Monday Part Two

Be sure to scroll down and read the other entry from today. It's long, but I promise, you don't want to miss it. This second post is just more pictures.

Ladies, this is the front garden of the orphanage. Daylilies, lupine, daisies, peonies, and more. All here. All blooming. All beautiful. All the gardens are like this. Crazy, huh?!

BoyTwo's room. He shares it with nine other kids. His bed is the one to his left with the flower pillow case. The room is bright and clean and doesn't smell. The windows are opened and the air is circulating. There is no air conditioning so it is hot. Honestly, we probably got here a day after their shower day and laundry day. I'm sure that it will get a little stinky.

Huz and BoyOne. This is some serious ping-pong. Poor Huz. It's like 85 degrees.

Huz and BoyTwo who loves our phone games:)

The hall outside Larissa's office. Love all the plants.

A sampling of the sweeeet artwork in our apartment:)

This is just another angle of the family room. Huz is standing in the bedroom.

Day 7-Monday

So, yeah. Today was just another manic Monday. I've heard it before, but now I can echo it with experience: In Ukraine the only thing to expect is the unexpected.

I actually will back up just a little to Sunday night. We went for a little self-tour of the city we are staying in, Zap. I feel bad even saying this, but I really like it! To all my friends who have just returned from here, it is so much nicer now that spring is here!! There are little concession style stands on a lot of corners and tables set up so that people gather around to socialize. Kids are outside playing, babushkas sit on the benches together, sometimes chatting and other times saying absolutely nothing at all. People bike everywhere and are out and about. All the women are wearing sun dresses as the weather is very nice. Huz thinks it's a little toasty-especially when he's running around with a bunch of orphans, but I still think it's a little cool.

At the risk of scaring to death our mothers, I'm posting pictures of the outside of our apartment building. If they haven't already passed out, they should keep looking because once you get inside, the apartment itself is very, very nice. Our landlord is pretty funny. He has us take our shoes off. When he comes by, he'll sit on the little bench to remove his white slip on shoes. Then, when he leaves 30 seconds later after staying right where he was standing, he sits back down and uses this old, bent shoe horn to put his shoes back on. It's hard to not laugh. Huz and I have learned that we cannot make very much eye contact or else we might start laughing-not just with him, but in a lot of other situations as well.

This morning as Huz was getting ready to plug his shaver in, the following conversation took place:
me: 'You'd better use the surge protector.'
him: 'Nah. I'll be fine.'
Plugs in shaver minus surge protector and proceeds to turn on.
HORRIBLE loud, loud grinding noise.
me: 'How's that going in there?'
him: 'I think it's a goner. Maybe I can tinker with it later though.'
Any of you that know Huz will find so many things about this funny. I won't elaborate though:)

I made the mistake of asking Elena (Helen) our facilitator last night if we needed to dress up. When will I learn that it's better to ask forgiveness?! Sheesh. Of course she recommended we dress up. This is the THIRD time in five days we have donned our church clothes. Not such a big deal for Huz, but torture for me. I don't know, it just bugs. Anyhow, our driver's name is Zhenia, actually Euzhenia, and our interpreter, Yana, along with our facilitator Elena, were in the van already. On the way to the orphanage, we had to 'swing' by another village to pick up the region's inspector, which is in a way like a social worker. I really liked her. Her name is Elena, like our facilitator. She is a busy woman who I felt genuinely supports adoptions and the best interest of the children. We all rode together in our Mercedes minivan (did you even know there was such a thing?!) to the beautiful village that the orphanage is in. Again, I'm sure my friends that were just here are rolling their eyes, or vomiting, that I used the word beautiful in correlation with this village. Really, guys. Come back. Everything is green, people are out and about, flowers are blooming everywhere. Peonies, lilacs, lupine, roses, irises, and the day lilies are about to bloom. It's really amazing. Not like Hawaii amazing, but like Ukraine amazing. I'll post pics.

As we drove, Elena explained to us what was about to happen. We'd go in for our appointment with the director, she'd call the boys in, yada, yada, yada. We asked if the boys knew we were coming. Elena told us she did not think so. I asked if I could take a picture of them coming in, envisioning their surprised faces.

As we climbed out of the car, I could hear a child yelling "Mami! Mami!" I took a couple steps and saw a boy running towards us yelling "Mami! Mami!" Because I only have one brain cell, I thought to myself, 'That looks like BoyOne.' As he got closer I realized it was BoyOne!!!! He ran up to me and gave me the biggest longest hug! Oh my goodness!! It was so great to see him! He hugged Huz, too and ran to get BoyTwo who also came racing out to us and jumped into my arms, squeezing my neck. It was a fabulous reunion!!! We have missed them so much!

The director was finishing something up so we waited in the hall outside her office. It was a very attractive hallway. I'll post a picture. BoyOne was off someplace for a minute and we were with BoyTwo for several minutes alone. I pulled out a coloring book and he began to trace his finger along dot to dots saying the numbers. He is just so cute.

When the director was ready, she led us into her office. She is a very nice, busy woman. Her name is Larissa. She asked us a few questions and then called the boys in.

And that's when the crap hit the fan.

She immediately started by saying we were here to adopt them, we are a good family, our government gave us permission, their government gave us permission, we spent a lot of time and money to come here, he needs to think of his future, he has a hopeless future, nothing good will happen, and as if that wasn't going anywhere fast, she started in on his biological mom. I wasn't sure what my place was, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't have been a good move to tell her to back off. Instead I waited and watched BoyOne's jaw tense and his eyes glaze over and saw him get really ticked. She asked if he wanted to be adopted. He said no. She asked BoyTwo, he looked down and said no. Honestly, we weren't surprised by BoyOne's response. We were not entirely sure that he was sure he wanted to come. However, BoyTwo we knew wanted to be adopted and we were surprised to hear him say no, but suspected he did so because BoyOne had coached him.

