From Ukraine with Love

New Pictures are Here!

2008-04-08T21:33:00.000-04:00

"Do you Likey America?!"

2008-03-13T14:31:00.004-04:00

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.

To bring or not to bring? That is the question.

2008-02-07T19:52:00.000-05:00

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.

Pictures, 01.12.08 - 01.27.08

2008-02-05T16:33:00.001-05:00

We are home, YEAH!!!!

2008-02-02T22:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Less than 30 hours America will have 2 more citizens!!!

2008-01-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

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!!!!!!!!!

We have the passports!!!!!!!

2008-01-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

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

The Sun is Out!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-23T08:05:00.001-05:00

Finally, this has done much to improve our moods. This is only the third day we have seen sun at all while we have been in Ukraine. We moved to a new apartment today too. It is much closer to food, shopping, sites, etc. and this helps. The last one was how shall I say it, a dump:-) It was all that was available the first day we got here and we were offered to move the next day but we thought we would be fine. Uh, no it was time for a change. At least this one is freshly cleaned, towels and all and "modern." Andrew was literally using what we both think was a long strip of fabric wallpaper to cover up with at night. Yes that was our bedspread!!:-) We aren't complaining to you about this, but just letting people know the reality. We actually have been in such good moods today that we can laugh at all of this. Today at McD's (yes we are doing our own version of SuperSize Me, but with no critical acclaim) Andrew told Will something and said OK at the end of the sentence. Will looks at him and goes O K!!!! That was very funny. Usually he answers us back in Russian. I know we also feel alot better because of all the people that have been praying for us. Hopefully we will hear back at the end of the day that the passports are in and we can start getting the kids visas tomorrow.
Paka!

We are so ready to leave.

2008-01-22T04:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry but there's no other way to sum up how Andrew and I really feel right now. Finally got internet at the McD's in the main square in Kiev. Things have been going fine but we are just ready to come home. We were here basically 4 weeks in November and December and now almost another 2 weeks in January. Like our translator would say "East or West, Home is Best." Not much exciting going on here other than waiting for our passports to be completed. Hopefully today and then we can leave Thursday or Friday. One exciting thing is that Diana's already reading pretty well from one of the kids books we brought. We are doing some walking around today since the weather is fairly nice and in the 40's. Sorry for the brief post but have a great day.

In Kiev

2008-01-20T14:35:00.000-05:00

We are in Kiev now. We got in yesterday around lunch time and then our driver Alexei took us to our apartment that is right next to the Hungarian and French Embassies and not to far from American. Needless to say the area is pretty darn safe. I made the mistake of trying to take a picture in front of the French Embassy, only to have the friendly:-) guard tell me to stop. The train ride was good and the kids behaved pretty well. Today we went to the internet cafe and to the park. For dinner we went to an authentic Mexican restaurant, Cantina Azteca, that is owned by a Mexican expat and it was delicious. The picture is taken in the park across from our apartment building.
Alexei is part of our facilitators team and he always transports us when we are in Kiev. His wife is Nastiya and she actually spent a year studying in Charleston while she was in high school. She is very helpful and does a lot of the document translation. She actually lived in Monks Corner while in America. At first she thought I would have no idea where it was. That is where one of my best friends from college is from so we actually had a nice chat about that area. When they picked us up tonight their little girl, Veronica, was watching her Baby Einstein on the portable DVD!!! See moms' around the world now how good these are entertain children:-) They are just all around cool people, as was our translator Sergei. I think all of us being the same age helps us to have a lot in common and makes for good conversation.
The kids are doing very well. We have had a couple pouting and crying sessions, but what child doesn't have these?:-) It is better they learn now that we are the parents and sometimes children don't get their way. One good thing is they are so sweet to each other, most of the time, and they are picking up English quickly. Diana and I read the Proverbs every night and she reads along in her Russian Bible. She knows where I am reading because I call out the verse number before I start the passage and she does know her numbers in English. Hopefully we can be out of here Friday. it is time to start establishing a regular routine. Plus we miss our little Evan. Pictures will have to wait. I need to figure out a faster way to upload. Stay warm everyone. We heard about the arctic blast that is going on there now.

