Our journey to meet our Ukrainian Angel

A good time to think back on why we did this.

2012-02-10T13:27:00.003-06:00

After posting the last of the recap we went back and looked at all of our posts starting at the beginning. What a "journey" it has been. We still get asked what possessed us to do this and we still don`t have a real good answer. These two videos that we started our blog with are probably the best answer that we can give and a good way to end up our recap before we go on with the next posts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApimI5pF2gs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTJ_28J6K0

I came home from work awhile back and told Gail that if I bought airplane tickets to go back would she want to go with. She said she would leave tomorrow!! Yes, believe it or not we both miss Ukraine! Our two boys, especially Collin would rather go there than Disneyworld. Right now that isn`t in the cards but someday we WILL be making the trip again. We would love someday to win the lottery and take a group over to do some renovations to the orphanages. We think that would be about as good as it gets. Stay tuned for for how it has beeen going once we came back.

Recap- Our last days in Kramatorsk

2012-02-01T10:50:00.006-06:00

Man- Time slips away without doing the things a guy thinks he will have time to do. We still have quite a few people checking in every day so we`ll try to get on the stick and finish our recap. Looking forward to showing how things are going now after 3 years but we had better finish the recap first.

- After arriving in Kramatorsk for the conclusion of our journey we knew we had to do the following things to finally bring Briley home.

- court appointment

- birth cert. stuff

- passport stuff

- 10 day waiting period

- load up and get home

After a few days in town we were able to schedule a hearing with the judge and do the paperwork with that. While this was getting done we settled into a routine. We would leave for the orphanage every morning at about 9, arrive at the orphanage, have Briley put on a "good" set of clothing, pick out a pair of "community" shoes, take Briley to the playroom, play a bit, feed her the food that we smuggled in and just "get aquainted with her".

Some of the things that we learmed during this time.

- oranges are bad for children

- you can catch cold from looking out the window at the snow

- no matter how warm it is in the building it is good to have the child in 7 layers of clothes.

The worst and best part of these visits were when we would get up to her "groupa". We would come to the door and every single little boy and girl would come running and grab onto your legs saying " momma and papa" thinking that you were coming to get them. There are some little faces that we will never ever forget and will always wonder if their momma and papa ever did come and get them! After a couple of days Briley would see the kids coming to greet us and she would push them away saying that we are her momma and papa and not theirs. Sorta cute but heartwrenching all at the same time.

After playing with her for about an hour and a half we would take her back so she could have dinner that we could smell cooking in the corridors. More often than not it was a "soup" of sorts made with chicken and potatoes. As we had stated earlier alot of these kids had little hair from the lack of protein.

After the morning visit we would head out and stop by the BUM market to get what we needed for a meal or two. Some of the things that we miss now are the crab flavored potato chips, the juices, mushroom flavored chips, the maslo (butter), great bakery bread, fresh cabbage salads, pickles, sausages, fruits and quite a few things that we don`t miss such as the limited meats, the carp in the tanks, and the milk that didn`t taste like ours. One of the odd things we noticed was that the people there would go daily to the market and buy just what they need for the day, while we would come in and fill up a basket for a few days. People looked at us sorta goofy sometimes because of this. We would check out and give them a 200 gryvna note ( about $25.00) and sometimes they had to get change at another register. People as a rule did not have that much money at a time to spend on groceries. While at the market we would get a 2-3 gallon jug of water also because the only other way to get drinking water was off of the truck that would go around to the apartments and fill jugs and this looked to be a little more "safe".

After that we would go back to our apartment and catch up on our emails and our blog and maybe take a nap. At about 2:30 we would head back to see Briley and repeat the morning. When we would leave after the afternoon vist it was sorta surreal walking down the streets. there wasnt as much lighting as we were used to, sidewalks were typically slushy, and was for lack of a better term "cool"

After a few days we had to get ready to go to our court hearing. there wa$ a few thing$ that made u$ $ure that it would go well in court. We arrived in a building that was I believe 4 stories and really not all that that large. This courthouse served the whole region along with the 250,000 people in Kramatorsk. Sorta made us wonder why we need all the courthouse space at home with a fraction of the people. Anyways, we sat in the hall until we were called and when we were called in there was the orphange lawyer, the "county attorney" type guy, the judge and a stenographer. We had to explain why we should be able to adopt, our yearly income, what we do etc, etc. The judge was a big burly guy and we sincerely think he was happy a child was finding a home. We were asked to leave and wait in the hall until he made his decision and after awhile we had to go back in and he read a "verdict" that said he felt this was ok to happen and then he congratulated us and wished us well. If I remember correctly that afternoon we went to the town of Stravansk for some reason and we stopped to eat at a very nice ski chalet type restaurant. We were the only people in there which wasnt uncommon with the lack of money to go out to eat. After we ordered they brought us basket of bread, a plate of lard to put on the bread and a pitcher of "water". Yup- they had to bring us butter because there was no way Gail and I were going to use lard and then we found out that the water in the pitcher wasn`t water, it was home brewed vodka. It was evidently customary to do some "salutes" to celebrate special events. :-) We saluted a few times and to be quite honest the vodka was actually pretty tasty.