If we thought the director had laid into him before, I don't even know how to describe the next set of lectures. She was very nice about it, just very frank and add to this the inspector and our facilitator. About thirty seconds into this he tuned them out. He turned his body away from us so that he would not have to look at us. I decided that more than needing to do what was right in front of all these people, I needed to do what was right as a mom and I got up off my chair and went over to him, sat myself on the floor next to him and held his hands and told him not to listen to them, it was okay, blah, blah, blah. I know he couldn't understand my words, but I know he could understand me. We were both crying. So on top of wearing church clothes, I was now crying. Two things that really bug me. Eye roll. It felt like they just kept going on and on and on. I would look over at BoyTwo and smile at him and he'd look at me and smile and then look at his brother or the director and stop smiling and look down again. I'm not sure he understood everything that was going on or that he knew about what they were saying, but like any little kid, he recognized the tense situation and was trying to stay out of it. Finally I said, 'Enough, enough. We are done. He is done.' And the inspector said he must think tonight and we will have another appointment tomorrow.

Awesome.

So, in the middle of all this we found out that they are not willing to separate siblings in this region. They say it has to be in the best interest of the child. It was all I could do to not say, 'Really? Staying here another nine years is in his best interest?!' Actually, I did say it but then told Yana to not translate that. She agreed it was not a good idea. LOL.

Basically we knew BoyOne was pretty uncertain, but we were told that since BoyTwo wanted to be adopted and BoyOne would allow it that we could still adopt BoyTwo. And now, that was pretty much going to be a no go. I guess most other regions allow it, and until you are actually in a region, you don't know what they will do. I still can't get away from how this is not in BoyTwo's best interest. It may sound callous to try to separate siblings, but they only see each other a couple times a week, for Christmas family took BoyOne to visit, but left BoyTwo and there are other reasons. But, whatever.

We tried to pull ourselves out of shock and enjoy the rest of the day with the boys, which we did. They have a ping-pong table set up in their pavillion and Huz played ping-pong in his church clothes (longsleeved, no less) for three hours. The boys at the orphanage are hilarious. As soon as they would finish a game, they'd hold the ball up and say, 'Zero, zero.' Which meant again.

It was pretty crappy. I won't lie. We knew we had a meeting with the inspector in the morning and the boys had been told we'd be back to say good-bye then. I was seriously bummed for so many reasons. I was thinking, 'Gosh, I knew that my time here at the orphanage would go by so fast, but I had no idea it would be this fast!' and other things.

When we got in the car it was suggested to us to come back in two years after BoyOne graduated and then we could adopt BoyTwo. I think my eyeballs actually fell out of my head at that one.

Elena was talking to us as fast as Yana could translate. Basically she said she thought he may change his mind, don't give up. Both Huz and I really felt like he was pretty sure. He had gone back and forth several times and seemed pretty sure of himself just then. We agreed to go back for the appointment in the morning and to say good-bye to the boys but insisted that train tickets be purchased for us to go back to Kyiv Tuesday.

We are having a hard time sleeping. I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that there are 47 million other orphans, some of which would love to be adopted and who are absolutely wonderful. We just need some time to think. It's hard to put your big girl panties on after you just got a great big huge wedgie. As usual, captions are under the picture.


Our blue bedroom. It has blue walls, blue curtains, blue satin sheets with a red heart pillow?!



Our family room. We have an enclosed balcony that would've been used to hang our laundry in to dry had we stayed long enough to need to do laundry. I am standing in the doorway of the bedroom to take this picture.

The entrance of our apartment. Notice the bench. Isn't Huz a great model:)

Our kitchen. Very small, but it has everything we need including 5 cups that hold about eight onces of liquid all together, a microwave on the fridge, 2 bowls, 5 plates, 2 spoons, 4 forks and some knives. Did I mention it was small? I truly mean that it does have everything we need. It makes me want to reexamine my life when I get home and see if I can part with some stuff. It is also very clean which is an enormous plus.

This my friends is the outside of our apartment building. I apoligize that it is once again side ways. You know, looking at it right now it doesn't look so scary. Maybe our moms will be fine:)