Leaving on a Midnight Train to Georgia

2008-01-18T08:09:00.000-05:00

Not quite but close:-) Actually we are leaving Dnipropetrovsk (spelled with 'i' in Ukrainian & 'e' in Russian) tomorrow morning at 6:45 am headed to Kiev (or Kyiv in Ukrainian). Our facilitator here will be able to to pick up the kids passports hopefully on Tuesday and bring them to us in Kiev. This means we should hopefully be leaving Ukraine for USA somewhere between Thursday and Saturday!!!!!! Please continue to pray all of this goes smoothly. Thank you again to everyone who prays for us, emails us and comments on our blog. Will and Diana are doing great. I think they are starting to understand us more and I can actually understand them pretty good at this point. They are learning a few new English words everyday and they like watching the cartoons and kid movies we brought. Hope to post lots of pictures tomorrow night from our apartment in Kiev.

Das ve danya from DP for the last time.

A person's words can be life-giving water; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook. Proverbs 18:4

Now the Waiting Begins...

2008-01-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

We finally have all of the paperwork done that is necessary to get passports and take kids home. Now we just need to wait for the passports to get made in Kiev and sent back here. It could take a week but we pray for less. We actually have a contact at the US Embassy we were told about who supposedly can help speed up that process, however we haven't been able to get hold of him. Hopefully tomorrow we will.
This morning we went to vital records office to get new birth certificates certified. We had to bring flowers to two different women, a pack of computer paper, and pay double the normal cost because apparently they "technically" weren't open today. I found this interesting since all desks were filled with employees and there was a short line of people at the front desk. Seems like a lot of activity going on for not being open. Everyone or place isn't like this though. The head of regional passport bent over backwards for us and always brought us straight to front of long line. He even sent a "message" to someone who was suppose to be helping us at the local office but was not even there that he may want to value his job more if he likes working there!:-)
This evening we went to the orphanage so Diana could get some stuff she left and watch a talent show the boys were putting on. It was really entertaining. There was talent contests and silly skits and games. At the end all the boys who participated were given a certificate and trophy and there was an overall winner. The head director, one psychologist, the doctor and one of the cafeteria staff were the judges. I could not help but be a little sad thinking all these friendly, talented and handsome young boys have a bleek outlook here in Ukraine according to all of the statistics. Please pray for the future of all these kids.
If I haven't said it before this orphanage is first class from what I can see. The people in charge are kind but firm, the facilites are clean and modern, things are run very organized, and from what I can see most all of the children seem to get along pretty well and do great team work. I have heard several not so great stories about other orphanages, but this on appears to hold itself to a higher standard. I am very grateful for that. I will post some more pictures as soon as our internet becomes a little faster than the world's oldest and slowest dial-up:-)

HI EVAN, WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU!!!!!!:-)

P.S. We love getting comments and hearing from people:-)