We had commented in our blog that it was like the movie Groundhog Day with the routine we settled into. Very mundane and little difference from one day to the next. Our highlights were reading the e-mails frome home and our skype visits with our boys back home. It could be 4 in the morning there so that would be 8 at night at home. Our little chime on the computer would go off when we were getting an e-mail and more often than not I would get up to read it. Another sound that we will never forget is the sound of an incoming skype call. The kids would skype us sometimes in the morning before they got on the bus and sometimes in the evening. Without skype it would have really sucked as we missed the boys immensely. It got to the point at the end that our cat would even jump up on the desk with the boys when he heard our voices and at one point Tory was hugging the computer screen.

But anyways the ten day waiting period where any of Oksana`s family member could protest the adoption was within 2 days of being up. we were on our way to the orphanage on a Sunday morning when the cell phone rang. Now keep in mind, I went from 100+ calls a day at work on the cell to never ringing at all over there. It was Luba and I`ll never forget the conversation. "Craig, we have a problem, Oksana`s groupa has the chicken pox and they need to know if you and Gail have had it before". I stated we had both had it so that was no problem and that was when she dropped the bomb. "this will delay your departure until the pox is gone and we don`t know how long that will be and you must keep it quiet so the orphanage is not quarantined for 30 days". Great, just great!!! But there wasn`t much we could do but keep walking to the orphanage. we arrived there and the kids were definitely not feeling well but didn`t look too bad. After a few days they started getting the pox all over their bodies and guess who the worst one was- yup, Briley! During this time we had the opportunity to fill the "wish list" for Anatoly the director. We bought the orphanage oodles of clothes, underwear, drugs and other stuff that they could not afford. The only thing that bothered us a bit was after we delivered the stuff we never did see it being used. It almost seemed like they hoard the good stuff.

Finally, finally, finally we were given the all clear to take Briley home. On the day we left the orphange we brought juice and cookies for the groupa. When we left with her we`ll never forget the one caretaker holding Briley and crying, because I`m sure they get attached to the kids too and I`m sure she was happy for her also. As we left the orphange we had Vlad videotape it so we`ll have to put that up when we post all of our pictures.

Luba was in Kyiv making arrangements and we told her to stay there and we could make the train trip on our own. Vlad took us to Stravansk to board as they allowed more time there to board than in Kramatorsk. That was another surreal time because we were waiting in the train station that was largely deserted, no buiildings were open really, it was just a siding to load, a light snow was falling, sorta dim lights again and we had 100 things going through our minds. We had a new daughter, a solo train ride coming in a strange country, having to say goodbye to our friend Vlad that we had become good friends with, our upcoming paperwork in Kyiv and above all our trip home to Collin and Tory.

Finally a train came pulling in and Vlad said that that one was ours. we boarded, found our room and said our goodbyes to Vlad and departed for Kyiv one last time. The berth was once again very warm so we took all the layers off of Briley and it wasn`t long and she was dozing as were we. We arrived early the next morning(Monday) and were greeted by Luba to be taken to an apartment. We couldn`t do anything that day as it was a Ukrainian holiday I believe like the Ides of March.

After laying around a bit we met up with our Kentucky friends and spent most of the day touring a little bit, getting some last minute souvenirs at our favorite souvenir salesman "Danny boy" and psyching ourselves up to go home. Our plan for Tuesday was for Gail to take Briley to get a physical so she could get her passport while I went and did all the paperwork at the embassy.

When we arrived at the embassy early Tuesday morning we were greeted with a very long line of people waiting to get through the guard shack/ check-in area. Once they they found out we were Americans we were ushered right to the front of the line, way cool!! Once in this little building we were asked why we were there, searched, removed things and finally let go into the embassy. This was the first time in two months that we were surrounded by English speaking people and it was sort of a shock. We were shown where to go to find our paperwork and given a set of instructions on how to do it. I asked the rude old biddy what happens when I have a question, her reply was to fill it out and if was wrong then and only then could we talk with her. What a *****! Anyways, here I am in this room all by myself for a bit until other adoption type people started coming in to do there paperwork. The paperwork wasn`t too bad but it did take quite awhile to get done. Upon completion I had to go see my favorite gal again and she was still a *****! I told her that Gail would be coming with the physical results so Briley`s passport could be done in a bit. She then told me not to be in any hurry because it takes at least one full day to process the paperwork so we should plan on leaving on Thursday at the earliest. After 8 weeks in Ukraine I had had enough and by the time we got done "visiting" I was taken off of her Christmas dinner list! With the paperwork done I left the embassy to stroll out and check out the long line of people and check out the embassy building. While standing there I thought it would be sorta cool to take a picture of the embassy because it is a very nice building which seems out of place in that neighborhood. I got out the camera, turned it on and had time to take one good breath of air when I looked up and saw 2 armed guards rushing at me!!! Holy crap!!! For a minute there I thought I would get to visit a Ukranian jail for a day or two. The American guards were actually quite polite and asked if I had taken a picture, I stated that as quick as they were and as slow as I run a camera I didn`t have a chance to do so. They did take a quick look at the camera but everything was cool. they explained that they don`t let people take pictures for security reasons. WHEWWW!