Day 6-Sunday Road Trip

Sunday was a good day. I was a little nervous about our road trip, but was very pleasantly surprised. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to see this side of Ukraine, it may just be the highlight of our trip! It helps that I don't get carsick and that I set my expectations very, very low. I found the bouncing and winding of the roads very soothing and the dodging of potholes, along with the occasional slam into a pothole, kind of fun! Huz was good as long as he was either asleep or looking out the front. There is a little bit of a freeway coming out of Kyiv, but then, the road just starts winding through towns and villages suddenly veering wildly to the right or the left, across railroad tracks and then back again, and around wandering animals. That can be good or bad, depending on how you choose to look at it and what your stomach can handle!! I don't get carsick and enjoyed every second of it!! We personally weren't in any hurry and I was thoroughly enjoying looking at the beautiful scenery we passed. It was like a step back in time. While Kyiv is somewhat advanced or at least nearly up to speed as far as technology goes, and visiting that city is similar to other European cities, the rest of the country appeared to be set back in the 1940's. Since I wasn't alive then, that's just an estimate:) Picture run down houses with makeshift fencing set up around the perimeter of the yard. Old men, always without shirts on (why is it that men that should wear shirts never do??) sitting on the porch smoking or chewing on wheat. Elderly women, babushkas, in the yard working in the massive gardens or selling produce on the side of the road. Their hands and faces are worn and weathered from years of hard living. Their heads are always covered with a colorful scarf. The houses are probably, at most, 800 square feet, the gardens easily an acre. This country knows how to grow a garden!! Children can be seen walking with a parent, each wearing a hat. Usually only one child per family, occasionally two. Goats, sheep, cows and chickens roaming dangerously close to the road with an unattended leash dangling from their necks. The only pavement is that which you are driving on, and that road is at best, rough. The slight hills are lush with green grasses and young wheat. On the outskirts of villages farmers mark their land with a perimeter of birch trees, their humble homes barely visible. Fields of flowers, yellow (saffron maybe?), purple (probably just a weed, but at least it's pretty) and poppies dot the landscape. The rivers run clear, although I know that just a month ago they didn't. Maybe this is due to the spring run off? Who knows, but they are beautiful now. Small ponds attract groups of people for sunbathing, swimming, fishing, and picnicing. The only cars are those being driven through town, the people in the towns don't have cars. Bikes are ridden everywhere and young couples can be seen either biking or walking together (it's charming even if the women are riding with their high heels and no bras:)) As we near Dnepropetrovsk, the sky begins to cloud with the pollution that the factories produce. The haze means we are getting close to Zap, and the pollution, that people have jobs. Many live on a mere $100 each month and never dream of leaving the only home they have ever known for even a neighboring city. The people are taken aback when you smile at them and, if you greet them, their eyes become curious as long ago the idea of extending oneself beyond their own was forgotten and survival became the only goal. The younger generation is more hopeful and willing to reciprocate at least your 'hello' and will usually answer if you ask how they are doing. The elderly still appear suspicious of strangers in their land and I can't blame them. The lives they live are those we read about in our history books, stories to us, reality for them. It is odd to be in a country that is so old, that has so much history but yet is so young and struggling. The thing that makes me most sad is to see so many people with so little hope. You can see it in their eyes, or rather can't. You can see that life has been hard and that they have very few expectations for happiness. The younger generation has more hope, more to look forward to and be happy for, but only time will tell if they are able to progress past this era, or if they will also grow old and wearied from the difficulties life presents. I see all this and am so grateful to live in our country of freedom and opportunity. Moreso, I realize that the true giver of freedom and hope is Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to live in a country that evolved to protect our right to know and love them. I'm so blessed to know of their love and healing power. I know that the hope I feel and the peace that I have is through them and because of them. Enjoy the pictures-wish I was more of a photographer! Erica-this should've been you!!h

Day 5, Saturday

Today we started the day with breakfast at Pizza Celantanos. We had omelets and crepes. Their food is less expensive than their drinks. Go figure. Good food, though. After eating, we stayed around the area and wandered all over their open market. It was super fun and we learned that lots of the vendors spoke English. Sweeeet. On our way up to breakfast, there was a HUGE bike race going on. There was quite the crowd and we took several pictures, all side ways. Oops. It was kind of interesting to see the variety of people participating. There were both genders, old to young, all walks of life, dressed in all types of clothing. Seriously, some of the women were totally decked out riding along with their super high heels. Kyiv is beautiful right now, the weather is beautiful, the sky, the landscape. We are very fortunate to be here right now while it is so picturesque. After our little walk through the market, we headed back to the apartment where we waited for Oleg, Natasha, and Oleg's son, Daniel. After they picked us up, we swung by the Presidential Offices. Their president doesn't live there, like our president lives in the White House, he just works in town. He has a lovely estate outside of Kyiv. Maybe kind of like Camp David, only closer? Anyhow, it was cool.

Ukraine just passed a law prohibiting the adoption of children ages 5 and under, unless there is a medical problem. Too bad for people trying to adopt younger children, but from what I understand it was quite difficult to get a child under the age of five in the first place. The problem, though is that included in this law, unprotected from the medical provision are children with Downs Syndrome and HIV. Can you believe that?! Those two things don't currently qualify for the exception provision. Oleg has spent a significant amount of time trying to have that rewritten. He told us that only .01 % of Ukrainians that adopt will ever consider a child with medical problems. And there aren't even that many Ukrainians who adopt! We hope that this addition is made to the provision to allow the adoptions of children with those medical conditions to be available for adoption.

After seeing the Presidential Offices, we headed to see Big Mama, as the Ukrainians call her. Big Mama is formally the Statue of the Mother Land. She is sort of like the Statue of Liberty for Ukraine. Side note, her sword was taller than the cross on the bellfry tower which is not customarily appropriate, so the government officials just had her sword hacked in half. I was impressed that they paid heed to that religious tradition when so many governments pay less and less attention to God in their dealings.

Next to the Statue of the Mother Land is the Museum of the Patriotic Wars. It was dedicated to all the wars in which Ukrainians fought in and had history from each one. It was very interesting to hear the Ukrainian impressions of WWII and what was going on from their side of things. Like our Holocaust Museum in D.C., it was a solemn, reverent place to be.

On our way back to our apartment, we stopped briefly at the Famine Memorial. I have read about this and was really looking forward to visiting it. My pictures aren't great and most of them are sideways, so I'll only post the one of the wheat. I just read a book before coming to Ukraine, the autobiography of a woman who lived through all of these events and her story and perception of things as a young child all the way to adulthood. The famine is an unbelievable nightmare that so many people didn't even know about. It makes me wonder about the atrocities that are taking place right now today that we aren't aware of as we hustle and bustle through our lives.

Tonight we had dinner in the underground mall. It was kind of wild to be in a two story mall that was all the way underground. And, of course, we had some ice cream:)

Tonight we heard fire works again. We have decided it is because they know we are here and are so happy:). We also did some laundry. It took way too long to figure out how to make our washing machine work. Hopefully our clothes are dry by the time we leave in the morning. I'm a little hesitant about this 6 hour car ride we will have. I've recently heard a road trip in Ukraine described as being on a rickety roller coaster. You know what the first thing that comes to my mind is-the white roller coaster at Lagoon. I hate that thing! I feel like I'm getting shaken adult syndrome when I ride it, so I'm hoping the car ride is not that bad! Either way, it is an adventure and I will be sure to let you know how it goes. We love and miss our girlies!!! Like yesterday, the caption for the picture will be underneath.

