Plans are Made

We received the following e-mail from Luba the other day:

"My congratulations to you: you are LEGAL parents of Juliana Alexandra.
I've got yesterday the Court Decree!
...I came for one minute to the group and had asked how is Juliana doing? She is OK, just waiting for her mama and papa....
She is healthy.
I did not meet her personally, I did not want to confuse her, they show her your album,
don't worry, just a little bit and you will pick up your daughter."

It was so great to read those words - we are now legally her parents. And just hearing that she's doing well and that the caregivers are showing her the photo album we left and talking about us really encouraged us. We're missing her so much and cannot wait to go back for her. Luba's e-mail also outlined a couple of snags she's encountered in getting the new birth certificate issued; nothing major, but a holdup of another couple of days. Again, it just confirmed that we made the right decision in planning to return after their holiday season in January. Just that one delay would have prevented us from being able to bring her home before the end of the year and we would have been stranded in Ukraine for an extra week or two; not a scenario we find attractive (or affordable!).

Our travel plans have been finalized. We will be flying out of Boston on Saturday, 1/19, and returning home on Friday, 1/25. It will certainly be a whirlwind of a trip. We'll land in Kiev Sunday afternoon, catch the train to Mikolayiv that evening, pick Juliana up on Monday, take the train back Monday night, and then have Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday to wrap things up with the US Embassy for her visa. We'll be flying out on Thursday evening and landing back in Boston on Friday morning. Whew. Those are the plans, and the time can't pass quickly enough.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all!

We're Home

So, so sorry that we haven't posted since last week. As most of you know, we arrived home safely on Wednesday evening, 12/12. We just realized that we haven't posted since we got home and there may be a few out there who are wondering what's happened to us. Our flight was delayed in Amsterdam for a couple of hours, but other than that our journey home was uneventful. Thankfully we weren't scheduled to come home the next day, as we likely would have been stranded somewhere due to a snowstorm. We had a wonderful reunion with our boys and have now settled back into the daily grind for the time being. My (Steve's) mother was able to return home to her husband (thanks again, Bob!) after almost a month away. She is an absolute saint to have made such a sacrifice for us. My sisters had also come out to join her the last week. They were all forced to spend an extra day with us (we welcomed the opportunity to visit) as their flights out on Thursday were canceled. The all flew out early Friday morning.

Shame on us for complaining about the Ukrainian weather. It was about 2 degrees (that's Farenheit, for you Canadians!) this morning. We've already gotten about a foot and a half of snow since we got home, in addition to the snow that fell a few weeks ago - there's got to be at least 2 feet on the ground. Such a contrast to last year when we got no snow until January. Looks like we're going to have a good old fashioned New England white Christmas.

We are really beginning to miss our little girl and are anxious to bring her home. We haven't firmed up our travel plans as of yet, but it looks like we'll be flying out the 2nd or 3rd week of January. It will be a much, much shorter trip (should be less than a week). We'll update the blog once our plans are finalized, and will, of course, post a good deal more when we return to Ukraine, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to everyone as we spend time with our families and celebrate our Savior's birth!

SHE'S OURS!!!

Real quick post, as we need to leave shortly to catch the train back to Kiev (yes, that train).

Court went perfectly. We met in the judge's office, along with his secretary, the orphanage director, and the inspector. The judge asked us all questions, with Luba interpreting for the two of us. He asked about our family, why we want to adopt, our income, our home, etc. He then asked the orphanage director and inspector specifics about Juliana. The whole hearing lasted all of about 20 minutes. In the end, he congratulated us and stated that the court approved our petition. Oksana Alexandrovna Avadenya is now officially Juliana Alexandra Cohn. We really weren't expecting any problems, but it's a relief to have it over and done. We have a daughter!

If only we could just take her home now; but, there's that pesky 10-day waiting period before the court decree is officially released and Luba can get the new birth certificate and apply for the passport. The birth certificate will list us as her parents and will show her new name. The judge actually asked us if we also wanted to change her date and place of birth. ??? We weren't aware that was an option but really can't imagine a circumstance in which we'd want that. Of course, it would seem somewhat strange to have a birth certificate listing New Hampshire as her place of birth, issued by the Ukrainian government. :-) No, we're good with just listing the new parents and new name.