Shortly thereafter Gail showed up with the Briley`s physical results and we had to go back in and attach that to my documents that I filled out earlier so they could get processed. When we got in there they could not find my paperwork and finally the lady said "Christenson right?" I said yep and then she said a different first name. Can you believe there was another couple from I believe North Carolina with the same name adopting, and at the embassy the same day we were? Finally they found our paperwork and told us to come back late on Wednesday or early Thursday morning to pick it up. I told the lady that we had plane tickets for early tomorrow morning and we fully intended to be on the flight. She bristled a bit and told me I might just as well cancel the tickets because the visa would never be done by the end of the day. I then told her that I would be checking in throughout the day to see if the paperwork was done and she told me not to waste my time!! Yup- I was getting teed off at this point. She did give us a sealed package that was "Double Dog Top Secret" that we could not open, that we had to give to immigration upon landing in Chicago. After a little more bickering we went back to the apartment but I had a driver standing by for a trip to the embassy if I needed one and he knew the importance of it! After many futile phone calls through the day I called one last time at 4:45 and talked with a guy and he asked if my name was Christenson from Ellendale, MN?? YES I WAS!!! He said the visa was just coming in as we spoke and I said I AM ON MY WAY!! He told me that if I wasn`t there by 5:00 that the gates were locked and we would have to come back tomorrow.

After a quick call to my driver he showed up for our Ukrainian Indy Car Adventure Ride. We went barrelling through the streets like a chase scene in a movie and pulled up to the embassy gates at exactly 5:01. As the man had said it was locked up tight!! I manage to get a guard`s attention and explained that I needed a visa that was inside. After talking with someone else he told me over the P.A. that I could use the phone on the outside wall, dial a number and get the receptionist. I did so and got the receptionist that sounded alot like the ***** that I had to deal with in the morning. She told me quite emphatically that they were closed for the day and to come back tomorrow. I then told her basically to get off her butt, walk down the hall 50 ft. to the office where my visa was and to see if anyone was there. There was a stretch of silence followed by a "hrumph" and she said that they would see me now! The guards let me in and within 2 minutes I had the visa and we were officially on our way home!!! That night we went out with John, Char and Maxim from Kentucky and had our last meal in Ukraine at our favorite restaurant Wato`s. After saying our good byes we left to finish packing and get ready to leave in the morning.

At 4:00 am our doorbell rang and Luba`s sister was there to get us to the airport. Luba was already assisting another couple with another adoption so she couldn`t be there. As we left we drove through town and it was another "Dickens" type of scene in Ukraine! Huge snow flakes were falling, the bright lights of Kyiv were glowing and for lack of a better word it was just plain COOL!! It was at this point also that we both realized we might actually miss this place.

Pretty uneventful at the airport- arrived in Munich a couple hours later and our experience there was much better than our stay in Dusseldorf on the way over. Really nice airport, friendly workers and alot of U.S. servicemen there waiting for planes. Finally we were able to board for Chicago- you know USA,Minnesota,Home, Kids etc,etc,etc!!!! This flight was long!! Briley was getting a little restless, we were sick of travelling and just wanted to get home. Finally arrived in Chicago, had to wait in line at customs with a HUGE amount of people, had our bags sniffed by a drug dog, and finally got to give a lady our "Double Dog Top Secret Package" that had Briley`s paperwork in it. Then- we had 15 minutues to get across the airport to catch our flight to MINNEAPOLIS!!!! Before boarding we again had to go through TSA and this time the guy in charge thought that the sippy cup with a brand new fill of apple juice might make the plane crash so we had to throw it away. No time to argue this time- we were too close to home.

After a short flight we arrived on "home turf" and got our luggage to proceed to the terminal. There was the best sight we had ever seen!!! Collin and Tory with the welcome home signs!!! After a short time we headed home and when we were about home we had to stop at the local convenience store and get a gallon of good old American milk. That in itself was worth the trip home.

And that as they say "Is the rest of the story"!

Stay tuned- we will give you a run down on how things have been going on our next post! And yes believe it or not we really miss Ukraine and can`t wait to go back!!

Man time flies-WE ARE BACK

2011-02-20T11:40:00.005-06:00

OK- We feel guilty. We have ignored the blog because we have been so busy and haven`t made the time to tell the rest of our story. I checked our "stat counter" and we still have a large amount of people checking in daily so as Paul Harvey used to say "Here`s the rest of the story".

After our last visit to Kramatorsk to see the little girls named Angelina and Viktoria we headed back to Kyiv with high hopes for our third and final appointment at the SDA. This time we couldn`t get a train ticket so we flew from Donetsk back to Kyiv. This was a real treat!! :-) The airport was very old "Russian" atmosphere where half of the lights in the terminal didn`t work, sorta dirty and just kinda spooky. Gail said the bathrooms were the worst she had seen. Made us wonder what to expect when it came time for the plane ride. We weren`t to be dissappointed as the plane was as we had expected. Not bad but not exactly "new" shall we say. Well, we made it it back to Kyiv in one piece anyways. We spent the week touring various things in and around the city with John and Charlene (our friends from Kentucky) . This time we had an apartment above a bakery about a block away from the main square and had access to alot of things within walking distance.

