Our Adoption From Ukraine

2007-02-04T15:29:00.001-06:00

Wow, it’s hard to believe we have been home for 11 weeks. Sometimes it feels like it’s only been a couple of weeks and sometimes it feels live Lugansk was years ago.

The first few weeks at home were crazy. We had been gone for a total of 8 weeks and it felt like there was a million things to do. We needed to get the kids settled, get clothes for them and school supplies. Try shopping for school supplies a month before Christmas….not the ideal time. I am sure when we got home Nadia and Stasik thought that all we did was go out to parties. Because it was so close to Christmas there was so much going on. They we surprised when we were no going somewhere.

Nadia and Stasik started school on Monday December 4th at a local school that has a Ukrainian/English bilingual program. Half day is taught in English (math, science and language arts) and the other half-day in Ukrainian (social studies, art, health, etc.) Music, gym, library and computers are English. They also have one day in the six-day cycle where all the Ukrainian classes (K-9) have Ukrainian choir. They kids have really been enjoying school. They seem to be getting along well with the other students. The classes are smaller, Nadia has 18 and Stasik has 17, so that is really nice. I we driving them to school every day, about 15 minutes each was but on January 25th the started taking the bus, and believe it or not, they like the bus, crazy kids!!! Brad took the bus to school as he grew up in the country, just down the road from us….but I am a city girl…born and raised in Winnipeg and can’t stand the thought of taking the bus! Because there school is not our school they actually have to take two buses, and spend about 55 minutes each way on the bus….hopefully they will continue to enjoy the bus as they have years and years ahead of bus rides ahead of them.

They both stared taking swimming lessons after Christmas; they both seem to be enjoying it so far. Nadia started gymnastics after Christmas and goes every Wednesday night and loves it. She absolutely refused to take Ukrainian dancing, but now says that she wants to taking dancing, but not Ukrainian, so I guess we will look into it next fall. Not sure what she wants to take….tap, jazz, hip hop, ballet, not even sure if she knows. Stasik started Ukrainian dancing after Christmas and goes Monday evenings to the local club. He is in a class with his cousin Kaelan and our friend’s son Alex. He gets along great with both boys and is soooo excited to go to class. We went to a family fun night school fundraiser a couple of weeks ago for B & S kids school (our friends who were in Ukraine the same time as us) and Stasik was dancing up a storm to the Ukrainian polka band music. Even Nadia got up and started dancing…. that’s when she decided she wants to take dance lessons.

Christmas was a very busy time for us, we had 18 for supper and then another 13 joined us later in the evening for desert and to visit. Yes, I did it pot luck….there was no way I was cooking for all those people. They kids did really well, they had meet less then half of the people before then….guess all those parties came in handy!!

The kids English is coming along really, really well. They fight like crazy sometimes. One night they had a fight before supper and at supper time Nadia announced to us that she was not going to speak to Stasik in Ukrainian or Russian anymore, only English!!! She seems to have forgotten about that. They do speak to each other in Russian a lot, but we are finding more and more that they are speaking English to each other.

2007-01-19T10:36:00.000-06:00

Well I don't even know where to start. It's hard to believe that we have been home for 7 weeks. I am going to back track a bit and go back to Lugansk.

November - On November 15th Brad and Y went down to pick up the kids passports, I did not go as I was not feeling 100% and only one of us needed to go. Of course one guy was looking for more money.....it seems that someone always had their hand out. Y held her ground....saying that he did nothing to help us so Brad & Y just hung out thinking that the guy was not going to release them for a couple of hours....but he did about 15 minutes later, I guess he realized that they was no more money coming his way. They came back to the hotel and we checked out. We took our bags to the orphanage and left them there. We went to the internet cafe and them to Y out for a late lunch to our Pizza restaurant. We headed back to the orphanage just before 4. We went up to the kids room with our stuff for the going away party. We had hats for the kids....they went crazy for them, cookies, candy, bananas, oranges and juice boxes. They loved the fruit....can you believe it? I guess they do not get very much fruit at the orphanage. Nadia and Stasik helped set up for the party. I was trying very hard to get them to eat....but they wanted nothing to do with it, they just wanted to change into there new clothes and get out of there. P & P showed up just as we got the party going. We headed down to the directors office to finish up and headed off to the airport early....the kids just wanted to leave. Of course it was raining out....which is going to lead into our airport experience. Well Lugansk has the worst airport I have even been in in my whole life!!!! We have to lug all of our luggage up to the second floor. Once we checked in they send you to this little holding room with all your stuff. So here we are with P & P and their 2 kids and all of our stuff. It was packed in there and the 4 kids are going crazy....they just want to get onto the plane. So once they are ready to put us on the plane we walk outside to the plane. Remember we are on the second floor, it's raining out and we have all of our luggage 6 pieces and 3 of them are heavy. So we have to walk across the tarmac to the plane, go around to the other side and lift our heavy bags up to the guy on the plane to put them on the plane....gotta love Lugansk airport!!!!

It was a relatively uneventful plane ride. We managed to keep our two kids away for P & P's kids. Stasik fell a sleep for the majority of the ride. We arrived in Kiev and headed off to our apartment. When we pulled up our diver was killing himself laughing....our friends B & S from Manitoba are in the same building as up....needless to say we were ecstatic as we were spending Friday with them.

We woke up Friday a.m. and headed off to McDonald's for breakfast.....you have NO idea how happy I was to see Rotten Ronnie's!!!! We hung out on Khreschatyk and then hooked up with B & S and their two kids for lunch. They have adopted a boy the same age as Stasik and a girl the same age as Nadia. We sent the rest of the day with them, the kids got along great. That evening we went to the Canadian Embassy for their pub night. The eight of us had a great time....it was so nice to hang out with a group of Canadians. Most of them are in Kiev working at the Embassy. We even meet one girl from Manitoba who is married to a Ukrainian and living in Ukraine. And of course she know people that Brad knows. For those of you how know my hubby, he always runs into someone he knows....ie. on the street in Las Vegas.

On Saturday we went to the KLM office to confirm our flights for the next day, this was a recommendation by our friends B & S.....thank goodness we went....what a mess!!! Well it turned out that Northwest airlines messed up and did not process Brad and my flight change....so we were not booked on the flight. Also, talking to the gentleman who gave the kids their Visa's to come to Canada...he brought up a good point....did the kids need Visa's to fly through the US??? YES!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!! The lady at Northwest told my sister-in-law when she booked the flights....and she told me, but my ignorance....I said the kids will have Visa's....for Canada.....duh. So needless to say I was freaking out. We held flights for the 4 of us for the Tuesday with hope of getting the US Visa's on Monday.

We went to the US consulate on Monday and discovered that the Americans can get their visas for their children in a day and it would have taken us 2 or 3 days....and I did not want to rebook the flights until we had them. So we bite the bullet and purchased 4 one way tickets for us to go home on Tuesday....

On Sunday we spent the day with P & P and their boys. The eight of us meet at McDonald's for lunch and then went to the circus. We had a great time with them and the circus was great.....and super cheap, about $4 a person. The show was amazing and was about 3 hours long....the best $$$$ we spent in Ukraine.

On Monday after getting the tickets settled up we ran into P & P on the street and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with them. Crazy being in Kiev and running into people you know never mind when we were at McDonald's in Kiev on Monday we ran into a couple (Ukrainian) that we always saw at the internet in Lugansk. They spoke a little English and would always try to talk to us a bit. Small would, even in Kiev.

We flew back to Winnipeg on Tuesday Nov 21th via Vienna and Toronto. 2 days in Ukraine. One of my closed friends Loretta and her hubby Dan and children Jacob and Julia live in Toronto. We had a 4. hour law over and they meet us at the airport and took us to Outback Steakhouse for a wonderful meal. Brad was so excited to eat a steak...everything in Ukraine is minced. Poor Stasik was so tired, but that time we had been up for about 1 8 hours and he fell a sleep at the table after he ate.

check back next week for updates on life in Manitoba!

2006-11-27T21:07:00.000-06:00

We are officially home. We arrived home on November 21st. This is the first time that I have been able to get onto the computer. The one we had in the house has gone to computer heaven...we have once in our shop, but it's outside and after spending the day with the kids...I just don't have the energy. Nadia and Stasi are starting school on Thursday, so I will get on line then and tell you about the last few days in Lugansk...our time in Kiev....and our problems getting home!!!

2006-11-18T08:28:00.000-06:00

I know everyone is sitting around waiting for the next posting. I have tons to write about the last three days....but may not get around to doing it until later this week. I only a have a few minutes....it's been crazy the last few days....so many fun things, crazy things, a minor, but fixable problem that I will write about later.

Letters to Brooke....I know exactly who you are. I followed your blog. We have to talk!!! I though the kids orphanage name was Lugansk Children's Orphanage #1, but I looked though a couple of your pictures....it's the same orphanage. There is even a picture of our Stasi in one of your pictures....from what I can see by the room pictures and mamas, it's the same groupa.

2006-11-15T14:01:00.000-06:00

It's been a crazy 1 1/2 days. Y came in by train about 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. She crashed on our sofa until about 7:30 and then took off just before 9 to pick up the court decree and start the paperwork. She called us just before 11 a.m. and at 11 a.m. we left Lugansk and went to the town that the kids were born in, not sure of the name, but it starts with a S, to get the kids new birth certificates. What I do know is that we are in Lugansk, which is about 50 km from Russia, the town is farther east and were we only about 5 km from Russia. It was poring rain out. Everyone here drives like a crazy person....and the cab driver that took us was no better. His wipers were not going fast enough and Y told him to make them go faster. He was passing on solid lines and Y even gave him heck about his driving a few times!!! I was so happy!!! The roads suck. It was a single lane highway. There is no shoulder and the sides of the road was crumbling so they like to drive down the middle of the 2 lanes. I was having a heart attack!!! The speed signs I saw said 45 km, and he was doing anywhere from 70km to 120km.....the best part....they do not have daylight running lights and they do not put their lights on!!!! Gotta love it.

We arrived there about 12:30. The ladies at the office we so nice. They took us next door to a cafe for lunch. We hung out there until just after 2 and went back to the office. They pretty much gave us the new birth certificates and we were out of there about 2:30. We arrived back in Lugansk at 3:40 p.m. I must have calmed down about the driving because I actually fell a sleep for a while. We had to go to this office to get new registration numbers, then to the notary, to 2 passport offices, local and regional. And no, I do not know why 2 passport offices. We were told that the kids new passports would be ready on Thursday morning, so much for flying out on Wednesday night. By the time we were done it was 6 and to late to go visit the kids. The air line office was also closed. We headed back to the hotel and went to the supermarket and got some supper. It was a long tiring day and we were crashed shortly after 9.

