HOME and HAPPY!

We made it!

In Kyiv, we got yelled at mostly in Ukrainian for 20 stressful minutes about a stamp missing in the kids' passport. In Paris the security line took us 1 and a half hours, putting us dangerously close to our connecting flight's departure time, and we arrived home to an ice storm, taking us 2 hours to get home from the airport. Who CARES? WE ARE HOME!!!!

I'm thinking a beautiful friend from Delta worked some magic, and got us upgraded to BUSINESS CLASS for the ride home. Have you ever ridden in business class internationally? It was heaven. Vadim had a personal movie screen with video games. They waited on us hand and foot. Before the plane took off, the flight attendant handed me a freaking mimosa. It made me so happy that I literally busted out crying over the mimosa. Vadim loved it too, He's had a very hard few days with all the running around for paperwork, grueling lines and waiting and flying etc., and he appreciated being pampered like that so much. If you are reading this Jerlilyn, you are my favorite person ever.

Vadim is so happy. About 2 hours before we landed, he put his hand on my face and smiled, and said in his darling little accent, "You are my family, and I am American boy."

I don't think I've ever been happier in my life than last night. The Bottos and Oksana and Kristen and Todd, mom, and Jake were at the airport with signs and cheering. Lots of crying and hugging. Then, my dad, Jill, Ab and Hutch came over with pizza, and I told them stories about Ukraine until I passed out about 9:00.

I love my tiny home. It seems ENORMOUS and Oh so very wonderfully clean. Jake and mom put up decorations and made more signs. Jake is even more beautiful and funny and wonderful than I've been remembering him. The boys laughed together right up until bedtime. They are so happy to be together.

Thank you for following my blog, your encouragement, and most importantly your prayers. I appreciate you being along for the ride and helping me hang on as God saved Vadim.

Last full day in Kyiv (?)

Well, at 4:15, we got the visas and completed all of our paperwork. The embassy closes at 4:30, so it was very stressful. It looks like we're on for our 6;30 a.m. flight. We leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m.

Tonight, I'm headed out to meet Vadim's sisters and have him say goodbye. This will be really hard for him.

Thanks for your continuing prayers, and see you very very soon!

Sunday--Day 30

What do you do for little money, with a 13-year-old boy, in snowy cold Kyiv for the day to get out of a 2-room apartment? Please? Anybody?

Vadim had his very first visit from the tooth fairy. He lost a 12-year-old molar, and I talked him into putting it under his pillow, and lo and behold, he woke up with 8 grivna under there. That's only about a dollar. He thought it was hysterical.

Yesterday, he went ice skating and played in an arcade at the mall. We feasted on Beth's mac and cheese. V and Z ate 2 whole packs of freeze dried calamari that smelled disgusting, but they "ooohed" and "ahhhed" like it was the best thing they had ever had.

God willing, it's 44 hours until my plane leaves. Monday, I need some serious praying for paperwork magic.

Friday--Day 28

Constant, constant, constant tackling, wrestling, poking, sitting on each other, etc.
Tough morning for goodbyes yesterday.

This bottom picture is common in Kyiv. The outsides of these buildings and their balconies are deteriorating, so they put up these fences to catch the debris from the balconies. People own individual flats, but no one owns the building, so the outside and hallways just go to pot. For example, ours has the lovely smell of boiled cabbage, garbage, and cat pee. How do builidngs like this get maintained in NYC, or do they?

You can probably tell that my posts are losing some of their zest.

The kids are living in our little 2-room apartment now. It’s tight, but it’s nice to have them around. Lots of loud music that I really hate and lots of running after each other shrieking, pushing, tackling, poking, wrestling etc. Anybody got a tranquilizer dart handy? They are bouncing off the walls at times, but I’m glad they get along well and are friends. I think it made it a lot easier to leave the orphanage, although as you can see in the pictures, it’s still really hard to say goodbye, especially to Igor and Lorscht, a volunteer.

We missed our chance to say goodbye to the other kiddies at the orphanage. Many are leaving to spend the holiday in Italy. Who knew? I wanted to get in a few last hugs, but I’m glad many of them get to have a change of scenery and hopefully a family to love on them over Christmas and New Year. We sent along some gifts.

