Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Video of Pictures
Hubby and our youngest son created a video with pictures from our trip that you can see to the right.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
It's still Christmas in Kiev!
Since we have some time before we leave, we thought we would go walking and exploring yesterday and today. We've found a lot of places that I've read about and seen pictures of on other adoption blogs and in our Ukraine travel guide by Bradt. We found a huge park with a soccer stadium at one end and lots of statues. There are a couple of overlooks viewing the frozen Dneper (Dnipro?) River. The river has waves in the ice like it froze while flowing. We saw a couple of areas where crowds were gathered with people in Santa Claus suits and big stuffed animal suits similar to characters at Disney World. There were also blue-coated Santa type figures that I think may be Father Frost, but don't quote me. I'm not an expert on Ukrainian traditions.
Last night, we decided to explore another street that we hadn't been down before. The Santa celebrations were still going on. There is a gigantic lighted Christmas tree in Independence Square. More elaborate than we have ever seen. It has about three different patterns of lights including colored diamond shapes. There are all types of lights lining the streets and all the way down the one we planned to explore. All the lighting is beautiful! We didn't expect anything like that and got out of the apartment without our camera. We plan on capturing some of the sights in a little while since it gets dark here at 4pm.
Today, we found a long, skinny underground mall under Kreschatyk street. I hope I spelled that right. There is every kind of specialty shop imaginable. Now, finding a grocery store with all the things you need like TP, toothpaste, water and food is a different challenge.
We've eaten at 3 different restaurants since FRiday. We ate at O'Brien's, an Irish style pub where the waitresses speak English, which is across the street and down to the right a little from our apartment building. Yesterday, we ate at Budmos, which specializes in Ukrainian food. Ask for their English menu. It was good, but small portions compared to the restaurants we're used to. Also, we thought O'Brien's was expensive, but both restaurants were comparable in price. Budmos' is near O'Brien's, on the street that crosses our apartment street. Budmo's is in the middle of two other restaurants that we think serve Ukrainian food also. Today, we ate at Double Coffee. I got the Greek Salad which has been good at other places, but Double Coffee doesn't seem to put the dressing on it. Hubby got a cheeseburger. He found out it is literally a 'cheese' burger. It was a bun with a round breaded cheese-stick inside.
I'm running out of time on this computer, but after I get settled at home, (will be there Wednesday) I'm going to detail more of our food experiences.
Last night, we decided to explore another street that we hadn't been down before. The Santa celebrations were still going on. There is a gigantic lighted Christmas tree in Independence Square. More elaborate than we have ever seen. It has about three different patterns of lights including colored diamond shapes. There are all types of lights lining the streets and all the way down the one we planned to explore. All the lighting is beautiful! We didn't expect anything like that and got out of the apartment without our camera. We plan on capturing some of the sights in a little while since it gets dark here at 4pm.
Today, we found a long, skinny underground mall under Kreschatyk street. I hope I spelled that right. There is every kind of specialty shop imaginable. Now, finding a grocery store with all the things you need like TP, toothpaste, water and food is a different challenge.
We've eaten at 3 different restaurants since FRiday. We ate at O'Brien's, an Irish style pub where the waitresses speak English, which is across the street and down to the right a little from our apartment building. Yesterday, we ate at Budmos, which specializes in Ukrainian food. Ask for their English menu. It was good, but small portions compared to the restaurants we're used to. Also, we thought O'Brien's was expensive, but both restaurants were comparable in price. Budmos' is near O'Brien's, on the street that crosses our apartment street. Budmo's is in the middle of two other restaurants that we think serve Ukrainian food also. Today, we ate at Double Coffee. I got the Greek Salad which has been good at other places, but Double Coffee doesn't seem to put the dressing on it. Hubby got a cheeseburger. He found out it is literally a 'cheese' burger. It was a bun with a round breaded cheese-stick inside.
I'm running out of time on this computer, but after I get settled at home, (will be there Wednesday) I'm going to detail more of our food experiences.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Final Court
One Note: Annonymous(es), please sign at least your first name so I'll know who you are:)
I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post in a couple of days. The past few days have gone by very quickly. When you wait here in Ukraine, you wait! When things start happening, watch out:)
We showed up for our 2nd and final court appearance on Thursday, January 10 at 10am. The director had just arrived with K. We all walked into the courthouse together. Shortly after, the Social Worker arrived. We waited in the hall until we were told we could go into the courtroom. At one end is the bench where the judge sits with a juror on either side of him. There were two ladies in their beautiful fur coats in those seats. They walked in after we were already seated on the wooden pew-type benches. We stood as they filed in. There was another lady sitting on the side to the left of us. We're not really sure who she was, but she asked a lot of questions.
