#5 - Waiting around

We have been waiting for days for our court date, it should be tomorrow!

We definitely miss our life at home, we don't have much to do during the days.  We pick up Stas every day at the orphanage and some kids gather around and say hello, we give them candy.

We walk back to the house and spend time outside with Olga's dogs and cats, Stas likes to play with them. We walk around and come inside and use the computer, Stas plays some computer games and we eat.Stas doesn't like to go back to the orphanage, he is anxious to leave. 

 So tomorrow we have court, then Michael can go back to Kiev and go to the Embassy on Thursday/Friday and leave on Saturday!  I don't want him to leave me here!  I must stay for the 10-day waiting period and do things like get Stas' birth certificate and new passport. 

We were hoping for a shortened waiting period, but probably no chance of that.  Our case has been expedited so far, so no complaints.

We miss our creature comforts of having a car (nice car) to drive places, brewed coffee (I'm using coffee singles) and nice surroundings with stores and conveniences!

It is so dreary here, very sad - no wonder people don't smile.  

We are ready to move on with our life and get Stas back with us!

I will post more pictures later - trying to figure out how to do it on this blogger.

#4 - Here in Novo Vodologa

Life in Novo Vodologa :

Picture #1 This is what we see around the orphanage - we walk by this house every day and night. 

Most people have old houses with plots of land to grow their own potatoes, tomatoes, etc.  They eat a lot of potatoes!  You will see people selling potatoes by the road in buckets hoping to make some money.


Picture #2 Here are some boys that followed us                home from the orphanage. The eldest is Dima, the smallest is Cola(Nickolai) (a boy we were interested in long ago) and another boy.

Dima made us a picture and we try to give them candy and attention.

Picture #3 Here outside the orphanage, there are swingsets with no swings.....

nothing to play on.

The kids wander around climbing trees and burning brush. There is a soccer field they play on during the day though.

Nothing much to do here.

Picture #4 Here is Stas' sleeping area - they have to keep it clean and tidy, it is pretty comfortable.

The classroom is downstairs.

They make a note on the corner of the sheets in ball point pen the date the sheets were last washed.

#3 - Mon, Mar 30

Here is a picture of  our walk to the orphanage, we walk back and forth to get Stas - a little spooky in the dark!

We had the morning to ourselves and picked Stas up at 3pm after school - he was not having a good day.  He has "Short-itis", he is ready to get out of here, so it is hard to feel that doing schoolwork is important right now. Also, he didn't get a shower or something  and did poorly on his math Lyudmilla said, so he was upset.  

We walked to Olga's and decided to get a taxi(which is a run-down car here) and go to the village to do something different. Stas was happier already - we got some ice cream, even better - then Stas wanted some imitation crab sticks, he loves those. He ate about seven. Ugh, ice cream and crab, gross. We walked around - the stores are teeny-tiny and look like they aren't even open, it looks like it's just after a war, so dilapidated.  We were all in a better mood though.  I actually found a little store with cell phones and jewelry, and bought a little charm to remember Novo Vodologa by.

The taxi took us back and Stas continued eating....we had coffee and tea and hung out and then had a nice dinner of fish and potatoes.  We are stuffed.

We have to walk Stas back in a couple of hours.  Maybe we'll lounge on our bed for a while.

A boy that follows us sometimes, Dima, made a glass picture for us, very nice. He is making another one - very sweet. They actually do well in arts and crafts.  We gave the kids that always come around some candy today.  Need to get more American candy and chips when we go to Kiev.

We are able to use Skype on the laptop to make phone calls - it is great to have internet.

We are continually more grateful for what we have at home though compared to this country.

It is a sad state of affairs here and it's a downer - so glad we live in America!!!!

Entry #2 Mar 29 - Summarizing the Week

Catching up from one week - to summarize, we had to pray about our paperwork being signed so Tania could bring it back to Kiev and submit it - and she had success, and went back to Kiev on the night train a few days ago and our attorney submitted it asap to the SDA.

We will just wait for the court date, which they think will be this Wednesday here - Tania will come back for that.  

So we are just waiting here at Olga's gueshouse until then and checking Stas out of the orphanage every day from 11am-8pm.  

It is sad to see all of the children longing to be the one to go with a family.  The orphanage is on the picture, there is nothing outside but inside is clean and comfortable.  When we go, the children are watching and come to say hi, they ask if we are American or Italian family.