Y took off today about 8:30, the air line office was still closed....nothing here opens until 9 a.m.. At 9:30 she called us. There are only 5 flights left on the Thursday night flight. Holly crap, we need all five. She called a cab for us, we rushed over to the Rada office (Ukrainian parliament) and picked her up. We rushed to the travel agency and got the last 5 flights on the Thursday night flight. YAHHHHHHHHHHHH WHOOOOOOOO!!!!

Y took off and left us to get the tickets. We headed back to the hotel and just had time to use the washroom before we were on to the bank and passport office. We headed to the orphanage to make our donation and we were back at the hotel by 1 p.m. Y went home for the night. Her home town is about 1/2 an hour form here. Brad & I headed back to the grocery store to pick up some lunch, went to the internet for a few minutes and then walked back to the orphanage for 4 p.m. for our final visit.

The kids totally understand what is going on. We were not sure how much Stasi understood, but with P & P got there Stasi told P that we are leaving on the plane tomorrow and we are taking 4 planes. Which is true. The funny thing is P & P and their 2 kids and their facilitator are also on our plane. Only 2 flights to Kiev a day. 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.....and the plane only holds about 40 people...we are going to over run the plane.

After our visit we headed to our cafe with P & P so a late supper/snack. The last meal for the 4 of us before the influx of kids tomorrow.

2006-11-13T11:24:00.001-06:00

Day 10 is now officially done.....WOOOOHOOOO

Y is coming to town tomorrow, arriving on the train at 5 a.m. so we expect her to be at our door for a shower around 5:30 a.m. and then we start the paperwork. First the court decree needs to be picked up, some paperwork from the orphanage needs to be signed off and then it's off to the kids home town to get their birth certificates redone and then new passports for them in their new name. Once that is done we can head off to Kiev for the kids Visa's. We expect the paperwork here to take 2 days. He are hoping to head to Kiev on the Wednesday night flight.

We went to the orphanage from 4 to 6 tonight as usual. Yesterday when were we there they were cutting the kids hair from one of the groupas. When we got there today they were cutting kids hair from what appeared to be our kids groupa or the one in the next room. Thank goodness they did not cut our kids hair. We told them that if they come near them with the scissors to say nyet (no) - Canada!!! His hair is fine, she only needs her bangs cut. She specifically told us yesterday that she does not want the back cut. When we were waiting for them I pictured her walking out with her hair short and her in tears!!!

As I have said before I think she understands more than he does. She thinks that we are going to Kiev tomorrow, but I straightened that out. Last week we gave them each a comic book/magazine. When she came out of their room today she put the book in our bag....I think she is packing the stuff that she knows is hers, which is very little, jut the stuff we gave her. She also has a small photo album, which is nice because of course we do not have any old pictures of them when they were little.

As usual we are still feeding the cats on every visit. We started out feeding 2, then 3 and now we are up to 4. You should see the cats come running as soon as they hear our voices outside. We have named then Fox, Eliza, Tiger and Spot....no, spot does not have spots. These cat are going to have to go back to table scraps and the garbage can soon....it's so sad. There are so many stray cats and dogs here, it just breaks my heart, thinking of my dog Ben who whines to you if you are not sharing enough of your popcorn with him.

Yesterday, as we do every day, we went to the hotel cafeteria for breakfast. It was packed because they were feeding a Ukrainian soccer team that was staying in our hotel o we shared a table with a man from New York. In error I left my small change purse with under $30 and some ID in the cafeteria. Well when I realized I lot it I had no idea where it was and was freaking out, it a looking everywhere. Well the gentleman had picked it up. He tried to leave a message with the ladies at the front desk that he was trying to find us. He did not know our names or our room number, but knew we had been there for 3 weeks and were Americans (he did not know we were from Canada)...he did not want to leave it at the front desk with a fear of us never getting it. Well he found us at breakfast this morning....needless to say I was ecstatic!!!

On a side note, I am really needing to get out of here, the pushy people on the crowded buses are driving me crazy. They congregate at the front of the bus and never move to the back. They are small buses, so there is only one door at the front. Today on the way to the orphanage a few people got off from the back, but no one moves to the back. I jut wanted to scream "move to the back of the bus". Brad was sitting shot gun with the driver. There are 2 seats in the front with the driver. If someone get out of the front seat Brad dashes for it....I have never seen anyone more so fast!!!

2006-11-12T11:51:00.000-06:00

DAYS 8 & 9 DONE!!!!! ONE, THAT'S RIGHT ONLY ONE TO GO!!!!! :)

I guess you can tell we are very excited. We are so happy to think that at this time in just a week at this time we will be getting ready to descend into Minneapolis and then one short flight home!!!

Since the kids did not have school yesterday of today we visited them twice. I am 99.9% sure she knows what is going on, but I am not sure if he does. I think he just follows her and is on for the ride!!!

Since it was out last Saturday night in Lugansk and without kids Brad & I went our for dinner with P & P from Colorado. They are starting their paperwork tomorrow, today is day 19 for them. Unfortunately they were unable to secure flights home next weekend so they are not leaving Kiev until Tuesday November 21th. They are a little disappointed but they are flying to her parent in Indiana first and will be there for Thanksgivings and then will be going home to Denver on the following Saturday the 25th.

Our friends B & S from home are also starting their paperwork tomorrow, there 10 day wait ended on Saturday....we look forward to hooking up with them in Kiev. They are booked to come back to Winnipeg on Saturday the 18th.

It' starting to get cold here. We still have no snow. It's hovering around 0 and we were told but P & P that it's even colder in Kiev. Needless to say we are anxious to get home to our warm cars and houses. No more crowded buses full of rude pushy people and hotel room that it's heating system seems to shut off when it's cold. I am not sure, but I think it shut off at night. It's OK for sleeping but I need it on to dry my clothes...radiator work great from drying clothes.

Brad is starting to get stir crazy. We have not been watching any TV at all, just movies and reading. Well Brad has been watching movies, soccer games and even caught a pre recorded NHL game today...all without the sound!!!

2006-11-10T10:52:00.000-06:00

Day 7 done.

We went to the market again today with P & P....we are pretty much ready to go now. We had to buy a duffel bag to take all the extra stuff we bought home. Things for the kids, new jackets and a few souvenirs. I know you are all shocked, Kim the organizer is not prepared and did not think of bringing an extra bag with her.

We took the kids there ski jackets, hats, mitts and boots to try on. They seemed very happy....he was very adamant that his hat got put into his jacket sleeve and put back into our bag for Canada.

Of course....they made sure that we know that there is no school tomorrow and we are to come for 10 a.m. and not at 4 p.m. We told them today that we are going to Canada in 9 days...but I don't think that they realize that they only have a few more days at the orphanage and either 2 or 3 days of school there depending how fast we get our paperwork done here.

2006-11-10T02:44:00.000-06:00

There are 20 kids in our kids groupa. Five 5 girls including ours and 15 boys including ours. There is a group of boys that are what I call Brad's fan club. There are two little girls, I would say about 5 or 6 that are so cute and sweet, we would just LOVE to take them home with us. Every once and a while when we get to their groupa at 4, the kids are not there. They are in a different room, I assuming doing some sort of activity. There is this adorable blond little girl who is very sweet, she always has a smile for us. She always wants to go get our kids for us. We sit just outside the room, she runs by on on her way, says something in Russian and gives us a big smile. Brad always says that she looks exactly like my friend Loretta. Loretta....you have a child in Ukraine!!

2006-11-09T11:16:00.000-06:00

Day 6 done - 4 to go

We were blessed with some nice weather today, not like yesterday when it was cold and rainy. Brad has had a cold for a few days, but is feeling better now. Thank goodness, he is like a typical man when he is sick....I know you woman know what I mean. We went shopping to the outdoor market with P & P today and then for lunch to the Ukrainian restaurant. We had great weather for shopping outdoors. I got a winter jacket for each kid and a pair of boots, PJ's and slippers for her and a hat for him. We are going back with them tomorrow as we still need a few more things, they do to. We as running out of time. Boy, that was great to say!!! We will have very little time on the weekend and it also super busy on the weekends, it's closed Monday and then we start our paperwork on Tuesday....yeah. We are having a good bye party for the kids groupa on Tuesday night. Probably will just get juice boxes, fruit, cookies and candies....healthy!!

P & P's kids were trying on some of there new clothes lat night so tonight I brought some for Nadia and Stasi to try on. Stasi is 7 and just took everything off right there. Nadia is 9 and we had to go to the bathroom. They are so funny. I brought him a pair of jeans and two sweaters to try one...you would think it was Christmas morning and he was opening up toys....just wait until it is Christmas. I took her two pairs of jeans, two sweaters and and long sleeve t-shirt....she said "wow". Wait till she gets home and realizes that's a very, very small part of her wardrobe. Just wait till I take her to Old Navy (my favourite store) and let her pick out a few things....she is going to faint. I know I brought more for her, but I have no clothes for her a home and I have tons of stuff for him that will fit him. Some new and tons of hand me downs from my nephew Jordan.

2006-11-08T11:14:00.000-06:00

Day 4 and 5 gone!!! We are half way there!!!!

Our friends B & S were out for the night last night....it was so nice to see them....we had such a great time. We have not seen them since Kiev on October the 5th. When they left this morning we could say "see you in a week". We will both be back in Kiev for our final paperwork next week. TGIFriday's here we come!!!

Nadia is learning quote a bit of English in school as well, Today she was saying "what is your name" and then she would say Nadia our last name, and Brad and I had to say our name. And then she was saying that we live in our house in Canada and have two dogs. She was saying "Benji the dog". Benji malanky (small).

It has gotten cold here again, but we do not have any snow yet. It was raining this afternoon and bit. Hopefully it will clear up because we need to get back to the outdoor market tomorrow and/or Friday to get some more stuff for the kids...like winter jackets!!! I don't want to go on the weekend when it is busy, besides we see the kids twice a day on the weekend, so that does not give us much time. It's closed on Mondays and then on Tuesday it's time to start our paperwork....and then off to Kiev mid week and home on Sunday God willing.

