Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
"Do you Likey America?!"
Hello to everyone out there. I have not posted in a very long time as we have been very, very busy. My computer time has seriously been minimized:-) Hopefully I can find some time for may favorite computer pastime of ebaying again!! Anyway, we have accomplished much in the past 7 weeks that we have been home and we also have realized how far we still have to go. We have been able to have constant peace from God that He will work all of this out in His time.
Diana and Will have experienced many things in this time so I will give you a little overview. They have met lots of family including some of their cousins, Corin and Christian. The other little cousins we keep up with via their blog. The kids love going to church and Sunday school. Diana has already sang with her choir group in front of the whole church. We have celebrated 4 family birthday parties at our house and they have gone to one friends birthday party. Diana came with me to a shower that my friends from church hosted. Andrew and I had the chance last week to share with our Sunday school class about our trip to Ukraine. (Our slide show didn't go quite as planned:-() They have been to Wal-Mart and Chik-Fil-A, not in the same day! They have had their check-ups and Will had to get for different shots. He did very good though. We have started homeschooling with Diana and on-line ESL lessons with a great lady. I highly recommend her for any parents who may be interested for their children. Whew, sorry for such a long winded detailed list but I wanted to make sure I recorded as much as I could for posterity.
One of the best things that happened or most Providencial I should say would be the arrival of Diana and Will's certificate's of citizenship. They arrived on her 10th birthday! I kind of look at that as a present to her from America:-) We were able to use those to go apply for their social security cards, which leads me to the title of this blog.
There have been many funny things that have been said by Will, Diana and Evan in attempts to communicate in English and Russian. Evan now knows many words and phrases in Russian and sometimes I hear him and Will talking back and forth to each other with mixed English and Russian:-) Bilka (squirrel) is one of their favorite words. I finally figured out after a few days home what Diana meant when she said "eyelets pry", at the table all the time. She was wanting to be the one to pray before we ate! For the longest time Will would add "now you say" to the beginning of everything we wanted him to repeat. He must have thought it was funny that Americans say "now you say" before everything?! He finally understands we want him to repeat a certain word or phrase. Will is definitely the family comedian so this leads me to the last story.
We were in the S.S. office last week and my number was called so Diana and I went to the window to give them all the paperwork and explain Diana and Will are from Ukraine. Well the boys were sitting in the first row of chairs and there was a very nice elderly lady in the row behind them. She obviously overheard the Ukraine part so she leaned forward in her chair to ask them a question and the boys were facing backwards in theirs. She looked up at Will and said "You are so far from home, do you like it in America? I bet you do." Will leaned forward and was very much in her personal space (something we're working on) and asked her a little on the loud side "Do you likey America?" all while shaking his head up and down and smiling. Everyone in the place started laughing, including that lady.
We are regularly working on behavior and attitude and all of us are growing and learning from this. We have asked for and received much sound wisdom in this area. We are the parents and that has to be established firmly and lovingly. We are not friends who supply food, clothes, and shelter. Overall it is a joyful experience and we are thankful that God chose us to be their parents. They bring our house much happiness and laughter!!!!
I know, I know, I need some more pictures up here. Slide show to be posted this evening.
Diana and Will have experienced many things in this time so I will give you a little overview. They have met lots of family including some of their cousins, Corin and Christian. The other little cousins we keep up with via their blog. The kids love going to church and Sunday school. Diana has already sang with her choir group in front of the whole church. We have celebrated 4 family birthday parties at our house and they have gone to one friends birthday party. Diana came with me to a shower that my friends from church hosted. Andrew and I had the chance last week to share with our Sunday school class about our trip to Ukraine. (Our slide show didn't go quite as planned:-() They have been to Wal-Mart and Chik-Fil-A, not in the same day! They have had their check-ups and Will had to get for different shots. He did very good though. We have started homeschooling with Diana and on-line ESL lessons with a great lady. I highly recommend her for any parents who may be interested for their children. Whew, sorry for such a long winded detailed list but I wanted to make sure I recorded as much as I could for posterity.
One of the best things that happened or most Providencial I should say would be the arrival of Diana and Will's certificate's of citizenship. They arrived on her 10th birthday! I kind of look at that as a present to her from America:-) We were able to use those to go apply for their social security cards, which leads me to the title of this blog.