The cut wheat symbolizes all the wheat that was harvested and the bars symbolize that the Ukrainians were not allowed to have any of it resulting in a man made famine in which 7 million people died.

The Dnepro River and the 'left' side of Kyiv as it is known. I think it is beautiful!

Oleg, Daniel, and Natasha, our Ukrainian team in Kyiv. They rock!!

Huz and Wif in front of the Presidential Offices.

The bike race, side ways (sorry). It was very cool. Bikes and people for miles!!

Pictures from Day 1-4

This is a picture post. I figured it out! Yeah me! The caption for the picture is underneath it. There is a post for day 4 before this one. Sorry, I can't quite figure out how to turn the pictures.

This is the Ukrainian countryside. Isn't it gorgeous?! I love it!!

This is Huz, a babushka at the open air museum, and me. Isn't she the cutest little grandma ever?! And look at her piercing blue eyes. She told us that she didn't want to be in the picture because she would ruin it because she thought she looked like a monkey. I told her to get her buns over here:) Natasha probably didn't translate that word for word...

This is a traditional Ukrainian home from the 1800s. The white pipe thing on the left with the brown paint at the bottom is their stove that they cooked with and heated the house with. The little bench thing behind it is where the children would sleep. Pretty sure my kids would've loved that!! The bench to the right that is covered with the blue plaid is where the elderly people would sleep. The entire room is about 15 x 12. A bench lined the entire room and that is where they slept. If they ran out of bench room, they threw straw on the floor. Little house on the prairie here I come!! Doesn't that sound awesome-for like a week?!

This is our apartment. The dark colored door is the outside door. It is a double door and isn't quite as safe as some of our friends have had. It only has 3 bolts:) You can see the handle to the bathroom door. Do you just love the loft area? Oleg thought that we were bringing our kids so the apartment is a little bigger. Do you think those rails would pass a U.S. safety inspection? :) I am standing by the bed at the far wall. We haven't even tried to turn on the tv yet.

This is our bed. Ahhhh. Love it. Really. I think we were tired enough we would've slept in that 1800's house we just showed you! I'm taking this picture from the doorway of the bedroom area. We really like our apartment. It's perfect for us-more than we expected!

This picture is taken from the doorway into our apartment. Straight ahead is the kitchen. To the left is the bathroom, you can kind of see the door jamb. To the left is the bedroom area.

In this shot I am standing in the bathtub. Notice that the toilet flusher is on top of the toilet. Cool, huh.

This is a shot of the bathroom from the hallway. That is a washing machine. I think that a load with one pair of jeans would fill it. No dryer. Everything is air dried. Think of the power they save!

Kitchen. I'm standing next to the refrigerator to take this shot. The entire kitchen is about 6 feet wide and 12 feet long.

In this shot, I am squishing myself against the counter.

Cool church in Frankfurt. Can't figure out how to rotate picture.

Okay. So, this is the bicycle bar. Tyler took this picture and didn't zoom in so you can't even see it! When I get home I'll zoom it in and repost it for you. Promise. It's funny.

This is a picture of Huz at the floating restaurant.

The darling soon-to-be parents again.

Day 4-Referral and Notary

We started off the day by sleeping in. It was lovely. We didn't need to be anywhere until we met Oleg, Natasha, and Irina at the SDA to pick up our referral. We didn't really need to meet all of them, but Irina and Natasha were taking the Ceran's to the airport (sorry, I don't have any flight information for them except that they left today) and Oleg was meeting us there in case the girls didn't get back in time.

Turns out everyone got there at the same time! After getting our referral, Natasha told us that we had a 'change of the plan' and we jumped into Irina's car and hustled to the notary to get our power of attorney notarized so that our facilitator, Helen, could act as our facilitator. Ukraine uses the cyrillic alphabet. I pointed the notary sign out to Natasha and said the Russian word, notarious, to see if I was pronouncing it correctly. She said yes, that is how Ukrainians say it, but Americans say HOTAPIYC, pronouncing it 'hot-a-piece'. It was so funny. I guess you had to be there:)

After the notary, we went back to the apartment and Tyler was able to do a little work before we were picked up by Oleg for the play/musical that his wife Oksana is in. The name of it is Welcome to Ukraine. The world cup is in Ukraine next year and the country is doing some reconstruction and building things in preparation for that big event. The play will also be for during the world cup. It is about a man and woman who meet on the internet. The man is from Ukraine, the woman from France. She comes to visit him in Ukraine and they fall in love. The story line is that he is telling her about Ukraine and its history/heritage. Because I highly doubt you will see it, I'll go ahead and tell you the ending. She goes back to France because she needs time to 'think' and he is devastated. In the end, she returns and they get married. It was really great. The one part we didn't get though was during the Christmas scene, there was a grim reaper and a couple random animal costumes. After, Oksana explained that traditionally they have a holiday two days before Christmas that is comparable to our Halloween. People dress up and go to houses where people give them either candy or money. I'd be all over the money thing! Anyhow, the grim reaper standing next to Father Christmas made a whole lot more sense after that. Oksana's mom was visiting from Israel and we were able to meet her and their oldest son, Daniel. Erica, I told Daniel hi from Little One and he blushed and smiled. It was awesome:) Oksana's mom was darling, just like her. Don't you think it's amazing that here we are in the capital of Ukraine, speaking to a woman from Israel who speaks Hebrew?! America is so boring:) Boring but free.

