Amusement Ukrainian Style

Today, we skipped going to the orphanage to go to the only park in town. In winter and even in Spring, it is pretty much empty, but this time of year, it seems like everyone in town is at this park! There are several rides, cars to drive (like bumper cars, but they don't let you bump each other)and those big balloon jumping things. This is our third time to go. Karina always wants to go to the jumping things. I think she has a goal of trying to talk us into so many rides each time we go. Last time, just Dennis and Karina rode the ferris wheel. This time, I rode it. I realized it was going so slow that I agreed to go this time. The only scary part was that it takes you so high and the wind was very strong. Sometimes the wind blows so hard you'd think you were on the Gulf.

We usually get cotton candy because it is only 5 greevna, but this time we ate. They served the same food that we had eaten at the restaurant in the same complex. (There is a disco, hotel, restaurant, outside restaurant that serves shish-kabobs and this other outside eatery in the same park) Other than the cushy seats, the food was the same as served in the restaurant, but cheaper. The three of us ate for around $7! We ate 'kutlyeta Kyivskee', 'kartoful free'(aka - french fries) and 'Gryeshkee salat' plus a bottled drink apiece.

We've also found a little outside cafe right in the complex where we are staying. We've eaten lunch there twice. The three of us have gotten a 'bootirbradt', 'salat' and drinks for a little over $5.

We did also buy a one burner hot plate and deep skillet with a lid, so we can cook sometimes. The other day, when we took our long 3 hour walk, we did stop at the bank and a little cafe for pelemini soup. It was very good, but also very hot! It was served with dill, mushrooms, sour cream and of course, pelemini. It was a little more expensive than our other places. It was more like $10 for all of us to eat. With my new hot plate, I cooked pelemini for a $1 for enough for all of us to get full:) It was really good, too!

We have so many more options now that we have the hot plate and the new places we've found to eat. We'll have to find places to walk, though, so I won't gain weight from all the good food!

Waiting

Today we visited T as usual. After, we decided not to call a taxi, but walk a little bit towards town. We walked all the way back to the apartment. It was my idea to keep going. We stopped and ate lunch at a bar/restaraunt Karina suggested.
The food was good, but I think it makes a better bar than a restaraunt.

At the city park, there were taxis there. No! Not when we are so close. Well, within a mile and a half anyway. I looked at it as an adventure. The girls didn't agree with that, something about needing the bath room. We left the orphanage at 1:30 and it was well after 4:00 when we got to the apartment. Maybe I am just a little crazy, but I'm not dangerous. It was fun.

Every day T seems to accept me just a little more. I am relieved to see a little progress. I hug her and give her a kiss on top of the head. I told her today that I would always do that, and she gave me a smile.

Papa

We Have Our Court Date

Boys and girls. Take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

Our court date is July 10th. We had planned to go home after receiving such good news.This morning we looked at air fare. We did some math and decided to go home for almost two weeks. Anyone who has been here knows nothing is simple. We have train tickets to Kiev. Air was faster, but not available. We find out our travel agent who gets us the good deals is on vacation. The "good" judge is on vacation also. That is why we have a July 10th court date. So, back to the internet to find round trip tickets. That would have been a simple task if we could charge a minimum of 3,800 for plane tickets. With the cost of air fare and the amount of time we would be home, we have decided to stay in beautiful S-town.
We bought our facilitator a fair well City Pizza dinner and sent him home tonight.June says she isn't upset over the last two days, but Papa knows better. I'm going to buy minutes for the phone and stop off at the beer tent before heading home.

Papa

Holding Pattern

Right now, we are just waiting until Tuesday when our facilitator gets back. We are supposed to find out when court will be. We already know it won't be before the first part of July. We just visit the orphanage every day from 10am until 1pm. The rest of the day, we just try to find things to keep us busy. One day doesn't seem any different from the rest.

