Y`all ain`t gonna believe this, we`re staying!!

Well, we have good news and bad news. What do you want first? Your going to get the good news first. As of 5:00 pm yesterday our ten day wait is up. No appeals, no nothing, Briley is ours!!! More good news- we`re still coming home. What is the bad news you may ask? - we won`t be coming home on the 4th as we had anticipated. We had to cancel our tickets. Due to reasons beyond our control and nobodies fault, we will be delayed a few days. When we get out of here we will be able to say why, but not until then. Today( Saturday) Vladimir, our landlord is going to take us to the big open market. There we want to find an authentic Ukrainian dress for Briley to wear someday and have as a keepsake. From what we hear there are quite a few out of the ordinary non U.S. type things there also that we will be taking pictures of I`m sure. Boxes of chicken feet come to mind. :) If something changes we`ll post more, but not a whole lot changes here. Remember the Groundhog day analogy? It hasn`t changed! Here are some more pictures that we thought you might like to see.

Hope this works- a little video of "The ride". This is when we found out about her no guts no glory, she wanted to pick up the speed. Yes, she is going to take after her mother!

At the orphanage there is a low spot in the sidewalk. They put this "bridge" up so when it floods you can get through.

Just a few chicken feet laying around. I`m assuming this is the chicken that lost the fight!! or what`s left of the chicken after trying to cross the road in front of a Russian taxi driver!!For the people that can afford them- "garages" Made out of metal- few and far in between.Just another trolley bus. We don't dare get on it - we might end up in Moscow!??Gail enjoying a picnic while in paradise. Notice the distance from the bench to the table! Even I couldn't belly up to this one.Oxana`s locker- I don`t think they`ll change it to Briley.This fish has the same look I would have gotten from Gail if I would have said anything about the burnt Skechers!!
Gail Here: If he keeps it up with Skechers joke - When we get back I'll be not only buying a new pair for Briley but also for "myself!" :-)

8 DAYS 6HRS 12 MIN. TO GO!!!!

Hi everyone, As the title states we are counting down. The time is really d r a g g i n g here. We continue to visit Briley twice a day and that helps, but not enough. Tomorrow we get to take her out of the orphanage to get her visa and passport photos taken. We are looking forward to seeing how she reacts to being out in public and just being "out" of the orphanage. We have her new duds to put on her for her pictures , so that will be fun to see also instead of the typical orphanage attire. We did take a cab today to a store that says it`s a Target store but not quite by our standards. It was nice for here and it helped alleviate our boredom somewhat. Last week we were whining about the rain. Guess what- we`d like it back because now we have snow and cold and that is worse yet. On Sat. afternoon we didn`t even go on our visit as it was blizzarding out. We don`t go on Sun. mornings so on Sunday afternoon when we finally got back there Briley gave us the "look" as if to say where in the world have you guys been!! She got over it right quickly and we are back in our daily routine. You know the one- two juice boxes, 1 banana,meat or cheese and assorted cookies plus 2 hrs of horseplay!! She continues to warm up to us to the point of throwing the other kids out of her way when she sees us. When we show up the caregivers say "Oxanna- mama and papa are here", so the other kids start saying "mama, papa, mama, papa". It doesn`t help that I like to grab one or two and put them on my lap, then they all get wound up, much to the dismay of the help. I figure they`ll get over it! :) The last few visits we have been using the office off of the groups play area to visit. Briley makes sure that the door is closed so she doesn`t have to share us with her little friends. For those of you asking about a potential go-karting career for Briley: she showed us today that she has the "need for speed". One caregiver brought us a little tykes 4 wheel scooter for lack of a better term. Gail would push her from one end of the room to me and I would push her back. She leaned back to minimize air friction and away she went. The faster the better was her theory. We all had a hoot for the better part of an hour. We`re going to call her the "Ragin` Russian"!! She`s going to have a sign on her bumper that says "You just got passed by a girl!"

On Monday we will finish up paperwork in her birth town and the region. From there we will head back to Kyiv. On Tuesday we will do our visa, medical exams and passport stuff. We will load and go early Wednesday morning. Hopefully everything goes alright. By the way, we are down to 8 days,5 hrs,58 minutes to go!! Not that we are counting or anything!