We spent time with her this morning and were able to take some pictures of her group room and the other children in her group (had to get special permission to do that - they're a little touchy about allowing pictures of other orphans due to Ukrainian regulations, but the director let us, as long as we promised not to publish them). Tough saying goodbye (for us, not for her!). But, we'll be back next month to pick her up, and then the real adventure begins!

We doubt we'll have any opportunity to post again before we get home. Looking forward to seeing you all and kissing the blessed American soil!

Almost There!

Well, here we are two days before court, four days before going home. Thanks for hanging in with us and praying for us through all of this. We’ll be seeing Juliana just two more days, then that’s it for a month. Tough to think about, but it’s been even tougher being away from Justin & Jonathan the past few weeks. We’re counting the hours until we land at Logan at 5:05 Wednesday evening.

No new video today. We went downtown to go to the internet place but there were no computers available, and there were several people waiting. So, we figured we’d update the blog from the apartment. The dial-up does fine with just text, and handles pictures just barely.

We had lunch yesterday with Laurel Boylan, the American women we met a few days ago in the market who is finishing up the process of adopting two boys. We actually ate at a different restaurant, called “Sit-and-Eat” (in Ukrainian). Lots of food choices served buffet style, and Laurel was able to tell us what most things were, so we were able to try some authentic Ukrainian food. Julie didn’t really care for any of it, though (those that know Julie well know how picky she can be). She says she’s just craving a normal salad, with greens in it, something that seems hard to come by here. I could take or leave most of it, but it was nice to eat something besides pizza and McDonalds for a change. Laurel has been here for 6 weeks, electing to stay after court straight through to the end. She was just waiting for the passports for the boys to be issued by the Ukrainian passport office here, and while we were having lunch she got the call that the passports were finally ready. We were so happy for her. Her husband had left to go home after court three weeks ago, so she’s been on her own with the two boys and her daughter that came with her (ages 4, 6 & 7). She left within 2 hours for Kiev and will be home in California by Thursday. The passports had been promised to her several days ago, but she hit one snag after another. This has just reassured us that we have made the right decision to come back in January. If we tried to finish it up before 12/31, and hit just one delay like Laurel did, we’d be stuck here until after their holidays (1/1 – 1/7). Luba will be taking care of the new birth certificate and passport in our absence and we’ll return once it’s all set.

Things we’re looking forward to: our own bed with a real bottom sheet (ask us about it sometime), a bathroom with the toilet and sink in the same room, being able to talk to Lori every day (this one’s from Julie, of course), being able to walk out of our home without smelling garbage and dodging stray dogs & cats everywhere (though Julie does like to feed them – she’s named one of the dogs “ravioli” and a cat “stinky”), public restrooms with toilet seats (again, ask us sometime), television and radio we can understand, American & Chinese food, having more to read than the five or six books we brought and the two that Luba sent us, high speed internet, and most of all being able to hug and kiss our kids. That’s the short list. ;-)

A few prayer requests for those prayer warriors out there: please pray that everything goes smoothly in court on Monday (we don’t anticipate any problems, but one never knows here), of course pray that Juliana will be safe in our absence, and pray that we’ll be able to get a good deal on our airfare for our return in January and that everything will go smoothly then, as well, and that that trip will be as short as possible (we’re expecting 5-6 days).

Thank you so much, again, for your prayers, posts & support. It has made our time here much more bearable. Thanks again, Mom, for sacrificing so much to stay with our kids all this time. And thanks Steph & Lisa for coming out to help Mom; we knew the boys would wear her down (just kidding). Love & miss you all. We’ll post again after court.