2006-11-06T14:18:00.000-06:00

I am going to start out with the best news....we are coming home. Well...not for a few days, but soon. Thanks to the tireless work by my sister in law Allyson and her friend Anne in Calgary we are booked to come home on Sunday Nov 19th!!! Thanks so much to Anne for finding us a great deal and not paying through the nose for the kids flights....and to Ally for running around like a crazed woman getting everything together!!!

We arrive in Winnipeg at 3:48 p.m. Sorry guys there will be no Grey Cup party at our house this year!!!

For the next good news our friends B & S from Winnipeg who are also in Ukraine adopting two children are coming to Lugansk tomorrow for noon and are spending the night. We are so looking forward to seeing them!!!!! There is going to be a party in Lugansk tomorrow night!!!

We have now completed day 3 of our 10 day wait. We had a cold weekend, but it warmed up a bit today. We visited the kids twice on Saturday and Sunday and went there for 4 to 6 as usual. We told them that we would not be coming to see them tomorrow as B & S are here....we did not tell them that's way though. They seemed to be OK with it....We gave them an extra treat (we always give them one when we leave everyday) and told them it was for tomorrow. Wonder if they saved one for tomorrow????

We went out for salad/soup and pop with P & P from Colorado. I know I have said it 1,000,000 times, but I can not express how blessed we are to have made friends with another couple from North America in our orphanage!!

2006-11-03T11:00:00.000-06:00

What a day. I am going to start by going back to last week. Last Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (can't remember exact date) we were told that our court date was Friday November 4th at 11:00 a.m. On Monday we were told by Y that it may be pushed to Monday November 6th as the judge may have to go to Kiev on business. We found out on Wednesday that it would be on Friday, but we did not have a time. Y was coming in on the overnight train from Kiev and would be arriving here about 8:30 a.m. She told us that she was going to come to our room to shower and then she was to call the judge at noon and she would tell us when to come. Today she called us about 9:30 and said that she was on the later train and would be at our hotel for 10:30. Brad and I were just heading out from breakfast when 5 minutes later she called us and said that court was on for 11:00. So we ran downstairs to the cafeteria, had a quick breakfast, ran back up to our room the get changed.

The best part...for those of you who remember I was having some problems with my left eye in June and the optometrist said that I had a viral infection in it, probably caused because of a cold. So I wake up this morning with a bit of a cold and with 1/2 an hour of waking up my eye is killing me.

So we get to the court at exactly 11:00 a.m.. Run up to the judges office, and my eye was killing me. So we sit in the packed office with the judge, her secretary, two jurors, the inspector, the lawyer from the orphanage, the prosecutor from our region, Y our facilitator, Brad & I. It lasted for an hour, I am ready to rip my eye out. Then we have to wait in the hallway for 50 minutes while they did their thing....so finally at 1:00 p.m. they pronounced us parent sot Nadia Ann and Stanislav John. Brad was so happy, I was in pain. I went back to the hotel for an hour to lie down, take some good drugs and 1/2 a bottle of eye drops. Good news is I am feeling better and day one of our 10 day wait starts tomorrow!!!

We had a nice visit with the kids tonight. They were being extra goofy...I think they we showing off to Y. She is back on the train to Kiev to meet her next set of parents, our friends S & H also from back home. We will be seeing Y on November 14th, day 11 when we can start working on our paperwork. It's looking good that we will be able to fly home on November 18th. We will keep you posted on that day as we know more.

p.s. I forgot to tell you that the weather is still wonderful here. No snow. We have walked to the orphanage twice now, Wednesday and Thursday and hope to keep walking daily. It's about a 45 minute walk and great exercise. We will continue to take the bus home as it's dark by six. Since tomorrow is Saturday and there is no school the kids made sure that we knew that and that we were coming at 10 as well as 4 for the next two days!!!

2006-11-02T14:14:00.000-06:00

We would like to start by congratulating our friends B & S from home who became parents to a 7 year old and a 9 year old girl on Halloween. Also to P & P from Colorado how became parents to a 6 year old boy and a 3 year 364 day old little boy today. Yes, his 4th birthday is tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our big day. We are not sure if they have to go to court with us or not. P and P went today and they did not have to take there kids, but they are only 4 and 6 and do not go to school, so that could make a difference. B and S took there kids to court, they are the same ages as ours....even the same sex, but they are in a different region. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

We explained to the kids today that we would be going to court tomorrow and would be a family and that we would be going to Canada in 2 weeks. We also reviewed their new last names with them. They were quite excited. One of the ladies that we see all the time (I think she is the head chef) came into the room right after that Nadia told the lady. I know enough key words to understand what she was saying, tomorrow and court. She was so excited to tell her, the lady then gave her the thumbs up. They were in such a good mood after that! I gave him a stuffed frog today and her a stuffed cat. She loves, loves, loves all the cats in the orphanage, thus us feeding them every night. She even feeds the big fluffy beige/yellow and white one that scratched her nose on Sunday. She calls that cat Fox. The cat I got her was about the same colour, so she is now calling it Fox.

Leaving the orphanage tonight was a nightmare. We just missed our bus, so P & P and Brad & I we standing out in the rain for about 1/2 an hour waiting for the next one. P had an umbrella, mine was at the hotel and P's oldest son broke hers today, so P & I were standing under this broken umbrella attempting to stay dry. Luckily it's warm out and was not raining very hard. We were going crazy waiting there as we were going for supper and that was all that we could think about. We are off to our favourite restaurant for Pizza. We finally made it there....it was soooo good!!

2006-10-31T13:43:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween!!!!

Hope everyone in Winnipeg is enjoying the snow, we do not have any here yet, but it's getting colder and colder every day.

Brad & I went to the open market today and got some shoes and clothes for the kids...we still have lot to get, but it's a start. Brad was having a great time with the ladies trying to get the prices lower. One lady would not budge on a sweater for XXXXX (her) so we did not get it. We refused to pay her price...it was to low. Brad kept saying "Joe would be proud" (my dad).

We went to the orphanage yesterday and today for 4 to 6....as normal. Tonight we went out for soup and tea with P & P again. They drink lots of tea here, I am now drinking green tea....Fiona will be impressed!!!

2006-10-30T04:52:00.000-06:00

We went to the orphanage twice Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday we had two injuries. I have been bring a can of cat food to the orphanage with us. The kids love the cats that live at the orphanage. At our morning visit we feed the cats and Nadia was carrying the bid fluffy one and it scratched her nose. It got her on the side of the nose and she was bleeding in two places. So we went in side to her room. All I was thinking was I am not going to send this child back at the end of our visit and have the lady in the room freak out!!! So they put iodine or some kind of disinfectant on all the kids scratches...so she got two blue dots on her nose. She was so embarrassed. She kept hiding her nose and laughing!! I did manage to get a picture...but of course by the time we came back at 4 p.m. she had wiped it all off. Then in our afternoon visit, Brad went to kick the ball and kicked the floor and he thinks he sprained his toe. He is limping around whining. Stasi was rubbing Brad's toe to make it feel better and saying a bunch of stuff in Russian.

We had a big weekend. We went out for Italian food with P & P from the U.S. on Saturday night and then out to play pool. Last night we went out to a cafe with P & P to have a bowl of solanka soup (meat) and visit. It was the first time that we had gone to this cafe and the soup was excellent. We will definitely be going back.

2006-10-27T11:11:00.000-05:00

You gotta be pushy!!

We have been taking the bus to and from the orphanage. It's not really a bus, but more like a shuttle size van. It's holds about 15-20 people sitting down and about the same standing up. Trust me, they pack the people on. We got to the bus stop today and we were the only ones their waiting for the 151. It came by and was PACKED. So we waited for the next one, a lady pushed right in front of us and basically ran us over to get on the bust. There was no way the two of us could have squeezed on. So we waited for the next one. Brad flagged the guy down, everyone was rushing for the door, there was no way we were not getting on this one, we had been waiting over 15 minutes and we were by far the first ones there, so we pushed our way one. We are not used to having to do this in Canada, but like they say, when in Rome do as the Romans....so we did. I felt bad....it's not in our nature, but if we hadn't we would have been standing there for hours!

We brought a deck of cards tonight. We played a game that we call pairs. You put the cards up side down, when it's your turn you flip two cards over and try to match up pairs of cards. If they do not match, they get turned back over. We taught the kids how to play. Well Brad and I were stunned. We could not believe how well Stasi did. He has a really good memory.....this is good....but could also be bad. He is going to remember everything we say for the rest of our lives!!!

2006-10-27T05:27:00.000-05:00

We are still here and unfortunately we do not have a definite court date yet. But we hope to know later today....we will keep you posted.

Our days are not very exciting. The kids are on holidays this week so we have been visiting them twice a day. We try and stay outside as much as we can. If anyone has any good outdoor games, let us know, we are running out of ideas. We play money in the middle, soccer, badminton, hide and seek, Frisbee, and jump rope. It was quite funny today...there are so many cute kids there, and they all want our attention. When we get to the kids groupa, most of the kids know Brad's name so they are all calling his name, talking to him, shaking his hand. We go outside and eventually more groupas come out. Today Nadia and Brad we playing badminton, a group of kids were watching a cheering for Brad. This adorable little girl was making necklaces out of leaves and at one point I was wearing 3 of them. They made one for Brad, but it did not fit over his head so he was wearing it on his head like a ring of flowers!! Two little boys then thought it was funny to start slapping my butt...I did not!! By that time our kids were sick of the other kids bugging us so we went inside and had our snack, practised our flash cards and they played for a while.

For those of you that are interested, this is what our day consists of...it's very, very exciting;

wake up
shower
eat breakfast in the hotel cafeteria...ok it's not what we would think of as breakfast but they are not that into bacon and eggs
go to orphanage
go to internet
go to grocery store and possibly store
eat a late lunch in room
go to orphanage
go to internet
have snack in room
read or watch movie
go to bed

We have gone out with our American friends a few times and are going out again on Saturday night...we are looking froward to it.

2006-10-26T05:04:00.000-05:00

We went back to the orphanage again last night and then went out for supper with our new American friends. We went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza, it was soooo got. Their translator came just when we were finishing eating and then the 5 of us went to play pool. Their translator, Brad & P played Russian pool and P and I visited. It was a nice evening and great to go out with English speaking people.

Nadia loves to play badminton with Brad...she does not want to play with me....I think she thinks I suck at it!!! Which is kind of true. But she always wants to hold my hand and carry my purse when we go inside form outside!! It rained early this morning but the kids wanted to go outside, mainly because she wanted to play badminton (we bring different things every time we go). Brad and Nadia were playing in the yard which is partial sand/mud/concrete. He dived for the birdie and wiped out....boy the kids thought that was hilarious.