There’s this dog at the orphanage that hangs around the cafeteria, and the kids feed him occasionally. I didn’t like it b/c it looks a little wild and scraggy. Of course, I thought I was being overly neurotic about it. Especially earlier this week when I went through a door and screamed to almost run into it. But today, Ilona showed us her ankle where the stupid thing “Blini” bit her ankles. It was a bad bite--bloody holes on her ankles, and Ilona had to go the hospital for shots! We asked if it ever bothered the kids, and she said, “sometimes it bites them, but usually they give it food, so it leaves them alone.” Can you imagine?

We spent a tense day riding around in a freezing van trying to get things done really quickly after the court paperwork is ready in time to fly home. We were ready for pick up at 8:30 a.m., left at 9:30, drove around until around 4:00. Beth and I signed our name twice. The kids got their picture taken. We waited in the freezing van for hours. An interesting thing happened, when an adminstrator wrote our information in a very official looking book/register thing, but wrote the birthdays in the wrong slot. She proceded to scrape them off with a rusty razor blade before writing in the new ones over top and then applying a dozen or so stamps. So many documents here. Everyone you see on the street is carrying documents, and there are notary offices on every corner for the millions of documents needed for everything.

There is a glaze over Kyiv today. We watched a number of people slip around and slide and almost fall down. The kids were really patient. Until 4pm, Beth ate one piece of toast, M&M’s, and a few chips. I didn’t do much better. Vadim and Zhenya had king-sized Snickers for lunch. Now, that’s parenting at its best. For about 45 minutes we thought we weren’t going to get the passports today. Ilona made calls with increasingly higher up people and smoked. Finally, were heard the beautiful “korocho, korocho” and we knew it was good, and she took the kids in for their photo. Phew. One hold up like that, and there goes the flight on the 23rd, a huge change fee, and Christmas.

We were warned that there would be days like these.

I‘ll meet Vadim‘s two sisters and their babies to say goodbye on Monday evening. I think it will be emotional for him.

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant called Momentos and had delicious potato pancake things and salad. Vadim had pizza. I was too tired to make conversation and just spaced out during dinner.

Three days left, I hope and pray!!!

Wed. Dec 17th

No pics today. I lent the camera to Vadim to keep until tomorrow. I bet he'll have a million of his friends, and maybe out of that, 10 or so really good ones.

Hope all is well in CVG/NKY.

I hate to say it, but I'm so sick of talking about dates, court, paperwork, money, taxis--the LOGISTICS of the process. I don't mind the chatter about the kids themselves, their adjusting and parenting etc, but the talk about the process is just nonstop, like who is putting in which piece of paper when. It's becoming kind of like the background thump, thump, thump in every semi-pornographic video showing on a TV in every store or restaurant. But of course, we're hanging onto every nugget of information about each step, so it makes sense that we analyze every development like this.

Slow day today. We meet with our facilitator later to plan out the running around that needs to be done on Thurs, Friday, and Monday.

Love to everyone! I'll put up Vadim's best shots by tomorrow night.

Tues Dec 16th

We did some walking around and visited the orphanage today. As you can see, Kyiv is lovely in some ways despite the smoke, dirt, traffic, and greyness. It's cold today.

This afternoon, I had a moment when I watched my son laughing with his friends that I was just absolutely overwhelmed with joy that he gets to come home with me shortly. I love him and am honored to get to be his mom. I will get to be mom to the best two boys in the universe.

I had a few Stella's tonight, and I'm feeling happy. I am looking forward to a fabulous Christmas and New Year!

Monday Dec. 15th

Hi everybody. I'm hanging in there. Yesterday, we went to a mega-church called Hillsong in the morning. These were the happiest people we've seen yet. Very welcoming people, enthusiastic for Jesus. The service had 40 minutes or so of really loud music that was good, but not even close to as good as CR. There were edgy, artistic videos. Then, there was a sermon about how all things are possible with God, provided you work your butt off first. It somehow segued into a theme about friendship--to get a friend, be a friend. The similiarities with CR were more notable than the differences. I suppose the mega-church experience is a global phenomenon.