Wanted for Shoplifting

OK, so we suppose the title begs for an explanation. The crime was committed last night, and I (Steve) just wanted to add to my Ukrainian experience by seeing what it would be like to go to jail. Just kidding - it never got that far. However, we were guilty of shoplifting, accidentally. Here's how the dirty deed went down: We went into a small market last night to pick up some juice. There's something we haven't told you about most of the stores around here, and that is the fact that you often need to pay for each item right in the section where you picked it up. In other words, you have to pay for the milk in one place, the bread in another place, the soda somewhere else... you get the picture. So, last night we picked up four cartons of juice and took it to the nearest cashier we saw. She spoke no english, but we were able to discern that she was asking us if we wanted a bag. We said yes, put the juice in the bag, and paid her. I couldn't understand how much she was looking for, but she made it clear that she needed coins, so I held out the pocket change I had and she took some of it. After Julie and I left the store, I said that it just didn't seem like she took enough. I don't think she took more than 50 kopecs or so, which is the equivalent of about a dime. Now, some things are inexpensive here, but not that inexpensive. Julie then asked "do you think that she thought you just wanted a bag, and had already paid for the juice?" Then it all made sense. That's another market quirk here - you have to pay for a bag if you want one. That's all we had paid for. We had bought a bag, loaded it up with stolen merchandise, and left the store. We immediately went back in, pocketed the bag, and found the right place to pay for the juice, standing in line like nothing had happened. Thank God no one had noticed - I can't even imagine what a nightmare it would have been trying to explain the whole situation to the police. So that's our crime of the week; we'll try to keep our noses clean the rest of the time we're here.

We've been dying for Chinese food lately. How twisted is that - Americans in Ukraine craving Chinese takeout? Our food options are somewhat limited and we're getting tired of the same things. The only restaurants we're comfortable going into are a pizza place we found and McDonalds (and Julie doesn't even like McDonalds). The others all have menus in Russian and we could accidentally order chicken liver wrapped in sheep stomach for all we know. We did just find a store around the corner where they sell some prepared foods we recognized (rice & vegetables, things like that), so we'll pick up something there for supper tonight. Oh yeah, not only do they charge for bags at the stores, but they charge for ketchup at McDonalds. Not cheap either - 2 grivna (about 40 cents) for a small packet. Other menu items are actually a little less than in the States, so go figure.

The weather has actually been better here than at home, so you won't hear us complaining about it any more. It's been a little warmer the last few days - high 30's-low 40's - and no snow on the ground.

5 more days to court. We just got a call from Luba and she said that we just got the required approval from the SDA, so court is definitely on. Juliana continues to charm us and bond with us - we've both fallen in love with her and are just so anxious for the whole process to wrap up. Hope you like the new video. Thanks again for your prayers and posts - we look forward to coming home next week.

We Heard Someone Speaking English!

We met a woman in the marketplace today from the States!! It was so refreshing to talk to someone who actually spoke English! She was there finishing up the adoption of two brothers (age 6 & 7) who lived at separate orphanages in this area. She said the living conditions at the older brother’s orphanage were pretty horrible. Outdoor bathrooms, no hot water even for showers, etc. As they move out of the baby home they live in until age four, things go downhill from there. We had heard that was the case – her experience confirms it. This is her second time adopting here in Ukraine. She has two other children she adopted here about a year and a half ago.

Today we gave Juliana a pair of sunglasses to play with. I don’t think that she ever saw any before, because she squealed and laughed every time she put them on. It was adorable. There are so many things she has never seen that we can’t wait to show her. Even just little things that maybe we take for granted, she is just delighted with! It’s fun to see her reactions to new things. Wonder how she’ll do on the plane ride home?!! She’s beginning to get used to her name (we think). Every time we say “Oksana Juliana” she replies “nah nah” in a singsong voice. It’s so cute. Wish we could get it on video (see below). She’s also mastered “bye bye”. We can’t wait for the boys to meet her and to settle her into our family.

We are having serious technological problems and can’t upload any more video for the time being. The software we use to transfer videos from our camera to the PC keeps freezing up on us. Not sure what’s going on there, but we’ll work on it and will hopefully be able to get it straightened out this week. Can’t exactly call customer service from here. :-(

Seven days to court and counting!!! We have come to the decision that we will be coming back for Juliana in January. Although there appears to be a chance that everything (birth certificate, passport, visa) could be done just in time for us to bring her home by 12/31, just one delay in one step of the process would leave us stranded here for an extra 10 days or so due to the holidays (offices here all but close down 12/31 – 1/7 for the new year and orthodox Christmas). It’s going to be really difficult to leave her for almost a month (we’re leaving 12/12 and will probably come back 1/8 or so), but she’ll be fine and happy at the orphanage since that’s all she’s ever known. It will be tough on us, but not really on her. We’ll miss her terribly, but we truly feel, and Luba agrees, that this is the best decision. She said that this is not at all uncommon and it would be her recommendation. In a way, it’s a relief just to have the decision made. We can’t afford for Steve to be out of work any longer than absolutely necessary.