I wanted to do a top ten of things that will tell you that you are in Ukraine:
10) no drinking fountains
9) cars park on the sidewalk
8) plaid and stripes not only go together but are very popular
7) all the children have white hair
6) we are the only ones who do not speak a second language
5) undergarments are not necessary (?!)
4) there is a picture of a cat on a milk bottle (I guess you can milk a cat?!)
3) the dollar is worth a lot
2) every entrance has two doors and LOTS of locks
1) you throw your toilet paper in the garbage can

Sunday here is Kyiv day, the day of Kyiv's birthday. Apparently the Ukrainians like themselves a good celebration, because already today decorations were going up and tonight we were graced with a fireworks show and a lot of music. The Ukrainian team was explaining to us that the reason there are so many holidays dates back to the Soviet period. They outlawed all celebrations of family and country and God, allowing only celebration of their crazy leaders. The people realized more than ever that they needed to have things to celebrate, rejoice in and to look forward to. Now, they have many holidays and celebrations, sometimes lasting several days. After it was explained to me like that, it made perfect sense. It's like when I'm pregnant and can't eat anything. After I have that baby, I eat and eat and eat. Even if I'm full. I'm so excited to be able to finally eat that I just keep going. I guess it's that way for them. They can finally be happy and make their own laws and cheer and celebrate how they wish and by golly, they are going to do it!

We are well, it's all good. We miss our kids. We are excited for our friends who are preparing to travel and for those hoping to submit soon. It is still the rumor that they SDA will continue to accept dossiers, so keep praying:)

As Natasha says, We'll talk to you!

p.s. Tonight for dinner I ate a bowl of Kosmostars (cereal that tastes like Honeycomb) and Tyler ate, get this, a peanut butter, nutella, and cherry jelly sandwich! bleh!!

We Are Alive:)

Wow. Just logging on has been a difficult task. I definitely wouldn't describe myself as computer literate, but this is bad. First of all, all the log in stuff is showing up in Ukrainian. I don't speak Ukrainian (duh) so it's been tricky to just get this page up. Now I can't figure out how on earth to get it to center and it's going to drive me nuts, but oh well. And pictures?! Yeah, right. Don't worry. I'm not giving up. I'll have to get Oleg or Natasha to help us with that tomorrow.

Tuesday
Monday night, actually, I didn't go to bed. I could have laid down at about 1, but decided to just stay up so that by the time we arrived in Ukraine I'd be acclimated to the time change. Good move me. Monday evening we realized we were on a different flight than we had originally asked our travel agent to book us on. I do realize that I should've read the confirmation she sent me, but I was just happy to be going to Ukraine, so I didn't think to double check... until the night before. We just may have the new record for length of time to get to Ukraine.

Tuesday morning, Huz and I had different ideas as to what time we needed to leave the house, he wanting to leave later than I by an HOUR!!! So we had to say good-bye to kids, again (we had said good bye the night before but because we were still home, they got up before we left). I have major anxiety when I fly without my kids because I don't like to think of them without me. I'm sure they'd be fine, but I like to think they really really need me:) Anyhow, after saying good-bye twice, coupled with no sleep and an adding an additional TEN hours to our travel time made me a little stressed. I just kept thinking, over and over, how in the WORLD is an airplane the size of a house supposed to stay in the air for 8 hours over the ocean, no less?!?! I was going through rescue operations in my mind, planning on how I'd survive shark attacks in the ocean-if I survived the plummet from the sky to the ocean. Yeah, there was a little bit of crazy going on there:)

We caught our flight AND I remembered to take the hair elastic out of my back pocket so I didn't even get frisked or swabbed at the airport. It almost felt weird to just stand in the full body scanner and nothing else.

I tend to have bad luck, so I was just waiting for something bad to happen. While we waited to board the plane, they announced that there was a hole in the tire of the plane so they had to fix that, obviously, before we could depart. So we started our adventure being delayed. haha.

Once we made it to Chicago, we had a 7 hour layover. It was lovely. I saw more of the O'Hare airport than I really needed to. I was beginning to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie where he lives at the airport for a long time because he can't get his visa or something. Anyhow...

Our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was great. It was turbulent, but I don't get airsick and Tyler seemed to handle it ok, so it didn't really matter. We did joke that it was a good thing that neither of our moms were on the flight though because they would not have done well:) The man I sat next to had been living in Denver for a year and had hoped to be able to transfer permanently, but had to return to Iran (and was not happy about it) for two months before he could come back, hopefully to transfer. He has two sons attending university in Denver. We have no idea how fortunate and blessed we are to live where we do! We take so many simple things for granted.

In Frankfurt we had a 10 hour layover. That's right folks. Ten. hours. In Frankfurt. We stored our luggage and bought a subway pass and headed into town. The very first English speaking person we met was right there on the subway and he was from none other than Pocatello, Idaho. He had moved there with the army, married and stayed. He'd been there for 17 years. Tyler commented on how he could now imagine his brother, Todd, living in Germany, now.

Frankfurt was nice and clean and there were lots of people biking and running and just out and about. We walked to the River Mein (pronounced Mine) and ate lunner (lunch/dinner) on a floating restaurant. It sounds like maybe it was really nice or fancy, but it wasn't. Picture house boat in the movie with Tom Hanks, again, Turner and Hooch. BUT we saw the coolest thing ever. I can't wait to figure out how to put the picture on. It was a bicycle bar. Literally a drinking bar that you could sit at and drink, but you were actually peddaling at the same time and the bar was moving and being steered by someone. Hilarious. Back at the airport, I fell asleep until it was time to take-off. Which was delayed because the incoming plane was late. Whatever. (insert eye roll)

The first part of the flight was just lovely. We kind of slept a little. Then, about 1/2 hour into that flight they served us dinner and I decided to ask the woman sitting next to me if she spoke English. I really was hoping she didn't because I wanted to practice my Russian. Lucky me!!! She did not speak English and was darling. Her name was Svetlana and she was born in Ukraine, married a German and lives in Germany. Her mother lives in Ukraine and she was coming to visit. She has one daughter who is 24 and attends university in Germany. Svetlana speaks Ukrainian, Russian, and German. She worked with me conjugating verbs, taught me new verbs, days of the week, months of the year and face parts. I had a great time! Huz thought we were silly because we kept giggling like little girls.