Then, we took a taxi to the orphanage. The driver got lost, and we could not be helpful, b/c I have no cognitive map of Kyiv, and a lot of the neighborhoods look the same. Anyway, we had a very pleasant afternoon of hanging with the kiddies. I played balloon volleyball with Vadim, Annya, and Igor. The kids have itneresting ways of entertaining themselves that explains a lot about how this summer went. They constantly pick at each other--flick, pinch, slap, kick, tackle etc. Then giggle, run away and get chased. They always do this right up to the threshold of pain, and then mostly stop. I suppose when you don't have toys, you use your body. I can see how Jake did not understand this game and either got irritated by the picking or else took it too far and end up hurting Vadim. I will have to figure out how to minimize the game, or else help Jake figure out how to play it. Understanding this would've made summer a lot easier.

Sabina hung on Beth, and we just don't know how we are going to be able to take these kids' friends away from them and leave them behind.

Today looks like a day of nothing much, maybe going for a walk. Vadim tried to convince me yesterday that he doesn't have school Mon thru Wed, but I think he might be making that up. The story changed a few times while we were there. He certainly wants to spend days with me, instead of at the orphanage. I need to call the facilitator for clarification.

At the end of the week, the kids will be with us for the final round of paperwork running around. Our flight home is confirmed, and we are counting down.

Bye Todd--Dec. 13th

Todd is flying over Norway as I type, on his way back home to our boy. I'm simultaneously excited for Jake to get his daddy back and for Todd to get to enjoy normal coffee, but...now I'm on my own for the rest of it.

Not really on my own though, b/c I moved in with Beth this morning. I will enjoy her company, and it will help to go through it with her.

This apartment is bigger than our previous flat, and there's internet--Yay!

The 5 American families here, their adoptive kids, and Sasha went to dinner at Fridays last night. Despite horrible traffic, it was fun. See picture.

Here are some pics from walking around by the new apartment. The top one is puzzling. Notice the tank, the tents, the bricked outhouse-looking structure with a gold topper. Hmm...any ideas?

The bottom is a Christmas tree going up at Independence square.

I'm really tired of smelling like smoke. Lots of smoking here.

I'll get Vadim tomorrow (Sunday) and do something with him. It's his last weekend at the orphanage. This Friday, I'll take my son out of there for good.

Every time I start to feel sorry for myself at how it's seeming to drag on, I try to remember to be grateful that we're moving through it, and that we'll have him home soon.

Love to everyone.

Friday Dec. 12th

Happy Friday!

No post yesterday. Just really, absolutely nothing to say. We're hanging in there. It feels like a very long time. Todd flies home tomorrow, and I move in with Beth. My return is booked for the 23rd, arriving in CVG late afternoon. It's our last visit to our little wi-fi coffee shop (thump, thump, thump). All of the people we know here in are going to dinner tonight with their new adoptive kids. We will drink a toast to Kim and Mark Botto.

I'm dreaming about Jake's face. I miss him so much. I'm so glad that he's finally over his stomach virus. Jake--please stop giving Oma a hard time about homework, buddy!

Here are pics from the orphanage. Here are some of the other loving kids who need families--Luda and Sabina. We're actually wishing we had tried to get one of about 4 sweet girls here as well as Vadim this visit. These sweet girls NEED families. (Yes, that's Sasha giving them bunny ears and hiding her face.) I'm going to be talking them up to every family I know.

A few people said, "sorry you're sick" on comments, but Todd and I aren't sick, just the two boys were. So far anyway...

I feel guilty that I'm sitting around drinking tea and walking around Kyiv when I should be grading final exams. If any of my students are reading this--Study hard and good luck!!!

Love to everyone. I can't wait to be home. Thank you to everyone who has jumped in to help take over my responsibilities in one way or another!!!!!!!!

Wednesday

No, he's not dying, just goofing around.

Here's yesterday:

I woke up an hour before Todd. He grunted at me, "where's my coffee?" Got some, and then asked the same thing he's asked for the last 18 days, "What are we going to do today brain?" Then he answers himself, "The same thing we do every day. Try to take over the world." Then, he said sarcastically, "gee...only 10 more hours until bedtime." Coffee shop, grocery store, reading books, bed. Literally, we probably said 10 words to each other all day. Todd was adventuresome and tried some shrimpy mushroom salad that was gross. I had some beef stroganof, not bad. We ate our last bag of microwave popcorn. Sigh. Then, when lying in bed, we heard 4 or so rounds of machine-gun fire followed by an entire neighborhood of car alarms going off. Very restful.