Back in Ukraine

2008-01-15T05:41:00.000-05:00

We're Baaaack!! We got into DP Sunday at 3:15 and went back to the first apartment we stayed in the first time here. Andrew and I had a lot of fun spending the day in NYC before we left Saturday evening for Kiev. We walked around for several hours and then we ate at the Astro Grill & Diner. Excellent cheeseburgers!!!!!! We then left JFK around 5:30pm headed for Ukraine. When the plane landed on the runway everyone burst out clapping. I guess maybe it is a Ukrainian tradition because some people also did it on our flight to DP?:-)
Sunday night we ate at a TGI Friday's that just opened near our apartment that was good but about 3 times the price of one at home. I think that will be our last Friday's visit in Ukraine. We went to orphanage at 9 am to have the party and get the kids for good. We played with them for awhile because we had to wait for lunch to have the party. Our translator then picked us up to do some paperwork, which I think things are moving pretty quickly!!! When we got back to the orphanage late in the afternoon we had the party for all the kids, 29 of them total. There 20 boys and only 9 girls. This definitely proves that girls are adopted in Ukraine more often than boys. I will write more about the other kids in a post later on. After all of the workers, psychologists and director all said their goodbyes to the kids we left around 6:30pm. When we were walking out of the orphanage some of the older kids were lighting off fireworks for us from one of the windows upstairs!:-) They gave Diana and William a great send off!!! Fireworks are plentiful here now since the 13th was also the old Orthodox New Year so people are still in full holiday mode here.
When we got back to the apartment the kids had fun checking everything out and then Diana and I went to the grocery store across the street. They both love their new clothes and all the workers at the orphanage said how cute and American they looked now:-) Today we have some more paperwork to do and it may be possible that we could get the passport info sent off to Kiev by Thursday!!! This means most likely we would be home next weekend. Please pray for that. We really want to be back home so the real fun and work can begin. Diana loved the letters from Danielle and Lera. She told her friends here she already has a friend from Ukraine in America. She really likes Oksana's letter too and she read Psalm 1 out of the Bible she gave her last night. I listened and followed along in mine:-) I will post some pictures later.

P.S. The kids at the orphanage all had their little Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in their rooms. That made me happy to see that the kids here get them. I always wonder what different places they go to.

Babochkas and Machinas

2008-01-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone. We are leaving for Ukraine early Saturday morning so I thought I would use our last US post before we leave to answer some questions we have received and to give out some 411.
Questions:
How did we choose the kids names?
Well Diana is Diana's birth-name in Russian and William's birth-name is Pavlo, which is the Ukrainian form of Paul. Pasha is the "pet form" of Pavlo, this is a very common way to address children. Most children we met were referred to by their nickname or pet-name. In Ukraine it is customary for children to have a patronymic middle name. If we went by that our kids middle names would be Diana Andrenovna, Evan Andreovich and William Andreovich. That's just a little fun fact for you:-) Since we are not doing this there was actually a special clause added to the court decree saying that the children would not be using the patronymic name as is customary in America. So our two new children's first and middle names are Diana Elizabeth and William Paul. I hope you enjoyed that long answer.
Why do we have to go back and when will we be back?
Typically the adoption process can be done in Ukraine in one trip, with the length of stay anywhere from 3 weeks to 7 weeks. The reasons we decided to come home are because of the 10 day wait which was actually 12 days for us. The fact that some of the offices we needed to do paperwork would be closing around American Christmastime and not reopening until after the Orthodox Christmas (January 7). In Dnepropetrovsk the government offices use all the first week back to work in 2008 to file reports. So that is how we come to January 14th as the actual day we can get the kids and start paperwork. The vital records office is still iffy on whether they can help us before the 22nd! Please pray about that one:-) We hope to be back sometime between January 23-26. The shorter amount of time we are away from Evan the better!!! We will miss him very much but he is in great hands here.
What do the kids like to do?
Well Diana seems to be a very smart young lady and she loves to read and play chess and card games. She thought playing solitaire on the computer was the cat's meow:-) I know she likes to dance and paint. Her favorite thing to paint is butterflies (babochkas). We made friendship bracelet's while we were there from a kit I bought in Ukraine. She also like's princess movies. Finally someone I can watch Cinderella with! When we were bowling she was very helpful to both boys with helping them to aim the ball and not cross the foul line. Her birthday is February 27, 1998.
Then there's little Will:-) He is a ball of fire, as a lot of little boys his age are. He and Evan love to play cars (machinas) together and build with legos and blocks. He had the best time throwing the frisbee with Andrew. Play-doh was a huge hit with him. He likes soccer and playing outside too. He loved bowling and only wanted to bowl using the 14 lb. ball!! We were able to get him to use the 10 or 12 lb. ball after "losing" the 14 pounder. His birthday is August 1, 2003.
Evan is so excited to have his brother and sister coing home soon. He was very nice and picked out two matchbox cars for Will and a purple hairbrush with sparkles for Diana as Christmas presents from him. He is going to be an excellent brother!
Thank you to Oksana for giving me a Russian Bible for Diana so she can read along with us and use it in church. Also, thank you to Lera Bratz for writing a letter to Diana, translating the letter from Danielle into Russian, and drawing Diana a picture of a beautiful babochka. I know these things will help to comfort Diana's concern of having someone to help her communicate with us and of finding friends she can talk to.
If you would like here are some things you can pray for concerning this trip:
1. Evan to have fun and stay healthy and safe.
2. For us not to worry about Evan while we are away. (this will make me real homesick, real fast)
3. For us to get there and with luggage. (this is critical b/c kids can't leave orphanage with anything so all of their necessary clothes and some toys will be in this bag)
4. This trip will be 10-14 days at maximum and paperwork goes smoothly.
5. Diana and William will not be to scared or anxious about leaving Dnepropetrovsk and getting on all the trains and planes we will be on. (Yes, they are excited to come to America with us, but Dnepro. is all they have ever known and have barely ever rode in a car.)
7. Our return trip tickets will not be ridiculously expensive.
6. Andrew and I stay healthy when we get back.
7. Diana and William learn English fairly quick and adjust to their new surroundings.
Thank You Everybody!!!