And no, there is no beer at McDonald's. There is also no grilled chicken, which is my sandwich of choice!!

2006-10-25T05:21:00.000-05:00

Not much is new here. We still don't know what our court date is yet. Y is supposed to call the judge this afternoon to find out when it is. We will let you know.

Yesterday we went to see the kids from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and today we went from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will go back at 4 p.m. again. Our American friends have been going in the evenings. They were told they do not like us to visit very often because it disrupts the system, but we were not told that so we are going to keep going as often as we can. We have been practising our English with our flash cards, playing badminton, soccer, monkey in the middle and anything else you can do with a ball. We have been bring food everytime we visit. Yogurt drinks, juice boxes, kielbasa, cheese, bread, bananas, anything that we can find that is healthy. We have been bringing meat, fruits and dairy regularly...I don't thing they get very much at the orphanage. Although I must say it's a very, very nice orphanage.

Tonight we are going out for dinner and to play pool with our American friends at 6 when all four of us are done visiting the kids. We are looking forward to it. They are sure nice and it's so nice to have someone to hang out with.

Some more observations;
- we have seen 2 pick up trucks the entire time we have been here
- they LOVE cooking with mushrooms
- they LOVE cooking with cabbage
- they LOVE fish

Driving rules for Kyiv;
1. there are no rules
2. pedestrians do NOT have the right of way
3. if there are 4 lanes, make 5. if your car is small enough, make 6
4. if you are getting tired of waiting on the freeway in the traffic jam (or maybe it's just a very busy street), take the sidewalk
5. people on the sidewalk better get out of the way of the cars on the sidewalk (see rule #2)
6. the lines on the road are for decoration ONLY
7. use your horn LOTS

Rules for driving in Lugansk;
if you are in line for the train, go into the other lane (for the other direction) and go to the front. when the railway crossing arms go up, cross back into your lane and go first

2006-10-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

Not much new today. Our paperwork has been submitted and we hope to tomorrow when our court date will be.

We found out this afternoon that they kids are on holidays from school this week so we will start going to see them from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. as well as 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. We are practising English with them everyday. We went through a bunch of food items with them today to see what they like....need to start getting some ideas for home. We have been giving them Flintstones vitamins everyday and they think they are candy....don't know how to explain that they are not and vitamins are not in our book...so they are candy for now!

We figured out today that Nadia seems to like gymnastics. We tried to ask her today if she would like to go to gymnastics when she gets to Canada and she said yes...so we hope that she knows what we are taking about. She said no to swimming, but she may have thought that Brad wanted to know if she could swim. Well she is going for swimming lessons. We strongly believe that every child should know how to swim. They can also not go to my parents in Arizona if they can't swim!!

2006-10-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

We went back to the orphanage last night from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. last night and did a puzzle with the kids. She was right into it, but he would wander off and play for a while and then come back to it, but he is a 7 year old boy and she is a 9 year old girl. Boy, can you tell the difference. About 5:30 p.m. the Americans came in from outside with their 2 boys, 5 & 6 and then it was crazy!!!

After we were done our visit we headed out for supper with the American couple. It was a nice restaurant, a good meal and we had great company. It was so nice to be able to talk to someone who is from home and is going through the same thing we are. Don't worry Bob & Susan, you are still our #1 friends in Ukraine!!! we are just not in the same place.

Y came in with her daughter this morning and we went to the circus with them and our two. It was nice to get them out of the orphanage. The kids really enjoyed themselves, we did too....we just had no idea what they were saying at the show. Apparently the clown was really funny....Nadia was laughing her head off. It's was very different that what we would see, no guide wires and the animal activists would have a cow!!

We dropped the kids off at 2:30 and then went back from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. I tried to teach them some more English words, but they just wanted to play soccer and on the jungle jim, I think they were still pumped from the sugar and circus. about 5:30 the Italian woman and her son came in and Stasi went crazy. They were running around like maniacs. Nadia remembers most of what we taught her yesterday and of course they are picking up words as we go along. I hope they learn more soon, Canada and school are just around the corner.

Sorry Loretta and Lesley, we will be flying back via Minneapolis or Chicago, we are flying Northwest. Loretta we will see you at Christmas!!!! Yeah, I am sooo excited you are coming to Manitoba!!!

Congratulations to my e-mail friend Tonya....she has an appointment at the SDA on November 16th.

Happy 40th Birthday to our friend Lyle who turned 40 yesterday.

2006-10-21T06:34:00.000-05:00

Hello from Lugansk. Things are going very well here. From what we understand, the way things are supposed to progress!! The kids are great, and the best news is that they want to be adopted!!! They are 9 & 7. A little bit older than what we originally thought that we would adopt, but we are also a bit older too. The 9 year old is very anxious to learn English. We have some flash cards on them that have Russian/Ukrainian/English are are starting to teach them some basic words. She has started taking English in school and can count to 10, she is now working on 11-20. Once she starts speaking more, he will also be more interested. He is a typical boy, all we wants to do is play, run, climb the jungle jim. We were there today from 10:30 to noon and are going back from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. There is also an Italian woman adopting a little boy, her 10 day wait was up yesterday. There is also a couple from the US adopting 2 boys, I believe they are pretty much at the same stage a us. We saw them Thursday night and hope to see them tonight. It's nice to have another couple from "home" to talk to. We are not sure when we are going to court, but are hoping to know next week. Hopefully it will be soon, we are dying to get home. The kids are great and we are enjoying our time with them and here, but it will be nice to be at home.

Yes, the bed sheets are also driving me nuts...note to PAP's, bring pins to pin them to the mattress. You wake up in the morning and they are a big ball!!

We are staying in the Hotel Lugansk. It's very nice! 1000% better than Makeevka. Hot water all the time. Nice bed, fridge, great location. The internet is across the street, and it's a super convenient location.

Thank you again to everyone for the Gilmore Girl updates!

Thanks to everyone for your e-mails and posting, it's so nice to have that connection from home.

For those of you who know my dog, he is staying with my in-laws, and keeping them on their toes. He has been eating their bread (left on the counter), opened the lazy susan in the kitchen and helped himself to a package of Raman noodles, and goes through their garbage for them!!

Happy birthday to our nephew Kaelan who turned 7 on October 18th. We were unable to go to the party, but Benji did and had some chip and dip in our absence!!

Happy anniversary to us. We celebrated 5 years yesterday. We went to Kiev for the day with the kid to go to the doctor for the Canadian medicals for immigration. Tonight we are going to find a restaurant to go to.

2006-10-16T11:03:00.000-05:00

Bathroom Update.

I used the wrong one at McDonald’s today, the other girl was taking to long and I almost got stuck in there. I have to admit I started to panic.

I also used one at the nice mall today. It costs 50 kopeck (1/2 a grevna), sorry about the spelling and it did not even have a toilet seat and no one bothered to tell me that you need to take the toilet paper in the stall with you from the main area!!!

2006-10-16T04:49:00.000-05:00

We had out appointment today and have another referral for a boy and a girl…unfortunately that is all we are prepared to share right now. We are leaving Kiev tomorrow to travel to the region and will update when possible.

We have had a lazy few days in Kiev. On Friday night we treated our selves to TGIFriday’s for supper. It was pretty good, not as good as in the US. On Saturday we went to Marlinsky Park, it was beautiful. We must have seen 50 brides there. Then later on we went to Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. On Sunday Yana took us to the Market. That was an experience. It was packed. We went to an indoor one as it was raining out. Yana said it was extra busy because of the rain and it was also the weekend. WE took the Metro there, it was pretty much the same as in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego and Toronto (the other places we have taken it)…just everything is in Ukrainian.

2006-10-14T05:13:00.000-05:00

We forgot to wish our niece Alycia a happy 5th birthday on October 13th. Hope you had a great day. I assume that you are having a party today. Hope you are enjoying your visit with grandma and grandpa.

2006-10-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

If you as using the bathroom at McDonald's in Union Square....use the one on the left NOT the right. The handle does not work very well and someone was locked in there today. Thank goodness I happended to use the one on the left that time.

So yesterday we are walking to the main street and this lady was sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons. There must have been 40-60 of them flying around. Well everyone knows I am not a fan of birds. Why??? Because they might peck me, or worse poop on me. Well, one pooped on Brad's head...yuck. Actually now it's quite funny. We have been told by Y (facillitaor) and Bob & Susan thaty it means good luck. Well I hope it does. We have another appointment Monday at 10 a.m. 2 a.m. central time so if you are up at 2 a.m., say a special prayer for us!!

So we are dying here...we are missing all the good shows. Can some one e-mail me and let me know what is going on on Gilmore Girls???

We watch the first season of Corner Gas when we need a good dose of home. Thank you to Val and Tony for the DVD....it's good for a laugh. Sorry Saskatchewan!!

2006-10-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

To our friends and family, thank you so much for your support, you have no idea how much you have helped. We are now back in Kiev waiting for another appointment, our first referral did not work out. They received applications on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they are in training today and we have been told to come tomorrow at 9 a.m. The apartment we have is very nice, it even has a washing machine. I did 2 loads last night and 2 today. It is very small.

The past week has been one of the hardest weeks of our life. I am not going to go into great detail…but here it is in a nut shell. We have been in Makeevka (a small village outside of Donetsk) since last Thursday morning. The train ride was….BAD. I would not recommend it, but it is cheap and we will do it again if necessary. We flew back last night…after the past week, I could not face the train. We have been spending time with a little girl (7) and her brother (5). The unfortunate part is that she was hosted by an American family from August 12-31. This trip was still fresh in her mind and the woman calls twice a week. She did not want us to adopt her, she is waiting for this family to come for her. The sad part is that this could take a year, or it may never happen. These people have not even been approved to adopt. Ukraine has not accepted any new applications for the past year. When they start accepting them (hopefully in January) they will be flooded with applications. These people may not come for a year, or possibly ever. What does this mean for these children? They will sit in the orphanage and suffer. The longer they sit there, the more their mental and physical state deteriorates. This woman and her husband believe they are these children's parents and they may never be (no, there have never meet him…he is to young to be hosted). I am appalled by how selfish they are, they are not thinking of the children, but themselves. My heart aches for all the other families that will come visit them, and there will be families. They are in an age group that is in demand and they are healthy. They will go through the same heart ache we did. My heart aches for the little boy who is an innocent bystander….who cried when we left him, he would have gotten on a plane with us on the second day and never looked back. So we go on. We know that there are other children out there who want us to be their parents and we are coming for them.
Makeevka was like living in the past. Our hotel was about 100 years old, our first room had a skeleton key!! We were fortunate enough to have a room with hot water, and yes, we paid extra for it. We have had limited access to the internet, we were only able to send one e-mail the entire time we were there. We were able to read my e-mails, but not Brad's and able to read the comments here. We felt so isolated that we could not contact our friends and family. We have not forgotten about you!! As I said before, it was wonderful to go into my e-mail and our blog and read what had been written. Weather it was support for what we were going through, well wishes, or gossip form the office, it was wonderful!! We are so blessed to have such an amazing family and group of friends.