Thank you all, once again, for your comments, e-mails, and especially prayers. We’ve said it already, but we have truly felt God’s direction throughout this process and we are so, so grateful. Another month and we’ll have our daughter home for good. Can’t wait for you all to meet her – she’s really something.

10 Days to court – it just can’t come fast enough. We’re doing OK without Luba, muddling our way through Ukrainian society. Today we’ve decided not to venture into town. We bought enough groceries yesterday to give us several meals, and we’re not going to upload a video today, so we’ll be fine here in the apartment. Had a nice visit with Juliana this morning – brought along a couple of balloons we bought in the market yesterday. Not sure if she’s seen them before, but she definitely got a kick out of me (Steve) blowing them up and letting them go. There’s no doubt, though, that she’s definitely a “mama’s girl” for now. We’ve heard that this is pretty typical, as the only caregivers she’s ever had have been women. She has bonded with Julie very well, loves to be in her lap, loves to be carried. That’s not to say I don’t get any of the action; I get to hold her hand sometimes when we walk, and she’ll give me a hug and kiss hello & goodbye, and she talks about me a lot to the other kids (of course, I have no idea what she’s really saying – “beware of the big, scary papa”?). When we’re sitting on the floor playing, though, she wants to be on Mama.

Shopping is interesting. We know the names of a few things, the rest we try to figure out by sight. Of course, even knowing what to call something is no guarantee. We ran out of milk, so the other night I went into a small store to get some. The milk we had bought previously came in small cartons, maybe 1 liter; must be ultra-pasteurized, because they sell it right off the shelf, no refrigerator. Anyway, this small store didn’t have our usual “brand” so I bought a small bag of it (yes, bag), maybe a pint or so, cost the equivalent of about 45 cents. When we got back to the apartment, we cut it open and this milk both smelled like and tasted like smoked ham. Julie joked that maybe it was pig’s milk. Ha Ha… she could be right. Anyway, we picked up the better stuff yesterday and will give the “pig’s milk” to the local stray cats. Another interesting purchase: a deck of cards. Now, there’s not much for us to do around here when we’re not at the orphanage, besides read and wait for our internet connection, so we thought maybe we could play some card games. We bought a deck at the (huge) outdoor market yesterday. When we opened it, we found that it was complete except for the 2-s through the 5’s. Missing 16 cards. Is this a standard Ukrainian deck? We don’t know. I haven’t called Luba yet to ask her.

We typically ride into town on a “mini” bus (holds 12-20 passengers), and they really do have an extensive bus system here in Mykolayiv, making it pretty easy to get wherever we want to go for about 20 cents each. Yesterday, we got on the bus and sat towards the back – Julie picked the seats, so I am absolved of all blame. There was an awful smell, and Julie was absolutely sick to her stomach most of the 10 minute ride. It wasn’t until he got off the bus that we realized the odor was coming from the man behind us. He was also muttering to himself the whole way, probably saying “I hope the beautiful American woman in front of me notices my cologne”. Gotta find humor where we can.

We’ll try to get into town in the next few days to post some more video. Miss you all, and God bless America.

Another Cold Day in Mykolayiv

It's another cold, windy day here, and we're in town at the post office, which has an internet room as well as phone booths from which we can call to the U.S. (for about $.35/minute or so). Hope you like the new pictures and video.

We had a great visit with Oksana/Juliana this morning and will see her again this afternoon for another hour or so. We've started mixing her new name in with her old one to get her used to it. Yesterday, one of the staff in her group at the orphanage asked us what her American name will be, I think so they can begin doing the same.

I know I've been complaining about the people here being cold and unfriendly. Well, Julie pointed out this morning that they're really not so different from New Englanders. The more I thought about it, the more I think she's right, only here we've got the additional factor of a language barrier. They don't call us the "cold north" for nothing, right?

People have asked us about how big she is, etc. Well, she's two and a half (birthday 4/25/05), but probably isn't any bigger than the average 18-24 month old. She probably doesn't weigh 20 lbs soaking wet. Most of the clothes they put on her seem to be 18-24 months. There's not much to her, but she doesn't seem under-nourished - she'll fill out just fine once she's home. She definitely seems to have a healthy appetite. Oh, and we can definitely attest to the fact that she's a two-year-old. Now that she's grown more accustomed to us, we get treated to a fuller spectrum of her personality. Yes, she can be sweet and gentle, but she can also be stubborn, willful and demanding. This one is a little fireball.