Somehow, probably because of my incredible good luck, we were literally the. last. people. to go through customs. We were not even the last ones in line, but as the nationals lines emptied, they began to call people from the end of our line over to their lines to pass them through. Seriously. The very last. We thought it was pretty funny.

Once through, I spotted Oleg immediately and we loaded our stuff in his car and headed to down town Kyiv. It was like he had just been at our house yesterday. It was great to see him. He had stopped at a grocery store for us and picked us up some food so that we'd be set. Very thoughtful of him as the last thing we wanted to do after traveling for that long, and arriving in Kyiv 3 a.m. their time, was go to the store.

Oleg got us set up in our apartment, which I will post pictures of later. It is a sweet apartment and we had hot water. That was really the only thing that I was concerned with. I love me a hot shower. We were able to be in our apartment and in bed by 4:30a.m.

Natasha called at 10:30 that morning to tell us she'd be by to pick us up for our SDA appointment in fifteen minutes. Good thing she called because I didn't hear the alarm and Huz and turned it off and gone back to sleep. So, we hustled our little buns and ran, literally, to the SDA which was just down the street and around the corner from the apartment.

The SDA appointment, which we wait for with baited breath for months, lasted all of ten minutes. We knew it would be quick, but it was sort of anti-climatic. We waited on the stairs of the SDA for about thirty seconds (typical procedure to wait on the stairs) to be invited into the office where we sat. The lady meeting with us was named Ivana and was very kind. She seemed pretty young, but I am a really bad judge of age. If I know you, I think you are my age, 33. I have recently found out that some of my friends are in their forties and twenties and I'm so surprised. I just thought we were all the same age. Part of that is I can hardly remember how old I am, so how can I possibly keep track of anyone else. Anyhow, Ivana went over our boys files. Their pictures were cute. BoyTwo looked about the same, just a little chubbier because he was so little and his hair was grown out a little. BoyOne, same thing, a little chubbier, but his hair was much shorter than when we met him.

We did find out one thing that we previously were unaware of. When the boys mom lost her parental rights, BoyOne was taken into custody before BoyTwo by a few months. It is assumed that the mom was hiding BoyTwo so that she didn't have to give him up. This made me sooooo sad for the mom. Life here is not easy. I think that she did the best that she knew how.

After the appointment, we ate at Pizza Celantanos, the famous restaurant that every person that adopted from Ukraine eats at following their SDA appointment. Because it was sort of breakfast for us, we had crepes. They were yum! Lots of people here and in most countries speak several languages. Our waiter spoke a little English and practiced it on us. I, in turn, tried to practice my Russian on him. Our translator/tour guide/life saver Natasha recognized a celebrity there, a Russian actor and she and our driver/attorney Irina quickly called and texted several people about it. We told her we would approach him and ask for his autograph and picture but she giggled and declined. She then said that if it had been George Clooney, Richard Gere, or Sean Connery, she would've taken us up on the offer. :)

So, I've heard lots about these cobblestone roads that are so hard to walk on. Let me tell you when you think cobblestone, those are the nice parts of the Ukraine roads. We've been to Europe before so I thought that I knew what to expect. Yes, they're hard to walk on with heels, when it's wet, etc, etc. But the cobblestone here, in certain places, is crazy!! I will post a picture. Think of what a regular cobblestone road would look like after a size 8 earthquake and you've got the picture. So glad that I didn't break any bones!!

After brunch, we went back to the apartment and laid down for an hour until Oleg and his wife Oksana picked us up. We met Irina and another family, the Ceran's who just finished adopting three kids from the same orphanage we are going to, at an outdoor museum of old Ukraine. It kind of reminded me of the This is the Place Heritage Park that we have in Utah. All these old houses and supplies. Very cool. We met a darling babushka who took a picture with us. Again, will post it later.

After the tour, we sat at the museum's park and the Ceran's and we ate ice cream while the Ukrainian team ate sunflower seeds. I wonder why the Ukrainians are all so much thinner...

We said our good-byes to the Ceran's and Natasha and Irina and Oleg, Oksana, Huz and I set out to buy shampoo and go to dinner. We ate at a restaurant that is new in Kyiv that Oksana and Okeg had wanted to try. It featured ancient Ukraine artifacts and decor (sort of) and traditional Ukrainian food. I was so. proud. of Huz. He tried something authentic. Salo, which is lard spread on bread. I wouldn't even try that. I had borscht, a traditional Ukrainian fruit drink that I can't remember the name of, and a pork dish. Our waitress there spoke English to us, and again I practiced my Russian.

After dinner we walked to our apartment and made plans for tomorrow. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Oleg and Oksana. She's a lot of fun and I'm so glad that I got to meet her. We had so much fun:) And she has the most beautiful curly red hair.

Anyhow, that's what has gone on. Nothing too extraordinary (except the fact that we are in a foreign country that is only 20 years old adopting two boys from an orphanage), and that is a good thing. We just skyped with our kids and now, it is time to go to bed. Huz is already asleep:)

Dear Jerk

Dear Thoughtless, Selfish, Inconsiderate, Dishonest Jerk,

I just wanted to take a minute to express my heartfelt thanks, on the day prior to our departure, for causing us such an inconvenience by stealing our financial account numbers and going on a shopping spree in NYC.

I sincerely hope that you thoroughly enjoyed your binge at Home Depot. I truly hope that your house or apartment is literally falling apart and that you truly needed every single thing you purchased there, at our expense.