On a side note once the weather has gotten cold our apartment has gotten a little chilly. The floor is downright cold. Gail just got the idea to warm up her skechers over the flame on the stove. Not a good idea- she now has scorched skechers!! Her favorite pair too. Can you imagine what she`d call me if I did that? No, I didn`t say a word. I know better!!!

We have noticed that over here that the mechanical aptitude is not very well displayed. We got some pictures of some things that we noticed and will put down below. We have a few more things that we made a mental note to photograph this week pertaining to the same type of repairs and will put them on our next blog.

One thing we haven`t elaborated on is the driving here. For those of you that have been here before you know where we`re going with this. Typical taxi ride: drive up on curb to pick you up, try talking to you 3 times before he realizes that no, I really don`t speak Russian! Drive down two lane road as quickly as possible while honking at the rude pedestrians who dare to walk in front of you! If car in front of you is too slow take the middle lane! Notice that previously I said 2 lane road- it is still 2 lane but the middle is open to whoever gets there first in whatever direction they happen to be going. Don`t worry about other traffic as they will move out of your way. They usually do move as we haven`t seen any accidents, just near misses. While doing our taxi ride today the driver tried to talk to us in Russian and he finally realized that it was futile to communicate as he didn`t speak English either. The funny part is after we paid him his fare and gave him a little tip he says " Thank you very much" clear as a bell. hmmmmm.


Oh yeah, one other thing his week that made us go hmmmm............. We were leaving the orphanage one morning at 11:00 and as we came out of the gates we looked ahead of us at an apartment building and saw a bunch of flowers. I thought it was a flower stand at first glance. WRONG- there was a casket with stools around it right on the sidewalk and the flowers were for the memorials. It was an old style casket that is narrow at the bottom and wide at top. Looked to be made out of cardboard and purple velvet and it was parked right at the entrance to the apartment. I hope we don`t come out of our apartment some morning and get greeted with that sight. We would love to know the full story on why this is done but again, No speak Russian! We also don`t have hot water tonight so we have to plug in our auxiliary water heater in the closet to get hot water. Just another day in paradise. When we first got here we were curious as to why there was so much alcohol consumed by the young and old alike. We now have it figured out- if we were to have to stay much longer we would have to start drinking too, because there is nothing else to do!!!! Thinking about trying it nonetheless as it would have to help our ability to sleep on these things that they call beds here. In the US we would call it a sheet of plywood with a sheet but NO- here they call it a bed. We did look at some new cars today and they will be in the pictures below along with the prices.A little cheaper than the U.S. but not too sure about the brand names of some of them.

Some more of the food differences here:

- mushrooms are very popular and inexpensive, pickled, canned, fresh etc.

- Lays potato chips: crab flavor, mushroom flavor, ham flavor, bacon flavor, red pepper flavor

- piranha in the fish section- picture down below, Looks like piranha anyways

- whole Easter bunnies in the meat section( without fur or eggs of course)

- pig ears, pigs feet, not pickled- whole, just boil and slice according to our friend Vlad mmmgood

- fried lard slices- haven`t tried and don`t care too

- bread is eaten with lard spread on it. Have to request maslo(butter)better restaurants only- some don`t have butter at all

- pop- looks to be coke, coke light not diet, pepsi, sprite, fanta-haven`t seen a Mountain Dew since we left home.

- canned veggies, peas,peas and carrots, corn or mushrooms, no green beans to be seen

- icky looking watermelons in the meat case floating in a tub of liquid stuff

- haven`t bought any of the wienies over here, sorta scared of what`s in them

- there are things in the beef section that we didn`t even know are on a cow!!