We're Headed Back Soon!!

2007-12-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Thank you to everyone for the emails, blog comments and Christmas cards. Andrew and I are going back to Ukraine on January 12 and we will fly all the way to Dnepropetrovsk. This will be much easier than getting into KBP airport and getting a driver to go all the way across the city to the train station and get on a 6 hour train ride. Plus there would be a lot of sitting around waiting for the overnight train. We also purchased one way tickets since they are no more than half of a round trip and some change. The $200 change fee and difference in fare charges add up so we figured that we will get one-way tickets when we are sure of our return date. The return date is TBD, but hopefully only 2 weeks after we arrive.
We got an email from our facilitator to return by the 14th so we can get the birth certificates, tax ID numbers, and then get passports. All of this is done in DP before we can go to the US embassy in Kiev. In an email today he said someone from the vital records office (needed to certify birth certificates) "might" be able to help us since there office doesn't re-open until the 22nd. This is one of the first steps in the paperwork process so it could slow us down significantly. I know God has a plan specifically for us and has everything perfectly timed so please pray that someone at the vital records office "will" be able to help us before the 22nd.
On a much lighter note we have been able to email the psychologist at the orphanage to communicate with the kids. He said they are all getting ready to have a Christmas play and Diana and William are doing great. The psychologist has said he notices how much they both smile more since they have a family now! This weekend Evan is happily helping us set up new bunk beds for him and his brother:-)

Ukraine Trip One 11.17-12.15.2007

2007-12-24T12:20:00.001-05:00

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

2007-12-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

We are home sweet home!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a picture from the plane of the snow on the ground when we arrive in Kiev in November. Pretty. We got to Boston late Thursday night and then we stayed and hung out with Jo, Mo and Jack. They had way more snow in Boston than we ever had in Ukraine:-) It was really pretty since it was fresh. Evan really liked it. We went to the airport for our 6am Airtran flight to ATL and then on to SAV where we were suppose to arrive at 10:20 am. We got to Savannah sometime around 5pm. Overall that was our only traveling glitch in all of our travels on this trip so I can't complain. The trans-atlantic flights on BA were really pleasant, roomy, had good and plentiful food. We also had our own tv's on the back of each seat.

While in Ukraine when going from city to city we traveled by train. This was actually pretty comfortable, very reliable and inexpensive. These trains our prompt and on our overnight trips we booked a whole cabin so we could all sleep and stretch out. On the express trains we just sat in regular seats which were pretty comfortable. Some people have terrible experiences with the hot cabins or scary bathrooms but we really didn't have any of that. Maybe we had a more modern one?! Evan took this picture of Andrew and I.

