Settling in at Home!

Sorry for the delay in posting. We arrived home on Wednesday morning. Our original flight was suppose to get us home Tuesday night but the flight from Frankfurt to Toronto was late so we had to stay the night in Toronto. Roman was much better than we expected on the flight home. He was getting a bit restless on the longer leg from Frankfurt to Toronto but eventually fell asleep and slept for 4 hours. This was a really good thing because the system for movies and TV shows went down so there would not have been much to keep him occupied. I can't tell you how good it is to be back in Canada and back at home.

Our family and friends had a wonderful homecoming for us at the airport. There were many happy tears shed that morning. Roman was really excited and greeted everyone with a smile and great big hugs. He walked into our house as if he knew this is where he belonged. Everyone just loves him and are amazed at what a happy little boy he is. He is doing great and settling into his new home life without too much difficulty. He really is a character and has a great sense of humour (even though we don't know what he is saying most of the time!). On the flight from Toronto our seats were in a row that didn't have a window. He was pretty upset by this and was giving Papa heck, pointing at the place where the window should have been and rattling off a big spiel in Russian. You would think Papa was the one that built the plane:) Then the flight attendant went by and he started all over again. It was pretty funny!

The day we got home, we were all asleep by 4:00 p.m. Roman woke up at 4:15 the next morning so Dan and I had an early start to the day. I have a Staples "Easy Button" that Roman found. He had it up to his ear and repeatedly played it. The next thing you know, he is saying "That was easy" over and over again and getting louder each time he said it. We had a pretty good laugh over that one... his first complete phrase originating from Staples.

Trying to buy him clothes is proving to be a challenge. He is pretty small, so even some size 3 clothes are too big. In spite of this we have managed to get a decent wardrobe started. We found swimming trunks that say Team Canada on the side which just seems so appropriate. We bought him some rubber boots, so he had to try them out while helping Papa wash the car.

I guess that is it for now. I will post again soon and let you know how things are going.

We are Going Home!!!

The day has finally come when we can go home. We are not looking forward to the 16 hour trip but we sure are looking forward to getting home and seeing our family and friends. In hindsight the time has gone by quickly considering that we have been here for 5 weeks. This is the longest any of us have ever been away. We all agree that we like Kiev much better than Donetsk.

Yesterday, we went to the zoo with our facilitator and her daughter. It was fun but it was soo-oo-o hot. The weather at home has not been great from what I am told but we are actually looking forward to some cooler weather. Let me just say that you don't want to forget to put on deodorant in this country (although I think a lot of people do:)

We spent this morning just hanging around the apartment and then went shopping in the afternoon to get some souveniers. Roman was pretty good but I think we have worn him out the last few days. He always wants to be carried (yes, this is the child that we kept having to chase after at the orphanage!) and we are convinced that he has gained 5 lbs. just since we got him a week ago. He eats really good and is always hungry. Both of our facilitators have explained to him that we are taking him to our home tomorrow and he is totally OK with that. His behaviour has improved a lot from the first day we had him. He now seems to understand that we are his family and he fits in really well. We have more and more of those moments each day when you look at him and your heart just fills up with love and pride. He is a great little boy and absolutely loves his sister; sometimes too much!! Now don't get me wrong, he is still really active but not in a destructive way (most of the time:)
Well I better go, he is snoring away so now the packing begins. We have to leave our apartment by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and our flight doesn't leave until 2:05 p.m. I have always disliked packing but knowing we are coming home makes it so much better. I will add some more pictures once we are home. We have run out of batteries for our cameras so we can`t download any more pictures right now. I will post again in 2 or 3 days. Thanks again for following our journey and posting the comments; they really kept us going when things weren`t going as planned and when we were missing home.

Today Was a Good Day!

Today was Sydney's 12th birthday. She wanted to go to the beach so we hopped on the subway and away we went. It was a hot, sunny day and the beach along the river was beautiful. We stayed there for a couple of hours. Roman just loves the water. There is also a park with rides so Sydney took Roman on a train ride. Roman is always getting cuts and bruises as he is a bit accident prone, so being the good parents that we are, we put him on the bumper cars with Sydney. They had a great time but when they hit another car, Roman hit his cheek on the dash and has a bit of a bruise by his one eye. Lesson learned... too small for bumper cars!:) He is really well behaved when we are out and he is kept busy.
We went out for supper for Sydney's birthday, then went and bought Roman a couple more items of clothing. Tomorrow morning we are going to the zoo with our facilitator and her daughter and then start stocking up on souveniers.
I started adding pictures to the blog and will add more when I have more time. Have to run. Sydney and Dan want to watch the Simpsons on the computer.