After another "typical" week in Kyiv we were off to our final appointment at the SDA to look through some more files and to tell them about a certain child in Kramatorsk that we had by chance stumbled upon and to request her file for viewing. Let me back up a bit here- when we had left the orphanage the last time we had made a favorable impression on the people there by helping Angelina get the exams she needed. If you remember our last post we "accidentally" met a little 2 1/2 year old by the name of Oksana that we " felt" we might have a chance at. We were told that if we asked for her file we would have to be shown it.

Luba was so confident that things would work out that she was at the train station during our appointment and her sister went with us to the meeting. When we got there we were greeted with the smiling friendly faces of the caseworkers who were more than willing to help us as much as they could. No- not really, they didn`t like us at the first appointments and this one was to be no different. We were shown basically the same files we had seen at the two previous appointments and nothing else. At that point we reached into our sleeve and pulled out our "ACE". We asked to see the file on Oksana at the Kramatorsk orphanage. Holy cow, you would have thought the world was ending. They made every excuse in the book why they would not be able show us her file. We heard that we weren`t ready to adopt and we should be happy to take the other choices that they offered us. We were not ready to be parents. In short they refused to show us Oksana`s file.

After this arguing went on for our entire appointment I was fit to be tied and told the lady to give us the sheet of paper to sign off on because we were going home. We had enough! That was the only request they granted us. As we were signing off the SDA lady said we were the third appointment today to sign off. Gee what a surprise!! In a few short minutes we were outta there and on our way back to the apartment. It was the first time I've ever heard Gail say, " Give me one of those cigarettes and let's get a drink!!" Let's just say she was ticked. We called John and Charlene and told them we had struck out and wanted to go get a bite to eat.

Keep in mind that they are 8 hours ahead of U.S. time so when it was 5:00pm there it was still 9:00 am here so we had quite a bit of time to get back to our apartment and book tickets home. We met up with the Kentucky crew and their translator at Wato`s restaurant down the street from our apartment. We had supper , a few cocktails and told them about our day and how we were so discouraged at the process in Ukraine. Their translator then told us of an appeal process that we could do the next day where we could go back to the SDA and try to get them to change their minds. She also stated that this works only once in every thousand tries. We really didn`t know what to do but figured what the heck- as long as we are here we might as well give it a whirl. We tried to call Luba that night but she was already in bed by that time and we had not even gotten a chance to see her after the big rejection as she was at the train station. When we got back to our apartment that night we called any and all contacts in Ukraine and in the States to see how we should handle this. With good advice in hand we went to bed. Right away the next day Luba called us and somehow she already knew what we were up to and told us to meet her at the SDA at I believe 2:00.

We made it to the SDA and met Luba there. We got in there and we were to meet with the head honcho type lady. She came out and wouldn`t even let us in her office. There we were standing on the dreadded steps again. Gail gave me "the look" and basically told me to shut up because the woman wouldn't want to hear the words of any man!! :-) We stood on the stairway as Gail argued with this gal for quite awhile as we listened to the reasons why we couldn`t have Oksana.

- too young for us to adopt, we said we had already seen at least two kids that were younger than six but they said the rules changed this week. hmmmm Once again, rules change by the minute.

- too healthy for adoption to American couples. We said she isn`t and needed eye surgery for her eye. By this time Gail thought if they think she is a doctor, now is the time to use it. She stated she had colleaques that could give Oksana the medical needs that she needed. That argument didn`t work.

- We weren`t Jewish. Never did figure that one out

-We could redo some of our paperwork and then come back on a Monday. We stated that laws may change again and that we've spent enough time in Ukraine. Gail said she needed to get back to her patients. (At this point, they didn't need to know it was just to clean peoples teeth.)

Anyways, we argued for quite some time and it became apparent that it wasn`t going to work. Luba then told us to go to lobby and talk with her a bit. When we got there she thought that if we got a letter faxed to the SDA from our buddy the director at the orphanage stating that Oksana needed immediate eye surgery that it might change their minds. She called him and he sent it right away and we met with the gal again. Nope- that didn`t work either. The lady told us to come back at 4:oo and she would give us a answer. Gail told her we did not want to leave and that we would wait downstairs. We regrouped and were ready to call it quits as it was getting quite late by that time and Luba said. You guys sit here and I will talk with her alone one last time. It got to be 5:00 and here came Luba and she said "Craig, Gail we leave now we are done here" We said okay....., are we going to go for supper or what ? She said " NO!!! We go to get your daughter, she is yours!!!" Holy Crap!! Not what we had expected but somehow she had pulled it off. We grabbed a cab to get train tickets and got our stuff packed as quick as we could because the train left in 45 minutes. Somehow we made it but it was very close. We were on our way to Kramatorsk. We will never know what was said in that last little meeting but whatever it was it worked.
We arrived at the now familiar train station and just barely caught our train. This time Gail and I were not able to ride with Luba in the same berth. As we got on the train we noticed a gawd awful smell coming from somewhere. That somewhere was Luba`s "roommate" for the ride. A big old Russian guy that had been drinking and was eating this awful smelling fish on the little table in her room. We wished her luck and went to find our roommates. We ended up with an older gentleman that was some kind of play director and a young gal that was a student. We had an uneventful trip and the next morning when we pulled into Donetsk we were greeted by a very weary looking Luba. Not only did this guy smell like fish, he also had a tendency to snore after he had been drinking and Luba wasn`t able to get any sleep.
Once we arrived at Kramatorsk we went straight to the orphanage to see the little girl that was to become Briley. We went to her groupa but she wasn`t there as she was getting checked out on a lower floor by the doctor. Pretty soon a caregiver came with her and another little girl and the caregiver told Oksana that her mama and papa had come to get her. Briley was getting checked over because she along with all the other kids had colds. Another thing was Gail tried to give Briley a little stuffed bear and all Briley could say was nyet nyet as she didn`t want it :-). After a short visit we got aquainted with the apartment we were to call home for the next 4 weeks.