Notice the horse and buggy in the upper left-hand corner. No, we did not travel on one of these but we did see this in the village of Letin near Vinnitsa. They were carrying hay (I think) in the wagon. I suppose this is probably the most logical means of transportation to a farmer or someone needing to haul a big load since pickup trucks, from what we could tell, were far and few between. We were driven around Dnepropetrovsk by our translator Sergei. He brought his own car, a late eighties or early nineties model, hatchback Citron. He was a very deft driver. He got us from the train station to our apartment (at least 6 miles one way), helped pack our bags and haul them down three flights of stairs and back to the train station all in 29 minutes in freezing rain and sleet. This was done during rush-hour which in DP can be equated to Atlanta at 4 pm on a rainy (when all the signals start flashing yellow) Halloween afternoon!! All my ex, current and future ATL peeps will know what I mean by that one:-) Again, we are happy to be home, can't wait for all of us to be together here. Our next post will probably be when we find out exactly when we can return.

Peace Out,

The Neckers

Family of Five!!!!!!!!

2007-12-13T06:12:00.000-05:00

We now have 2 more children!! On December 12, 2007 Diana Elizabeth and William Paul became our children. The judge was actually very nice and made our preliminary hearing our final hearing:-) Our prayers were SO answered!!!!!!! Thank you to everyone that prayed for us and kept us in your thoughts. Because of the 10 day waiting period and the Ukrainian holidays that are coming up we will not be able to bring them home until around the middle of January. At least this gives us time to set up shop and buy clothes and things at the after Christmas sales!
On Tuesday we were able to take the kids along with a rep from the orphanage to the mall and go to the pet store, go bowling (super nice bowling alley in mall) and go to a chuckie cheese type place and get pizza. The kids were having the best time ever, all three. Especially Diana and Pasha, it was the most amazing thing to them. The director said the kids seldom to never get any type of field trip or outing at all so she knows that they had the time of their lives. We took tons of pics and we will post later. We are at the airport getting ready to leave Kiev. We will be home in SC on Saturday!!!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Andrew, Kelly, Diana, Evan & William

Klasna

2007-12-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

This may be my last post for a few days since we are on the move again tomorrow. We have had a great week her in Vinnitsa and gotten some good rest. Tanya is a great cook and hostess. We took the kids to the park a couple of times with her and went to pizza. Her and I were able to communicate pretty good once we broke out the english-russian and vice versa dictionary. In fact one night we were up very late talking and watching clips of our favorite movies on the computer:-) Tonight we went to Oksana's parents and got to meet the whole family and have dinner and dessert. Evan loved the fish tank there. We may have to get a fish friend for Rudy now.

Vova is a great tour guide and and knows lots of history about Ukraine and Vinnitsa. He took us to the Pierogov Museum (doctor who invented or implemented several medical firsts tht made surgery much more safer and sanitary) and to Werewolf (sp?) that was a bunker that Hitler built during WW II outside of Vinnitsa. We also got to go to the church in Letin and meet some really cool people and they made us some strong tea served with some of the best cookies ever!! We were able to go to the orphanage here twice. The M&M's wer a huge hit and so was the berry scented hand sanitizer!:-)

Tomorrow we are going to church here in Vinnitsa and then we are headed back to Dnepropetrovsk late at night. We have had a wonderful time with Vova, Tanya and their girls. They are very fun people and excellent hosts. We will miss them when we leave. We are excited to be headed back to see little DIana and William.

We are all ready for Decemebr 12th at 11:00 am. I will post lots more pictures of the kids when we get back to Dnepropetrovsk.
10-4 Good Buddies

klasna means fabulous, very good-I learned the word while I was here and probably overused it too!

Update from Vinnitsa

2007-12-05T09:32:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone,

I was waiting to post until we were ready to leave Vinnitsa but I will give a quick update. We are staying with Oksana's brother's family and they are very nice and fun. They have 3 little girls and 2 are Evan's age so he has some friends to play with. It is really cold here now so we mostly stay inside. Vova has taken us around Vinnitsa and we have gone to a museum and to the orphanage here. We brought the kids some candy from Ukraine and they asked us to bring some American candy next time we come back. I hope we can go back tomorrow and we plan on bringing some bags of m&m's!!! Who doesn't like those?! We went to the "mall" today and I bought Diana a dress for court next week.
She has to go with us and give her consent because of her age.
Please pray that the judge will see all of us and have mercy on us to let us all get home
around christmas!!   It honestly is next to impossible with the late court preliminary date we have been given but I know God can do it if it's His will.
I will add some pictures later and do one more post before we leave.
Love,
The Neckers

