s teacher (Zora) came in and gave us a full briefing on her background and performance as a student and her prognosis for progress. It was punctuated by many references to her aggressive behavior (that scared us a bit) around the other children. She was also billed as being below normal in many areas of her studies and speech development. After this question and answer session they brought Anastasia into the office. We were very, very surprised at this. We completely expected to go to a more private room to meet her and perhaps play a bit. Instead we were put under the microscope immediately and our reaction to her was gauged by everyone there. Her smile melted my heart immediately and I had to struggle to keep myself firmly planted to the plan to meet her slowly and on her terms. We also wanted Dr. Yuri’s evaluation of her before we got carried away on our tidal wave of emotions. This was a very difficult and unexpected event. We talked with her a bit via the translator and she smiled several small smiles that lit up her entire face and our universe. After too short a bit, she had to return to her class and we were left to talk to the director. The Regional Inspector and the Regional Translator left and Dr Yuri arrived. We spoke to the Director via Dr. Yuri for quite some time. It seems this Director is very suspicious of prospective parents who immediately jump in emotionally upon meeting a child. She had a very bad experience with that reaction two years ago. We went with Dr. Yuri to evaluate her. She was eating lunch so we had to wait………… Dr. Yuri spent about 45 Minutes with her and was very pleased with his experience. Donna and I are going to be visiting her every day from now until she comes home with us. Our challenge is to win not only heart (she has ours already) but also the Director’s approval. Like we said, this meeting was completely unlike what I expected….and yet it was much more than we could have ever dreamed for. Tomorrow we will go to play with her and get to know her better. The Director has given us freedom to follow her all around the orphanage and into her classrooms so that we may see her interact with the other children as well. I am so excited that I have been awake all night thinking about her. We will post more of our experience latter.
all our
best,
Donna and Michael
Sunday, December 16, 2007
12/16/07 - Travel Day
Well all today is a travel day. Donna and I slept in and packed up our stuff. We have been waiting waaaay more than an hour for our translator and driver (they are running a tad late).
Landlord is here and waiting patiently. At least we didn't get tossed onto the sidewalk :-)
We're not sure when we'll be able to post again....I have no idea what things will be like infrastructure-wise in region. We're hoping for a positive experience at the orphanage tomorrow and an uneventful car ride this evening.
We're thinking of you all,
Mike and Donna
PS - Any thoughts and prayers you want to send our way would be greatly appreciated. Those keep us going every day.
Landlord is here and waiting patiently. At least we didn't get tossed onto the sidewalk :-)
We're not sure when we'll be able to post again....I have no idea what things will be like infrastructure-wise in region. We're hoping for a positive experience at the orphanage tomorrow and an uneventful car ride this evening.
We're thinking of you all,
Mike and Donna
PS - Any thoughts and prayers you want to send our way would be greatly appreciated. Those keep us going every day.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
12/15/07 - Tourist for a Day Take 2
Here's a few more photo's of our day as tourists.
From the top is Donna and I at the President's Office(Snowman is in the front yard), then me in front of the Chernobyl Museum, and finally St Andrew's Church right next to the SDA.
Thanks to everyone who has been posting to our blog. We love the messages.
Helen, we heard your bells many times today. Once was when we were taking the picture of the children's hospital:-)
I'm going to call home soon and see how Jesse and Jeremiah's first hockey games of the season went and how Jacob's first soccer game of the indoor season went. I know all three of them did just great! Thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of them so Donna and I can follow this dream.
Our Best Wishes,
Donna and Michael
12/15/07 - Tourist for a Day
We met up with our translator this morning and spent nearly the entire day walking all over Kiev. We went to the Chernobyl Museum, Several Churches, and the President's Offices. We ate pizza again for dinner and picked up a few odds and ends for daily living(Phone cards, food). Donna is asleep on the couch next to me. It has been a long day. we logged several miles on our LL Bean Comfort Boots and let me tell you they live up to their name (Thanks Jen Hanks). Today I am posting mostly pictures. Not much on the adoption front except that we HAD TO GET OUT of the flat today or we would have gone nuts!!!! We'll get on the road sometime tomorrow for our appointment Monday.
From the top is St. Sophia's, a couple of more pics of the flat, the WWII Children's Hospital, and our translator Anton and his Girlfriend Tamya.
Friday, December 14, 2007
12/14/07 Patience Patience Patience!!!!!!
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As anyone who has done this before can attest, you must be flexible. As you may have guessed, today we are finding out first hand. Our facilitator contacted the Orpahage yesterday and the director told him that the child was there and we could see her as soon as we got pemisson from the Regional Inspectors office. Unfortunately the Regional Inspector is on vacation untill Sunday evening so now we have to kill a few days waiting in Kiev. We are dissaponted but know that this is one of the many things that may happen along the way. All else being equal, I suppose its better to be stuck in Kiev rather than somewhere very small with completely nothing to do. We are hoping we will be able to meet her on Monday.