I hope that you enjoyed the sheer indulgence of the tranquil spa where you enjoyed all day pampering, because if I ever find you, you're going to have needed it. I hope that while you were there you had some allergic reaction or caught some fungus or infection so that you have a little reminder of your time there, again at our expense.

I wanted to let you know that after a day full of fun and throwing money all over the place without a care in the world, I sincerely appreciate you only spending $4.72 on a meal. It was the least you could do.

Please, don't worry about my family and the four children we are leaving behind for three weeks with a myriad of folks. Don't fret that we will be in a foreign country without any financial safety net of a credit card, access to a checking account or savings account. We will be just fine. Don't let it bother you that we now have to, in less than one day, rearrange all of our automatic bill pay accounts.

Again, I sincerely thank you for the opportunity to have a reality check. I'm so grateful to you for allowing us to reflect on such menial things as we didn't really have anything else to do during this 24 hour period prior to our departure.

And honestly, don't worry about us! We will be fine. I'm not even mad at all. I'm PISSED!!!!

Sincerely,

Stephanie

Saturday...

Growing up there was a song that we would sing:

"Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday."

It goes on to list a few things that you do on Saturday so that when Sunday rolls around, you can have a nice, calm, enjoyable, work-free, Sabbath day.

Except that tune gave me chills like the creepy music in Jaws.

Saturday meant work, work, work. As an adult, I totally get it. The family is all home (mostly-you know in between soccer games, dance, wedding showers, etc.) and it's time to get a few things done while you've got a captivated (or captive, if you ask them) audience. As a kid I HATED Saturdays!!!

Today we:

washed all the bedding

washed all the clothing possible

washed walls and doors

washed windows

dusted blinds

vacuumed

edged the carpets

dusted base boards

washed toys

cleaned the bathrooms

changed out winter clothes for summer ones (weather better cooperate with that!)

cleaned bunny cage

cleaned cat's litter box

I heard the girlies muttering to each other throughout the day things like:

"We've been cleaning forEVER!!"

"I just want to go outside."

"I don't even like to clean!"

"This is taking up the whole day!"

At 6:30 p.m. One longingly was looking out the window. For a quick second I realized I had turned into Phil from Modern Family's episode a couple weeks ago. This type of cleaning is not uncommon in our house. Doing it all in one day is. Part of me wanted to keep the troops going, get it all done, check everything off the list.

Then the haunting tune "Saturday is a special day..." came into my mind. I didn't want my kids to remember how before we left to go to Ukraine we worked them like horses. I want them to remember us all working together and then playing together.

I hollered at everyone to get outside "pronto" and play while we still could.

They jumped on the trampoline, played on the swings, monkey bars and teeter totter. We had a pizza picnic outside until it became too cold (that's what happens when you don't eat until 8).

I'm starting to freak a little about being gone from my kiddos for so long. I keep thinking that about my kids in Ukraine, too. That I've been away from them for so long. That keeps me going. That and some chocolate chip cookies:)

Huz is So Funny

Tonight as we were passing in the kitchen, Huz mentioned to me that he was only planning on taking three changes of clothing. I answered that I was planning on doing the same. Then he said one of the funniest things that only a man would say:

"...and I'm not planning on washing anything while we're there. I think it'll be easier that way."

I, of course, laughed out loud right then and there while I hugged my bottle of Dreft (that I will be packing along) close to my body.

me: "Over my dead body you won't be washing your clothes!!!!"

him: "Why?"

me: "Mmmmm, remember how the boys smelled when they got to our house the first night? We are going to be surrounded by that smell for two weeks (not planning on experiencing that smell until we hit the orphanage) and I don't need to be taking it home with us each night."

him: "Oh yeah. That was a pretty bad smell. Okay. I'll wash my clothes."

Losin' My Mind

Tonight the phone rang. I answered. The guy on the other end of the line said,

"Hi! Can I talk to Tyler or Stephanie?"

(I know, I know. Now you know our real names.)

I canNOT even believe what I said.

"This is Tyler."

The guy starts talking to me and I realize what I had just said, so I interrupt him and say,

"I'm sorry. Actually this is Stephanie. I'm not sure what just happened."

And then I start laughing as do all my kids. And the guy on the phone. Not really sure what happened there.

One Week From Today

This morning Huz said to me,

"Wif, we'll be on our way one week from today!"

I am almost packed, but I still have a ton to do. Any parent out there knows that it doesn't matter if you leave for a day or a month, there are lots of little things that you have to attend to before you head out.

This morning it is snowing. HELLO?!?! What happened to spring? Actually, what happened to MAY?! We should be on our way to summer by now!! It's all good though. We're not flooding, nor is anyone else up here that I am aware of. The creeks are all high and the reservoir is filling quickly despite the fact that they have been draining it for weeks.

Yesterday was one of our days in town. Every. single. time we head back home I have all the girls use the bathroom. I don't know why I bother. Every. single. time they all have to use the bathroom at the same place, which is no where near a bathroom, of course. (Except One) So, every. single. time I pull over in the same place and hold them all so they can pee in the great wide open. They haven't been able to master squatting on their own yet. I always wonder two things.

1) when will they be able to hold it for forty-five minutes?!

and

2) when will they just be able to squat on their own?

I'm beginning to think that by the time they can do the above two things, I'll be an old lady who can't do either of those things and then they'll have to help me squat:)

More

This past week went by in a crazy blur!! I can only imagine how quickly this new week will seem to disappear.

I'm not in panic mode yet, but I'm guessing by this time next week I will be:)

Here's a quick run down of the past weeks' highlights:

-dog tried to get rabbit TWO more times!! I guess rabbits have nine lives, too, because he's still kickin'.

-went to the dentist. I won't give you the details but it was NOT pretty. Not at all.

-dog had diarrhea. inside. a lot.

-Huz's car broke down. Radiator. niiiiiice. I was driving.