All Aboard

2007-11-30T15:04:00.000-05:00

We will be headed off on the train tomorrow afternoon to Vinnitsa to stay with Oksana's wonderful family for a little over a week. We are just in a waiting period now so we thought this would help to break up the month we will be here. Our facilitator will finish up some paperwork and he will get to go home and see his family too that he hasn't seen in awhile. We will have our own sleeping cabin on the train so we will be able to stretch out on the journey.

The Christmas Music channel we discovered that has nice snow scenery or cozy fireplace settings in the background was so nice for us to have on this afternoon!! Gets us in the Christmas spirit. We had another delish meal at the apartment tonight. I know I have already said it but we have whipped up some great meals in our tiny kitchen. For all of you "Steel Magnolias" fans I decided to try the "cuppa cuppa" recipe from the movie since I had canned peaches and flour and sugar. It really does work! Our facilitator had some and he really liked his first southern dessert:-) I may publish a cookbook of the stuff we have made here when I get back. Haha. Also we may not have internet in Vinnitsa so this may be our last post for awhile.

Bye Bye for now

What the judge said...

2007-11-29T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well lets just day the judge we have been appointed is in no rush to help us get home. We found out yesterday that we don't have a preliminary court date until December 12 and then they will schedule the real court day. Usually most all judges skip the preliminary and just have the regular court date, not ours:-) Believe me we have tried everything to try to get her to change her mind and it isn't happening. Our facilitator even went back to talk to her yesterday afternoon. That still leaves us with the 10 day waiting period after that and then passport and visa stuff, which adds on about another 15 days. Oh yeah, don't forget the Christmas holidays are in there to so no work will be getting done those weeks. I can actually laugh about this as I am typing it, yesterday not so much. So basically this means that we will be coming home without the kids and then coming back around the second week in January for about 10 days to get them. We are hoping and praying the judge will give us our second court date before the 18th of Dec. that way we can still come home on our original flights we had booked and not have change fees.
Anyway, we are going to try to go visit Oksana's family next week to help break up our trip. One last "amusing" thing, the judge is making us update the page in our homestudy about bedrooms for the kids. Even though we had to list all the rooms, size and everything about our house; the fact that it says we have a room for the "child" and not children we have to get it redone. Even though throughout the whole homestudy and all paperwork it says "children" she is taking this one statement to mean that we would only give a bedroom to one of the children we are adopting and not the other one??!!!!!! Again, I can laugh about this today:-) I sure am glad I read Psalm 139 yesterday morning berfore all of this! We are going to go see the kids again today and tomorrow and then hopefully head to Vinnitsa on Sunday afternoon.
Evan is doing great, he is such a trooper and a good helper. It's Diana and William that I feel bad for because they are the ones that have to stay at the orphanage through Christmas and into the New Year. I will say that the workers there are very kind and you can tell the kids love them because the kids are always giving them hugs when the teachers and psychologists get there in the morning. The Director runs a pretty tight ship and keeps the place very clean and orderly. They actually have a pretty nice play room and classrooms. It still isn't a home with a family though. One good thing is that we can go home and get the rooms set up and buy some clothes. Stuff here is expensive!! I kind of didn't believe it when people were telling me.
Love,
A, K, E, D, W

(Artwork: Rainbow- Diana, Purple Marks - William, Evan's Name - Evan)

Let It Snow

2007-11-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

This morning we woke up to snow flurries. We headed to the orphanage early and we played with the kids and brought some Disney cartoons that we bought that were in Russian. No one was paying much attention so when Andrew put in the next movie we set it to English so at least we could enjoy it:-) Diana was doing her school work and when she finished we made friendship bracelets out of a little kit I bought for her. Evan and Pasha (we still call him that here since that's what all the orphanage workers call him) had a good time putting together some Lightning McQueen puzzles and playing legos. We headed home around lunch time and then some snow started to come down pretty good so I tried to take some pictures from our balcony. Hopefully you can see some flakes in these pictures.

