There's No Place Like Home, There's .......

I have to wholeheartedly agree with Dorothy on this one! Home seems so much better after you've been away for a while. The longer you're away, the more you miss it!

Karina is doing well. Actually much better than I anticipated. She has adjusted to our time here extremely well. We are eight hours behind Ukraine time. She absolutely loves her two big brothers. She keeps the one with the fur on his face, laughing all the time. I tell him, don't laugh, it just encourages her. He still laughs anyway. She also wears both brothers out! lol

Karina and her two brothers all have March birthdays. We missed all of them. Karina was in Ukraine on hers while we were waiting on the birth certificate and we were in Ukraine with Karina on both boys' birthdays. We did bring them something special from Ukraine. Karina bought and decorated a card for each of them and also bought a silly little man on a key chain. I think he's some type of well known character in Ukraine.

We traveled for almost 24 hours to get home. Karina slept on the last two plane rides, which were only about an hour and a half. A minute amount of time compared to the ten hour plane ride from Kiev to JFK. She didn't sleep on that one at all. She also slept an hour at the airport. Her body was on Ukraine time still. My husband's and my body didn't know what time to be on. We arrived home around 10:30pm Tuesday night. Karina was very sleepy until she saw the people waiting for us at the airport. The airport was almost empty since it was so late. She was handed flowers and balloons. The balloons are still floating a little. I had to get some sleep around 1am that night since I hadn't had any and I think Karina and Dad finally got to sleep around 2am. Well, she didn't sleep long because she was up at 7am and has only slept until 7 or 8 each morning since, until this morning when we needed to get up for church!

She looked so forward to riding a bicycle when we arrived home. She wanted to do everything in the first day! lol She did get to ride her bicycle, meet some new friends, swing and watch a movie or two on that first day. She is getting better about her little pouty fits, they are shorter, but she is still very impatient and wants everything right away. I'm sure time will cure that. Her brothers have also taught her to play some of our board games, games on the computer and they taught her how to play the X-Box yesterday. She'll have to learn that she can't dominate it, though. There is give and take in a family. The boys have been very patient with her and have allowed me to rest a little in the afternoons and get over my jetlag. I am planning on this week being back to normal, at least as much as possible. She also demands a lot of my attention, but so do all the clothes and dishes, not to mention fixing meals.

We had a time yesterday shopping for shoes for church. We did only go to resale shops at first, so the selection is limited. She thinks that shoes only fit if they are exactly as long as your foot. We had such a time when we bought her some tennis shoes (I'm sorry, that's what I've always called them) She wanted to squeeze her foot into the ones she liked. We kept telling her they were too small which ended up in a little fit because she didn't get those that day. We went back the next day and they had some in a bigger size. We tried to show her how you need a little room at the end of your toes. It seemed like we got our point across, but yesterday you would have thought we never told her that. I did have some shoes where I had guessed her size and she said they fit. Well, after she wore them a few minutes, she told me they hurt her feet. I bought her some flip-flops. She wore those, then decided that they hurt her toes, so now she won't wear her brand new shoes.

At the resale shop, she picked out all the 'oo-la-la' shoes. That's what she says when she likes something. Every pair she picked had high heels and were beyond a doubt for women, not little girls. It has been hard convincing her to dress like a little girl, not a fashion model like you see on the streets of Ukraine. I finally ended up just going and picking out her shoes for church by myself. If she didn't know what was available, then no fits and she would just have to wear what she had. Later, when I can reason with her, I will take her and let her pick out her own shoes. She does like the ones I picked out. I wasn't going to totally ignore her likes. The shoes are just like what all the other little girls wear.

The church dress is another story. A friend of mine gave me some beautiful hand me down dresses in great shape. The one I wanted her to wear was a typical little girl dress. She said people would laugh at her. We had a hard time convincing her that they wouldn't. Until she actually want to church and saw that they didn't. Some of the girls dress a little more casual, but many do wear nice dresses.

This is what I think happened to make her think like that. When she visited here in our area over a year ago, she took back some similar style dresses to the orphanage. The one she is wearing in our video, the blue and white checked dress, where she is reading out of a Bible Story book to the preacher of the church and the director whose ministry brought the children over was her favorite one. That is what I consider a typical little girl dress. You know, a church dress. Anyway, apparently she was laughed at when she wore those dresses at the orphanage. We really never saw the kids dressed up there except when the boys wore suits for special performances. They wore mostly dirty play clothes and some only wore those plastic slides. I think I've seen them called soccer shoes. It is sad that she had that negative experience.