Miss you all and looking forward to coming home in 2 weeks. Will update you again in a couple of days.

13 Days to Court

No real news to report. We are settling into a daily routine of visiting Juliana from 9:30 to 11:00, and 4:00 to 5:00. (By the way, we've decided that her nickname will be "Ana" as opposed to "Julie". Again, pronounced "ahna" not "anna". ) We bring along with us a backpack of toys with legos, dolls, etc. The orphanage has a separate room set aside for meetings like that. We prefer it this way as opposed to the other way where we were in a room with people passing through constantly speaking loudly in Russian either to us or each other. It was a bit more on the stressful side that way.

The orphanage really is very clean and it seems the children are well cared for - some of the staff are actually friendly and smile at us. Of course, that may have something to do with the two new, large rugs we bought for Juliana's group (about 11 or 12 children in her group, about 150 or so in the whole orphanage). Each adoptive family is expected (actually, required) to make a donation to the orphanage. We don't mind it at all because they've been caring for her her whole life and, though the facilities are better than what we expected, there is much that is wearing out and in need of replacement. The rugs were beautiful, about 10x15, and were only $100 each at the local market. Wish we could take one home with us. An additional $500 cash donation was also part of the deal. This orphanage keeps the kids through age 4, then they move on to another facility. We've been told there are 52 orphanages in Ukraine.

Our translator, Luba, has left for Kiev leaving us to navigate through daily life alone, though she is just a cell phone call away if we need her. We won't see her again until the end of next week, so we're really on our own for a good 11 days or so. Of course, we have picked up some basic Russian (which is spoken here more than Ukrainian): yes, no, good, good morning, good day, good evening, goodbye, how much?, please, thank you, you're welcome, ummm.... that's about it. As you can see, we're totally ready for independence :-).

We have learned to utilize the bus system to get into town and will try to consolidate our trips as much as possible. Tomorrow we'll visit with Juliana and then head out for groceries and some time at the internet place. It's not very fast, but is far, far better than what we have here in the apartment; we haven't even been able to post pictures from here the last few days without losing our connection. We'll get some pictures and maybe a new video posted tomorrow, hopefully.

Keep the posts coming - they're a real lifeline to us, making us feel closer to home and all of you while we feel so out of place here. Until next time...

We finally have video! Of course, this twenty second clip took over an hour to upload via our dialup connection, but isn't she adorable? In the video she is playing with a toy we brought her, stringing shapes on a shoelace. She really loves to work with her hands and is very determined to get it right, and do things herself. I think you can see a little bit of her personality even in this short clip.

Nothing really new here. We've kind of gone into a holding pattern, settling into a daily routine as we wait for our court hearing 12/10. We typically spend a couple of hours a day with her, usually an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon. When the weather's not too cold, like today (temp probably around 40) they let us take her outside to play. She loves bubbles - not sure if she had seen them before, but we brought a bottle and, again, she insists on blowing them herself (not too successful, but she lucks out now and then and gets a small one off).

She is favoring mommy a bit over daddy, but does come to Steve for a short time and sits on his lap before returning to mommy's lap for a much longer period of time. She absolutely loves to give kisses and hugs, and calls out "mama dadda" or "mama papa" when we arrive at the orphanage to see her. She likes to take toys in to show the other kids what "mama dadda" brought her, but of course she will not allow them to touch anything, looking is all she'll allow them to do.

We should, hopefully, know by the end of the week whether we will likely be able to get her home before the end of the year. We're both extremely homesick and long for truly hot showers, street signs we can understand, and strangers on the street that don't look like they're perpetually disgusted with us, if they look at us at all. That sterotype of Russians (Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union too) being very stern and unsmiling... true. Trust us. Of course, I'm sure on a personal basis they can be very pleasant - Luba is wonderful, for instance. But as a general rule, very intimidating. Can't wait to see Justin and Jonathan again - we love you guys! We'll all be together for Christmas, thankfully.

Thanks again, everyone for your encouraging posts. You have no idea how precious they are to us. We'll try to post again in the next day or two.