Our friends Bob and Susan from home have been a life saving. They are in Ukraine as well, but we are not close, but we speak to them daily. It's so nice to have friends from home in the same time zone.

We will update tomorrow and let you know about our appointment.

2006-10-04T03:37:00.000-05:00

I will start by answering a few questions.

Loretta - O’Briens Irish Pub does not serve perogies…mainly Irish and American cuisine. We went there on Sunday night to catch some NFL and meet up with our friends from Manitoba. Apparently the English speaking adoption couples hang out there, but we did not see any.

Lee, Treena , Kara & Nolan – The norm is that you loose 10 pounds here. Brad & I are praying that we do, we both need to loose more than that, but it’s a good place to start!! We are doing tons of walking, so that will help as well.

Valerie – It’s gets dark about 7 p.m. and the sun is up about 6 a.m.

Lorne & Kristin – we are working on your list of Ukrainian names!!

We have been spending a lot of time with Bob & Susane, we are going to b sad to leave them today. We have been “hanging” out at McDonald’s in the a.m. people watching and visiting with them. It’s been nice to have friends going through the same thing as us. There are other couples here right now, we have just not meet up with any of them. I am unable to get onto FRUA so I have no idea what else is going on in the adoption world.

2006-10-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

Well we are still here in Kiev for the time being.We have been having a great time hanging out with Bob & Susane…I have been making some notes on my thoughts, doings and general info, so here we go....
1. all the woman are skinny
2. the majority of the woman are good looking
3. the men are NOT
4. you need to go to McDonald’s to but something, to the get code on your bill to use the WC (water closet – AKA bathroom). Trust me….it’s a GOOD bathroom
5. ketchup costs $$$ at McDonald’s
6. all the bread is dry
7. there is no healthy menu at McDonald’s
8. our apartment is 5 long blocks from Khreschatyk Blvd, 3.5 of those blocks are uphill!!!
9. Susane chasing her cold medication down with a beer
10. beer is sold on the streets
11. you rarely see a drunk person, but everyone is drinking
12. old men (40+) are with young woman (20’s and younger)
13. washing cloths in the sink
14. all woman were high heels and I mean high and are all dressed up
15. they walk on the cobblestone streets in their heels
16. we do not have even ONE English station on our TV, not even BBC!!
17. they park and drive on the sidewalks…I feel like I am back in Mexico City
18. they are crazy drivers

More to follow.....

And now, for the reason we are here. We had our appointment at noon today. It went well. I was super nervous before the appointment, but Y had us talking about other things on the way, so I forgot about it for a few minutes…I am not going to go into any real details right now, I am going to wait until we meet them and decide to go ahead with the adoption, there are so many things that could change our minds…. We did get a referral for a boy and a girl. We are leaving Kyiv tomorrow on the 7:30 p.a. train and will arrive in Donesk on Friday a.m. at 7…. I know, can you imagine me on a train?? Horrors!! I don’t expect to post until we meet the children and fell confiendt that we are going to precede, or if we decide not to adopt them for what ever reason.

2006-10-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

We are here!!! What a crazy place...it's sooo different from home. We arrived yesterday at 11 a.m. Going though customs we had a very nasty lady who yelled at me in Ukranian....Our facilitator Y took us to our flat, that has no washing machine so I washed socks and undies in the sink....aaahhhh! Y took us to get a phone card and some food. We walked back to our appartment and took a nap from 3:30 to 5:30 and then headed to O'Briens Irish Pub for supper with Bob & Susane, our friends from Birds Hill....I am not sure who was more excited to see friends...us or them. Well we have to take off now, so I will write more later...

2006-09-29T19:56:00.000-05:00

We left Winnipeg on Wednesday night and flew to Chicago. We have been hanging out in Chicago for the past two days and leave here tomorrow morning for Kyiv. It's been a great two days, it was so nice to have this little vacation before we head to Kyiv.

Yesterday we went to Target in the morning, man I love that store....we do not have it in Canada, so it's such a treat!! In the afternoon we went to Woodfield Mall, the 2nd largest mall in the US. Only the Mall of America is larger and since we have been there many times so this mall was nothing spectacular for us, but we enjoyed looking around. Brad's cousin Lorne and his wife Kristin picked us up and the 4 us us went to TGI Fridays for dinner and then they came back to our hotel to visit more. We had a great time. It was so nice to see them, they have just moved from Phoenix and have never lived close to us, so it was extra special!

Today we headed downtown on the L train. Brad had his first visit to Popeye's chicken for lunch, we went to Navy Pier and the famous Wrigley's Field for a Cub game...what an amazing place....we are definelty coming back here again some day, hopefully soon.

We we take off tomorrow for Ukraine, so I am going up to my room to repack and get a good nights sleep!!!

OH, I can not get the spell check to work...so I hope I did not make to may mistakes!!

2006-09-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well # 3 of bad things happened to me today. My friend Roberta & I went to Costco on our lunch break today. We were backing out of our parking spot,…we were so far out I was getting ready to put my car back into drive to go froward when bam the guy parked behind me backs up and hits me. I don’t even think he looked as I was in the middle of the isle when he started to back up. I was honking…but he said he did not hear me. Just what I need right now! We were joking when we told our boss some blind, deaf guy hit us at Costco!! :) :)

2006-09-20T08:58:00.000-05:00

We got our official letter yesterday by FedEx….so we are now "officially" invited for October 3rd.

2006-09-15T13:24:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe we are leaving in 11 days. I feel like such a rat not telling anyone what is going on.

2006-09-13T18:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at 3:30 p.m. I got an e-mail from our agency and our appointment is October 3rd. YAAAHOOO!! We could not have asked for better timing. So we will arrive on Sunday at 11 a.m. Kiev time (3 a.m. our time) after flying on three flights and gaining 8 time zones!! It’s 2 weeks till we leave. We are not getting to excited yet. Once we receive our letter it will be much more surreal and once we get on the plane…..

2006-09-12T11:59:00.000-05:00

October Appointments???
Someone just posted on the Yahoo board that the October appointments have been posted at the SDA. Not sure about the letters...we just have to wait and see.

2006-09-08T08:03:00.000-05:00

WHAT A FIASCO
I went on the internet Wednesday night and figured out exactly what flights we were going to take and how much they cost. I called NW, gave the girl all the info, including the flight numbers. I must have told her 3 times that I was getting a price of $1810 Canada for both flights (I scheduled to come home a week later that Brad). She gave me a price of $1837, but I told her that it was still less than my flight, so I was not worried. So I take my old tickets with me to the airport (on my lunch hour) on Thursday to change them and pay the $200 American change fee per people. The d--b girl was quoting me in America and had me coming home on October 4th and not November 4th. What a dingbat. I spent over an hour there trying to get it straightened out. Well of course the guy can't rebook the flights and the prices change every day so I went back to work to figure out new flights, of course the prices went up so I had to change the flight from Winnipeg to Chicago and Chicago to Kiev. So now instead of leaving here on Thursday a.m. we are leaving after work on Wednesday and instead of taking 2 flights to Kiev, we are taking 3. AAAHHH!! D--b girl. Oh well, everything worked out and that's all that matters.

2006-09-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

A MINOR UPDATE
I just off the phone with my agency. She told me that her girls were able to get through to the SDA about our appointment. Apparently the letters are not ready to go yet . She told me that they explained my situation and were told that our appointment would be on October 3rd or 4th. NO I AM NOT DOING THE HAPPY DANCE. Things change ALL the time. So we are going to book our flights tonight as this news gives us something to work with and Northwest is only giving me until tomorrow to rebook…and I hate, hate, hate to do things at the last minute.

2006-09-05T08:57:00.001-05:00

@*%@## **%##*!@
I have until tomorrow to rebook my flight and I do NOT have an appointment!!

2006-09-01T12:24:00.000-05:00

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
The good news is Chapstick is allowed on the plane….AWESOME.

The bad news, as Brad says, bad things come in 3’s. so it’s looking like this is my list;
1. kill washing machine.….although it’s good that it did not die when my sister and her 3 kids were visiting.

2. drill hole in stove wire and just about electrocute myself and burn house down…although that good that I did not do it.

3. not going to get letter before Wednesday September 6th when we have to rebook.

Well at least it’s a long weekend. I went out this my girlfriend Lesley who is in from Belleville, Ontario and some other friends last night. I have not seen some of the girls for a year or two, so it was nice. We are hoping to go out with her and her hubby on Saturday night. Brad is off to Regina, Saskatchewan for Sunday and Monday for the labor day classic…he is ecstatic, he has been dying to go for years.…go Bombers!! So I am going to golf with a friend and her sister on Sunday and then have lunch with her and another friend after and try and do some painting. Maybe I will get my mind off this adoption for a little while.

2006-08-30T09:25:00.000-05:00

BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN THREES
Well we decided to fix our washing machine. It would have cost us close to $700 with tax to replace it and it was only $250 to fix it. It’s only 3 year and 4 months old….not sure if we made the right decision or not. I figure if I can get 3 or 4 more years out of it I will be happy. I know why it broke, overloading and doing comforters…so I am to blame. So on Sunday we were running a cable from the living room satellite box to the TV in the kitchen and were drilling through the floor into the basement. Well I caught the wire going to the stove. 220 volts!! Brad says I am lucky to be alive!! I even started the wire on fire. I am lucky I did not burn down the house. So they say that bad things come in 3’s so I am waiting for number 3.

So I figure my number 3 is that we are not going to get our appointment letter by September 6th, which is when we need to rebook our flights. At least this time we have a very good idea when we will be going, so we might be booking on speculation. AAAHHH!! Man, I have been saying that a lot lately.