Today, we're doing more of the same, but we will visit the orphanage this afternoon.

Todd is deciding whether to fork over the extra money to fly home tomorrow, a few days early.

Love to everyone.

Monday

Yes, I do realize that Vadim is about as big as the pony itself, but he really wanted to ride it. He thought it was a really fun treat.

Today, our big day, went really very well. When asked by officials what he felt about us as his family, the darling boy said, "there are not enough words to explain." He grinned from ear to ear the whole time. He's feeling much better today.

Now we wait. Todd heads home this weekend, and I move in with Beth for the duration.

We met another family today at the embassy filling out paperwork who was on their 8th week or so. They lived in a flat with spiders, no cooking facilities, except outside. They had to make several hour-long trips around the country for different paperwork things. It made me feel so blessed by how smoothly things are going for us.

Our son at home is still sick, feeling rough, but he's being a strong, good boy about this whole thing, and we are just so totally blessed by my mom's loving care for him and Todd's parents' willingness to help out.

We'll have to get used to saying that we have TWO sons now. Yippee.

Sunday

Hanging out w/ poor sickie Vadim today. We've got plenty of different medications for him. I will be shocked if I don't catch it. I've been sneezed and coughed on a million times. It is nice to be able to comfort him though. I'm glad he has someone to rub his back and check his temperature and give him hot drinks.

Vadim rode a pony today in the parking lot of a big store. He liked it.

Looking forward to tomorrow. It should be a happy day, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Details later.

I try not to be annoying with my english lessons with Vadim. I'm constantly explaining things and repeating words, and I think he has more fun just batting a balloon back and forth with Todd. I'm noticing how much he loves Todd's attention more than anything. He gets women-love in the internat, but hasn't had a father, and he is eating it up.

Love to everyone.

P.S. No nudity today on the riverwalk, but I did get hit on by an old, drunk-ish man.

Saturday-- 2 weeks!

Saturday--It’s been two weeks!
Pictures 1) third naked guy we’ve seen swimming in Dnipro, right before the Full Monty. (I wouldn’t let Todd take a picture of the full moon.)
2) Robin on river walk
3) Todd in restaurant
4) Our sweet waiter who tries to speak English with us
5) Vadim’s pic of himself
6) Videogame palace
(Oops! They loaded out of order, but you can figure it out.)

So, poor Vadim is sick with a bad cold. He is just constantly coughing and sniffling. He was up a lot of the night. Poor guy. We’re all tired today. Went to video game palace despite this. Dropped some money there. Despite serious forewarnings about our cash limit before we went, he had a 45 minute pouting, hissy fit at the end about wanting even more. Sigh. It’s hard to take that level of grief over a few more grivna, after pouring everything we had into this trip and even asking friends and family for help. Then, of course, we remember, he’s just a kid like every other kid we know.

We are super glad to have figured out a cheap way to call home on our phones by registering for this service. It feels great to be able to call home and not have to wait for people to call and see if they can get through. The connection is much clearer and louder this way too.
. We are counting the days until we can all come home. I might be emailing out instructions for some of you to do some Christmas shopping for me. Love to everyone!

The birthday party was a big success. I think Vadim felt totally loved. I was impressed that the teachers and orphanage volunteers were so caring and warm to him and to all the kids. They had decorated the big party room. We brought 3 cakes, and they supplied tea and coffee. I think Vadim liked his birthday cards (esp. the one from Jake above) more than the presents even.

There are so many sweet kids that need families. There's Luda, Lela, Igor and Sergei. Viktor and Vitali are just darling. Janis and I both managed to hug Yura without much embarrassment. He was happy to see us. So, the party was worth being in traffic 1.5 hours there and 1.5 hours home. Phew.

Today we had a glimpse of sunshine before it clouded up again. Poor mom and Jake had stomach flu yuckiness yesterday. It sounds like things are getting better though. So Sorry mom! :(

Vadim is coming to stay w/ us later today for the weekend. I foresee Uno, ConnectFour, and the video game palace in our future.

Love to everyone.

Thurs--day 12

Happy Birthday Vadim.