- lots of alcohol in the aisles, mostly vodka obviously

- bulk frozen veggies in big boxes, just scoop what you need-

- bulk frozen whole shrimp with the eyes, again scoop what you need

- still can`t wait for a good glass of milk

- oranges here are very good- better than home


This is the $10,000 house I mentioned in the last post. Tin type roof and wood type siding.
Every apartment has these benches outside, some nice, some broken or bent.
Trolley bus that runs on electricity, notice the rods going up in the back to the power lines. Lines go everywhere in town.When the base board is too wide to get cabinet up against the wall. No problem,you trim the cabinet off to fit.Picnic table along our path we take every day.Sewer cover by all the apartments, this one is actually in good shape. Most are in disrepair.Hole in the side of the apartment with a coat thrown in to help the cats keep warm.Pretty typical car here. Notice the static straps hanging off of rear bumper.Ukrainian pickup. No Chevys, Dodges or Fords here.New 4 door 4 wheel drive, make unknown- About $12,000Nice car for $11,000. A little"bug" type car inside the store was $6,000Good selection of paraphernalia at the mall.Besides vodka they love their coffee over here. These Nescafe machines are everywhere.Grandma Judy and Tory skyping us. This is the view we look forward to seeing every day. Her eyes don`t usually glow like that!! :)Briley doing some "hot laps" with her set of wheels.
These are the "piranha"type fish we saw today in the fresh fish section.

SEE YOU SOON!!!!!

Hi guys and gals,
We know it`s been awhile but between the internet not working( In Russian - "when it rain internet no work") and our schedule we have not been able to post anything. Here`s the scoop. We had court today!!!! We appeared before the local magistrate at 9:00 this morning for about 45 minutes. It was a little more intensive questioning than we had expected but we survived. We were asked about our income, our house, our communities, our jobs and why we wanted to adopt and why we chose Ukraine. We must have answered with satisfactory answers as we got our court decree!!! We spent the rest of the day getting documents notarized and getting a full wardrobe for Briley capped off with a very nice meal at a neighboring town. I would give you the name of the town but I can`t pronounce it let alone spell it!. Everyone has been asking as to when are we coming home- we didn`t feel too comfortable before even guessing but after today we can officially say that we are booking our tickets home right now for Mar. 4. We have our official 10 day wait starting tomorrow, but because the tenth day falls on Sat. we have to wait until Monday to finish the paperwork. From there we are going to probably hire a driver to drive us to Kyiv as we have travelled at night on the train every time and have not been able to actually see anything. Then once in Kyiv it is 1 days work to get a visa. We had told everyone that the whole process could take 3-6 weeks but in all reality we couldn`t see how it could take 6 weeks. Guess we learned how eh? We did have a chance today to ask the orphanage caretakers about Briley`s eating and sleeping habits and got a chuckle out of it. We had been bringing her little cups of fruit yogurt with fresh fruit everyday and she has loved it. Today we were told that the yogurt is not good for her because it is not "natural" and the oranges she has been eating with us lead to allergies. Again- things that make you go hmmm....... Gail did get to sit in on her noon meal and here she is to explain how that went. And now..... heeeeere`s Gail!!!!!

Well, it wasn't the most pleasant experience and I can say I'd do it differently if I had the chance again. The head caretaker told me to go in their room to watch how good she eats. The cooking crew comes in and dishes up the kids food and then helps them eat. The cook in charge of Brileys table was not happy to see me for whatever reason. She waved her hands at me to back up away from the children. She then tells the kids to eat. Briley wasn't eating fast enough so this biddy of a woman scoops a big spoon full into her mouth. It startled Briley and she started crying. It broke my heart because I had never seen her cry before. Then the woman starts to proceed to tell the other women that she is not being good because she will not eat with her momma in the room. I wanted to say maybe because you just shoved a spoon in her mouth that is twice the size that it should be. Or maybe because of the crap you just put in her mouth. From what I could see it looked like watered down chicken broth with three or four pieces of potato. It's no wonder she likes yogurt, the all "natural" is for the birds! "Hang in there Briley,only ten more days!!!"

- We did learn a Ukrainian saying: to drink beer without vodka, you could just as well pour beer on the ground. Some theory huh?

- Both of us went to have our haircut on Monday night to try to look halfway decent for court. The stylists wore a "tool belt" for their tools and my haircut was 30 gryivna( $3.50) and Gail`s was 45 gryivna ( $5.60) Not bad $9.00 for two hair cuts eh?

- We figured out why cabbage is a mainstay here- 1 big head of cabbage is about 12 cents


- We slept in on Sunday and treated ourselves to 2 premade ice cream sundaes from the market. They didn`t taste very good and we left the partials in the sink. Nothing too remarkable other than the fact that 2 hours later they weren`t melted but were warm. I don`t think that was ice cream we were eating.