COMING NEXT- OUR STAY IN KRAMATORSK
WE PROMISE IT WON`T TAKE AS LONG AS LAST TIME!!!!

No rain but 3-5 inches of snow coming

2009-10-11T20:59:00.003-05:00

OK-We`re back for round 3. We were in Kyiv for our second week and are waiting for notification as to when our second appointment will be. We decided to take advantage of this time to sightsee and check out the city. As we had said in earlier posts, the architecture here is unreal. Alot of the buildings and cathedrals date back a thousand years. We visited quite a few different cathedrals when we were there and they were all pretty cool. We also met up this week with John and Charlene from Kentucky. This was the couple who were there a week earlier than us and had kept in touch with us to eventually meet up with. At this point I believe they had struck out on their first appointment and were also waiting on their second try. As a foursome we ventured to alot of different places and had a good time. The highlights of this week were my adventures with the police, the sightseeing, the subway, and being able to converse in English with John and Charlene.

On Wed. we received word that our next appointment would be the next day. Thursday came and we met Luba for the appointment. When they brought out the files they were all pretty much the same kids we had seen before. All but one new file of two little girls but according to the charts they both had some issues. The 4 yr old Angelina supposedly had epilepsy and the older ( 6yr old)1/2 sister Victoria was fully mentally retarded. The gal helping us with charts was not very helpful and Gail felt that she was not being very sincere. When Gail asked more questions about the girls charts she was given short snappy answers. One that sticks out in our mind is when Gail asked how many seizures the youngest girl has had and we were told several a day without no hesitation. At this point we new she was just pulling answers out of her head or should I say ......! Gail kept looking at the pictures and said that in her mind there was no way that these girls had issues so severe. Needless to say the gal was not very happy with us because she felt we were not listening to her. We weren`t too concerned about the epilepsy so you already know what we decided-- yup, off to Kramatorsk we went!! :-)

Same old routine- get paperwork on Friday, meet Dr. Yuri, get on train travel overnight to Donetsk, travel by car to orphanage. This is the point where it got interesting. We met up with the inspector of the area orphanages to do the necessary paperwork and we were off to the orphanage. We were greeted by a very nice director who was to show us Angelina as Victoria was at yet another orphanage in a different town down the road. A nurse brought this little girl in to meet us. She was a cute little girl but there was some issues that Dr Yuri wasn`t real comfortable with. After the exam we thanked the director and told Luba that we may as well sign off now as there was no use to go see the other little girl as we were told that they would not split up sisters. Luba told us that we had to go see the other girl as it was part of the conditions of taking this referral.

This time we took off in a different direction about 20 miles to a town called Stravansk. On this road trip we actually finally saw a grain elevator, which was strange because even though this was a very good farming area we had yet to see any bins or elevators. We arrived at our next stop and there we were escorted to a playroom type area as the caregivers went to get this little girl. We were expecting to see a little girl with issues and we would be on our way. Well, we were wrong!! This little dark haired, dark skinned girl with pigtails comes out , sits down and starts talking with the Dr.. He ran her through all the tests and she did really well except for one test where she stumbled a little bit. I wasn`t too concerned as I was doing the test right along with her and I messed it up too. After she did the tests she took our photo album we had along and rattled off the things in all the pictures. At this point Gail gave me the "look" and we thought this little girl could be the one if we could work it out. As we left, Luba stated that there probably wasn`t any way that we could split up these two half sisters. Just to defend ourselves a bit here- these little girls had, we believe never seen each other and probably never would be together because they were far enough apart in ages that they would always be in different orphanages. But anyways, we went back to the orphanage in Kramatorsk to visit with the director. We told him what we had found but wasn`t optimistic. We thanked him for his time and then we left for Donetsk. As we were on the road back, Gail and I were a little steamed as it seemed that we had hit a dead-end. All the while Luba was talking with the driver off and on again and on the cell phone. After awhile she turned back to us and said " it is possible if you want to fight, the orphanage directors want to find this little girl a home, but the regional inspector has to OK it." We told her to go for it. Being this was Saturday we had to grab a room at the Liverpool Hotel in Donetsk til Monday. Luba hadn`t planned on staying very long and only had a handbag of stuff but she was a trooper. The hotel was quite new and had a very nice cafeteria on the bottom floor so we were set. When we arrived at the hotel we had asked Luba if this was a safe area and she said " Yes, veddy safe", I asked her what about the chalk outline of a body on the sidewalk out front? Well uh, must be someones joke! I wasn`t so sure it was a joke as it looked pretty real looking to me.