2006-08-28T09:22:00.000-05:00

I THOUGHT MY LETTER ARRIVED!!
So Friday afternoon was my last Friday afternoon off for the summer….how sad. So on Friday I got home early, about 3 p.m. and let Benji (my indoor dog) out to use the facilities. I could hear Fred (my outdoor dog) outside dog barking which means Ben is doing something he is not supposed to (yes, Fred is a tattletale) or someone if in our yard. So I came out to see what the commotion was...it was a courier. I just about died, I started shaking, I thought I was going to ralph right there on my grass....but it was not my letter. When she told me that she had a box that weight 40 pounds for me I wanted to cry. A delivery for Brad’s business. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!

2006-08-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

AAAAHHHHH!!
I have killed my washing machine. We have been without a washing machine for a week, the guy came out today to look at it (and charged me $120) only to let me know that it’s going to cost another $250 to fix it. The worst part – it only 3 or 4 years old and I am the one that killed it!! OK, Brad never does laundry and it was acting up before my sister came and used it for a month. I take full responsibility…..the vote is in, it’s not worth fixing it so I guess we are off to buy a new one today.

2006-08-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

Well the latest news is that on August 15th (Tuesday) the SDA has finally posted a list stating when they plan to see families. We have been anxiously waiting for this list, so needless to say we are ecsatic. I have attached the list. We fall in the October category – actually right in the beginning. The "unofficial" infomration says that the September letters have been sent out, even thoguht I have not seen any dates posted on the messaeg boards. Also one family from our agency would get a September date, but they have not received the letter yet. The info also says that the October appointment letters will be send by courrier on August 23rd, so we should, and that a big SHOULD, know by the 28th or 29th.

September – numbers 9913 – 14507
October - numbers 14511-15194
November - numbers 15196 – 15717
December - numbers 15718 – 16099
January - numbers 16104 – 16235

2006-08-15T13:33:00.000-05:00

OK, my world is coming to an end. Someone on my message board posted that Chapstick is a banned substance on the airlines. I can’t go that long with out my Chapstick.
On the other side, we seem to be in a bit of a standstill. Hopefully we will know something shortly. NW has given me a list of stipulations for the rebooking of my flight. Originally I was ecstatic, but once again I am getting nervous.

- Travel must be rebooked on or before September 6, 2006. nervous
- Travel must commence by October 22, 2006. nervous
- The applicable change fee will apply. who cares
- The difference in fare between your ticket and the lowest price ticket available at the time of your new purchase will apply. who cares
- The fee for ticketing with our reservations office will apply. who cares it's $5 each
- Tickets are not transferable. who cares I am going SOMEWHERE, maybe not Ukraine, by somewhere
- Tickets may not be combined. who cares
- If the new ticket is less than the value of the original ticket, no residual value will be returned. who cares

2006-08-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Just as quick update on nothing new….The good news is that about 4 or 5 more families got appointment letters last Thursday. They are families who are adopting know children (meaning they are adopting children that they have hosted of siblings of their adopted child). These are the "easy adoptions" but at least they are moving. The letters have been coming via UPS and COD. My sister in law informed me on Friday that UPS uses Selkirk courier. Selkirk courier is VERY familiar with my hubby’s family so if we are not home they will head down to the in laws. They are also saying that by the end of August all families who are already registered will receive their appointment. So we just sit and wait a bit more.

My sister and here kids left on Saturday and they were here for a month….Brad and I were saying how fast that month went so a couple of weeks should not be to bad right. We have got a few things going on so time will speed by…Brad’s 40th birthday bonfire party on the 19th, his 40th birthday on the 22nd and then a family wedding on the 26th.

2006-08-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

Finally some movement!!!! Yeah!!!

Some families have 'officially' gotten their appointment dates. I keep checking the sites and 2 families got theirs’ yesterday, one is for September 4 and the other is for September 6. One is for an older child and the other is for the adoption of a sibling, however they both seem to have very low registration numbers. The letters have come by UPS so I am crossing my, fingers, toes, etc. and praying that we get ours this week???

2006-08-04T14:08:00.000-05:00

Well we got some AWESOME news today!! After fighting with Northwest Airlines by e-mail for the past week and a half and about 10 e-mails back and forth they finally told us that they will give us a 30 day extension to rebook our flights!! So now we have until September 6th. Sure, they gave us a few stipulations, but that are ALL ones that we can live with!! Yeah Northwest! Happy birthday to me!! My b-day is August 7th, our original date to rebook. Happy days are here again. Going to the Bomber game with my hubby, sister and brother in law, meeting some friends at Hooters before the game….time to celebrate!!

2006-08-01T15:06:00.000-05:00

I HATE NORTHWEST AIRLINES!!

After days of fighting with Northwest airlines, numerous e-mails back and forth and several unsuccessful attempts to contact them by phone they have flat out said NO they will not grant us a 30 days extension on rebooking our flights. So, here we go again, rebooking our flights to Ukraine when we don’t even know when we are going. Nothing like blowing another $400 American.

I have also read on FRUA that on August 10th the SDA will be mailing out letters for September appointments and posting them in a public place at the SDA (for facilitators to view).

So close, yet so far……….

2006-07-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

AAAHHHHH!!!!

That’s all I have to say today. The clock is ticking, ticking, ticking on rebooking that flight. 14 days to go and no appointment letter in sight. So, today I am going to send and e-mail to Northwest Airlines pleading that they give me a 30 day extension on rebooking the flight…..

The rumors are still that the appointment letters will be going out on August 1st. I know you are thinking that soon, and it is, but it’s also a world away.

2006-07-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

Not much new going on. Our letter requesting an appointment is somewhere between Ottawa and Ukaine so the wait is REALLY on. One rumor is that the deadline to submit letters is July 31st and then they are going to start assigning appointments on August 1st. AAAAHHHH!!! That’s to close for me. I need to have my appointment to rebook my flight by Monday August 7th and that a holiday…..so I need it by Friday August 4th.

2006-07-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

We Are On Our Way (Well Almost)

On Friday we went to our agency and did our official letter to the SDA letting them know that we still want to adopt. As I write our letter is on itÂs way to the lawyers to be notarized and will be sent to Ottawa by FedEx Monday where it will beauthenticatedd and sent to Ukraine by FedEx!!
Our registration number is 14514 or 14574 (hard to tell). Supposedly they will be starting with family 14300 and will be seeing 75 families per week. If you calculate this, this will put us in the 2nd or 3rd week. If you take out any families who have registration numbers between 14300 and ours and have already traveled or have pulled out, looks like we will be going in September for sure.
Like I have mentioned before, we are not out of the woods yet. We only have until August 7th to rebook our flightsÂbut thatÂs the Monday of the long weekend, so we need our appointment letter by Friday August 4th. We have less than 4 weeks. If our letter goes today by FedEx, they should have it by Friday. We are guessing (and I mean guessing) that they have an approximate idea when everyone is coming. So lets hope that they are organized and once they get my letter they will be able to assign me an appointment date and will send it back to me by FedEx right away and will not put it in the mail. If they put it in the mail, we are looking at about 2 extra weeks to get the appointment letter to us. So pray for Fedex!!!

2006-07-04T09:07:00.000-05:00

Good News & Bad News

Well apparently the press conference of the Minister of Health, with the new State Department on adoption and
children's rights regarding the reopening of international adoptions did happen on July 3rd. Originally it was scheduled for June 29th, but was postponed until July 3rd.

The rumors are that there are about 1200 waiting families who have submitted an application. In July the families already registered must confirm in writing their desire to get an appointment. In August dates of appointments will be sent out, according to the registration number, for September, October, November and December. Their plan is to see 300 families per month. The rumor is that they will be staring at # 14300 – well we are 14514….yeah!!! So that means we should be going in September.

But on the flip side, we only have until August 7th to rebook our flight…That’s seems a little tight in my books.

2006-06-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

Rumors, Rumors, and more Rumors….that’s pretty much all they are.

We are still waiting. The rumors are mainly that the new National Adoption Center in Ukraine (SDA) is moving slowing. Apparently they are 80% done with the paperwork transfer. They were thinking that in another couple of weeks they would be up and running. Most likely they will start allocating travel dates for September, some rumors are that there are 600 international adoptions pending and it will take about 6 months to process them all. From what I have been waiting we should be at the beginning of the line. We were accepted April 2005 and that seems to be the oldest date I have heard. So now we are in the process of updating our paperwork for the 3rd time!! I would be very happy to get a September 2006 appointment date. At this point I n not so worried about the appointment date by actually getting it. I only have until the 1st week of August to rebook my flights (for the 2nd time) other wise we loose the $$ we have put into those tickets. I have said several times, I am not rebooking those tickets to Ukraine unless I have a confirmed appointment…..maybe we will be going somewhere else……

2006-05-19T12:05:00.000-05:00

Just a little Cheerios commercial about adoption to make everyone cry. Go to the following link and hit adoption.

http://www.cheerios.com/ourCereals/ourcereals_home.aspx

2006-05-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

Wow, it’s hard to believe that we started this process almost 2 years ago. Thus some of our documents are coming up for expiry or have already expired so we are starting to work on them again. We are not doing them for the 3rd time!!

But on a good note, things are looking up. From what I have read from our facilitator and what others are posting on the boards it sounds like the new adoption center, the SDA will be opening in June, probably the middle of the month. So the way I figure it we will be getting an appointment in July….and that’s only because my sister and her 3 kids are coming for a month, July 13th to August 12th and of course they are staying with us. My brother in law is coming the first week in August. I have not seen the kids since they were here last summer, but did get a chance to spend some time with my sister and brother in law in Vegas this March.

I am not complaining, I would be ecstatic to get an appointment!!! Things always happen at the same time. We just may be spending Brad’s 40th in Ukraine….

2006-04-22T15:12:00.000-05:00

Well not much new is going on. Our agency had a get together Monday night. Unfortunately I did not learn much, but it's always nice to see fellow adoptive parents and meet the new ones. From what we were told and what I have been reading on the boards it sounds like the new adoption center will be opening on May 1st at the earliest, but possibly not until June sometime. Some adoptive parents have been told by their agencies that they could be getting they appointments as early as the first week on May and would be traveling quickly after that (within a week or two). As usual, I am being cautious and will believe it when I see it.

I am currently taking two beginner Ukrainian language classes. One is 10 weeks long and I have two more classes left. I had previously taken this class 1 1/2 years ago so it's a nice refresher. I am only taking an 8 week class, we had have 2 classes so far. She is a great teacher. She is a kindergarten teacher who teaches at a bilingual Ukrainian/English class (actually it's the school my children will attend). She has been in Canada for 8 years and is tons of fun!!

