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.