-have hives from an allergic reaction to a new lotion.

-was able to get a few things done that need to happen before we leave!

-was able, with much help from Huz and girlies, to get the house in order!

-Benadryl is helping my hives AND forcing me to lay down and sleep!

-watched Two participate in the opera that her school class wrote! She was a fairy. Darling!!!

-was able to see several good friends over the weekend. Although each visit was very brief, it was so very great to see each of these ladies and feel of their love and friendship!!

Here's to a week full of a lot:)

We Have Tickets!

Well, we've paid for our tickets:)

We leave the morning of the 24th and are scheduled to return the evening of June 14. That is three weeks to the day. Hopefully that all works out... At that time, we'll both come home. There is a ten day wait that we will have. After that, I fly back to get the kids. Good times. I'm really quite excited.

The advice that I keep hearing over and over is to pack light. No problem for me. I am a light packer. When we went to Rexburg for my sister's graduation, I fit all my girl's stuff along with mine and our toiletries into a carry on size suitcase. Huz had two bags. heeheehee.

And, just because this is how life goes, let me give you a quick run down of a few things that have been going on this past week:

1) last weekend I was in Logan and did a U turn at the bottom of a hill and got a ticket. (I use the word hill very loosely. If I could figure out how, I'd post a picture I took with my phone of said hill on the blog. Think 15 degree incline.) Apparently that is illegal. But don't worry. I had $300 burning a hole in my pocket. Now at least I know what to spend it on. (total sarcasm here. I'm going to try to fight it on the advice of a couple police officers we happened upon)

2) somehow, one of our double paned windows broke. Three of the four panes are cracked. All. the. way. across. the window. $400. Bring it on.

3) our renters aren't working out.

4) another serious illness of someone I am close to.

5) our neighbor's dog attacked our bunny tonight. Luckily, we will not be having another funeral (I hope). Poor guy.

I think stuff like this happened to everyone before they left for Ukraine. I think stuff like this happens any time we try to do something that would really put a kink in Satan's plans. But I'm on to him. Sca-dat turd. I'm still going to Ukraine. I'm still going to have faith. I'm still going to believe.

Because you know what they say, the stronger the breeze, the stronger the trees...

Happy Mothers' Day Me!!

Today was FABULOUS!!

We started off the morning by going to a 5K for our friends' son who is battling DIPG, a cancerous brain tumor that grows at the base of the brain stem. We have known this family for a long time. We actually met them before either of us were married, lost track of each other and met up again when the two husbands ended up working together. It was great to be there and to see their whole family, along with so many other people who love and care for and about them.

Next, we headed over to our Layton house. I love that house. I love our yard there. We went to work in the yard. It's so fun to go down there where it is definitely spring. Up here it is just starting to be spring. My lilac bushes in Layton are in full bloom along with the tulips. The peonies are up and the rose bushes are getting ready to bloom. I LOVE yard work. We stayed there for about 7 hours. I'm being serious, too, in case you thought I was being sarcastic. The kids played with our neighbor's kids and our dog played with our other neighbor's dogs. It was a lovely day.

As we were beginning to pack up our gardening supplies, I checked my phone to see if I had any missed calls, texts, etc. My parents are in town (sweet!) and my sisters and I, along with my parents, are getting together tomorrow. I had to make sure I was in the loop. Then, I checked my email as I have done about 45 times a day ever since we submitted our dossier. I feel a little silly admitting that, especially because I tell everyone who asks if we have heard anything that we won't hear until next week at the earliest. But, I can't help myself.

Anyhow, I am ecstatic to announce that we have an SDA appointment!! Woo-hoo!! I have been fasting and praying that we'd be able to travel before the big closure in June and prayers were heard and answered. Our appointment is on May 26. We have to be in Kyiv on May 25 which means we will travel on May 24. My birthday is at the end of the month so this will be my birthday present, too. Ukraine, here we come...

Who could ask for a better Mother's Day?!

Friday

Friday night I had the opportunity to go out with some fabulous moms from SAC. In case you don't know, SAC is the foundation through which we hosted the boys back in October. Each fall, they bring orphaned children over from Ukraine to be hosted by families for an exchange experience. Many of the families have fallen in love with the kids they host and have ended up adopting them. In fact, since the foundation was formed in 2006(? pretty sure this is right), over 100 kids have been adopted! I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to host and to meet so many wonderful, amazing families and kids. My heart and mind have been touched in so many ways.

Anyhow, I went to dinner with four other women who are lucky enough to already be home from adopting. I am so jealous. Collectively they have adopted a 16 yr old girl, a 12 yr old girl, a 10 yr old boy, and a 10 yr old boy, 13 yr old boy, and a 14 yr old boy AND girl. It was exciting for me to be able to hear about their experiences, both from being in Ukraine and being home now. I really look to them for insight and advice as they have just done what I'm about to do. These are some amazing ladies with amazing families. They shared stories about trying to get new kids to change their underwear more than once a week, their kids being mobbed at school, trying to just get their kids to school and into school(were you aware in Davis county that your child may possibly be kidnapped on a Friday? This is seriously a reason the district gave for not allowing one of these kids to be enrolled-even though all the other Davis county implants are happily attending right now.), and rejoicing in the adopted sibling teasing a bio sibling, therefore acknowledging his existence.

It was so beautiful to me to see these women who could have so easily come up with reasons to not adopt, be able to see that they needed this child(ren) to complete their family. They have enough love and faith inside of them to see the potential of their new kids. They love them and are willing to do what it takes to teach them how to take care of themselves, to have gratitude, to get an education, to be loved, to trust, to hope, to be in a family. This is no small or easy task and I am so impressed and encouraged by the examples these women have set for me. Their stories are entertaining and encouraging. I'm so grateful to know them and to have them to look up to.