There have been many funny things that have been said by Will, Diana and Evan in attempts to communicate in English and Russian. Evan now knows many words and phrases in Russian and sometimes I hear him and Will talking back and forth to each other with mixed English and Russian:-) Bilka (squirrel) is one of their favorite words. I finally figured out after a few days home what Diana meant when she said "eyelets pry", at the table all the time. She was wanting to be the one to pray before we ate! For the longest time Will would add "now you say" to the beginning of everything we wanted him to repeat. He must have thought it was funny that Americans say "now you say" before everything?! He finally understands we want him to repeat a certain word or phrase. Will is definitely the family comedian so this leads me to the last story.
We were in the S.S. office last week and my number was called so Diana and I went to the window to give them all the paperwork and explain Diana and Will are from Ukraine. Well the boys were sitting in the first row of chairs and there was a very nice elderly lady in the row behind them. She obviously overheard the Ukraine part so she leaned forward in her chair to ask them a question and the boys were facing backwards in theirs. She looked up at Will and said "You are so far from home, do you like it in America? I bet you do." Will leaned forward and was very much in her personal space (something we're working on) and asked her a little on the loud side "Do you likey America?" all while shaking his head up and down and smiling. Everyone in the place started laughing, including that lady.
We are regularly working on behavior and attitude and all of us are growing and learning from this. We have asked for and received much sound wisdom in this area. We are the parents and that has to be established firmly and lovingly. We are not friends who supply food, clothes, and shelter. Overall it is a joyful experience and we are thankful that God chose us to be their parents. They bring our house much happiness and laughter!!!!
I know, I know, I need some more pictures up here. Slide show to be posted this evening.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
To bring or not to bring? That is the question.
Tips for future adoptive parent travels. This is the longest post I have written so far. I just wanted to give a thorough list to help all future adoptive parents
Pack as light as possible. Three outfits per person and five pairs of underwear per person is very sufficient. We also only brought the shoes we wore on the plane the second time around. The first time I brought extra shoes and it took up to much space in winter. I do recommend maybe a nice extra shirt and tie for court and ladies bring a dress or skirt for court or if you plan on attending church services while in Ukraine. As far as head coverings for women in churches a headband or small headscarf will suffice. If traveling in winter bring a heavy coat with scarf, gloves and hat, especially for kids. Children are always well bundled up in Ukraine at the slightest chill and you will get some crazy looks if your kids aren’t also. Long johns are good for the coldest months of winter. We had one whole large suitcase for orphanage donations. This can be used to bring back souvenirs on the way back.
If you are going for a blind referral I would still bring some clothes for child(ren) you plan to adopt. Clothes there are very expensive (compared to what we can get at places like Gap, Old Navy, Target, etc.) and not as good quality. It may be hard to get shoes beforehand, but if it’s summer I would go get sandles/flip flops on sale at Old Navy or Target in several sizes and leave tags on if not used and return with receipt when you get home.
Bring some toys, educational games, art and craft supplies to keep kids busy while they are with you and on the plane ride home. Girls love baby dolls and Barbies and the boys love real matchbox. They also really love American candy. That is worth buying at home. They do sell some American candy but some of it tastes very different. As far as treats to bring to party and for orphanage you can buy pretty good baked goods at the grocery store. We also brought fruit juices and sliced apples or oranges. Bananas are good too.
For our going away party we gave kids stickers, mini packs of gummie bears, chap sticks, and mini snickers. We also brought streamers, balloons, and a Clifford tablecloth. This made things more festive and the decorations were greatly appreciated. All of this stuff was purchased at home on sale or at the dollar store. I wish we would have made a DVD of all our pictures from the orphanage and the kids to show at the party. I know one lady who did this and it was a hit. For gifts to orphanage workers I bought new department store makeup and perfume sample bottles on ebay that came in lots for very cheap prices. I also got some makeup bags inexpensively to give them. The director and deputy director (the one who does all the paperwork) I gave them some nice new handbags I got on ebay for hardly any money, along with the makeup. For men we just gave a monetary gift at our discretion. (Sidenote: Our particular orphanage had very hardworking, caring people who helped us greatly so we felt these gifts showed our appreciation for the care they had given our kids. However, some orphanages aren’t always staffed so well and no one should feel gifts like this are mandatory for workers. We also gave a monetary donation to the orphanage through the fees we paid our facilitator. No one at our particular orphanage ever asked or suggested we give them anything.)