Saturday night we all went to the cafeteria and had a nice supper and it was here that we finally found the ketchup that we were craving, only problem was that it was used as pizza sauce. Other than that the food was good and we called it a night.On Sunday we went to breakfast and there were the display case full of picture perfect sunny side up eggs, glasses of milk etc. We took what we wanted and found out that everything was served cold- yuck. Luba had a glass of milk that looked sorta " Thick" and we asked her what it was. " Curdled milk,you not like,you not try?" I said yup, I`ve had it before but only when the good milk accidentally got bad.

Sunday afternoon we were getting a little bored and went for a walk around the neighborhood and checked out quite a few little shops. When we got back was when I mentioned to Gail that I wish there was a way to see how many people were looking at our blog. After some tweeking on the computer I installed a counter and didn`t think anything of it. Like I had said way back when in our posting, Gail thought maybe 30 people a day and I thought a few more like 40-50 might be watching. When I checked back a few hours later the darn thing was already up to a couple hundred. This was very humbling to say the least. Sorta made us feel that we weren`t doing this all by ourselves. The highest count on any day that we saw was a little over 500 hits!!! Pretty cool.

That night Gail and I went back to the cafeteria to grab supper . Luba didn't join us cuz she spent the day in bed. Luba's curdled milk and raw cold sunnyside up eggs were not as fresh as she thought. When we entered the cafeteria we were greeted by hundreds of drunk teenagers . We were astounded , Luba told us that there is a teen night twice a year and we were lucky enough to be there for one of them. We just ate very quickly and got the heck out of there. Kinda made us uncomfortable in that situation.

Monday morning came and we met up with Luba in the lobby and she didn`t look good and said she didn`t sleep well as she had a stomach ache last night. Gail told her she should probably lay off the curdled milk :-). We went back to Kramatorsk and met with the regional inspector to plead our case. We went around and around but she thought that maybe someday the girls would be together and while we admire her intentions we can`t help but think that somehow it wasn`t the right thing to do.

After it was obvious we had struck out we went back to thank the orphanage director for trying. Gail asked at that point why was Angelina`s file so wrong. We were told that they had no money to update the files and the government didn`t do it often enough. We asked what kind of tests were needed to make the file more accurate and were told that the tests were very,very expensive. We asked how much was very expensive and were told that the cat scan was I believe $90.00. Gail at that point looked at the director and told him to get it done! He was a little taken aback and asked why would we do this? Gail told him that if we don`t her file will never be accurate and it might help her find a home or at least make sure she isn`t kicked out at age 16. He then called the clinic ( socialized medicine) and we couldn`t get in for 6-8 weeks. We told him to call a private clinic and he said that was more expensive but Gail held to her guns and said to do it! He called and an appointment was set for the next day.

After another stay at the Liverpool we were off to the orphange again. They were ready for us and had a nurse to travel with us to the clinic. The clinic itself was quite dingy from the outside and had dogs and cats running all over outside but seemed to have the necessary equipment inside. Gail went with the nurse as I had the driver take me to a supermarket to get a huge bag of candy for all the kids at the orphanage as we planned on leaving that day to go back to Kyiv. After about an hour they all came out and we headed back to the orphanage to say our goodbyes. We gave the director the candy and he gave Angelina a couple pieces and we went over the exam results. In short, the scan did show the brain issues and helped update her file so it worked out pretty well. Oh yeah- the total cost of the cat scan and the doctors briefing ----------- A little over forty dollars!!! Money well spent!!

Side note- when we picked Angelina up for her cat scan Gail gave her a little doll we had brought along and she latched right unto it! Also she had said something to the nurse and Gail asked Luba what she had said. Luba said " she told the nurse that my momma and poppa have finally come to get me". Gail knew better than to tell me that at the time. She didn`t tell me that until after we had left.

So, we were saying our goodbyes and jokingly asked the director if he had any more children coming available. He looked at his book and said yes he would have twin girls available in the near future but it was a ways down the road. Long story short- we accidentally "met" a little girl that had a lazy eye, thin hair, shy,pale etc. Catching on yet?...

On the way back that night we asked Luba how might we be able to have a shot at this little girl that we "thought" might be available. ;-) She said that she was quite sure that something would work out for us at our next appointment.

Stay tuned for the next appointment!!!