At the orphanage, I usually just sit on a bench outside watching the kids. I've started eating sunflower seeds for something to do to pass the time. The packages are cheap and we can share them with the kids. Dennis walks to the closest little store every visit. We see pretty much the same children every day. Many of the children are part of sibling groups of at least four or more. One little girl who we thought had two younger sisters, really has three. She always says 'hi' to me and has given me pictures that she's drawn. It's sad to think that all these children want a family so bad, but there are not many people willing to take on large sibling groups. Until the year we adopted, not many children had been adopted from this orphanage. All the children we are seeing now have no family to stay with during the summer. It is a smaller group than what is usually here during the rest of the year. What will happen to them when they age out? Where will they go? It's hard not to think about that when we see them every day.

A Post From Papa

It is hard for me to take what I feel and put it in print. We visit the orphanage every day. T and K talk and play. I do not relate well with T. Yesterday and today T gave me a hug. That is progress.
The weather is nice. I sit outside and talk and smile at the kids. My new friend's name starts with a T also, so I will call her TF. As June said there is another couple that came today to adopt a teenage girl. TF had a little break down and cried. She can speek some English and I got her to tell me that she misses her mother. I suppose her seeing T and L getting adoptive families is hard for her. After the tears, she told me that maybe a coke from the little store nearby would help. The orphanage is more in the country and the walk to the store is relaxing. There are cherry trees along the road with cherries turning red. Something I have never seen. It is beautiful to me.
Today the kids were filling a swimming pool. They brought out the fire hose to fill the pool. Now I know why there is no water in the apartment. I watched them drink that dirty water comming out of the hose and thought what it would do to me.

If I could stop time and stay here for twenty years, I think I would. Like the movie "Harvey". I could stay for a while and return without a second of time passing. But reality is only a phone call away. My sons were out and had car trouble with the family car. I was proud of my sons repairing the car and taking care of their dad from half a world away. Ha-rah-shoh sim-yah.

I have said that I feel closer to God when I am here. This second trip makes me realize that He is always there, I just need His strength more when I am here.

Papa Dennis

Differences

The first time we were here, it was freezing. Temperatures got down to minus 10 and 11 Fahrenheit. Both of us have always lived on the Gulf Coast, so this was a shock to us! It rarely snows where we live, much less gets under freezing.

This visit is very different. There are actually green plants everywhere. We saw gardens in almost every open space near homes along the train tracks. People are planting flowers everywhere. There were a couple of hot, humid days here, but since the rain a couple of days ago, it has been cool. One night it was even cool enough for a jacket. That never happens at home during the summer!

T looks forward to visiting with us every day. There were a couple of days she didn't want to hug Papa, but we found out that the kids tease her. Today, though, as we were all getting into the taxi, she asked Papa for a hug. We also found out that one of the teachers was giving her a hard time for staying with us instead of eating.

There is another girl here getting adopted by a couple who live in our state. We will probably keep in touch with them. She and T are singing buddies.

Another thing I've noticed that is different from what many adoptive parents have said is that the women here wear every color imaginable. I like wearing capris in the summer and I have seen many wear them here. Though, they are much tighter than I would wear mine! Shoes are bright colors as well and they don't necessarily match the clothes, but they do have to match the purse. lol I've also seen striped shirts with print pants. Combinations I wouldn't put together. Also, the brighter the colors, the better. Summer dress is the opposite of winter dress.

Trying to Establish a Routine

We are finally getting our bearings around here. At first it seemed like it took forever to do anything. Finding food is a major undertaking. There are many, many places to buy food, but they all carry something different. We like Coke Light. Only a few places have it. We DON'T like bologna, but we try to find the best quality and will eat it in pinch. All places have bologna. lol Chicken is our first choice, but you can't find chicken lunch meat. We can buy a whole rotisserie chicken at a little place called the 'Chicken Grille' That is all they sell. The chicken is very good. We can also buy chicken kabobs at the supermarket, but three kabobs are almost as much as a whole chicken. Our next choice of meat is ham or 'veecheenah'. The quality of that varies. It isn't really any more expensive than the salami or 'kielbasa' you find everywhere here. We can find lots to eat, but all of it gets boring when you are trying to find enough to eat for three meals every day and are limited to just a hot pot.