Ideas for supplies to bring orphanage. These things are so greatly appreciated and much needed at most any orphanage. Any type of personal hygiene product, card games (crazy 8’s stuff like that), jump ropes, crayons, coloring books, scarves, hats, gloves, baby Tylenol, children’s motrin, baby orajel, Neosporin, hair elastics for girl’s, pencils, notebooks, pocket mirrors, onesies for baby orphanages, Frisbees, deflated soccer balls (airpump to blow up), any barely used clothing or new clothing, toys of all types (things that more than one kid can play at a time), bringing fruit and juice for kids snack time(purchased in country), slippers and flip flops. I am sure there are tons of other things that are needed and useful this is just a starting point.
Medicinal items I recommend bringing with you from home. I recommend getting your prescriptions and OTC’s before you leave. Cipro and Levaquin are good antibiotics to bring. We also got stuff for scabies in case it was going around the orphanage, but we didn’t need it. We all got our Hepatitis A shots to be safe. Some over the counter’s you may or may not want to bring: pain reliever, antibiotic cream, cough medicine, allergy med., tums, pepto, sleep aid (the only one that helped us is Melatonin), and anything if you are bring children with you that they would need. You can get medicine in Ukraine very easily by just going to pharmacy and telling them your symptoms (helps to have a translator) but I think it is easier to bring stuff with you. We brought lots on the first trip and didn’t use hardly any of it and on the nest trip we only brought a couple of things. Talk to your doctor first, I am not one:-)
Cleaning/sanitary products I recommend are several small hand sanitizer bottles, flushable wet wipes, small tissue packs, Clorox wipes, 2 flat sheets, 2 pillow cases (pillows are euro pillows). Toilet paper and Kleenex are easily found all over Ukraine and are not that bad depending on the brand. This stuff was good especially on trains and in apartments.
Entertainment recommendations are as follows. Bring a laptop, digital camera, vide camera, LOTS of DVD’s, ipod for music, 2 or 3 books if you are a reader, and a travel size Bible to save on weight in luggage. (Sidenote: I recommend bringing light reading for this trip other than the Bible. This is a very serious, roller-coaster time and a heavy or sad read would be too much. I am so glad I didn’t try to finish Brothers Karamazov while in Ukraine:-)
Some food I recommend on bringing with to help with homesick food moments or simply having no time to sit and eat. Any type of protein or energy bar (Snicker’s Marathon and Kellogg’s are my recommendations), a few large bags of beef jerky, individual powdered water supplements (Propel, Gatorade, Crystal light), individual coffee packets, and peanut butter if you like it or you are bringing kids that eat it.
Other things I am so glad we had with us. Cloudz travel pillows, adapter, Ukrainian cell phone, Bradt travel guide, Lonely planet Russian phrase book, Usbourne 1,000 Word in Russian (has pictures), and last but certainly not least, our son Evan for the first trip!!! If you have children my personal recommendation is to bring them for at least the first or long part of trip if it is at all possible. I would have missed him like CRAZY and this was a great experience for him. He played with all the Ukrainian children just great, and he even went with his friend to Ukrainian Sunday school class while we were in church!!!! Evan even wanted to go to school with them and I know he would have if we would have let him. He adjusted just fine to the food also and did not get sick:-)
Grocery Stores and Restaurants: There are several pretty nice grocery stores in Ukraine a few of them are Rainford, Dolphine (sp?), and Elite. I am sure there are more but these are the ones we encountered. You can find Pringles, m&m’s, snicker’s, Coke, Coke Light, Fanta, Sprite, and sometimes Pepsi at most stores. Bon Aqua with the light blue lid (no-gas) is the bottled water we bought. There is a McD’s or two in every town pretty much. Puzata Hata (Ukrainian buffet chain) can be good in some places and not so good in other locations. There are several good pizza chains (Celentano is one). Le Borsch is a good afternoon cafeteria style restaurant with free WiFi in Kyiv, Café Chai has good breakfast (if you are early enough) and you can purchase wifi access.