Addition:

I had to add a bit more to this post. Last night when I posted it was pretty late and I was tired. We weren't really set up for the beach. We didn't want to take the towels from the apartment, so the only towel we had was once small face towel from home. People were probably thinking we were a bit strange... 4 people and one small towel! We also didn't have a bathing suit for Roman so he just went swimming in his undies. Not really a problem seeing as a lot of the kids didn't have anything on. Taking the metro (subway) has become a great past time for us. We all really like it. Roman would ride it all day if we could. It really was a great day and Sydney continues to show what a great daughter and big sister she is.

We're Paperwork Ready to Come Home!

It looks like everything has worked out and we have a happy ending. I went to the Canadian Embassy this morning with the new passport in hand (our facilitator got back in time) and returned this afternoon and picked up Romans Visa. The lady I was dealing with came out and said she had a surprise for me. My heart just dropped. I said I hope it is a good one. She said that just after I left this morning from the embassy, someone came and turned in Roman`s original passport and photos. They found them on the street. I asked her where they found them but she wasn`t sure. At least I know it wasn`t right in front of the embassy which is the only place that I was. Anyway, we now have 2 passports but only one is good to use. Yahoo!
To back track a little, yesterday was cold and rainy here. We needed to get some food from the market so we didn`t want to drag Sydney and Roman out in the rain. Dan and I asked Sydney if she thought she could handle him for 15 minutes and she said no problem, he had actually been pretty well behaved yesterday. I had a feeling it wasn`t that great of an idea but we went anyway. Well when we got home 15 or 20 minutes later, we could tell by the look on Sydney`s face that it didn`t go all that well. Roman was trying to run away from her and ran across the front of the bed and somehow got caught up in the sheers and brought the whole thing down, rod and all. So now we have replaced a phone and have to replace parts for the curtain rod... hopefully, that is where it will end. So this morning, on the way to get more pictures taken for the embassy, I told `Y` about the curtains and she spoke to Roman for about 5 minutes after that. Well, when he was getting his picture taken he looked pretty sad. `Y` said `He definitely has something on him mind, I just gave him heck for the curtain incident.``Well you should see the picture, it is pretty funny because he was one sad looking little boy. I don`t know what she said to him but he was pretty darn good for the rest of day. I brought him back to the apartment to stay with Dan and Sydney before going to the Embassy and he was on the toilet and when he saw that I was leaving he jumped off, gave me a kiss goodbye and went back to finish his duties. These are the moments that keep you going.
We went on the metro for the first time today. It was actually pretty good except when we decided to come home, we took the wrong one and ended up on the other side of the river. We got off at a stop and backtracked to where we started. We eventually found the right one and got home safely.
Tomorrow is Sydney`s birthday so we are going to do our best to make it special for her. She is pretty homesick so we told her we would still do something tomorrow but really celebrate her birthday when we get home. She really misses everyone and so do we. We are so grateful for all of the support we have had and continue to have on our journey. The last few days have been quite stressful but knowing that we can come home soon and have many family and friends to be with makes it easier.
Not being able to read the labels on food continues to be a problem. We were trying to buy perogies and wanted potato ones. We finally decided on package and made them for supper. Sydney actually ate one, Roman wouldn`t eat his and Dan just about spit it out when he tasted it. He thinks it was liver at best but probably something worse than that. Thankfully I hadn`t gotten around to trying it yet. This label thing makes for a great weight loss plan! (This was the food we were buying while Roman was destroying the curtains.)
Oh yeah, we will try to post some pictures in the next day or two. Sorry for the wait.

Talk About a Bump in the Road!!