recap part 2- our first train ride

2009-09-11T20:52:00.005-05:00

Well it`s not raining but it`s supposed to. We got to the train station with Luba and didn`t know what to expect. It was not very well lit and with the drizzle, darkness,cold and all the different looking people it was like a scene out of a Dickens story. We met up with Dr. Yuri and proceeded down the walkways between the trains to find our car. We got to where we were supposed to be and a lady guided us up into the car and pointed us to our berths. These cars are all sleeper cars where the "rooms" all have 4 bunks in them with a small table on one end. Total size of the berth was probably 6`x8`. We all climbed in and sat on our bunks and we all introduced ourselves to the doctor. He is a very pleasant low key individual who took a great deal of interest in our family and life back home. After we had made our introductions the train started moving and we were off!! The train travelled at about 40-45 mph I`m guessing and stopped every so often to pick up more passengers. The tracks there are not what I would call smooth. The cars would rock back and forth which made sleeping difficult at best and made a trip to the bathroom very interesting to say the least. I had said in an earlier post that trying to sleep on the train was like being pulled on a wagon behind a four wheeler and laying on a sheet of plywood while driving under the yardlight once in a while to mimic the lights in towns as we go through them. It still is the best description that I can think of to describe the ride. Not only was the ride rough but we could not settle in knowing we were about to meet a child that could change our life forever. The anticipation was to much for us to sleep and it hit home that we were actually doing this" for real." Anyways, at the start of the trip and about an hour before the destination the "stewardess`" would come around and offer you a hot tea for I believe 2-3 gryvna (about $.35). These were actually not too bad if you didn`t stop and think if they ever washed the cups. After a very fitful night in the bunk we finally arrived in the train station in Donetsk. We unloaded our group while Luba was on the phone with the driver and we went down a long walkway where he was waiting for us. The first thing we noticed was the lack of any sign of wealth that we had seen thus far in Kyiv. The buildings and homes were very bleak and dingy looking. We were headed to Mariupol which is an industrial town towards Russia from Kyiv. As we were travelling down the road we noticed the rich black dirt in the fields. It was much like southern Minnesota. The roads in MN.are rough at times but are much better than the ones in the country in Ukraine. After an hour drive we arrived in Mariupol and we drove by a steel mill that had to stretch for 2 miles and was extremely "Russian"looking". The town itself looked to be very poor and the roads were downright awful in the inner streets that we travelled. The main roads weren`t wonderful but were better than the little side streets. The first stop we went was to the inspector of orphanages to sign in and from there we were to drive to the orphanage. As a side note- Our friends from Blaine, MN, Brent and Cath had gotten two children from this very orphanage a number of years ago. We arrived and went into the directors office and listened to a high speed conversation in Russian between Luba, the director, a nurse and Dr. Yuri. What it boiled down to was the director wondering why the SDA kept sending people to see this little girl that they didn`t feel was adoptable. We did get to see her and Dr. Yuri did a quick evaluation and quickly told us this would not work. The little girl did have some real obvious problems and at that point we were wondering what the rest of the trip was to be like for us. We headed back to the inspectors office and signed off on the referral and headed off to a little deli type place to grab a bite to eat before we went back to the train station. This was the place where we all four had a very nice meal, dessert, 20 oz pop and the total bill was I believe about $8.00 for all four. And then we were off to the train station. This whole journey to Mariupol and the orphanage had taken the whole day and by now it was about 6:00 pm so we were pretty wiped out. We bought train tickets and were off on another great train ride. This time we were actually able to grab quite a bit of sleep. Let me wander a bit here, I forgot a few things!! The train tickets that were 2nd class were about $27.00 each and that got you about 1/2 way across the country. The other thing that I forgot to say was the train bathrooms. The only word that I can think of that comes close is NASTY. But anyways, about 13 hours later we were back in Kyiv to await our second appointment. This time we had an apartment about three blocks off of the main square in a different direction. We slept in basically all day to recoup from the non sleep type train ride and just hung out. ( this was Sunday) On Monday morning Luba called and told us that she would try to get us our second appointment as soon as she could and would let us know. Stay tuned for part three- police issues, Kentucky friends and our second appointment.

IT`S RAINING!!! TIME FOR THE RECAP!!!

2009-06-16T17:49:00.004-05:00

I know it`s about time but it has been hectic around here to say the least. If anyone ever tells you that 3 kids aren`t any more work than 2 kids they are lying!! Everyone has been asking us how in the world did you decide to adopt and why in the world Ukraine? Well, we might as well start at the beginning. This is going to be a long post so you might want to grab a beverage of your choice and sit back and read. I type slow so you slower readers will be able to keep up.

About two years ago I had seen an article on my MSN homepage at work and started looking at the links. One of the links took me to the "Ukrainian Angels" website and it showed a gal by the name of Cathy Harris from Florida that had adopted numerous children from Ukraine over the years and she was now helping families do the same thing independently without using an adoption agency. For whatever reason I saved it to my favorites and every once in awhile I would open up the site and look at the pictures of all the little tykes that various families had adopted and the pictures of the kids still in the orphanages. At that point I had no intentions that I was aware of anyway and didn`t give it anymore thought.

About six months later I had come home and Gail was on the computer staring intently at the screen and she sidestepped me a little bit when I asked what she was looking at. Well, lo and behold she was looking at an adoption site. I mentioned that she might want to go to Ukrainian Angels. org and she gave me the goofiest look( not the "stink eye", just a goofy kinda look). Well, that was the start of the whole ordeal.

We sorta thought at that point we might as well check into it together as long as we were already doing it seperately sort of. We contacted Cathy in Florida and she gave us a breakdown of prices, travel, documents needed etc etc. While we were doing this we also took the time and researched domestic adoption and attended a seminar in Rochester also. The seminar in Rochester was done by an agency and we left there thinking that if we are going to do this we are going to wing it ourselves.

After a little discussing and talking with the boys we found ourselves telling Cathy that we are "gonna do it"! At this point Collin and Tory wanted a little sister and they made themselves pretty clear on the matter! Here is the paperwork sequence in the order that we remember doing it. Keep in mind we had to do all this to put together a dossier(all the paperwork) to send to the officials in Ukraine. The catch is while you do all this, once the dossier gets over there none of the things can expire within 6 months of submitting. For example- if we had physicals done on Jan 1, 2007 the paper work would have to be submitted and approved by June 1, 2007 or it would be expiring within the 6 month time limit. All the documents had to be signed by a notary and then sent to the state attorney general to get apostilled with an official stamp. ( apostilling is basically the state making sure the notary that signed and stamped them previously is really who they say the are.)