Double Coffee has several locations in Kyiv and has great food and coffee. Gloria Jeans is there and Starbucks is on the way. There is a TGI Friday’s in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk. The food kiosks in any city that sell baked good are really good!!!! We tried quite a few pastries and breads from these. The Irish restaurants in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk are pretty good too. Most of these places have an English menu, always asked you may be pleasantly surprised. Mimino (sp?) a Georgian restaurant in Kyiv is delicious!!! The Bradt travel guide will tell you lots as far as restaurants and their menu and cost.
Travel, what else can I say. We booked all of our own flights on line. We called several travel agents and heard about several nightmare stories of people who used them. They were never cheaper from our experience. We did book oneways on our way back and then we booked round trips for all of us to get home (much cheaper last minute). This came out about the same as if we would have had to change the dates and all the extra fees and fares for a roundtrip. We didn’t use adoptions fares, no airline was cheaper or comparable to what we paid for our flights with this so-called “bargain.” (Sidenote: Be careful about booking a one-way there and trying to book ticket on the way home online with less than 24 hours notice. Some of the airlines that partner with the bigger ones to get you out of Ukraine still use paper tickets and need 24 hours to deliver. Plus you would have to have a way to let them know not to deliver the tickets to your home address. We got out on the Delta flight to NYC so the e-ticket wasn’t a problem. Most websites post the airlines they have e-ticket agreements with if this is a question for you.) British Airways is far superior to all the other airlines we were on. The quality, spaciousness, and the treatment by staff in excellent. Our flight on Aerosvit from KBP to Dnipro was on a very old looking puddle jumper but it was one of the smoothest rides I have ever had. Can’t judge everything by looks:-) Train travel wasn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. All of our trains weren’t to bad, including the bathrooms. They may have been a little warm a few times but other than that they were fine (this is where the extra sheets I brought came in handy). We took several trains and to different cities to visit friends so I think we got a pretty good feel for it. Car travel wasn’t half as scary as I had been warned about. Maybe it was our driver our the place we were but I would say it was only a little wilder than getting in a cab in NYC, Chicago or any big city in US. I also didn’t sit and stare out the front window. Seat belts are a scarcity in Ukraine though.
Last little tips for future travelers. You can use banks and ATM’s all over. We did this several times to get money and it wasn’t any problem. The food and boarding expenses are not very cheap!! Be prepared to pay what you do here or more for food and housing. In Ukraine the inflation is KUHRAZY to say the least. Learn some of the basics in Russian and learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet. This will help with menus and grocery shopping. Bring all of your paperwork with you in your carry-ons. If I remember more I will add them to this post. Most importantly know that God has gone before you and prepared the way. Pray for your adoption journey everyday before, during and after. This is what got us through some of the rough times.
Pack as light as possible. Three outfits per person and five pairs of underwear per person is very sufficient. We also only brought the shoes we wore on the plane the second time around. The first time I brought extra shoes and it took up to much space in winter. I do recommend maybe a nice extra shirt and tie for court and ladies bring a dress or skirt for court or if you plan on attending church services while in Ukraine. As far as head coverings for women in churches a headband or small headscarf will suffice. If traveling in winter bring a heavy coat with scarf, gloves and hat, especially for kids. Children are always well bundled up in Ukraine at the slightest chill and you will get some crazy looks if your kids aren’t also. Long johns are good for the coldest months of winter. We had one whole large suitcase for orphanage donations. This can be used to bring back souvenirs on the way back.
If you are going for a blind referral I would still bring some clothes for child(ren) you plan to adopt. Clothes there are very expensive (compared to what we can get at places like Gap, Old Navy, Target, etc.) and not as good quality. It may be hard to get shoes beforehand, but if it’s summer I would go get sandles/flip flops on sale at Old Navy or Target in several sizes and leave tags on if not used and return with receipt when you get home.
Bring some toys, educational games, art and craft supplies to keep kids busy while they are with you and on the plane ride home. Girls love baby dolls and Barbies and the boys love real matchbox. They also really love American candy. That is worth buying at home. They do sell some American candy but some of it tastes very different. As far as treats to bring to party and for orphanage you can buy pretty good baked goods at the grocery store. We also brought fruit juices and sliced apples or oranges. Bananas are good too.