OK, so I am going to go back a couple of days to Monday just so you can get the jist of what it has been like the past couple of days. I forgot to mention in my last post that we woke up Monday morning to no hot water so none of us could shower. We went to visit "R", which from now on I will call Roman because he is legally ours, only to have him give us attitude for both visits. No hugs, quite defiant and all that goes with that. We started to think he didn't like us any more :) We left there to go to the internet to check on our plane tickets... and nothing. I tried to call my sister who has been the liason for booking our trip home (God bless her!) and got to talk to her for about 30 seconds when my cell phone lost the connection. I had just put a new minutes card in but apparently it didn't work. I couldn't call our facilitator, my sister or anyone to help with the tickets. The best part of this day was we went out for dinner with a couple we met from Manitoba (yes, English speaking halleluiah!) We had many good laughs over our adventures with the language barrier and trying to communicate with the children.
We got home about 9:30 and my sister called 2 minutes later on the apartment phone. I just started to say how glad I was that she called because my phone didn't work and we lost the connection. We waited and waited for her to call back hoping she would have good news about our tickets. She finally got through again and said our agent had 3 tickets booked but I had to call the RBC Rewards myself because my ticket was booked through them. Good in theory... except I couldn't call out on my phone. She called RBC and got them to call me on the apartment phone (which by the way I can't call long distance on). By this time it is 2:00 a.m. here and needless to say I am a bit stressed. RBC called and informed me that to change the return date on my flight it would be $3000.o0. I just about fell off my chair. She was very nice but said that was the best rate she could come up with. (By the way, this will be a very long post so feel free to stop reading anytime:) I asked her to call our travel agent because of course I can`t call out and she said she can`t make outbound calls. It could have been the fact that I was almost in tears and saying `You mean I am in this country and can`t get home unless I pay $3000.00`that got to her, so she phoned our travel agent. She still couldn`t get the price he did so she finally called Air Canada direct and got a rate of $417.00. Whew... another crisis under control. So, we wake up the next morning, and still no hot water. We boil some water and do our best at sponge baths (not so good compared to a shower). We do some final running around with our facilitator for paperwork, then go to pick up our little man about 1.5 hours before the train leaves. We get to experience the McDrive (McDonalds) again because that is all we have time for. We pick up Roman and he was pretty excited. We put his new clothes and shoes on and he is ready to go. The orphange director and deputy director say goodbye to Roman and of course, I cried. Roman was soo-oo excited about the train and was actually pretty good. He didn`t go to sleep until 11:00 but understandable seeing as this was his first train ride. Oh, by the way, as luck would have it there were no 2nd class train tickets, so we had to pay 3 times as much for 1st class (no matter what class you are in, the bathrooms are still disgusting). I have retrained my bladder since we have been here... 16 hours in no problem!!
We meet with our main facilitator and that goes pretty good. We get to our new apartment with internet (which is why I am doing such a long post) and a couple of English channels. It is really nice and the landlady speaks English and is very helpful. Well, we no sooner get here and the driver says he is suppose to take my to meet our other facilitator at the Canadian Embassy (keep in mind that I haven`t had a shower in 3 days) so I freshen up in 3 minutes and head out the door because only one of us goes to the Embassy. In the meantime, Dan and Syd are holding down the fort at the apartment with Roman who by this time is going beserk checking out all the light switches, plus ins and oh yeah, the bath tub. We get to the Embassy and if you can believe it, I don`t have our passports (again) as Dan always carries them and we are always together. Our facilitator gives me all of the documents before I discover I have forgotten ours. We get our passports and on the way back to the Embassy, I am looking through the documents that `Y`gave us and can`t find Roman`s passport. I call and she says its there but I am looking and it isn`t. We pick her up, go back to the Embassy as she thinks I may have dropped it but I know it wasn`t in the package to begin with. She goes home on the metro to check her apartment to see if she left it there and in the meantime the driver wants to know where I want to hang out while we wait for here and the tears start (not him... me!:) So he goes to where the market is by the SDA and thinks it would be therapuetic for me to walk around (he doesn`t know what else to do with this woman who is crying) and look for souveniers... wrong, that was the last thing on my mind. To shorten the story a bit, the passport was never found and `Y`is on the overnight train right now going back to Donetsk to get another one. Can you spell `MELTDOWN` In the meantime, Roman is slowly destroying our new apartment. He picked up the phone to talk, dropped the receiver and it fell apart. No more phone in the apartment. Dan goes out to find a supermarket because we have no food and can`t find one. In the meantime, Roman loves the tub so much he decides he`s going in again... clothes off in 3.2 seconds and in the tub. I say no and firmly hold the tap so he can`t turn it on. Well, 20 minutes later, guess who is getting a shower... yes, Roman won the fight. So after that, Dan, Roman and I (Syd opted to stay home for some reason:) head to the market to point and purchase the bare necessities for the night and head home. Roman is being really good now and is very tired so I gave him a piggyback home and Dan and I both thought he would be ready for bed soon... no such luck. He got into the apartment and got a new burst of energy! This time though, he wasn`t destructive and we played scary monster, hide and seek and whatever else we could think of in between. The little darling is snoring as I type this.
So, the bottom line is please say a little prayer for us that we get the new passport in time to get our paperwork from the Canadian Embassy, so we can make the flight that took 3 days to book on the 15th of July. Sorry for the long post but it has been an eventful past couple of days.

Tomorrow is the day!