We Have a Name & a Court Date

OK, we've got a name. Her current name is Oxsana (Oksana?) Alexandrovna Avadenya. After much deliberation, I decided to let Julie have her way (I'm no fool), and her new name will be Juliana Alexandra. I wasn't so sure about her first name being so close to Julie's, but it is very pretty (pronounced "Juli-ahn-a" not "Julie-ann-a". Her middle name really won't change too much, and we figure that her new first name is close enough to her current name that she'll probably just think we're calling her by a new nickname. :-) She won't be called Julie for obvious reasons.

We're getting a little bit better of a picture of what our total timeframe may be, and it may not be pretty. Our court date is 12/10, and at this time there's no reason to believe that the judge will not approve the adoption. Then, the 10 day waiting period begins. Then, the process begins for her new birth certificate, passport (from Ukraine) and visa (from U.S. Embassy in Kiev) to leave the country. That can be a 10-14 day process. If you do the math, it appears unlikely that we'll have her home before the new year. Then, get this - Ukraine's big holiday season is the new year/Christmas holiday (they celebrate Eastern Orthodox Christmas, which falls on 1/7). Apparently, the government offices all virtually shut down from 1/1 - 1/9. So, we very well may not be able to get her home before mid-January.

Our return plane tickets are for 12/12, and we will be coming home then. The original plan was for Julie to then fly back a couple of weeks later to wrap thing up. To the point - the area where we are staying and where the orphanage is located is very impoverished and a bit of a rough neighborhood. No way will Julie be coming back by herself. That part of the plan is still up in the air, and our facilitator Luba is meeting with the passport office tomorrow to see if that process can proceed without our presence. Then, we may very well need to come back for just a few days to pick her up, tie things up in Kiev, and head home. There is a slim chance that this could all happen before 12/31, so please, please pray. Otherwise, it will be a longer wait, but we know it will be worth it in the end. We've told you about the bureaucratic red-tape involved in this process, but our heads are spinning right now. We have no great love for the Ukrainian government at the moment. Thank God for Luba, though - she spends all day rushing tirelessly from one office to another to get this document signed by the inspector, that document reviewed by the chief, the next document stamped by the notary... you get the picture.

We've finally got an internet connection here in our apartment (which we are renting from the deputy physician of the orphanage). It is painfully slow dial-up, so we really can't upload video. I'll try to get back to an internet cafe in town to do that in the next few days. Hope you like the pictures. Thank you again for your posts & comments - it is very encouraging and humbling for us to see all of you who are reading this blog and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Well, here she is. "Oxsana" for now, but we need to pick a new name by tomorrow. We spent another two hours with her today and she was wonderful. She is calling us Mama and Papa (we'll have to work on the Papa thing) and actually cried when we had to leave this afternoon. The doctor from the orphanage told us that she has been telling the other children in her group about her Mama and Papa today. Can it be this easy? We know there may be problems that arise, but right now we truly feel your prayers as everything is going so smoothly on every front. As our facilitator, Luba, says - it's "from the heavens". Still no idea on a court date as there is much paperwork and bureaucracy to cut through, but Luba has her first appointment with the judge tomorrow morning, and this particular judge is rumored to be very reasonable and easy to work with. However, before we can get the court hearing, Luba needs to take certain documents back to Kiev for processing which typically takes 4-5 business days, and she can't leave here until Monday because she's waiting for paperwork being processed here. I wouldn't expect our hearing until the week after next, but please continue to pray - sooner is not out of the question. Thank you all again for your posts and feedback. We'll hopefully be able to post again in the next day or two - maybe video next time?

Things Couldn't Be Better

OK, so here we are in Mykolayiv. Now, if you ever get the opportunity to ride a Ukrainian train for 11 hours... spend the money on airfare (about 6 times the price). Imagine being in a small 6x8 foot room with four bunks, sweaty strangers, and no fresh air. That about sums it up. Got very little sleep, no place to sit - just the bunk to lay down on, but the compartment was so stifling hot we didn't want to be there. But - the only alternative was to stand in the 2 foot wide corridor. Yeah, it was a blast. But, it got us to Mykolayiv around 6:00 this morning, giving us plenty of time to do what we were really here for...