We were asked if we believe in this court, and we said yes. That's what our facilitator said which I'm sure meant that we recognized the power of that court. We were told that we could ask for another judge and jury. We didn't have the same judge as the first day because he was ill. The first judge was a white haired in his late fifties early sixties and very nice. This judge was younger, maybe in his thirties. We really didn't get to meet him. There was a lot of reading of Ukrainian legal papers before during and after. We were asked to stand up and state our names, where we were born, where we live now and jobs. I was so nervous, I let my husband do most of the speaking when possible. K was able to sit between us. She was nervous also when asked to speak. She had to tell about how she came to the orphanage. The Social worker and orphanage worker were asked to speak also. The lady on our left asked questions about how we would provide for K, health insurance and something about education insurance. I'm not sure what that meant. We were asked how we would communicate with K. I've learned some Russian, not near enough to understand anyone here, but a few words here and there to help, so I told them that and that we had taken a Russian language class and had Russian language CDs. Before that the lady asked how we knew K. She also asked why we weren't adopting the child who stayed in our home during the camp K came to America for. The fact that we hosted a child wasn't mentioned so either they assumed we hosted a child or they read our dossier. We were asked to each make a closing statement. Dennis did very well. I started by saying that we had always wanted more children and I was unable to have any more, so we considered adoption. Then, I couldn't help it. I couldn't hold the emotion back anymore. K was upset that I was crying some. She was telling me no, and wiping my eyes. She acts like that is a bad thing. I tell her they are happy tears, but she still doesn't seem to understand.
The court recessed for 5-10 minutes. It seemed like an eternity. They came back and we all stood up. The judge started reading the paper in front of him, in Ukrainian of course. I kept hearing him say, K's new name and looking at K to see her reaction. She had no reaction. Our facilitator was in front of me. I didn't see any reactions from anyone else. After the judge was through, our facilitator turned around and congratulated us telling us we were parents. The two lady jurors walked by and each talked to K with tears in their eyes. I couldn't see the one straight in front of me, but my husband said she was tearing up the whole time. We were very blessed to have two compassionate ladies as jurors.
We still have the 10 day wait with an unknown wait for the birth certificate from Moscow. We spent a few hours with K and rode the train to Kiev on Thursday night. We are in Kiev until Tuesday. We were able to use the remainder of our roundtrip tickets on Aerosvit. Now we just need to book a flight home from JFK. It will be nice to be home for a while, but we will miss K terribly. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we are flying back over here.
I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post in a couple of days. The past few days have gone by very quickly. When you wait here in Ukraine, you wait! When things start happening, watch out:)
We showed up for our 2nd and final court appearance on Thursday, January 10 at 10am. The director had just arrived with K. We all walked into the courthouse together. Shortly after, the Social Worker arrived. We waited in the hall until we were told we could go into the courtroom. At one end is the bench where the judge sits with a juror on either side of him. There were two ladies in their beautiful fur coats in those seats. They walked in after we were already seated on the wooden pew-type benches. We stood as they filed in. There was another lady sitting on the side to the left of us. We're not really sure who she was, but she asked a lot of questions.
We were asked if we believe in this court, and we said yes. That's what our facilitator said which I'm sure meant that we recognized the power of that court. We were told that we could ask for another judge and jury. We didn't have the same judge as the first day because he was ill. The first judge was a white haired in his late fifties early sixties and very nice. This judge was younger, maybe in his thirties. We really didn't get to meet him. There was a lot of reading of Ukrainian legal papers before during and after. We were asked to stand up and state our names, where we were born, where we live now and jobs. I was so nervous, I let my husband do most of the speaking when possible. K was able to sit between us. She was nervous also when asked to speak. She had to tell about how she came to the orphanage. The Social worker and orphanage worker were asked to speak also. The lady on our left asked questions about how we would provide for K, health insurance and something about education insurance. I'm not sure what that meant. We were asked how we would communicate with K. I've learned some Russian, not near enough to understand anyone here, but a few words here and there to help, so I told them that and that we had taken a Russian language class and had Russian language CDs. Before that the lady asked how we knew K. She also asked why we weren't adopting the child who stayed in our home during the camp K came to America for. The fact that we hosted a child wasn't mentioned so either they assumed we hosted a child or they read our dossier. We were asked to each make a closing statement. Dennis did very well. I started by saying that we had always wanted more children and I was unable to have any more, so we considered adoption. Then, I couldn't help it. I couldn't hold the emotion back anymore. K was upset that I was crying some. She was telling me no, and wiping my eyes. She acts like that is a bad thing. I tell her they are happy tears, but she still doesn't seem to understand.