We have good food at Olga's house and we have had a couple of nice days after we first had snow and rain, today was beautiful and sunny and felt like spring.

Some boys followed us to the house and we went outside to give them some candy and chips.

It is so poor here, we are in a small village and it is completely run down.  It reminds us of being just after a war and things are in disrepair.  People go and get water in buckets, they take a bicycle into the woods with a chainsaw to cut down trees and put them on the bike to transport back home and cut up for firewood.  

We are in a decent house, the only thing that bothers us is the toilet!  They are fine except they don't put the toilet paper into the toilet after use, you put it in the trash next to the toilet.....Yes, it is icky!

Michael can't wait to get back home, this is not his thing. It does remind me of Norway and my grandmothers home and village, but not as nice.

It really is strange to be like going back in time, yet talking on cell phones and computers.

We are trying to take a lot of pictures, I will try to include them when I learn how.

So today we had cake and tea at Stas' caregivers house, Lyudmilla, and it was nice. We used the computer to translate so we could communicate.

We will eat dinner soon and then walk Stas back over to the orphanage by 8pm. It is weird walking over these hill in pitch black, but the sky was pretty last night, lots of stars.

We are becoming familiar with going to and from the orphanage and seeing the children, but we haven't spent much time hanging around there. Maybe I will during the waiting period.

We did take a taxi to Kharkov yesterday to be in some civilization - we ended up on their expensive street of stores and then had the driver take us to "Target". They actually have a store called Target, but it's their version.  Kind of like a Cosco price club on a small scale.  We picked up some snacks like chips and candy and water and bandaids.  Not much, but there is not much in town here in this village.

Sorry I am writing so choppy, but we are communicating with people on a simple level and I end up writing like that!  

We know a bit of Russian words and it really helps.

Okay, that is all for now - I think I am caught up to the present!!

Stas has had spring break, so now we will pick him up after school tomorrow at 3pm and I can write the blog this week.

Arriving Ukraine

Arriving Ukraine Sun, Mar 22, 2009

Well, we did it - we made it to Ukraine. We were picked up at the airport in Kiev by our missionary friend Oles and taken back to the YWAM(youth with a mission) facility, which is a houseboat. Great place, very comfortable - we are renting a room like hotel, it's great.

The language on the boat is english and russian, so it's very nice to have people speaking English. There are a few Americans, so it's comforting.

We crashed for a while, we were exhausted from traveling, and then we went to Oles and Nadya's apartment for dinner and conversation.  It is all becoming real to Michael who has never been here before! It is all new to him.

We slept a little, still a little screwed up from the time change, and our first appointment at the SDA was in the morning and we were picked up and taken there and we had our first meeting and the woman said that since we were NOT able to adopt Stas, did we pick out another child?

Our attorney said we WERE adopting Stas, and she conceded and went to get his file.  For some reason they keep trying to say we can't adopt Stas.  We just keep standing in faith that it works out.  We showed the woman there pictures of us with Stas in NY and it affected her...

So the paperwork was put through and we ended up taking the overnight train to Kharkov a day early!

You can't buy same-day tickets, but our attorney Natalia has connections and she got us some. We got a first-class sleeping car for me and Michael and Natalia's assistant Tania was in the next room. We had two sleeping bunks and a table, everything we needed and a brand new train - it was really nice. Very comfortable. We tried to sleep but still couldn't sleep much. We reached Kharkov at 6am after about 8 hours of traveling, and a driver picked us up to drive us to the orphanage.  We were exhausted.   

We actually drove to the guesthouse where we were going to stay with Olga, first - about an hours drive - and we ate and then went to the orphanage. There was a problem with the social worker not being there, we had to drive back to Kharkov to pick up the social worker and do a notary, then back to the orphanage.  When we saw Stas, he was excited and said "hi" and jumped into our arms.  

We spent time with him while the people worked on the paperwork.

Then Stas had to sit with them in the director's office and they asked him if he wanted to be adopted by us and go to America, he said yes, and if he would miss Ukraine, he said no.  He then had to write a letter saying all this.  He did a good job but he was nervous.

I don't think he thought he would have to wait a while before he would go with us - he has "short-itis" being in the orphanage and is ready to go.

We had a long day and said goodnight to Stas, and we were pooped.