For our going away party we gave kids stickers, mini packs of gummie bears, chap sticks, and mini snickers. We also brought streamers, balloons, and a Clifford tablecloth. This made things more festive and the decorations were greatly appreciated. All of this stuff was purchased at home on sale or at the dollar store. I wish we would have made a DVD of all our pictures from the orphanage and the kids to show at the party. I know one lady who did this and it was a hit. For gifts to orphanage workers I bought new department store makeup and perfume sample bottles on ebay that came in lots for very cheap prices. I also got some makeup bags inexpensively to give them. The director and deputy director (the one who does all the paperwork) I gave them some nice new handbags I got on ebay for hardly any money, along with the makeup. For men we just gave a monetary gift at our discretion. (Sidenote: Our particular orphanage had very hardworking, caring people who helped us greatly so we felt these gifts showed our appreciation for the care they had given our kids. However, some orphanages aren’t always staffed so well and no one should feel gifts like this are mandatory for workers. We also gave a monetary donation to the orphanage through the fees we paid our facilitator. No one at our particular orphanage ever asked or suggested we give them anything.)
Ideas for supplies to bring orphanage. These things are so greatly appreciated and much needed at most any orphanage. Any type of personal hygiene product, card games (crazy 8’s stuff like that), jump ropes, crayons, coloring books, scarves, hats, gloves, baby Tylenol, children’s motrin, baby orajel, Neosporin, hair elastics for girl’s, pencils, notebooks, pocket mirrors, onesies for baby orphanages, Frisbees, deflated soccer balls (airpump to blow up), any barely used clothing or new clothing, toys of all types (things that more than one kid can play at a time), bringing fruit and juice for kids snack time(purchased in country), slippers and flip flops. I am sure there are tons of other things that are needed and useful this is just a starting point.
Medicinal items I recommend bringing with you from home. I recommend getting your prescriptions and OTC’s before you leave. Cipro and Levaquin are good antibiotics to bring. We also got stuff for scabies in case it was going around the orphanage, but we didn’t need it. We all got our Hepatitis A shots to be safe. Some over the counter’s you may or may not want to bring: pain reliever, antibiotic cream, cough medicine, allergy med., tums, pepto, sleep aid (the only one that helped us is Melatonin), and anything if you are bring children with you that they would need. You can get medicine in Ukraine very easily by just going to pharmacy and telling them your symptoms (helps to have a translator) but I think it is easier to bring stuff with you. We brought lots on the first trip and didn’t use hardly any of it and on the nest trip we only brought a couple of things. Talk to your doctor first, I am not one:-)
Cleaning/sanitary products I recommend are several small hand sanitizer bottles, flushable wet wipes, small tissue packs, Clorox wipes, 2 flat sheets, 2 pillow cases (pillows are euro pillows). Toilet paper and Kleenex are easily found all over Ukraine and are not that bad depending on the brand. This stuff was good especially on trains and in apartments.
Entertainment recommendations are as follows. Bring a laptop, digital camera, vide camera, LOTS of DVD’s, ipod for music, 2 or 3 books if you are a reader, and a travel size Bible to save on weight in luggage. (Sidenote: I recommend bringing light reading for this trip other than the Bible. This is a very serious, roller-coaster time and a heavy or sad read would be too much. I am so glad I didn’t try to finish Brothers Karamazov while in Ukraine:-)
Some food I recommend on bringing with to help with homesick food moments or simply having no time to sit and eat. Any type of protein or energy bar (Snicker’s Marathon and Kellogg’s are my recommendations), a few large bags of beef jerky, individual powdered water supplements (Propel, Gatorade, Crystal light), individual coffee packets, and peanut butter if you like it or you are bringing kids that eat it.