We have absolutely found the child that God sent us here for. Oxsana (yes, Justin, the name will change) is an angel. She is beautiful - curly blond hair, blue eyes - and has an incredibly sweet disposition. She cried when she saw me (Steve) because they see so few men in the orphanage that they find us intimidating. But it wasn't more than about 10 minutes and she was climbing into Julie's lap and giving her a hug, and wouldn't let go. After an hour or so together, she was walking holding hands with both of us, and calling us Mama and Daddy. She's smart as a whip, speaks very well, and was already repeating English words by the end of our visit. We had the opportunity to bring her to an eye specialist, and it appears that she suffers from nothing more serious than lazy eye, easily treatable. Of course, we'll get her thoroughly examined in the U.S. as soon as we get home. If we had made a checklist of exactly what we would have wanted, she's it. Of course, we know that this was just our first visit, and that there will undoubtedly be adjustments for all when we bring her home, but this was so much more than we expected from today. Thank you all for your prayers... we feel truly blessed.

We got the paperwork started this afternoon to proceed with the adoption. They don't make anything easy here - truly bureaucracy run amok. Please continue to pray that things will move smoothly (and quickly). Hopefully we'll know our court date within a week or so.

Having trouble posting pictures, will hopefully be able to do it in the next couple of days so you all can see her.

Last day in Kiev for now

We'll be leaving in a few hours for our 11 hour train ride to Myklayiv 
(yeah, that's the name we couldn't remember yesterday).  Thanks for
 all of the posts - we really appreciate all your comments and 
encouragement.  Yes, Justin, a name change is in order - wise guy. 
 Diana - tell Michaela that though this is a great new experience for us, 
I wouldn't say we're really having fun yet.  The weather is very cold 
(seems about like midJanuary back home weatherwise) and we're 
missing the kids terribly.  However, we do feel we're right where 
we're supposed to be, so that's a good thing.
We do plan to post  some pictures when we can - we forgot the USB 
cable for Julie's digital camera, but we can take pictures with our video 
cam as well, so hopefully after we meet Oxsana tomorrow we'll have
 internet access and will figure out how to upload them.
That's all for now.  We'll hopefully be able to post again tomorrow to let
you know how it goes at the orphanage in Mykolayiv.

We're off to the south!

Our appointment went very well this afternoon.  We met with the the government psychologist and interpreter at the SDA and they were both very friendly and accomodating.  After asking us again whether we would be interested in a boy, they accepted our explanation that two was quite enough (not our exact words) and that Julie really needs a bit more estrogen in the household (again, not our exact words).  Seriously - they presented us with case files of 5 or 6 little girls age 2-6, and we accepted a referral of a little girl named Oxsana.  She is 2 1/2 and is in an orphanage about 400 miles or so south of here (I can't recall the name of the city, but it's northeast of Odessa, which is a city in the very south of Ukraine on the Black Sea).  She appears to be in excellent health, generally, but does have a problem with her left eye (coincidentally, the same eye in which Julie only has about 5% vision).  We'll get more detailed information when we meet with the orphanage physician.  What we know so far is that it is something neurological that is not treatable here, but may be in the U.S.  Compared to some of the more severe health issues some of the other children had (fetal alcohol syndrome, cerebral palsy, hepatitis B, hydrocephalis) a problem with one eye doesn't scare us at all.  She was abandoned at the hospital at birth.  They only had one picture of her from probably at least a year ago, but she looks adorable.  We will be leaving tomorrow evening for an 11 hour train ride and will see her on Wednesday.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we continue to just try to leave it in God's hands and trust Him for direction.
We'll post again on Wednesday to let you all know how everything went.

Greeting from Kiev

Well, we are safely here in Kiev.  Not sure why the post is reading Sunday, 11/18.  It's actually Monday morning, 11/19 here.  We flew out of Logan on Saturday around 7:15 pm.  The flight was about 7 1/2 hours into Amsterdam, then about 2 1/2 hours to Kiev after an hour and a half layover.  Pretty uneventful, but we lost 7 hours.  We arrived around 1:30 pm in Kiev, though to our bodies is was still only 6:30 in the morning.  It is just going on 10:00 am here, while it is 3:00 am back home.  We essentially lost Saturday night en transit, though we did manage to sleep an hour or two on the plane.  Both flights served full meals - clearly foreign airlines ;-).  Went to bed last night around 5:30, slept until about midnight.  We both were awake for a few hours, then went back to sleep until about 8:00 am.  Right now, I feel like I got a full night's sleep so hopefully I've got the jet lag worked out and will be able to go to bed at a more normal hour tonight.  Hard to say, as neither of us has ever done any travelling that required us to change our watches by more than an hour or two - definitely a new experience for us.