- While at the orphanage after our court hearing, we gave the director a donation for him to use at the orphanage as he sees fit. ( common for an adoption) We asked Briley`s head caregiver what she would want for Briley`s group if she had a wish. Well, included in our shopping spree was what she wanted: 1 blanket to cover old couch, 13 pairs of underwear and t-shirts, a big box of vitamins and prescriptions, lots of diapers and stockings for all of them. It is always fun to give presents at Christmas but that doesn`t compare to giving these kids these needed things to help them in their everyday life.

- The director told us that the government allows approximately 10 cents per day/ child for medicine and vitamins(less than $40.00/child/year) and this doesn`t come close to what they need for the children.

- $ 1.50/ day/child for food. Food is fairly inexpensive here, but they do try to have the kids eat 5 times per day. Again, I think corners have to be cut to stretch things out. Gail saw firsthand today at the noon meal.

- We asked him about sending clothes and toys here as we have done for children in Afghanistan and we were told not to because the packages would be opened and pilfered off of before they reached the orphanage. I do think a little green could find its way okay though.


- We were able to talk with our driver/ landlord Vladamir a little the other night and we got some very frank answers about life here.


- salaries of government workers as shared before- about 2-3 hundred dollars/month.

- orphanage caregivers- 12 hrs/day/ 5 days/week- $ 100.00/ month (not a misprint)

- a heavy crane operator at the mill- 12 hrs/day/5 days/week- $200.00/ month

- very little benefits like insurance etc.

- no social security- retirees are on their own for the most part

- some unemployment if laid off but doesn`t amount to much.

- no middle class for the most part- either rich or very poor

- a little house that we will show in pic`s $10,000

- a big new home $ 100,000- sounds cheap right? refer to above wages

- interest rates approximately 20% if you can get a loan.

- Older Ukrainians still have tie to native Russia, younger ones not as loyal.
- families can typically afford only one child.

We asked Vlad if we could hire him to drive us around for a day in the area to see some sites and he says "NO". We asked if he was that busy? again "NO". Is it because you don`t like us? "NO, NO,NO" We say why not then, his reply? " You waste your money- nothing to see here" and sure enough when we got home we "googled" Kramatorsk sightseeing" and it says page does not exist!!!! :) There is absolutely nothing here to see NADA!! That`s why we are looking forward to going back to Kyiv. Two weeks ago we didn`t think there was any way we`d ever say that but we were wrong. Kyiv looks pretty good right about now.
Everyone tells us how good of a thing we are doing. I guess we would have to disagree. We have a tendency to think that we will benefit from this immensely also. In the past four weeks we have met some great new friends and gained one great little girl. Yes, she will be better off but we will be also. Now would be a great time to thank all of the other people that have helped make this trip possible for us.

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!
- WFS for allowing me the time off without question.
- The Clarks Grove guys for taking over when I`m gone!
- Potach and Mitchell Dental clinic for allowing Gail the time away!
- Dr. Bob @ Dental Associates for allowing Gail the time away.
- Evan for filling in for Gail. We realize it takes up the better part of your week.
- Brady for watching the house. Don`t get used to it your getting kicked out soon!! If your gonna have a party you`d better hurry, not much time left- just pick up and no holes in the walls!! :)
- Jeff and Greg for doing chores and chipping ice.
- Grandpa Kenny and Grandma Judy for watching Tory and Collin
- Auntie Sheila for taking the kids on adventures

- Tony and Amanda for taking the boys to Sunday School.

- Pastor Gary for his support and prayers.

- Candy and Darian for taking Collin to the games, practices and the overnight stays

- Ellendale/ Geneva school for changing Tory and Collin`s bus schedule.

- Collin and Tory`s teachers for helping their classes follow our blog and travels.

- Everyone who has e-mailed, posted on our blog and sent prayers our way. We appreciate it.

We sure hope we didn`t miss anyone and if we did we apologize, it wasn`t on purpose!!

Here are a few pictures for you to check out.

This is the newest piece of equipment seen here thus far. Everything else looks like it dates back to the seventies or earlier.