Other things I am so glad we had with us. Cloudz travel pillows, adapter, Ukrainian cell phone, Bradt travel guide, Lonely planet Russian phrase book, Usbourne 1,000 Word in Russian (has pictures), and last but certainly not least, our son Evan for the first trip!!! If you have children my personal recommendation is to bring them for at least the first or long part of trip if it is at all possible. I would have missed him like CRAZY and this was a great experience for him. He played with all the Ukrainian children just great, and he even went with his friend to Ukrainian Sunday school class while we were in church!!!! Evan even wanted to go to school with them and I know he would have if we would have let him. He adjusted just fine to the food also and did not get sick:-)
Grocery Stores and Restaurants: There are several pretty nice grocery stores in Ukraine a few of them are Rainford, Dolphine (sp?), and Elite. I am sure there are more but these are the ones we encountered. You can find Pringles, m&m’s, snicker’s, Coke, Coke Light, Fanta, Sprite, and sometimes Pepsi at most stores. Bon Aqua with the light blue lid (no-gas) is the bottled water we bought. There is a McD’s or two in every town pretty much. Puzata Hata (Ukrainian buffet chain) can be good in some places and not so good in other locations. There are several good pizza chains (Celentano is one). Le Borsch is a good afternoon cafeteria style restaurant with free WiFi in Kyiv, Café Chai has good breakfast (if you are early enough) and you can purchase wifi access.
Double Coffee has several locations in Kyiv and has great food and coffee. Gloria Jeans is there and Starbucks is on the way. There is a TGI Friday’s in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk. The food kiosks in any city that sell baked good are really good!!!! We tried quite a few pastries and breads from these. The Irish restaurants in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk are pretty good too. Most of these places have an English menu, always asked you may be pleasantly surprised. Mimino (sp?) a Georgian restaurant in Kyiv is delicious!!! The Bradt travel guide will tell you lots as far as restaurants and their menu and cost.
Travel, what else can I say. We booked all of our own flights on line. We called several travel agents and heard about several nightmare stories of people who used them. They were never cheaper from our experience. We did book oneways on our way back and then we booked round trips for all of us to get home (much cheaper last minute). This came out about the same as if we would have had to change the dates and all the extra fees and fares for a roundtrip. We didn’t use adoptions fares, no airline was cheaper or comparable to what we paid for our flights with this so-called “bargain.” (Sidenote: Be careful about booking a one-way there and trying to book ticket on the way home online with less than 24 hours notice. Some of the airlines that partner with the bigger ones to get you out of Ukraine still use paper tickets and need 24 hours to deliver. Plus you would have to have a way to let them know not to deliver the tickets to your home address. We got out on the Delta flight to NYC so the e-ticket wasn’t a problem. Most websites post the airlines they have e-ticket agreements with if this is a question for you.) British Airways is far superior to all the other airlines we were on. The quality, spaciousness, and the treatment by staff in excellent. Our flight on Aerosvit from KBP to Dnipro was on a very old looking puddle jumper but it was one of the smoothest rides I have ever had. Can’t judge everything by looks:-) Train travel wasn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. All of our trains weren’t to bad, including the bathrooms. They may have been a little warm a few times but other than that they were fine (this is where the extra sheets I brought came in handy). We took several trains and to different cities to visit friends so I think we got a pretty good feel for it. Car travel wasn’t half as scary as I had been warned about. Maybe it was our driver our the place we were but I would say it was only a little wilder than getting in a cab in NYC, Chicago or any big city in US. I also didn’t sit and stare out the front window. Seat belts are a scarcity in Ukraine though.
Last little tips for future travelers. You can use banks and ATM’s all over. We did this several times to get money and it wasn’t any problem. The food and boarding expenses are not very cheap!! Be prepared to pay what you do here or more for food and housing. In Ukraine the inflation is KUHRAZY to say the least. Learn some of the basics in Russian and learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet. This will help with menus and grocery shopping. Bring all of your paperwork with you in your carry-ons. If I remember more I will add them to this post. Most importantly know that God has gone before you and prepared the way. Pray for your adoption journey everyday before, during and after. This is what got us through some of the rough times.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
We are home, YEAH!!!!
We made it to Savannah around midnight on the 27th. All of our flights went smoothly and getting the kids passports stamped in NY was a snap. We were told at the Embassy to go into the US citizens line, which made things much faster. We (Evan too) got home around 1:45 am and made it to bed by 2:30!!
This week has been great. The kids are adjusting well and the boys love sharing a room. We have gone to eat, to the store, and doctors appointments. We even went to the circus last night. That was so much fun for all of us. Diana has even had a chance to play with our 9 year old twin neighbor girls and she had a great time. Today I went to Staples to get some home schooling supplies so we can get started on Monday. Hopefully I will hear back soon about an ESL tutor we hope to get for Diana.