Our facilitator, Luba, met us at the airport (though it took about a half hour or so of wandering around before we found each other).  She set us up with an apartment here in downtown Kiev - 3 rooms for $65/night.  It's austere to say the least, but we're not sure how much to expect from things yet - is the lack of basic necessities such as paper towels and waste baskets typical and are we just spoiled Americans?  Hmmm...  we'll need to find a store today to pick up some essentials.  There was about 1/4 roll of toilet paper, so we're not complaining.  Nonetheless, it's in a convenient location and is in a very secure building so we're OK.  There's an internet cafe just across the street (where I am now) where we can access the internet for the equivalent of about $3/hour.  They also have phone booths where we can make calls to the U.S.  for about $.15/minute, so we're definitely not disconnected.

Just trying to take this experience one day at a time as it comes.  Julie and I both agree that we've never felt like such outsiders before.  Any other place we've travelled has been either in the U.S. or in true tourist 
destinations like the Carribbean, where we were surrounded by people just like us.  The people
here seem friendly enough, though somewhat aloof, and taking a course in Russian or Ukrainian
(both are spoken here) wouldn't have been a bad idea.  The immigration agent at the airport, though, definitely seemed annoyed with us and our lack of language skills and was pretty brusque - "stupid Americans" he seemed to be thinking.  Of course, we could have taken him all wrong.  Probably not.

Our appointment with the State Department of Adoption (SDA) is at noon today.  Luba is meeting us at the apartment around 11:00 and she'll be accompanying us every step of the way, thank God.  She'll be our translator and will be able to interpret the children's files, medical records, etc., for us.  Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us - please continue to pray for a good referral today.    Assuming we've accepted a referral, we'll probably be here in Kiev for another couple of days and then will travel to the region where the orphanage is located.  We'll post again as soon as we can to let you know how the appointment goes.

Long Time, No Post, 9 Days to Go

Our appointment with the State Department of Adoption (SDA) is on Monday, 11/19. We will be flying out of Boston on Saturday evening, 11/17. Steve's mom arrives 11/15 and will be staying with the boys. Nothing more to say at this point except that we're very excited but also very apprehensive. So much is unknown, so much we just need to leave in God's hands at this point. Good exercise for our faith.

Hurry up and wait

Well, this is the first post of what will likely be a very active blog in a few months. We are hoping to adopt a little girl from the Ukraine and are currently awaiting the Ukrainian government's approval to do so. We have a facilitator there named Luba, and she has received our dossier of required documentation, translated everything, and is in the process of trying to get it presented before the appropriate authorities - a process that will likely take a few weeks. Once they have deemed us to be fit adoptive parents, we should receive an invitation to fly out and meet with them (typically about 6 weeks from our approval, so we've been told). We're expecting to probably travel sometime this fall.

Our goal is to adopt a little girl age 4 or under. Once we are in the Ukraine, we will be presented with a number of case files to choose from. Upon deciding which child we'd like to meet, we will travel to the orphanage, which may be in a completely different part of the country. Assuming we want to proceed with the adoption after we've met her (it's pretty tough to imagine otherwise), the legal wheels start rolling. The adoption has to be approved and finalized by the local Ukrainian judge (not necessarily a quick process), then, following a mandatory 10 day waiting period (during which family members can come forward to contest - not likely to happen since most of these children have been abandoned), we travel back to Kiev to finalize everything with the U.S. Embassy to gain approval to bring her to the States.

There it is in a nutshell. The whole process can take anywhere from 3-8 weeks, so we're praying for a smooth ride each step of the way to minimize our time away from home. My (Steve's) mother is going to travel up from Pennsylvania to take care of our kids for us (recently retired and blessing us immensely with her willingness to help). We've kicked around the idea of taking the boys with us - it would be an amazing family adventure and probably a real eye-opener for them regarding just how fortunate they are compared to so much of the world - but with the current backlog in passport approvals (it takes about 4 months right now), we probably couldn't get their passports in time. Then, of course, there's that little detail of taking them out of school for that long - not a minor consideration. I think we'll be sticking with plan A.

We'll update the blog as soon as there's any new development, which we assume will be the receipt of our approval and appointment to travel.