Well, we have made it through the 10 day wait. We should have "R" with us tomorrow. We will probably leave for Kiev tomorrow night on the overnight train. We are not sure how "R" will be. He has been acting up a bit the last couple of days, especially today, so we are not sure if he is aware that he is leaving tomorrow or not. I hope the adjustment won't be too difficult for him. He really seems to like it there and it has been his home for the last 15 months. We are hoping that it will be much easier once he is with us and we can get into a routine.

We have bought a few clothes but didn't have many options at the mall we went to. Everything in that mall was designer names. We went to the market today and purchased some items but we really need to find a department store which we will try to do tomorrow.

We are soo-oo-oo-o ready to come home. Our return flights are still not confirmed. It has been a challenge dealing with our travel agent at home with the 9 hour time difference. My ticket was purchased with credit card points, so I have to book my seat after the other 3 tickets are booked. I am worried that I may not get on the same flight which would be really terrible. Timing is everything, so we are hopeful it will all fall into place.

Well that is all for today. I will post as soon as I can to let you know how tomorrow goes.

4 Days to Go!

Well, we are still in countdown mode. We will get "R" on Tuesday and should be heading back to Kiev that night but are still waiting for confirmation. We are having a bit of difficulty getting our airlines return tickets changed. They were unable to do it from Ukraine so we are going through our travel agent at home and seem to be having email difficulties. We are really hoping to be home by July 15th at the latest.

We have met a couple from France, one from Italy and today we just met another couple from close to home, Manitoba, that are adopting from the same orphanage that we are. We had a good chat and will see them over the next few days until we get "R". We found a supermarket within walking distance and are going to a large shopping mall tomorrow. We have to buy some clothes etc for "R" before Tuesday. Things continue to go well except that we really want to come home. The time has actually gone by quite quickly since we have arrived and we really have a hard time keeping track of what day it is:)

"R" has learned a lot since we first starting visiting with him. He is counting, saying the alphabet, colours and a few other simple English words... one being "Please". He still runs off at times but we don't all chase him now. We have figured out that he usually has a purpose to where he is going so we wait and see what he does and then go to where he is at. Sydney and him get along great. She is such a good big sister.

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and keeping track of our journey. I wish we had a more exciting blog to view but like I said, I will add pictures as soon as I can.

7 Days and Counting!

We have 7 more days left in our 10 day wait. It actually is 11 days but I guess we just go by what the judge says. July 8 is the day we can pick up "R" and we are really looking forward to that. The visits are going well. He is learning to count, the alphabet and a few other easy English words. Of course, we have to make time for play also. We aren't chasing him around the playground as often as before so progress is being made :) We look forward to spending that time with him everyday and it gets harder to say goodbye at the end of each visit. The hugs are the best part of the day.

We will need to do some souvenier shopping soon but we haven't found the little booths with all of the authentic Ukraine souvenier items like we saw in Kiev. We must just be in the wrong area. We may have to power shop once we get back to Kiev.

We mastered another shopping trip at the supermarket and got through it without anyone yelling... in fact I think we may have gotten a half smile! We might even get mistaken for locals (minus the stilettos and the mini skirt for me!!) From time to time, while we are walking, someone will say something to me in Russian and if they laugh, so do I. I really don't know what they are saying but I just go along with it.

One thing we have noticed here is that almost nobody wears prescription glasses. I don't know if everyone has really good eyesight, can't see well at all or everyone wears contacts. I bet you we have only seen 6 people total between Kiev and Donetsk with glasses. I don't know if I mentioned this before but a lot of people smoke here. There are cigarette butts all over the place. Littering is a huge issue here but you do see someone at the end of the day with the old "twig" broom (for lack of anything better to call it) sweeping up the mess. Another thing that has been great is that there has been fireworks right outside our window on several occasions. We are on the 9th floor so we have perfect seating!

Other than that, not much is new here. We are anxious to get home and are trying to confirm the actual date. The weather here has cooled down a bit and it has rained on and off for the last couple of days. It is a nice change as long as it doesn't last for the rest of our stay.

We haven't done a lot of touristy things here in Donetsk. For whatever reason, we are pretty tired at the end of the day and usually don't venture out after supper. We have 2 visits with Roman each day and do a bit of cleaning, laundry and picking up items for the apartment. The days actually go by pretty quick.

Sorry we haven't posted any pictures, the internet place we use in not that user friendly and you know me, I am no that up on technology. I will add pictures after that fact if that makes any sense.

Well that's it for now.

He's Our Boy!