Russian calendar- notice that the week starts with a Monday!

People waiting to fill their 5 liter water jugs for I think $ .25 We go to market and pay $.50 for jugs with sealed caps- we don`t quite trust the tanker yet.



We don`t have string cheese at home! This is string cheese. Actual little strings of cheese that is very salty and tastes like... string- not good at all. Vlad says that he knows why we not like. We not eat while drinking beer. Again, beer cures everything. ( Russian cats love string cheese) That`s where ours went!

Side view of the typical apartment building here. To our untrained eyes they all look the same. On our first day we tried getting into our building only to realize that we weren`t at our building and didn`t know which one was our building. A quick call to Vlad got our building number that was 1/2 a block down the road.



Gail`s new bouffant hairdo. Connie- Gail says to have fun fixing this haircut back to normal!! It took an hour to cut, yes 1 hour. They cut horizontally rather than vertically, starting from the bottom and working their way up. No wonder most woman have long hair. Gail messed it up as soon as she got home!

Entrance to our apartment.



Neighborhood cats getting a little TLC. The milk and mystery food that we buy and don`t like gets fed to the cats. They`ve never had it so good. And these Russian cats literally don`t answer to kitty kitty kitty. You have to go pssst, pssst, pssst as loud as you can and watch the herd come running. ( learned that from watching an old Russian woman)

Another good giggle going on. If it looks like these pictures are always taken on the same day it is because we came here with only two casual shirts a piece and one dress shirt for court along with two pairs of pants and 3 prs of socks. Needless to say we wash clothes quite often. We are fortunate- Briley has worn the same pink outfit for a week straight ( they always put it on when we get there and it's washed good and everything but just not a lot of variety)

One last giggle for the road. We have had numerous people e-mail us and tell us that she looks like Tory and we agree. Especially when she smiles. Gail also says she has perfect teeth. Figures she would notice that.

A whole new outlook

Hi everyone,

(Gail here)Craig and I are getting to the bored stage. We haven't ventured out much except for the few blocks to the orphanage.It's time for a night out and maybe we can stumble onto a good toy store. At the orphanage Briley is also getting a bit restless with the same toys and the same 4 walls to stare at. Yesterday she was looking through our photo book and a picture of Tory fell out.She picked up the picture and ran over to me so I could fix it. Her words were"Momma, Tory-Tory," she caught me off guard a little. Today she's been saying Momma, Poppa,Daddy, and Tory. She tries to say Collin but so far only the K sound comes out. Collin-Mom will try working on it-I know she's just going to love the two of you!

On the way home from our walk today, I told Craig I missed my toaster (besides our family) he laughed. Well then the game started, he misses his (besides our family) daily newspaper and his diet Sunkist and being able to have a good glass of milk out of a jug. The microwave and his being able to jump into a vehicle and on ,and on and on!!! So things we take for granted...........................,

1. Fresh water out of the faucet: Yesterday a line of people were standing behind a water truck waiting to get their empty bottles filled.
2. A clothes dryer: I'm not sure why they don't use them. I've already thought of how they can run a dryer pipe out of our apartment. Too much time on my hands!
3. A car: I won't complain about my Ford anymore, I'm just glad I have one.
4. A garage: I don't even have to see the snow if I don't want too, I just drive in and drive out at home.
5. A house: A home with two floors and our very own bedrooms. Many Ukrainian homes have the bedroom and living room together.
6. Roads without pot holes: not common here.
7. Country side without scattered trash: not common here.
8. Bubbly smiling people: I think because of the conditions and the way they're brought up they are inclined to being serious most of the time.
9. Manicured and landscaped yards: From the looks of the grass it doesn't get mowed. I love my anal "lawn man" (Craig) more every day.
10. Menard's, Lowe's, and Home Depot: They all could make a killing over here. Their local home store is put to shame.
11. A fresh variety of colors: All of the paint colors are still back in the 60's. Orange-blue-green are the basics.
12. Our select comfort air bed: All we have had is a futon mattress, with side boards.
13. A top sheet: They use the flat sheet to lay on and a covered feather blanket to cover up with.
14. Microwave popcorn: We haven't been able to find popcorn of any kind here.
15. Canned soup: None here, period! That we can recognize anyway.
16. A fresh meat counter: One that doesn't stare back at you!!!
17. Carpeting: Haven't see any since we left the States!
18. Clean sidewalks: Between the doggy landmines, the gravel ruts and scattered garbage you have to watch where you walk.
19. Charmin: It's made out of cardboard here.
20. We also miss "the system" in the United States. It might be far from perfect, but it has the bureaucracy here beat all to heck.
21. And last but not least "English", We miss talking with people....!