We go to the orphanage every day from 10am until 1pm. We do look forward to seeing all our little friends. Yesterday, we came as they were all washing the rugs. That was a pretty good way to keep them all busy and wear them out. lol The orphanage has an above ground pool that 10 kids at a time can swim in after their afternoon nap. They have to wait until there is someone to supervise them. They were using the water in the pool to wash and rinse the rugs. This soon became a contest as to who could dump the most water on whom.

The orphanage is down in numbers right now because it is summer and many of the children are with their parents or other relatives. It is hard to understand why they stay in the orphanage if they have relatives. Our facilitator stated the same thing. He doesn't understand either and this is his country. He said even if they are poor, they should be able to find a way to make it work. The orphanage is really not referred to as an orphanage here. They call it an internat or boarding school. Many families here are single mothers with many children in the family. One girl told us she is the only girl in the family with five brothers. I think that is why. This orphanage has many large sibling groups. Alcohol abuse is another reason. If parents are found neglectful, their rights are terminated. The sad thing is that the majority don't take steps to have their rights re-instated.

S-Town

We have settled in in S-town. All is well and T and everyone seems happy. We visit in the morning with T and the other children. We have been staying outside to visit and we can see the other kids also. My little sweetie N had a birthday this week. She turned twelve. We took her a card and gift and some cake things for the kids. It rips a hole in my heart every time I spend time with those kids. They all come by to check things out, but then there are our friends who stay to spend time with us.
The courtyard is big and most is paved. They ride bicycles, kick balls, and just hang around.

They did not have the funds to send them to camp this year so they have little to do. P is the most friendly of the boys. He won an award for his drawings and ran in three different times to show us drawings and projects he had done. P is fifteen and appears to be maybe twelve. He is always laughing and always glad to see us and likes to spend time with the cab driver.

Part of me had rather not get to know these kids any better. If you know they are here, but you don't know who they are, it is easier not to care. But if you spend time with them, and you are sitting here with candy in your pocket that they have insisted you take from them, then it's not as easy not to care.

Papa Dennis

Crazy Busy

Yesterday, we were sitting here at the internet place when the lady in charge decided to turn off all the computers because of lightning. They have four new computers for the internet. They are so much nicer than the old slow ones they had last year. I had a terrible time last year typing for any length of time with the old keyboards.

Anyway, we have been kept very busy ever since our SDA appointment on Wednesday morning at 9am. Things went very well. We received our referral the same evening, then raced off to catch the train. We met a couple from Mississippi and saw another couple we met on the plane. They had their SDA appointment the day before, but had to wait for their referral because the lady who signs them was off on Tuesday.

Now, on to the news, I'm sure you're waiting to hear. We arrived in S-town at 8:50 am. We were met by our friend's taxi driver and another taxi because we had too much luggage. Eighty percent of our luggage is shoes, clothes and toys for the kids. We grew to know and love so many of these kids during our last visit, that we just had to bring them some things. I thought we had agreed to wait until the last to give them their toys, but Dennis is so anxious to give the toys to them, he said we would take some tomorrow. We'll see. We love giving them things, but we can't bring them loads of stuff every day. They will come to expect it.