Well, we went to court this morning and everything went really well. We were suppose to go in at 10:30 a.m. but the orphange director and inspector were there for another hearing, so the judge moved us up. We went in about 9:30 and we were done by 10:05 a.m. The judge just kept saying this was going to be very quick and it was. They first asked to see pictures of "R" and when the judge saw him, she realized she was the same judge to terminate his biological mother's rights. How is that for coincidence. Both Dan and I were asked about 3 or 4 questions and that was about it. We were nervous for nothing but of course there were a few tears when they read the ruling (no, not Dan...me!:) . The judge congratulated us and that was it. We are now beginning our 10 day wait which means we can leave Donetsk on July 8. If all goes well, we may be on a plane for home on July 11.

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the number 12 being a good omen for us. When we were looking through our dossier last night, we realized that the date last March when we found out that our dossier would not be submitted because of the quota for Canada being met, was March 12. At the time I thought I would never forget that date but actually did. That was the beginning of the number 12 for us. "R" entered the orphange on March 14 and like I said in an earlier post, we were the first family to see his file. God had a plan, we just didn't know what it was at the time. We are now counting our blessings which include Sydney and "R" (not sure if I can use his name yet).

We had a tour of the orphanage this morning and it is a really nice place. "R" is lucky to have had this for his home for the past 15 months.

For anyone who will be going to court, I wouldn't worry too much about what to wear. At least in our case, it was pretty casual. The blouse I brought to wear to court ended up being locked in the washing machine!! I went to do a load of laundry the day before yesterday and the door of the machine wouldn't close completely or open at all. So, our clothes are being held captive. Our landlady said we should try to open it ourselves, which of course we did for about 45 minutes before calling. Anyway, I had a bit of a dressy t-shirt that matched the skirt I had and our facilitator said it was just fine. Dan wore dress pants, a dress shirt and a tie and Syd wore a dress. The prosecutor was in jeans, so I knew we didn't need to worry to much.

I also keep forgetting to mention this to anyone travelling; bring both a Ukrainian and Russian phrase book with phonetic pronunciations. We couldn't find a Russian one so it has been a bit of a struggle. We do have a phrase book that was created specifically for adoption which helps but it is limited.

That's all for now.

About Ukraine

We don't really have anything new to report on the adoption. Our court hearing is tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. I thought I would just share a few things about Kiev and Donetsk.

One of the first things we noticed in Kiev is the incredible use of cell phones. Everyone walking, driving, running and shopping has one attached to their ear. Every way you turned there were people on cell phones. Also, not only does the traffic move fast in Kiev but so do the people. You really don't want to get in the way of someone who is trying to get somewhere. I don't believe it is a matter of being rude or pushy, it is just the pace that the city moves at. At every major intersection you have to go underground to cross the street and there are all kinds of stores down there. It's great for the avid shopper. The prices for things in Kiev seem to be higher than in Donetsk. We take a taxi to and from the orphanage every day, twice a day; so for 4 taxi rides it costs us $17.00 U.S. which is a lot less than at home. It is about 15 minutes one way. We found a nice restaurant that actually has an English menu (Cherry Pizza) and we had a pizza, a pint of beer, a glass of wine, an iced tea and a dessert and with a tip, it was $20.00. Groceries are quite a bit less for most things also.

That's my little tidbit for today. We have to get back to the apartment as it will soon be time to see "R". Bye for now.

Dan's Adventure!

Well, Dan had a very long day yesterday going to Kiev for "R"s medical. As far as the medical goes, everything is great. He is both physically and mentally in the normal range for his age. We don't foresee any problems with the final approval.

As I may have mentioned once or twice before, "R" is a very active little boy. When Dan came home last night and was telling us about it, it was quite funny (although at the time I don't think Dan thought it was). Keeping in mind that everything "R" is doing and seeing is new to him, will help explain some of the incidents. Dan had to take him to the bathroom at the airport and "R" thought it was pretty cool to flush the toilet... over and over and over again. Dan finally got him to the sink to wash his hands and again, "R" found the soap dispenser fascinating and kept pumping it. Finally Dan gets the water to the right temperature, turns around and "R" is gone... yes, he is back flushing the toilet. Once his hands are washed, he takes off again and is turning the lights off and on. As Dan tells it, he had to pretty much have him in a headlock to get through security at the airport. Needless to say, we are a bit concerned about the long trip home:)

They ended up going to the zoo and "R" would have climbed in the cage with the lions if he could have. The director helped Dan keep "R" under control. At the doctor's office he was telling a lady beside him that he already misses his friends (he had been away from the orphanage for a whole 7 hours by that time). Dan said he talks to anyone and everyone that he sees. The tricky part is, we usually don't know what he is saying to people. "Y" was there yesterday so she was able to translate for Dan.