We're heading over to the orphanage this afternoon bringing cake and movies.

I think we've now decided that I will stay here for the duration until we're totally finished up. It seems foolish to fly home for literally 3-4 days to spend 14 hours flying back. On Tuesday, I was willing to do it for a glimpse of Jake, but now that I've regained a little sanity and calmness, I realize that it makes more sense to stick it out. It will be easier for me knowing that Todd is home with him.

Here's a haiku:

Grey sky in Ukraine

Tough, busy people grimace

Grey buildings, grey street

Wed--Day 11

Simple, quiet day yesterday. We got to see Vadim and the kids at the orphanage. We were shocked to see really little kids (maybe 9 or 10) smoking on their way from dinner. Vadim beat me at chess (big surprise), and we ran around trying to snap a picture of the camara-shy Sasha. She's in the background above, and that was the best we could do.

Here's a quick list of things that we are thankful for: 1) great exchange rate, 2) nice servers at the two restaurants we go to who will help us figure out food, 3) a hug from our soon-to-be son like it's the first time he's seen us, every time we see him, 4) friends back home who care enough to read our silly blog every day, 5) everyone who contributed to help us do this, 6) for the naked fat man swimming in the Dnipro (twice now) who makes us laugh, 7) time with each other, 8) wonderful people to take care of Jake and love him as much as we do, 9) cheap Peevo, 10) great facilitators here who are taking care of us.

Tues--Day 10

Now THAT's what I'm talking about. I love that little face. Thanks Heather!!!

Here's the latest from Todd:

Day 10, well it started out like, should we go to the coffee shop or the store…hummm. We decided to go to the coffee shop to start out our day. Although I looked very carefully for the folks who might be naked and swimming in the river their were none to be found. We did get our daily fill of watching the little kids in strollers frolic with the street pigeons. Robin & I are like local’s at the café, we sit in the same place, drink the same drinks and have the same waitress. I realized that our patterns are getting more noticeable, so we must mix things up a bit so not to be noticed (thank God for my 007 training).

After two or so espresso’s we decided to go to a new grocery store…it was the bomb. Our first challenge was to place our backpack in one of the lockers. I tried 4 or 5 and could not get them to lock, only after having a lady spit something out to me in Russian did we realize that we needed to deposit .50 or half a grivna to get it to lock. After walking down every isle we decided on pasta, bread and piva…that staples of our life J

We finished up our shopping and started our journey back to the flat. I was hoping for some serious action, but the riskiest thing we did was cross the street. However, this is not recommended for the faint of heart…one must be ready to step out and proceed to give the on coming driver a stern look while continuing to cross the street. Once crossing the street we ran by the bank to see how much the dollar was worth today…it keeps going up, so that is really good for us right now.

Before going back to the flat we stopped for a bite to eat at a great local pizza place that uses the freshest of vegetables. We order two pizza’s and two piva’s, I stepped into the bathroom to wash my hands and noticed that there were no toilets….just a trough. I told Robin she may want to rethink going to the bathroom until we got back to the flat.

Ilona called and said that she would come down to the restaurant to discuss a few things. She arrived with her brother and we discussed our court date. Most likely Robin will come home with me after our court date for the 10 day waiting period and then fly back to pick up Vadim for his trip home….too cool.

Jake lost his first tooth the other day, but we have not been able to talk to him for a few days, so we are both going through Jake withdrawals. Well today is another day with big decisions in store…..coffee shop or grocery….what would you do J

Monday --day 9

It was sad to put Vadim in taxi back to orphanage last night. He didn't want to leave us. Also sad this morning to get the news that Jake lost his first tooth back home. Although I'm sure the toothfairy has been good to him!!! Someone needs to take a picture of his tooth-missing grin and email it to me ASAP! For the love people. Someone with a camera and an email account get over there and do this for us. If I don't wake up w/ a pic of my boy in my inbox tomorrow, there'll be hell to pay.

We're in good spirits today. It's misting and grey but not very cold.

We found a store that's probably a Ukrainian version of WalMart. It was fun to walk around and look at things. I enjoy my daily hour or two walk w/ my husband, and will miss that when we get home. Found inexpensive yet delicious pizza and peevo (beer) place with wi-fi! Heaven on earth, except in heaven, doubt if they'd laugh at my attempt to speak Russian.