Craig here now with our daily photo journal:
This is the entrance to our apartment building. If the front door is left open all the neighborhood cats like to .... shall we say "mark their territory" on this landing. UFFDA!!

This is our backyard/playground.

This is our "garbage disposal" on the second floor in the locked position.

This is the open position in which you deposit your trash and then close it and "Presto" your garbage is gone. I don`t have any idea where it goes and probably don`t want to know.Thompson Sanitation doesn`t have to worry about these locals running them out of business. A lot of the trucks here look to be running on LP by the looks of the tanks behind the cab.Mobile repair truck- the guy was working on the apartments and wasn`t too happy to have his "ride" photographed. Notice "The Look"This was an "Uh Oh" moment. She already has a taste for jewelry. Just what we need- another one!!!Having a good giggle with Dad.And the giggling continues. We have not found anything with Briley that would give us any cause for concern. She seems to be a very healthy and happy 2 yr. old and we feel very fortunate and blessed!!!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Hi everyone,
(Gail here) Didn't do much today. It's been raining . Weather is a bit goofy from what we are used to in MN. Yesterday was beautiful, the sun was starting to melt the snow off the sidewalks so you could get around a little bit better. Today everyone had to use their umbrella's to fight the rain and wind. If anyone had told me to bring an umbrella for the middle of Feb. I would of said "Ya right!"

Briley is warming up to us more and more everyday.Today we got our share of hugs with a lot of smiles. We brought here some sliced turkey for her afternoon snack. Something about candy and cookies two times a day just wasn't setting well with me -hmmm can't imagine why? Anyway you would've thought she had never seen meat. She just kept piling it in ,storing it like a little pocket gopher. A cute one at that but nevertheless her cheeks were as round as they could be.

Each time we come to visit Briley the caregivers change her into her pink dress. We are going to have fifteen days of "pink dress" pictures to look back on.Today she had some foamy light slippers on and she thought she was pretty cool.

Meanwhile Craig`s been scaring the neighbors with his body guard stature. He had two woman stop and wait for another gentleman to catch up to them before they would walk past him. He said he wanted to growl at them so bad. I told him he should of growled when the old Russian woman chewed him out for walking on her freshly mopped floor at the grocery store. Boy - If looks could kill after he tried saying "Sorry." It didn't phase him though,I think he has maybe seen the stink eye before. :)

Well tomorrow's another day of visitation , two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon with a few hours in between to stop at the grocery store. Our highlight of the day is seeing Briley then deciding how much food we can carry back home in our little plastic sack. Thats another story: In Ukraine you have to buy plastic bags as you check out your groceries. Most Ukrainians carry heavy plastic bags (like some bag they got from purchasing a garment from the clothing store) that have a sturdier handle. Each day they stop at the store and take a few items home with them, remember most Ukrainians walk everywhere. If you have your own carrying bag it gets placed in a locker (with a key) at the enterance of the store. After purchasing your items you walk through the clearance gate and back to your locker to get your bag. Also when you choose your fruits ,veggies, or bulk cookies a clerk in that department will weigh them ahead of time putting a price on them before you go through your check out. Each check out clerk gets to sit down when scanning your food. Security Gaurds stand at the entrance and also around the check out counters at all times.


Here is the fancy Ukrainian clothes dryer we have in the apartment. So far this is the only type of dryer we have seen.
Here`s the same clothes dryer on the "High" setting. Used when your in a hurry.Pretty typical "look" of the Ukranian women, leather, fur and heels.This is the view of the orphanage we get when we come up the sidewalk.Another sidewalk on the orphanage grounds.Briley and Mom having a little alone time.Dad and Briley learning how to drink out of a juice box. He already sort of knew how but she didn`t.