It is confirmed that our court date is Friday morning. We are still waiting for a confirmed time.

I hope the weather has gotten better at home. It is really hot here. The thermometer outside our kitchen window, which faces east, sometimes registers at 40 celcius in the morning. Surprisingly, we are managing the heat quite well.

Going back to not being able to read anything, we discovered that we bought 2 packages of paper towel instead of toilet paper... when you are in a hurry shopping, it all looks the same. We will have to hit the market on the way back to the apartment. I guess we should have known as most of the toilet paper comes in colours like yellow, blue, pink and are scented. These packages were just plain old white.

We are getting pretty anxious to get home. Even though things have gone good so far, there really is no place like home. We get calls from family almost every day so that really helps to feel connected.

That's it for now.

Part 2

For some reason it cut me off on the last post... I guess I am too long winded. Anyway we should have court by the end of this week so we should know more by then when we are coming home.

For those who were asking we are in Donetsk which is a city of about 1,000,000 people. There are quite a few markets etc close by so it is a good area. Tara, sorry I didn't get your email sooner. Now that we know where to go to the internet we can keep in touch and hopefully meet up somewhere.

I just have one quick story to tell before it cuts me off again. We were visiting "R" and whenever we visit and he runs away, we call to him to come back and stay with us. The other day, Sydney went to see if our taxi had arrived at the orhpanage yet and when he noticed her walking away, he started yelling to her in Russian and shaking his fist/finger at her and waving for her to come back. It was really funny. We aren't exactly sure what he was saying but we know he was putting her in her place. Syd has been great about everything on this trip. She never complains and takes everything in stride, sometimes better than Dan and I. We all can't wait to bring him home and get into a rountine.

Anyway, I better sign off before I get cut off. I should be able to post daily now so more news tomorrow. Thanks again for the comments and for those of you who are here or coming here soon for your journeys, good luck and God Bless!

We are on our Own!

Sorry it has been so long between posts. "Y" left last Thursday evening and we have been on our own since then. It took us a while to find the internet. It has been very interesting not having anyone to translate. Some people are very nice but others are not so nice. We went to a supermarket yesterday to buy lots of groceries so we don't have to go out everyday and try to communicate what we want. The cashier was definitely not going for Miss Congeniality. Dan started putting the groceries on the belt that moves everything along and she started to bark out something at him. Of course, he didn't understand so she said the same thing again only louder. Why is it people think if you don't understand a language it will be easier if you say it even louder:) Anyway, we got through that and had a good laugh afterwards. I have to admit it does get discouraging when you get a negative response but that is all part of the experience. Even though it is stressfull I think everyone should experience it... not sure why but I am thinking it builds character!!

We are still enjoying our apartment and believe it or not, I have actually take the stairs several times. There are 2 flights per floor, 9 stairs per flight x 9 floors = a heck of a lot of stairs. We always use the stairs going down but I have only attempted going up about 3 times. It takes Dan and Syd too long to revive me :) We had to take the stairs the other day because someone left a beer bottle with something other than beer in it sitting in the elevator and it had spilled. Give the choice, stairs are good.

We continue to see "R" every day, twice a day. We have had a couple of visits where we left feeling a bit discouraged. He gets really wound up (of course he is excited and he is on his own turf) and we have even more trouble communicating with him. On one visit he was mad at us when we left because we didn't play in the sandbox. I think he thought that if he did what we wanted for part of the time, we would play in the sandbox after but our time ran out. He wouldn't give us a hug goodbye but when we went back everything was good and the big bear hugs were back. Dan, aka Pappa, gets a kiss on both cheeks also. It is really cute to see. Dan, "R" and the director of the orphanage are in Kiev today for the Canadian Immigration medical. We should have our court date

Progress is being made

Thank you for all of the heartwarming comments all of you have left. It makes me cry when I read them and I am in a public internet!

I am first going to address the question about the doctor coming to the orphanage. The doctor that we had with us is from Kiev. We found out about him for the FRUA chat board. His name is Dr. Yuri and he was a wonderful person to have along. If you can't find the information on FRUA, email me at wright.lorrie@gmail.com and I will give you contact information. Good luck on your journeys and thank you for following ours.