Pictures really are going to be posted very soon and a couple more posts. I have also made my blog public now so anyone is welcome to view it. Please pass it on if you know if anyone that would like to see it.
This week has been great. The kids are adjusting well and the boys love sharing a room. We have gone to eat, to the store, and doctors appointments. We even went to the circus last night. That was so much fun for all of us. Diana has even had a chance to play with our 9 year old twin neighbor girls and she had a great time. Today I went to Staples to get some home schooling supplies so we can get started on Monday. Hopefully I will hear back soon about an ESL tutor we hope to get for Diana.
Pictures really are going to be posted very soon and a couple more posts. I have also made my blog public now so anyone is welcome to view it. Please pass it on if you know if anyone that would like to see it.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Less than 30 hours America will have 2 more citizens!!!
We have had a great past 2 days:-):-):-) We finished all the medical and Embassy stuff yesterday morning in under 4 hours, which is like record time!! We were going through the whole process with another lady, her MIL, and the 2 boys she is adopting. Their whole family was here in Dececmber and she came back with her mother in law to pick up the kids and finish everything. They were actually on the same flight over here as us and we will be on the same flight back. They live in Michigan and the boys they adopted are around Diana and Will's age. We went to dinner with them last night and met at the park this morning. We have had such a good time talking with them and the kids have had a great time playing together. I hope we will continue to keep in touch with them.We also met a couple from Tennessee yesterday that is headed to the Crimean peninsula to adopt 2 kids they met on a mission trip and they will have our same translator Sergei!! They are pretty sure their pastor knows Pastor Carl through some of the missions work here:-) This has been a huge blessing to us to be able to talk to other Americans who are adopting here.
We leave here tomorrow around noon on a Delta flight. We then go to NYC to ATL then finally to SAV around 11:40pm. Hopefully we will be able to get a little earlier flight to Savannah. We will be in contact once we reach NY. Diana and Will will officially become citizens once their passport gets stamped at JFK!!!!!!!
By the way, pretty much the only thing Will has said today is "America zaftra?!" That means America tomorrow.
Das vedanya and thank you to all the people who followed our blog while we were here!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
We have the passports!!!!!!!
Hopefully this means we will be out of hear on Saturday morning and getting into Savannah sometime that evening. We just need to do all the kids stuff at the US Embassy tomorrow to get their visas and hopefully that will be done in one day.
We had a pretty decent day considering the scare our facilitator gave us about missing a piece of the updated homestudy for the embassy!! We finally found out a few hours later that part isn't even necessary. Phhhew!!! Diana and Will took long naps today and were asking when we are going to America. I wonder if they think we are making that up or something:-) This evening we went for a walk and we were going to try to go to the movies (yes they are in Russian) we mainly just wanted popcorn:-) They didn't have any kids movies out now though so we walked back to Independence Square and we watched some boys doing tricks on their bikes and skateboards. Evan are you ready to show us your moves on the Mongoose?!!!:-) Now I am in the cafe below our apartment. I think I have scoped out half the places that have internet in this city by now. I know which cafes have it, which ones are free, and the ones you pay for but have a terrible signal. I will be ready for the ol' desktop highspeed when I get back. It has a stable location, price and connection:-) Pictures will have to wait to be loaded up when we get home I think. Then I will have one or two more posts and possibly some updates and useful information I find out along the way.
Dobre den
We had a pretty decent day considering the scare our facilitator gave us about missing a piece of the updated homestudy for the embassy!! We finally found out a few hours later that part isn't even necessary. Phhhew!!! Diana and Will took long naps today and were asking when we are going to America. I wonder if they think we are making that up or something:-) This evening we went for a walk and we were going to try to go to the movies (yes they are in Russian) we mainly just wanted popcorn:-) They didn't have any kids movies out now though so we walked back to Independence Square and we watched some boys doing tricks on their bikes and skateboards. Evan are you ready to show us your moves on the Mongoose?!!!:-) Now I am in the cafe below our apartment. I think I have scoped out half the places that have internet in this city by now. I know which cafes have it, which ones are free, and the ones you pay for but have a terrible signal. I will be ready for the ol' desktop highspeed when I get back. It has a stable location, price and connection:-) Pictures will have to wait to be loaded up when we get home I think. Then I will have one or two more posts and possibly some updates and useful information I find out along the way.
Dobre den
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