She had been pretty willing to wear the clothes I have for her except she thinks her shorts are too long. She's just going to have to get used to having a mother tell her what she can't wear:)

Joy

Yesterday morning I watched Karina ride her bicycle way before I had planned on getting up. After traveling all day the day before. It has been over a year since we began this journey. Except for us talking in Russian, no one would know.

No one can know what a life changing experience this has been except the ones who have made that commitment. It was harder than I ever expected it to be, but I have gotten more from this experience than I could have ever imagined. In Kiev I met people who were there adopting for the same reason I was. I met a woman adopting four teenage children. Absolutely amazing.

We had the pleasure of spending time with a couple we met during the host program and their two new children. I had the Joy of experiencing plane, train and taxi rides, snow and sub zero weather, stinky socks, and weeks in a foreign country. I also got to meet and know personally, children living in an orphanage in a foreign country whose faces will always be with me.

We brought Karina home to a new life and she has fallen into place like the last piece in a puzzle.
Dennis

We're DONE!!!

We received our visa today at 2:30pm Ukraine time! We have flights reserved, but now we have to work out some details. There are two airports in our city. One is fifteen minutes away and the other is over an hour and a half, with no traffic. Guess which one we are tentatively booked to fly into? I'm sure we'll get it all worked out and hopefully will be home tomorrow night!

We met a mom today that has been here in Ukraine for almost 14 weeks! She and her husband have adopted 4 older children. Not all are biological siblings. After all the trials it's nice to be reminded of why we started this journey in the first place. But, I really, really miss home.

Hopefully the next post will be from home :)

Phase One of the VISA application done!

The passport finally arrived today! :) It didn't come until after 12pm, so we went to the Embassy this morning and took them some of the required documents and filled out forms to get the process started. They said that we could go ahead and start the process with the passport number. Then, later this afternoon, we took the original documents and the passport back to the Embassy. We weren't able to do the medical today, so that will be done on Monday morning. We have an appointment to receive the VISA at 2pm on Monday!! We are praying that all goes smoothly and we will be out of here on Tuesday. Finally!

I forgot to tell about the train problem. Our roomie never showed up! Our facilitator traded us his bottom berth since he couldn't make the train that night. I told him that the person might not be willing to trade a bottom for an upper, but we didn't have to even worry about it. It was so nice having the cabin all to ourselves. Our friends rode in the cabin next to us with their two (new:) children. Having them here has really helped our attitudes (and theirs) all the way around.

In Kiev for the last time

We arrived here in Kiev by train yesterday (Wednesday) Unfortunately (this is our facilitator's favorite word) the passport isn't here. We haven't heard anything, but are hoping that our facilitator will be able to pick the passport up tomorrow. The bad thing is that it is in Lugansk, far away from Kiev. We will be able to start the visa process, though once our facilitator knows the passport number, which is good. But, we won't make it out of Ukraine this weekend. At least we have another family here in Kiev with us to pass the time. After I finish this post, we are headed to ride the Funicular. We are so disappointed that things are taking this long, but we decided to try and do some fun things that we may never be able to do again.

I'm sure many are asking, including us, why is this taking so long? Many families have their passport within a week. We were told last Tuesday that some of the papers have been lost. Our friends only have one week into their passport wait for their two children, so they are hoping and praying that the passport office gets their stuff straight by the time their children's passports are due.

Still Waiting

(Should I warn you first that this is a very long post since I haven't posted since Monday?;)

Nothing much happened with the passport all week since the last post on Monday. Our facilitator was told yesterday, Friday, that he will be able to pick up the passport on Tuesday. It needs one more stamp so that K can go abroad permanently. Of course, Monday is a holiday (again) so we have to wait until Tuesday. In America, a passport is a passport is a passport. An adult passport is good for ten years. I'm not sure about a child's passport, but both are good for visiting anywhere in the world. There are no different levels of passports. Here in Ukraine, from what I think I understand, there are temporary and permanent passports and maybe many more levels.
Anyway, we are supposed to be able to pick up the passport on Tuesday. We've waited so long now, I'll only relax when it's in our possession.