Crossing the busy streets is an adeventure. They just step out and hope that the really fast cars stop. I'm still hesitant, but Todd, the 007 that he is, just steps out into oncoming traffic like everyone else. He's mastered the grim facial expression too, and he fits right in.

Love to everyone. Thanks for all your encouragement.

Sunday

Damp, misty, and 38 degrees today. We're still hanging out w/ V. Lots of Uno and Rummykub. He's listening to Todd's iPod and singing along very loudly. Went back to videogame palace and McD's. He's very happy, but it's boring at our one-room apartment! We rode the Metro / subway with V's help. It seemed clean and nice, but I hear that it is a crush of humanity on weekdays.

Yesterday, he had a mini-pouty, hissy-fit about wanting a new cell phone despite the fact that it would't work in the US anyway. It hit Todd and I that the challenge of this whole thing has just begun. It kind of reminded me of the feeling when couples have an argument on the honeymoon. "Oh yeah. This is what's it's really like. What on earth have we done?" But then, it blows over, and we laugh again and play more Uno, draw some pictures, and I think how lucky I am to know this guy.

We're hoping for news about our court date tomorrow. Write us an email or comment, please!!! We're pretty bored over here! (Although I just finished Kite Runner and Jesus land right in a row. Both really good, incredibly similarly themed books. There's a literature 101 assignment in the making! Now, I'm trudging through Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth, and disliking it, but I suppose I might as well finish it.)

Back to more Uno! We miss Jake terribly!

Saturday

Today we're hanging out with our buddy here. We went to a video game palace and blew 50 bucks very quickly. This morning we saw this dude above (see picture) swimming naked in the freezing, and I mean windy, 30 degrees, freezing Dnipro river. Brrrrrrr.......

It's great to spend time with V. He asks when we're going home every 5 minutes. He's so excited to see Jacob and talks about him constantly.

We'll head back to the apartment here in a minute and watch movies and play Rummykub.

We're hanging in there. One week down and ??? to go!

Thanksgiving

Day 6 & 7

Yesterday, we went to coffee shop and walked around some. Went to toy store and then just around the nearby blocks for half the day. Here’s an interesting scene. In the street-crossing underpass a woman is selling slabs of pork and pork fat all just spread out on a wooden table in the open air. Unwrapped, unrefrigerated, just open, handled raw bacon. (see picture)

We saw a woman digging around in the trash. We saw 3 different packs of stray dogs which are probably breeds of dog mixed with coyote or wolf. They look wild and scary, but then again, I’m always funny around animals. This country provides an even more drastic contrast between rich and poor than the US.

Met up with kids and Olena and Beth and family at a restaurant outside the city, called Zemdichoke or something like that. Took almost an hour cab ride to get there. It was a lovely restaurant, exposed beams, traditional dress on servers, kind of looks like a traditional German restaurant. There were huts around the outside of the main restaurant for parties, and we had hut #73. The food was fairly plain but very good. We had chicken with a slight hint of curry flavoring and there was a tray of beef. There was a platter of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. The kids got French fries along with theirs. I remarked that in the US, the entire platter of chicken would probably be one serving. It was sufficient, just that the US potions are ridiculous. It was a splurge b/c it was worth it to get to hang out w/ the kids and Olena. We didn’t have a translator, so poor Olena did the ordering for us etc. The kids made it fun though. Not a lot of high-level conversation, as you can imagine. V wore this silky-looking, almost metallic-sheened suit, and he said, his “fancy tie.” He did look fancy!!!! I’m impressed with his English. He’s been working hard since summer. He is always so happy to see us, but he’s not surprised. He knew and trusted we were coming for him, and I’m glad that he is still able to trust after being let down by the adults in his life before.

Today, we are looking at more of the same. I’d like to do more sightseeing, but it’s expensive to get taxied around everywhere, and we need to save that $ to go back and forth to the orphanage. We are sleeping in, and I’m getting to read a lot, but I can see going stir crazy with this little lifestyle we’ve created. We’re hanging in there for now! We’ll get to hang out w/ V tonight and hopefully this weekend.

We’re still on pins and needles to hear our court date. We should hear it on Monday. I will probably come home during the 10-day waiting period. I miss Jake too much.