2006-04-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

More Waiting and Waiting and Waiting….

I hate waiting. But on a good note, my friend Dolores is arriving tonight from Ukraine with her 2 daughters, Kristina (12) and Victoria (6). Yeah for Doroles!!!

My time will come, hopefully soon.....

2006-04-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Finally at bit of good news. The following was posted on the Yahoo Groups board today.

A new director of the SDA (State Dept for Adoption) has been appointed. Her name is Ludmila Volinets Address of the SDA: Desiatinna street nr 14, 01025 Kyiv The vice directors of SDA are : Mr Hritsenko Fedir Volodimirovitch Mrs Duchaeva Ludmila Gnativna (responsible for the Department of Custody and family placement of children)

Although they are not currently open, we are praying that they will open the first week of May and will start giving out appointments immediately. On another positive note, the new director comes with an amazing background and is about the "children" and not herself. This was also posted on the Yahoo Board today.

She has been working for the NGO "Hope and Home for Children", which has been trying to establish family type homes for abandoned children in Ukraine, with the help of British ONG. Mrs Volinets is from Odessa and holds a PhD in Political Sciences and is coming from Odessa. Her PhD research was on the demographical crisis during the transition in Ukraine. She is well known in Ukraine for her project with this ONG, and her efforts to try to build a Center that helps young mothers who are determined to abandon their children in Kherson. As you imagine, maternity wards in Ukraine don't even have a psychologist on the premises, so young mothers are really left alone with this decision and have no help. Also women have their first child much younger than in Western Countries so we are talking about young girls with often unwanted pregnancies. In 2002 Mrs. Volinets coordinated an inquiry about the mothers who abandon their children in the Kherson region. This is the only such inquiry in Ukraine. Thereafter she planned this Center to help them. She is known to be very professional and well informed about child abandonment in Ukraine. She wants to change things and certainly try to prevent children to be abandoned. Don’t forget the new SDA is a State department for adoption but also for the Defense of Children’s Rights and she certainly will work on less children be abandoned in Ukraine. You can find material on her and the ONG on the internet and on Ukrainian media. This is a choice that is in favor of the children and against corruption. Let's welcome the decision of the government to nominate such a person as the head of SDA.

2006-03-17T09:51:00.000-06:00

More Waiting

The following is a copy from the Yahoo board today. Olya has been a reliable source, so I am lead to believe this is correct. It’s similar to what I found out yesterday, so it does not look like we will be going to Ukraine until the spring. On the good side, the weather will be nicer and we won’t have to worry about caring all of our heavy winter clothing!!

Yesterday, on March 15, at the end of the day, the Cabinet of Ministers signed a decree officially establishing the new Department on Adoption and Children's Rights. The decree is expected to be published within a day or two. I will be able to provide a link. Until then, I can forward the text of the decree's draft to all interested persons. Regardless of the new Department's creation, the present Adoption Center will not issue appointments for April. The last day for appointments under the present AC is March 30 so that the arriving families can have ample time to finalize their adoptions by May 1. This deadline has been set a few weeks ago. If you are kept on standby given hope of being able to travel in April, I would question the intent and/or credibility of a person giving you such an ungrounded possibility. Olya

2006-03-16T13:52:00.000-06:00

More Rumors….

The rumors on the boards are that a new law was passed in Ukraine that now has only given jurisdiction to the old NAC through the end of March. The New Ministry takes over May 1st. It seems that the are planning on using the entire month of April for the transition to the new organization. So I would assume that there would be no more appointments given out until May 1st at the earliest.
Since we had to reschedule my flight, I booked it for May 9th. Hopefully I can make this work in my favor. From what I know it usually takes people a minimum of a week to get flights arranged and since I have a flight arranged, maybe, just maybe that will give me an upper hand to get an appointment on May 11th or 12th!! Wouldn’t that be JUST WONDERFUL!!!!!

2006-02-27T09:22:00.000-06:00

Apparently the director is coming back from holidays on Friday. Hopefully she will start giving out appointments right away and we will have a date shortly. I had hoped that we would have a date before we left for Vegas, but that does not look like it’s going to happen. So we just sit and wait. It’s hard to not know what’s going on with your life. For those who know me, I am "organized" and a "planner". It’s hard to plan your life when you have no idea when this is going to happen.

2006-02-16T08:50:00.000-06:00

The director is now on holidays and she is the only one who can give out appointments. Not sure when she is back, so we will wait patiently.

2006-02-14T14:02:00.000-06:00

Well there is not much to say right now, but I though I would post something for those of you who check regularly. We are still patiently waiting for our appointment letter. The good news is people are getting appointments and I know ours will come soon.
We have decided to take a little break from the stress of the adoption and the cold weather. A group of Brad’s friends and friends’ friends, as well as some of the wives are heading down to Las Vegas for a hockey tournament the second weekend in March. They have been bugging us to come and we have been putting them off. We finally broke down a few weeks ago and decided to join them. We have been saving our air miles for a few years and had tons of them so we decided to use the miles and take advantage of the free flights. So three weeks from now we will be on our way. I am very excited because my sister is meeting us there on Wednesday and my brother in law is coming in on Friday. They live in Mexico City, so we don’t get to see them very often. 6 days of no snow…..yaaahooo!!

2006-02-01T08:20:00.000-06:00

Apparently the rumors of yesterday are true. President Yushchenko has signed the law giving interim authority over adoptions to the Ministry of Education’s National Adoption Center (NAC) until the new adoption authority is legally established under the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports. Sow what does this mean for us?
Q: We are registered at the NAC and were supposed to receive an appointment this year. When can we expect our appointment?
A: The NAC has advised that after the center reschedules all January appointments, the NAC will focus on priority cases such as those involving children with severe medical problems, older children and sibling groups. The NAC will contact families directly.
So now we wait by our mailbox and patiently wait for a new appointment. I really, really want to have an April appointment. According to this law, the NAC will have full authority to process adoptions in Ukraine until May 1, 2006 - the final date by which the new adoption central authority must be established under the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports. Even though I know the weather would be better in May and onwards, I really hope that we get to go before then.

2006-01-12T13:35:00.000-06:00

Well things are actually looking up for a change. The following is the information that I found on the chat boards today. Sounds very positive to me, hopefully we will be advised of our appointment date in the next few weeks. I was hoping to know by the end of January, but I am now hoping to know by February 15th. Although I previously wanted to know by Christmas and then January 15th. So we just keep hoping and praying for a date! Soon, soon, soon.

Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:
On January 12, the Rada (Ukraine's parliament) passed law 8680 giving interim authority over adoptions to the Ministry of Education's National Adoption Center (NAC) until the new adoption authority is legally established under the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports. The law will come into effect as soon as it is signed by the President, who has up to 15 days to review it.
The NAC has informed us that as soon as the law is signed by the President, the center will be reopened. The NAC will then issue a notice to the adoption community regarding how families whose adoptions were suspended or whose appointments were scheduled through January may proceed. As soon as the NAC's notice is issued, we will translate it and post it on our web page, as well as send it to addressees on this e-mail list.
We strongly urge American prospective adoptive families who had previously-scheduled January appointments NOT to travel to Ukraine until such time as the NAC has issued a notice publicly confirming that those appointments will be honored.
Please continue to monitor the Embassy's web page for the current status of adoption processing in Ukraine: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/.
The Embassy will continue to track this and other adoption-related issues closely, and provide updates as appropriate. Any American adopting parents who would like to be added to our e-mail list are welcome to contact us at adoptionskiev@... .
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Adoption Unit/Immigrant Visa Section
Consular Section
American Embassy
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: 38-044-4904422
Fax: 38-044-490-4570
adoptionskiev@...

2005-12-30T13:04:00.000-06:00

Here’s the latest.
Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine:

This is a follow-up to our December 28 notice regarding the sudden stoppage of adoption processing in Ukraine. As we reported earlier, on December 22, 2005 the National Adoption Center lost its legal authority to process adoptions as a result of the new law transferring authority over adoptions from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports.

Despite numerous representations by the U.S. Government at many levels to the Government of Ukraine, an interim resolution to address families caught in various stages of the adoption process in Ukraine has not yet been approved. According to recent communication from senior Ukrainian government officials, an interim resolution requires a change in legislation whose processing may take up to one month.

The NAC advised that they will provide an official letter explaining the current situation to all adopting parents . The NAC further advised that it will then contact all prospective parents who are registered with the NAC within ten days after the legislative changes are approved.

American prospective adoptive families who have January appointments should not travel to Ukraine until the Government of Ukraine officially confirms that you can complete the adoption process and return to the U.S. with your children in a timely manner

The Embassy will continue to track this and other adoption-related issues closely, and provide updates as appropriate on our website: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_eng.html

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Adoption Unit/Immigrant Visa Section
Consular Section
American Embassy
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: 38-044-4904422
Fax: 38-044-490-4570
adoptionskiev@state.gov
http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_eng.html

2005-12-28T13:29:00.000-06:00

The latest in the chat rooms. All we can do is wait and see. I know this will benefit us in the long run though.

On December 20, 2005, President Yushchenko signed the law
transferring authority over adoptions from the Ministry of Education
to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports. This law came into
effect on December 22, 2005, upon its publication in Parliament's
official newspaper "Holos Ukrainy".

According to the new law, the Family Code of Ukraine will be amended
to give authority over domestic and international adoptions to the
Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports. The new central authority
will be called the State Department for Adoption and Protection of
Children, under the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports.

According to information from the National Adoption Center (NAC),
although the NAC under the Ministry of Education has not yet been
dissolved, the Ukrainian Supreme Court has determined that the NAC
no longer has legal authority to process adoptions. This decision
effectively creates a processing gap, with no Ukrainian ministries'
having the authority to handle adoptions at this time.

The Embassy has raised the U.S. Government's concern about the
sudden stoppage of adoption processing and has asked the Government
of Ukraine to take steps so that families already in Ukraine can
conclude their adoptions and return home. Although officials at the
Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports have indicated that they wish
to find an interim solution for the families caught in the balance,
any such resolution will likely not be approved until mid-January of
2006, after the Ukrainian holidays. (All Ukrainian governmental
organizations will be closed from January 1 to January 10, 2006, for
the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays.)