Well, we have spent the last 3.5 days with "R" and it seems like so much longer. It amazes me how in just 2 hours a day such a strong bond can be created. We go for about one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. He is such a sweet little boy and is quite funny. He told his caregiver that if she behaves he might take her with him when he leaves. The director of the orphange got quite a kick out of that! Today we were able to take him with us and "Y" to get his picture taken for some of the adoption documents. He was so good and was just awestruck with everything around him. We bought him a Finding Nemo backpack from home and he just loves to strut around with that on. He is very slight so it is nothing to pick him up and hold him. We learned a lesson yesterday... don't give him a banana and 2 juice boxes in the same visit. The first half of the visit was pretty calm but by the second half he was all over the place. Here are the 3 of us all running after him and another couple that is their with their 2 boys are sitting quietly and colouring. "R" does not sit down for too long. He absolutely loves watching video played back on the camera. He is learning a few English words but we have a long way to go.

We moved to a new apartment and it is way better than the last one. I know I said the last one was OK but I was exaggerating. Once again the aromas were abundant. The new place is on the 9th floor of the building... and no, I don't have to take the stairs (I think that might do me in!!). The elevator is really funny. With 4 of us in there it is jam packed and it sounds like it is on its last cable. We laugh every time we get in it. Judy, just think about getting stuck in this one! The apartment is modern and has 1 bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and fridge, stove and microwave. The view is really nice. We are just waiting for a phone to be put in.

Oh yeah, I named the post making progress and forgot that part. The paperwork is moving along pretty quickly. We already have our application into the courts and hope to have our hearing by the end of next week. I still don't know how long we will be here but so far we haven't hit any roadblocks with paperwork.

One other thing I keep forgetting to mention is that with some of the money that we raised for the orphanage, we will be buying them a computer. This was a request from the director. There are some other things they also need but I am not sure what they are yet. It is a really good orphange; clean, organized and the kids are challenged to do creative things like plays, painting etc. In fact, "R" won some kind of award for his part in a play. One day he was running with his little forearms flapping and we couldn't figure out what he was doing. We ended up finding out that he was a mosquito in the play!

Well I better sign off. Keep the comments coming.

Meeting "Our" Little Boy!

Finally we have access to internet again. We had our first overnight trip by train which was a very interesting experience. I completely agree with everyone who has been here before when they say "Pack light keeping in mind you may have to take the train". Even though we did pack light it was still a challenge. Dan slept pretty good on the train, Syd slept some and I slept very little. In the wee hours of the morning, the door to our compartment suddenly opens and there is a man there speaking what I think was Russian. I was just drifting off when he opened the door, so he really startled me. The only thing I could think of to say is "What???" quite loudly. "Y" woke up and just shut the door and relocked it. The important thing is we did survive our first overnight train ride.

From the train station, we went to our new apartment. The outside looked pretty scary but the apartment itself is not bad at all. The best part is that it is half the amount of money per night compared to the first apartment we had. We cleaned up and went to the orphanage. We were all pretty nervous. There was Dan, Syd, "Y", the doctor and me. We first met the orphange director. While we were talking with her, one of the caregivers brought "R" (the little boy) into the room. He didn't look anything like his picture. He is quite small. He started off by reciting a poem. We of course couldn't understand him but we laughed along with everyone else. One of his later poems was something like "I want a mama and if I get a sheep I will name it mama". Pretty creative little guy. Anyway, the doctor worked with him for over an hour, then we went back to play with him the p.m. Everything seems fine so we are proceeding with our application to adopt him. I know we can't officially call him "Our" little boy but soon we will. He is VERY active... but very sweet. I will post again soon. We don't have as easy access to internet as we did before.

Our SDA Appointment

We have been waiting a long time to be able to post about having our appointment! We had a bit of a rough start. Our facilitator always calls the taxi for us and gives them the adress. The driver we had wasn't sure of the number and dropped us off at a different building. I kept thinking that this building didn't look familiar. I had seen pictures of it before on other blogs. Anyway, Sydney happened to see our facilitator walking on the other side of the street so we flagged her down. She couldn't believe we had been dropped off at the wrong place. We were fortunate enough to have the first appointment of the day... or so we thought. We went in and were asked for our passports. As luck would have it, this was the only time we had ever left the apartment without them. Our facilitator didn't know we needed them. Our hearts dropped! They said to go get the passports and be back by 10:00. We had trouble getting a cab because of the time of day. Our facilitator ( I will call her "Y" from now on) and Dan got in a cab at 9:30. They made it back at 10:02. In the meantime, Sydney and I were waiting outside of the SDA looking at the time every 30 seconds. We had to wait for about 10 minutes before we were called in again. The appointment itself took about half an hour to 40 minutes. OK, OK, I know, get on with it :)

We are going to meet a little boy who will turn 5 on Monday... the day we first visit him. We have to travel for about 12 hours by train and will leave on Sunday evening. I can't say too much other than we are very excited. We have many steps to go through yet but we really feel like this is the child that is meant to be in our family.