The court recessed for 5-10 minutes. It seemed like an eternity. They came back and we all stood up. The judge started reading the paper in front of him, in Ukrainian of course. I kept hearing him say, K's new name and looking at K to see her reaction. She had no reaction. Our facilitator was in front of me. I didn't see any reactions from anyone else. After the judge was through, our facilitator turned around and congratulated us telling us we were parents. The two lady jurors walked by and each talked to K with tears in their eyes. I couldn't see the one straight in front of me, but my husband said she was tearing up the whole time. We were very blessed to have two compassionate ladies as jurors.
We still have the 10 day wait with an unknown wait for the birth certificate from Moscow. We spent a few hours with K and rode the train to Kiev on Thursday night. We are in Kiev until Tuesday. We were able to use the remainder of our roundtrip tickets on Aerosvit. Now we just need to book a flight home from JFK. It will be nice to be home for a while, but we will miss K terribly. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we are flying back over here.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Court Today
Our preliminary court appearance must have gone well because we have a court date for Thursday at 10am. The judge asked us if we knew K, when we met her, why we wanted to adopt her, if the other members of our family are in agreement to bring her into our home and if we were both in agreement. Then he asked the orphanage director questions. We're not sure exactly what they were except for asking about her family. We'll have to get all the answers later.
Since our court date is Thursday, we were hoping to head home that night but the airline we have our round-trip tickets with doesn't have any room availabe until the 17th. Our original departure date is the 24th. I was surprised that the flights are so booked out of here in January. I guess they want to get away from the freezing temperatures as much as we do! I tried to find other flights, but they are very expensive, so I'm not sure what we will do.
Since our court date is Thursday, we were hoping to head home that night but the airline we have our round-trip tickets with doesn't have any room availabe until the 17th. Our original departure date is the 24th. I was surprised that the flights are so booked out of here in January. I guess they want to get away from the freezing temperatures as much as we do! I tried to find other flights, but they are very expensive, so I'm not sure what we will do.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Countdown to Court
Well, we are finally down to just a few days before our first of two court appearances. Our court date is still on Tuesday, the 8th. Our facilitator has been out of town celebrating the Holidays in Kiev for the past two weeks and will arrive here the morning of our court date. Talk about cutting it close!
In the meantime, we have been visiting our little girl everyday at the orphanage. She likes to ask us, 'Mama, Papa, K, symeya?'(family) We tell her yes, she is our dochka (daughter) She seems to need assurance. We've told her what day we are going to court. I made a calendar one day and showed her how many days from that one to when we go to court. Then told her that Mama and Papa will go the first day, then she and the orphanage director will come whenever the judge says. Of course, I am not fluent in Russian (which is what she speaks) but with a Russian dictionary, the few words I know and an electronic translator a friend let us borrow, we get the point across. I think she's learning some English along the way too. There is an English teacher at their school, but if you don't have someone fluent in the language you are learning, it's hard to retain. Like us learning Russian.
Today, we were granted a very high honor. When we took her back to the building where her room is, she went and brought out her treasure box. She was showing me the contents of it. She shows me things all the time, like drawings she's done and such. Then, she told me to take it home to America. We plan on going home during the ten day court wait and she knows that. I don't know exactly why she wants us to take it now instead of waiting until we come to pick her up for good from the orphanage, but we will. Maybe it will give her comfort to know that something of hers is already in her new home before she gets there.
In the meantime, we have been visiting our little girl everyday at the orphanage. She likes to ask us, 'Mama, Papa, K, symeya?'(family) We tell her yes, she is our dochka (daughter) She seems to need assurance. We've told her what day we are going to court. I made a calendar one day and showed her how many days from that one to when we go to court. Then told her that Mama and Papa will go the first day, then she and the orphanage director will come whenever the judge says. Of course, I am not fluent in Russian (which is what she speaks) but with a Russian dictionary, the few words I know and an electronic translator a friend let us borrow, we get the point across. I think she's learning some English along the way too. There is an English teacher at their school, but if you don't have someone fluent in the language you are learning, it's hard to retain. Like us learning Russian.
Today, we were granted a very high honor. When we took her back to the building where her room is, she went and brought out her treasure box. She was showing me the contents of it. She shows me things all the time, like drawings she's done and such. Then, she told me to take it home to America. We plan on going home during the ten day court wait and she knows that. I don't know exactly why she wants us to take it now instead of waiting until we come to pick her up for good from the orphanage, but we will. Maybe it will give her comfort to know that something of hers is already in her new home before she gets there.
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