After departing the train, we drive to S-town and unload our stuff at our now very familiar apartment. They are ready for us with the keys. It looks exactly the same except I believe they did finally get a new mattress for that extremely saggy bed. It had two valleys on each side with a hill in the middle. LOL We then drive to the inspector's office. I recognize her right away. It took her a few minutes to realize who we were even after she saw Karina. Karina had grown and changed so much in the last year. The facilitator, Dennis, Karina and I squeeze into the back seat of this oh-so-little-car with the inspector in the front seat. Anyone who's been here knows what I'm talking about. The director is not in today, so we meet with the assistant director, N, and the head of the teachers along with T. T is excited to see us all. If you knew her, you would definitely know this is very good. She is very shy. They are telling us all the good things about her. She is then asked to write a statement that she wants to be adopted by us and go to America. The inspector asked her to do this so that she won't have to make another visit to the orphanage. She writes a paper with the proper wording and signs her last name. This is so much better than the first time we arrived in December 2007. T was very stand-offish and told everyone she didn't know whether she wanted to come with us and wanted 2 days to think about it. This time, though, we told her we needed to decide on her new middle name. She will keep her first name. Karina came on this trip to be our interpreter, but at this moment she was busy talking to some of the other kids. T does her little pouty face and I don't understand why. I was afraid she was wanting to change her mind. What she wanted was to tell Karina what she had decided her middle name should be. Gabriella. She wanted the name of a High School Musical character. We are thrilled because this means she has been thinking about it!:) She is anxious to come. She's afraid her aunt will interfere. We have told her that this is her decision. She has all the say. Of course, we want her to come, but only if it is really what she wants. And it is!:)

A Trip to Remember

Well, I originally wanted a catchier title than the regular, 'we are in Kiev or Hello from Kiev'. We are here, but not without a ton of 'excitement'. The first leg of our flight was very normal. Nothing unexpected. We arrived at JFK, found things to do to pass the time, walked around, found out where our gate was supposed to be, ate lunch at a somewhat expensive Chili's in the airport, then settled in the waiting area of our 'supposed' gate to watch planes. We later find out that we needed to be at another gate. Karina found a 'babushka' to talk to. She wanted to practice her English. She helped another lady figure out how to dial the phone since she only spoke Russian. Then, it was time to board the plane. Everything went like all normal flights were supposed to go, until about midnight New York time, 5am London time. So, you should be saying, 'why did she mention London?' Well, it seems that our flight crew decided to make an unexpected landing in London. One attendant said there were electrical issues, then the captain came on the loud speaker and said there was some oil leaking out of engine number one. Of course, they didn't want around 150 or so passengers panicking, but they sure landed that plane fast! The captain said that since it was 5am in London, no repair crew was available to fix our plane, so we sat for a while and waited. Then they told us that we would be staying the night at the Holiday Inn there and leaving the next morning. That was somewhat okay for us even though we had no phone or internet to communicate with anyone. There were two other families on the plane with SDA appointments the next morning, so they had to find a way out. They were exhausted once they arrived here, but the airline did find them a flight out that afternoon. They would have liked a direct flight like they booked, but at least they made it to their appointments.

Anyway, we are here in Kiev now at the internet cafe in Independence Square. We've walked around exploring and eaten a couple of meals. We are staying just around the corner from and have spent the evening with R.

I'll have to tell why I will never want to go through London again in another post so that I will remember:0

Morning Flight

We are flying to Kiev, Ukraine in the morning. It is here. June is right, I can't decide what to take. We have three check in bags, maybe four, that are right at fifty pounds each. The more you take as donations and gifts, the less room you have for your own clothes. You want to take the best for the kids and then have to cram your clothes in a carry on bag.

I must take my journal. Last trip it helped to write down what happened that day. You do a lot, and you see a lot, and some days are pretty darn emotional. I write what we have endured that day in my journal and then, just maybe, I can close my eyes at the end of the day. Sometimes not.

If there is anything anyone wants from Kiev or Stakhanov, let me know. How about a pair of pointy Ukraine shoes? Maybe a Ukraine disco CD?
S&T, I wish I could bring you a Premium Bologna pizza from City Pizza. Better yet, we'll just meet you there for pizza and piva.

Papa Dennis

Last Post Before We Arrive in Kiev

This will probably be the last time I will be able to post before we land in Kiev on Monday morning. I only have today and tomorrow to get everything done. We are almost all packed. Someone in our family procrastinates until the last moment, but we won't mention his name;) To be fair, though, he did give me most of his clothes last night, he just has to pick out a couple more things.

Well, I'm off now to finish up all the little detail things that need to be done before we are away from home for at least 4-6 weeks. Please pray it is closer to 4! We'll post again once we arrive in Kiev.

Dos-vah-don-yah!:)
(Goodbye)