This afternoon we head back to the SDA to pick up our referral. After that we are going to meet Sharon Nylen for dinner. She and Brian are here adopting two children and they are just finishing up the passports and should be heading for home in time for Chirstmas. It will be nice to chat with someone who has just navigated this crazy adventure we are on. We already spent an hour on the phone with her last night and got some great info from her. Its great to chat with someone here in english who is also a parent and whom we share so much in common with.
This afternoon we head back to the SDA to pick up our referral. After that we are going to meet Sharon Nylen for dinner. She and Brian are here adopting two children and they are just finishing up the passports and should be heading for home in time for Chirstmas. It will be nice to chat with someone who has just navigated this crazy adventure we are on. We already spent an hour on the phone with her last night and got some great info from her. Its great to chat with someone here in english who is also a parent and whom we share so much in common with.
Here are a couple of photos of our apartment and one of Donna....Obviously before we found out we would be delayed. We feel pretty good....not thrilled about the delay, but we're okay with our choice and it will be what it will be.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
12/13/07 Our Appointment with the SDA
Well all, we met with the SDA today and feel as if we have been run over by a truck. Our appointment went ok, we can cofirm that there are indeed lots of very sick children & according to our psychologist approximately 150 familes waiting for second appointments. Just today the SDA posted on the bulletin board that the wait for second appointments could now be as long as 45 days.
We were shown 5 files of girls ages 7 and under. Our request was for a girl under six. We have chosen to see a 5 year old girl who is listed as being developmentally delayed the full scope of which we will find out in a few days.
We have contacted Dr. Yuri and he has agreeed to come with us to meet her and give us his medical opinion. We hope to get to see her on Saturday. We are trying desperately to keep our hopes from getting too high and to keep our heads screwed on straight (good thing they are already attached eh!).
We now understand why some posts from others are short once they get in country, for we are very tired and don't feel much like typing either.
Our appointment was not of the norm. At 12:00 we were shown 5 files & given a very short time to ask questions and think things over. Our physcologist (Olena) and her translator then came back into the room at 12:30 and asked if we needed more time. To our amazement they said it would be ok to leave and come back at 2pm with our answer. They explained that they were about to go to lunch and would be back then. Sooooooooooooo...we took lunch (Oye' who could eat). After much discussion amongst Vlad, Elena, Konstantine and ourselves, we came up with some very good questions to help us get the most we could out of what we knew would be an extemly brief visit at 2. Vlad accompanied us into the 2 pm (didn't happen til 2:30ish) meeting as the translator (apparently Olena's was needed elsewhere) and we were able to determine based on our clarifying questions which little girl to go visit.
We most likely will leave tomorrow evening by Car or Train. Not sure which yet.
Here's a photo of the front entrance to the SDA and the sign there. We also took a picture of the New Years Fir in Independence Square right at dusk. We'll get another one after it is done being decorated. Interestingly enough, we went in through a side door for our appts today.
All our best,
Donna and Michael
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
12/12/07 - We Made It!
Well everybody as the title indicates....we made it to Ukraine. We got in last evening at around 4:30 pm local time. Our VIP service at the airport was tops!!! We highly recommend it. We zoomed through the customs entry which took maybe a minute then knocked out our paperwork to declare the money we brought in with us (5 minutes total) and met our entire facilitation team in the lobby. Our Team consists of Vlad, Konstantine (regional facilitator & driver) and Anton (translator & regional facilitator in-training)
We are in a very nice flat not far from Independence Square. We are very tired as the time change is pretty much kicking our butts. We had a great day wandering around Kiev and finding out how hard it is to communicate if you do not speak the language. We found the underground mall and of course McDonalds. We also met with our facilitation team and are excited for our appointment at the SDA tomorrow. We are already very glad we made a complete second copy of our dossier as we have already needed the second blank power of attorney we brought with us. We miss our boys very much but are full of anticipation that we may find out who their sister is tomorrow. Donna is convinced tonight will be sleepless....I just hope I don't wake of at 5AM again unable to sleep. If all goes well tomorrow, the earliest we will be able to meet her will be Saturday. Here's a couple of pictures of our day. The first one is of the Starvation Memorial near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Second is Donna and I in Independence Square, and the last one is near the monument to the Gatekeeper who is thought to have been the greatest leader of the Cosack's.
All our best,
Donna and Michael
PS - I found the coffee to be very good so, needless to say, I'm happy about that.
PPS - The Baboon Bookstore no longer exists. Sadly, it closed down in September.
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