Tonight I made some of the best potato cheddar soup I have ever had! Andrew and Evan can back me up on that one:-) I got the recipe from my friend Monica's blog. She always has some tasty and simple recipes. It was a really simple recipe and I had everything I needed to make it here. Andrew bought us a pack of chocolate chip cookies for tonight. I think those were Evan's request. We have all of the paperwork we need signed and we have a judge. Now we just need a court date. We have run into a snag. We should be finishing up around Christmas but the US Embassy will be closing on the 24th for 2 weeks. We need to do all the kids visa stuff there for them to leave Ukraine. Also, the 24th in on a Monday so that means that their last working day is the 21st. Please pray that we will get our court date early next week and that things will move fast and we can be in Kiev on the 20th so we can leave the weekend before Christmas.

Houston....We Have Contact

2007-11-27T02:57:00.000-05:00

Kelly & Diana

"Pasha" & Evan

Or maybe it's lift off or something. I know there is "Houston we have a problem." Our problem would have been no internet for a week:-) Am I forgetting English?! Just kidding. Wow, it has been a long time since we had internet. We should have it full time starting this afternoon. We are in Dnepropetrovsk and we have gone to the orphanage everday and had a lot of fun. We find out tomorrow who our judge will be and about how long we will have until we can come home. Please pray the judge is nice and waives the 10 day waiting period and that the kids passports get finished quickly. Then we can bring Diana Elizabeth and William Paul back home to South Carolina! We have met quite a few people who know some English and I talk with them as much as possible. I also practice my Russian on our taxi drivers while we are waiting at different offices. Some of them have family members that live in America, one even in Boston. This has been a good way to get to know about their families and what they think about national politics and American politics. So far everyone I have asked or who has volunteered likes Bush and quite a few people think Gore is ridiculous for getting a Nobel Prize:-) The Gore thing is something they brought up and I found that interesting. I just thought that would be some unusual info for everyone at home.
Our apartment in downtown and we have a small kitchen and a balcony. One thing we are thankful for are our English speaking TV stations and several have Chrisitan shows and cartoons for kids. We were able to watch Charles Stanley on Saturday night so that was refreshing. Our view is onto the main boulevard in the city and we have a grocery store across from us. We have eaten at some Ukrainian and Italian restaurants and we had Mickey D's. The cherry pies there are delicious!!!! I have cooked some food too. We are in a walk-up apartment on the 4th floor so we are getting our exercise.
The kids are having a lot of fun together. Evan loves having another boy to smash and race cars and knock down blocks with. The noise in our home is going to increase greatly:-)) Diana is extremely smart and she knows some English. She also loves to play the card games I brought and to do solitaire on the computer. She really likes chess to, so I guess I will learn that soon. Well I don't have my cord to the camera to post pictures now, but I will hopefully add some tonight. Thank you very much to everyone for praying and leaving comments and emails. This is so nice for us to read.
Bye for now,
The Neckers

(The Chevy sign is at a dealership up the street from us.)

Appointment Day!

2007-11-20T10:51:00.000-05:00

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! We had our appointment at 4:00 today and it went great. We are headed to Dnepropetrovsk in the morning on the express train to meet a little brother and sister. We are so excited and it is amazing that they even look like Evan, especially the little boy. We will get lots more information on them when we get to the region and hopefully we get permission to visit them in the next couple of days. If all goes well we will be home with 2 more kids before Christmas. Thank you for everyone's prayers and emails. We have read all of them even though we don't have time to respond. Hopefully we will post again in a couple of days. Tonight we are going to dinner with Anya again. Anya is a friend of Oksana's from Vinnytsya and she has lived in Beaufort for the past two summers and worked at CBC. She is a great help when ordering food! She is such a kind person and has been very helpful to us.