We have had a full week otherwise. We have some friends that arrived here on Wednesday that were at the same place in their adoption as we were when we arrived. They have completed their two children's passport applications (a brother and sister). They are staying with us in the apartment. This apartment is larger than most we've seen here. It has two very large rooms, one small room and a tiny kitchen with only a hot pot. They were told the local hotel, the nice one anyway, is full, so we were more than happy to have them stay with us. It sure helps the time to pass much more quickly to be able to have someone to converse with (in English:) and share similar experiences. The mom of this family and I talk frequently by email, but both dads have never really gotten to know each other, so I think this is really good for both of them. Plus, us moms, had already decided to keep in touch because the children are from the same orphanage. We are all taking the train to Kiev on Tuesday evening. That will be an experience for both of us. The train to (and from) Kiev is very popular here. We could only get tickets from Lugansk, which will end up okay since we have to go there anyway to pick up the passport. There are too many of us to ride in one cab, though. But, we do have tickets in cabins right next to each other. I was looking at our eight tickets, because we wanted to buy the whole cabin, and noticed that we only had three of one cabin and one seat number was way off in the first cabin. I think, I may be wrong here, but it is my supposition that people buy bottom bunks in first class and someone bought the first bottom bunk in our cabin, so we have one bottom and two uppers. We are hoping (and praying) that the one person in our cabin with that other bunk will want to exchange tickets. The only problem is that it is and upper bunk and that's why we were able to buy it. I can't remember if I wrote about this already but on the way here, my husband and I shared a cabin with two men. We really had the two upper bunks. One of the men was already in the cabin when we arrived. We sat on one of the bottom bunks and when the other man arrived, he saw me and didn't really say anything and took the top bunk. We were very blessed that they were so nice. I've heard many other stories about train experiences. I couldn't sleep, though. It was so very hot. So, I was determined that we would buy our tickets soon enough to have a whole cabin to ourselves. We are praying that this other person won't want to ride with children and be willing to switch tickets with us.

Karina is very excited that she will get to spend some time with our friends and their children. She visited with them at the orphanage while they were here for the first part of their adoption. She has calmed down quite a bit. I think she is finally understanding that Mama and Papa want to give her things, but not because she gets mad at us for not doing it or any of the other bad behaviors she has demonstrated. All of our disagreements have stemmed from her being mad because she didn't get her way. From what I've observed, the other children at the orphanage seemed to want to appease her if she was mad at them, so she tried transferring that behavior to us. She learned pretty quickly that we didn't respond favorably to that type of behavior. We went all day yesterday without one mad spell! There is light at the end of the tunnel!! Maybe we are getting the message across. We did end up at the orphanage for a little while yesterday to meet up with our friends to walk to the orphanage director's house for dinner. She lives right across the street from the orphanage in a house. She and her husband have been slowly remodeling it for about ten years. I've heard that's the ultimate dream here to have your own house to fix up. Anyway, Karina was different during this orphanage visit. I could see her time with us has changed her. She and her dad had bought some candy to take and of course she wanted to give every bit of it away to the first children she saw. Dad convinced her to wait just a little. She even ended up giving away the bag she brought the candy in, which I had bought for her. I can understand better now. She probably sees how much more she has and will have than her friends.

We got a lot of great Pictures of her friends for keepsakes for her. We will probably send some to them as well. They just love seeing their pictures in the digital camera. I think digital cameras are the best invention ever!! You can take as many photos as you want, save them all, then only develop the ones you want.

We also met an Italian couple that is here adopting an adorable seven year old boy. He is so happy. He smiles all the time. He doesn't look seven though. He is so small. The husband could speak a good amount of English, he said he didn't know much, but he knew enough to converse with us and understand everything we said. They told us that another Italian couple was also here adopting. I am very glad to see the children from this orphanage being referred for adoption. We were told that until this year, there were only a handful of adoptions from this orphanage. If I told you the town name, I'm pretty sure that not very many people would know it. One disadvantage many of the children in this orphanage have toward being adopted is that the majority have many siblings. One little girl is one of six or seven children living at the orphanage. That is a very sad thing to me that whole families are not together.

Our dad was very sad yesterday because of our host child. She always comes up to us when we're there. She hugs us and calls us Mama and Papa. That was very hard for me to take since she told us no. It was very confusing to me. Then I realized, that even though her aunt visits her occasionally, at least we gave her something. We showed her what a family could be like and we gave her love. We will still keep in touch with her and probably the other children we have met there. This has truly been a life changing experience for us. There are so many children here who need families.

We promised Karina and our host child that we would visit one last time on Monday. Karina saw that her dad was upset. She can't stand to see us cry, even when it is happy tears. She told her dad not to cry today. He can cry on Monday and she will too.