The Embassy also has asked for clarification on the status of the
referral appointments that the NAC had scheduled for January 2006.
As soon as the Ukrainian authorities respond, the Embassy will issue
a follow-up notice with that updated information. Please monitor
the Embassy's web page for the current status of adoption processing
in Ukraine: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/

The Embassy will continue to track this and other adoption-related
issues closely, and provide updates as appropriate. American
adopting parents who are currently in Ukraine and are affected by
this abrupt closure are requested to e-mail us
(adoptionskiev@... ) and
provide your points of contact

American prospective adoptive families who have January appointments
to travel to Ukraine should not do so until such time as the Embassy
has confirmed to the extent possible whether you will be able to
complete the adoption process and return to the U.S. with your
children in a timely manner.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional
questions.

Sincerely,
Adoption Unit/Immigrant Visa Section
Consular Section
American Embassy
Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel: 38-044-4904422
Fax: 38-044-490-4570
adoptionskiev@...

2005-12-22T12:58:00.000-06:00

Well there is not much new to report. My friend Dolores was at the NAC on December 12 and there was a piece of paper up with 40 numbers on it notifying the facilitators that they could come in and pick up the appointments for those 40 people. Apparently they are the people who did not get children on their first attempt to adopt in 2005 and have asked to come back in 2006. I am not sure how many of those people are out there so we really don’t even have a time frame as to when we will be traveling. One thing that Dolores did say is that we meet a very nice director at an orphanage and was told by her that she is going to have a lot of children that will be coming available for adoption starting in January 2006. She also said that there are lots of healthy children at this orphanage. So….needless to say Brad & I will be looking for that orphanage when we are going though the books!!

2005-11-17T13:04:00.000-06:00

The latest gossip I have heard the message boards is as follows. I do not know if it is true, but a few people on the boards have heard the same thing………so who knows when we will be going. Hopefully by March. Maybe because we were unable to make our appointment, we will get preferential treatment. Pray, cross your fingers and toes for us, etc., etc.

"Our facilitator was advised by staff at the NAC that the first two months of 2006 are going to be mostly filled with families who have had unsuccessful trips in the past few months. They are going to offer most of these families the chance to return in Jan and Feb and advised her that March would also be very busy but there may be a VERY few appointments issued in March for currently waiting families. We were told that most of the families who received "the letter" that your appointment letter would come in Dec-Jan will have appointments in April and beyond."

" On the upside we are also advised of many positive changes that will be implemented. One of the most impressive changes is that they will start scheduling fewer families each day so each family will have more time to find a child that matches them. Also the NAC has started to accept dossier's from Spain again which was initially one of the countries they had stopped accepting from."

2005-11-09T14:51:00.000-06:00

Well it’s officially, official. We got the famous letter last night form the NAC that people have been getting since June 2005. The letter says that they are in receipt of our request for an appointment but they are all filled up for the 2005 year and we will be notified December 2005/January 2006 of our appointment. Know this is a standard letter that they never bother to change. We did not even ask for a 2005 appointment, we asked for January 15-30, 2006!! So now we sit and wait and wait. Enough to drive us nuts. So now we are praying for a January/February 2006 appointment and that the appointment letter comes quickly so we can plan ours lives. You know me..the planner. Also, we only have until January 26, 2005 to rebook our flight or we loose our money. The pressure is on.

2005-10-22T11:47:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe how much you life can change in a matter of 10 hours. Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. we were packing and at 7:15 a.m. on Friday Brad is on the phone with our coordinator here in Winnipeg, who has just gotten an e-mail from the facilitator in Kiev that there is a problem with our paperwork and telling us not to come. We are still not 100% sure what the problem is, think it has something to do with the Canadian embassy. Anyways, needless to say yesterday was a crazy day. What do we do about our flight? Do we change it to the next Saturday and hope that they can get everything straightened out and that we can get another appointment? Well we changed our mind several times. After speaking to out coordinator after she had an e-mail conversation with the facilitator in Kiev, that our best decision was to request and appointment for January 15-31. All things considered (work, Brad's business) it's a much better time for us. As I always tell my friend Karen (and she now tells me) that everything happens for a reason, and this is Gods plan for us. We believe our children are in an orphanage somewhere, but are not available for adoption. Soooo at this point we are back to where we were 6 months ago, once again waiting to here from the Ukraine when our appointment will be. Please continue to pray for us and a January 2006 appointment as well as our children and the others stuck in the system. Please continue to check back as we will continue to post as we know more. Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated. No, we are not unpacking. I have spent way to much time packing and organizing. Right now I am going to take out what we need, writing everything down that I take out so it we easier to pack, and shove the rest in the big suitcase and put it into the closet. Done deal!!

2005-10-21T11:20:00.000-05:00

What a day!!! and it’s not even noon. To summarize, there is a problem with our paperwork with the Canadian Embassy. All that I know for sure is we are not leaving tomorrow. I have rebooked our flight to leave next Saturday, October 29, 2005. We are praying, hoping, praying, hoping, praying that everything will be straightened out this week and the National Adoption Center will grant us another appointment on/about November 1, 2005. If they do not, who knows when we will go. We may not end up getting to go until the new year! Needless to say we are not happy, but know this is out of our control and our agencies’ control. It’s just so frustrating.

2005-10-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Well if anyone is reading this right now, it’s 8:35 a.m. and we have a huge problem with the Canadian Embassy in Kiev. There is a problem with our paperwork. Darla received an e-mail at 7:00 a.m. from our facilitators in Kiev about the problem and to tell us not to come right now. This is a NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew things were going to well. So I am on hold with Northwest Airlines as I type to change our flights. The worst part is that we don’t know when we are going to be able to leave. It might be one week, it might be two.

2005-10-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

46 hours till take off and about 46 hours of work to do, guess I am not sleeping. O.K. it’s not that bad, but my mind is racing. Laundry, packing, moving the furniture back into the family room and setting it up. Guess going out of our aniversary is just not going to happen…..

2005-10-17T17:36:00.000-05:00

5 days till we leave. It’s unbelievable. We started this journey 18 months ago and if all goes well, we will be done and back in Canada by the end of November. It’s becoming more and more real all the time. Even though I have been getting ready to pack for a few weeks, I actually started to put stuff in our bags yesterday. The original plan was to take one carryon and one small suitcase. Well, that’s just not going to happen. Looks like it going to be two carryons and one large suitcase with a duffel bag stuffed in it to use on the trip home. I have tried to condense everything as much as I can, but one small suitcase for two people is just not going to happen.
Brad and I would just like to thank everyone who has supported us and thank you for your continued support. It’s so nice to read the comments and e-mails from our friends and family who are supporting us from Calgary to Toronto/Belleville, to Virginia to Arizona and Mexico as well as everyone in Winnipeg/St. Andrews/Selkirk!! When we are 6,000 miles away and frustrated it will be a nice dose of reality.

2005-10-07T16:03:00.000-05:00

It’s been a very strange week. Things are finally setting in. My boss said today that she is going to do a mass run to change all my clients to Claire (she is doing my ½ of Ontario when I am gone). It was weird. Made it feel so final. Made me feel a little sad…my clients. Claire said she is a little sad to…but for a different reason – she get stuck with my clients.
We went to see Darla (our adoption coordinator) on Wednesday night along with Dolores (who is going 2 ½ weeks after us) to go though some final details. Brad looked like he was going to throw up! He is way more freaked out by this trip than I am. But the end of the night I was getting pretty freaked out as well. Darla says I have to be the "rock". Nice try, we are going to be quite the pair.

I guess that all we can do if hope that things continue to go as well as they have. I said to Darla and Dolores on Wednesday that every thing has gone perfect for us so far. It can keep going perfect or crash.
1. I said that I wanted my registration letter in my mailbox when I got back from Mexico. Well I got home a day late and low and behold it came that date.
2. I said I wanted my appointment by November 1st and we got an appointment on October 25. On a side note, one couple that got their registration letter a couple of weeks before us and one that got theirs a day or two after we got ours, their requests for an appointment got lost. They had to resubmit the letters and did not get an appointment letter. Instead they got a letter stating that they were booked up for the year and would be receiving a letter in December 2005 or January 2006 advising them of an early 2006 appointment.
3. The "optional" 30 day wait period to bring the children back to Canada (after the court date) has been changed to a mandatory 10 day wait. Before some judges were waiving the 30 days and some where imposing it.

All we can hope for is out luck to continue.

1. We have a safe, uneventful flight from Winnipeg to Chicago to Amsterdam to Kiev.
2. We get a referral of a health boy and girl on our first appointment.
3. The referral is for an area that has five happy faces and not one happy face and four sad faces! Five means it a "good" area (to deal with).

2005-09-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

Well it’s just over 3 weeks until we leave. I am feeling a lot better about the packing situation. I went to Walmart and the dollar store and purchased travel sizes of every toiletry they sell. Thanks to Karen for being so kind to give me her travel clothes line. I have been searching high and low for one. One less thing to figure out. I pulled out my new carry on size rolling duffel bag last night. I could not believe how much stuff fit! And it also has a shoulder strap. As long as Sherri lends me her suitcase we are in business. We have two, but one is too big and the other is too heavy. We sound like the three bears looking for the one that is just right. I don’t think Brad will be a ahppy camper if he has to carry a suitcase that weighs about 15 pounds empty. www.frua.org (my biggest research tool) has had a great blog going for the past couple of weeks about packing. I have gotten an abundance of ideas from there. Thanks to Dolores for telling me that I am not over packing if I bring 4 pairs of pants.

2005-09-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that we started this process to adopt from the Ukraine 15 months ago and now it's 6 weeks until we leave! The last of our paper work that will expire or has expired has been submitted to the Ukrainian Embassy in Canada. Now we just sit and wait until we leave. Well actually there will be no sitting, there are still tons of 1/2 done projects. Hopefully the will be "done" before we leave, or at least most of them done.

Brad can take his suit with him for our meeting at the National Adoption Center, the first time we go to the orphanage to meet the children, and to court. Now is the difficult task to finding an appropriate outfit for myself. We have been informed by our adoption coordinator that even though Ukrainians are not rich people, like typically Europeans they like to dress up and are very fashionable. Since Canada is so casual and my work is business casual I have nothing to wear! No that is not a typical "woman" comment, I really do not have anything suitable. I need to get out shopping before the last minute panic hits.

O.K., so the panic is already starting. What to pack. Sure it great to have a big suitcase, but the cars in Ukraine are small and we may be moving around a bit so we have been advised to pack as little as possible and take the small suit cases. Yikes!! - as Valerie would say.