Shislivava puti! (Bon Voyage)

2007-11-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

We left Saturday morning from Boston after enjoying a very fun and filling stay with Maureen and Jordan. We definitely got our Thanksgiving fix before we left home and Evan had a great time playing with Jack. We stayed overnight in London and then it was off to Ukraine. Our flights were relaxing and enjoyable and I highly recommend using British Airways. This is a little picture of Evan enjoying some southern hospitality in Logan airport with our plane in the background.

We arrived in Kiev yesterday afternoon. It is very pretty right now as everything is blanketed in a nice coat of fresh snow. Our hotel room is great and the view to the Dnepr River is spectacular. Our location is great since we are close to lots of places to eat and sightsee. Last night we went to an authentic Ukraine buffet/cafeteria style place for dinner. We walked back through Maidan (Independence) Square and Evan had fun playing in the snow. Tonight we are meeting up with Anya for dinner. Tomorrow at 4:00 pm is the time of our appointment and we are very excited! God has already answered several of our prayers to get us here the time of year we hoped for, and to get us here safely and healthy with all of our luggage. I know He already has our kids picked out and tomorrow we will find out.

And We're Off

2007-11-12T22:56:00.000-05:00

Well Evan and I are getting ready to leave for Boston on Wednesday and then Andrew will be joining us on Friday. Saturday morning we take off for Ukraine from Boston. I just thought I would give everyone a little time line of our expected procedure in Ukraine. While in Ukraine we have a facilitator and a translator that will guide us through the process. We will have our translator with us some of the time and other times we will be on our own. This is when the Russian phrase book and picture book will be put to good use!
We will arrive in Kiev on the 18th and our appointment date at the SDA (gov't authority that handles adoptions) is on the 20th. After that appointment we hopefully will have found our children that we are going to adopt after looking through some files. Then in the next day or so we will head to the region of their orphanage and this is where we will get to meet them. We expect to be in this region for about 2 weeks if things go smoothly as far as paperwork and our court date. Then we will head back to Kiev for our final bit of paperwork and getting their passports, visas, checkups, and last but not least getting their airline tickets to come home!
I would say the verse that we are keeping in mind before we leave is Philippians 4:6-7. Even though we are headed somewhat into the unkown we know that God already has our children waiting on us and we just need to meet them. Oh and please feel free to ask any questions in our comments. They could make for an interesting post topic:-)

Dasvi danya

Finally...The First Post!

2007-11-05T18:12:00.000-05:00

As most of you already know we are headed off to Ukraine on the 17th of this month (all 3 of us) to adopt 2 more children. We are excited about this adventure we are about to embark on and we look forward to sharing it with you. I wanted to get things up and running on the blog so I will be posting a few entries before we leave. I decided for my first entry I would give everyone some interesting facts and background on Ukraine. Here goes....

Ukraine traces it's roots back to the 5th century AD and it became the epicenter of the Kievan Rus empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. Ukraine literally means 'borderland' and has served as a crossroad between Europe and Asia. The country is about the size of Texas in land mass and is located in Eastern Europe.

"Breadbasket of Europe" is the nickname for Ukraine because of it's rich dark soil and wheat fields. Under the Soviet Union Ukraine made up over 25% of the agricultural output. In 1932 Stalin orchestrated a famine in the Ukriane that caused the starvation death of several million people. The Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest is a recommended resource on this event. Just in case there are any history or geography buffs out there as myself. I have not read it yet but I plan to after we get back.

In 1991 Ukraine gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union and they celebrate their Independence Day on August 24.

Ukraine is home to many examples of architecture from the Byzantine, Baroque, and Renaissance periods. There are also some interesting examples of native folk architecture particularly in the Carpathian mountain area. We have a whole free day in Kiev to relax on the 19th so we hope to get in some sightseeing then. Maybe I will even get to go to the opera that evening?!:-)

We hope that by the end of this blog we will have a family picture of us that includes two more!! Thank you to all of our friends and family so far for their prayers and support. We hope that you will continue to pray for us while we are there as we will be doing for all of you.
Love,
Andrew, Kelly and Evan