I will post again as soon as I have more information. We love to read the comments, so keep them coming!

We Have Landed!

Sorry we couldn't post sooner... computer issues and catching up on sleep are the reasons! We arrived in Kiev Monday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. We didn't get out of the passport/luggage/customs area until around 3:00 p.m. This was a bit of a struggle considering how tired we were... especially Sydney. None of us were able to sleep on the plane. Overall, the flights were good except for the last stretch from Frankfurt to Kiev. We couldn't get seats together so we had to sit 1 row behind each other in the middle seats. This proved to be very interesting with overcrowding (seats were small) and it being so hot on the plane - the aromas were abundant! But, we made it in one piece and are glad to have made it here with very little problem.

We were taken to get groceries and then to our apartment, which happens to be on the fourth floor... four floors of stairs! We lugged our suitcases and groceries up and we were asleep by 6:00 p.m. Kiev time (it is 9 hours ahead here). We all awoke at various times throughout the night. Syd got up at 3:00 a.m., then I got up at 4:30 and last but not least, Dan at 5:00 a.m. We had an appointment with Dr. Yuri at 11:15 a.m. to review some possible health issues we may see at our appointment. He is a very nice man and we feel really good about meeting with him.

The driving here is very fast and crazy. There are no seatbelts to use (they are all tucked in under the seats). Our taxi driver that took us to our appointment today had some anger issues and at one point got out of the car to yell at another driver. The driver we had on the way back was much nicer but still drove really fast.

We spent the afternoon with friends from Regina that are here in the final stages of their adoption. It was great to see them. They took us around downtown and showed us the ropes. Our apartment is right in the hub of downtown so it is quite noisy and lots of traffic. The apartment is pretty good. Once we know where we will be after next week, we can actually unpack our suitcases and settle in. To M & M who helped us pack, you will be happy to know that we were told we packed light! We will be grateful for this everytime we have to haul the suitcases up and down all those stairs.

The weather is sunny and hot. It is a bit stressful not being able to communicate or read anything but we know now of a few places that have English. We have to sign off now... jet lag setting in. Our appointment is on Thursday. We will let you know about how it went as soon after as we can. I can't seem to get an internet connection on our laptop, so it looks like we will be relying on internet cafes. Bye for now!

A Good Omen

We are in the final coutdown. We leave in 3 days! It has been a very busy week shopping and packing for our trip. Everytime I think we have everything we need, I think of something else. We are really looking forward to when the packing is done and we are on the plane enroute to Kiev.

I wanted to share this story before we leave. When we first received our appointment date of June 12, my husband Dan and I looked at the date as a good omen because our daughter Sydney was born on the 12th and Dan and I started dating on the 12th, so it appeared that the number "12" was a very good number for us. Over the last few months since we received our appointment date, I have always looked to that "good omen" when I started to get nervous or scared about what lies ahead. Last weekend, we were rearranging beds and furniture between Sydney's bedroom and our child-to-be's bedroom. When Sydney turned 7, we redid her bedroom which included a bench with baskets underneath for her clothes. This bench will now be in our new child's bedroom. Dan and his friend built the bench and signed/dated it on the day it was finished. When we took the seat off of the bench to move it, Sydney noticed the date first... June 12, 2004! We now know the 12th is a very lucky and significant date in our family.

Goodbye for now!. I will post again once we are in Kiev.

The Countdown is On!

In 40 days, we leave for Ukraine. It is truly hard to believe that we are finally going after all this time. We started our homestudy for this adoption at the beginning of October, 2005. After hitting several roadblocks and redoing our dossier 3 times, we finally received our appointment date; June 12, 2008!

The last 2.5 years since we started our journey has been very challenging both mentally and emotionally. We have had tremendous support from our families, friends, co-workers and other couples who are embarking on the same journey. This support has helped us to continue moving forward and not give up on our dream to adopt a child. To those of you who have been there for us, you have our heartfelt thanks. We have learned a lot on this journey so far but what really stands out in our minds is how blessed we are to have such good people in our lives.

Our family held a steak nite fundraiser for us to raise money for the orphanage we adopt from. It was a huge success! We raised a significant amount of money that will be put to good use for the children in the orphanage. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who attended and/or donated. It was a lot of fun and we got to see people that we haven't seen for a very long time.

Now the getting ready part. The packing lists are compiled and the language books and CD's in hand. I find it kind of humorous that after 2.5 years, we still feel like we will not be ready to go by June 8 which is when we leave for Ukraine.

Well, this is our first official post on our blog. We will try to post as often as we can when we are in Ukraine. Bye for now!