- Home study, we had to hire an agency to send a social worker out to evaluate whether or not our family is suitable, housing is suitable and whether or not we could afford another mouth to feed. We also had to attend classes in Eden Prairie as part of this requirement.

- Paperwork to the INS to get approval for the international part.

- fingerprints and background check at the federal level.

- fingerprints and background check for the state level.

- fingerprints and background check at the county level.

- physicals for Gail and myself.

- letters of reference

- employment certification from employers.

- wage statements from employers.

- tax statements from years past.

- foreign power`s of attorney

- marriage license

I`m sure I have missed some things but you get the gist of it- lots of paperwork. And yes, we drug our feet a bit and had to do some over again as some documents expired before they got submitted.

While the paperwork was being completed we stayed in touch with Cathy with any questions we had and she gave us the e-mail address of our facilitator in Ukraine. His name is Vlad and he would be the guy over there arranging the translator, submitting paperwork and doing the legwork before we got there. During this period we had high hopes of getting there, getting it done and getting home but things don`t always go as planned, especially in Ukraine. Finally we received an e-mail in Sept that our dossier should be submitted in Nov.. With 30 days to accept us or deny us and 4-6 weeks for our appointment, that meant we would be travelling early to mid January. This worked out really well for me as this would be the slowest time of the year at work. That was the good part, the bad part was that the panic started to set in as to what in the world are we doing?? :-)

We got plane tickets booked with an adoption discount which is substantial and started making the arrangements for everything else when we were gone. In no specific order- bills paid, Collin and Tory arrangements(Thanks Kenny and Judy), dog chore person,(Thanks Jeff)housesitter( Thanks Brady)etc,etc.

Well after dragging out for over a year and a half the travel date zoomed up on us. We were ready for the most part but realized that we were putting a whole lot of trust in people that we had never met and travelling 9000 miles to do it. At this point we figured that we would go over there , pick up a little girl, come home in 3-5 weeks and things would be hunky dory. WRONG!!! Two days before we left I got the flu. I never get the flu, but I sure had it now!! The 4 trips/hour to the bathroom flu!

Finally the big day was here. We had to fly out of Mpls. to Chicago, from there to Dusseldorf Germany and from there to Kyiv. We arrived at the airport plenty early for our departure and said our good byes to the kids. For me this was the hardest part. We were leaving to a foreign country, didn`t know when we would be back and would be away from the boys that we had never been away from before for more than a day or two. We didn`t have too much time at that point to dwell on it because I had to get going!!! Not on the airplane though, you remember where I mentioned the flu?? Yup-I had to find a bathroom and find one quick! This was gonna be a long trip.

Arrived in Chicago O`Hare after a little ride and found our gate for the long ride. About an hour later we boarded on a Lufthansa flight on a real big dog airplane. 4 seats in the middle and two rows down both sides. Three hundred and some people. All I thought about was Gail`s old boss Dr. John DDS. (forensic guru) He always said if you are gonna crash in an airplane to shove a thumb up your butt before you hit the ground so that they can get one good fingerprint for identification purposes.
The plane ride itself was very long but with the movies and all the service from the flight crew it went pretty well. We had a couple meals, snacks, beverages and were waited on quite often. Alot more cushy than say a domestic flight. Remember when I said I had the stomach flu?- yup, there were a couple mad dashes down the aisles to the bathrooms.
Arrived in Dusseldorf, Germany after 9 hours in the air at about 4:00 am their time. The customs there were brutal. These people took their job way too seriously. Had to take off jackets, open cases and explain what my Maalox was. They found Gail`s money pouch but didn`t even try to see if I had one.
After sitting at our gate for a 2 hour layover we were told that our flight to Kyiv was going to be delayed due to the fog. After an extra hour or so we were able to get on a smaller plane and we were finally on our way to Kyiv. This was the point where the reality was finally starting to set in. You know- "the what in the world are we doing feeling". This plane was not nearly as nice and I was thinking about the "thumb" thing again but we safely touched down in Kyiv about 3 hrs later . There were no gates per say as we know them. We were met on the tarmac by a bus that took us to the terminal where we picked out our luggage. You have probably heard the saying " We are not in Kansas anymore ToTo". It was very different to say the least. We had to fill out forms as to why we were there and where we were going to stay etc. etc. Try telling a customs guy that we really didn`t know where we were actually staying. Finally he said just put down "hotel" . That worked for me!! Then we had to go through a security check point with x-ray and guards. I wasn`t too worried about this as the guy looking at the x-ray machine had his feet up and looked to be half asleep.
We gathered our luggage and made our way out into the terminal to see if someone was going to be there to meet us as we had hoped. Sure enough, there was a gal about 30-35 years old holding up a sign with our names on it. This gal was Luba who was to be our translator for the time we were to be here. She took us out to the waiting car where she had a driver ready. Also there was our facilitator Vlad. We paid him his balance that we owed him for his services and we were off. The airport is a ways out of town and our driver lost no time in getting us to where we were going. The thought that we could be dropped off and robbed or worse and nobody would ever know what happened did cross our mind but we had to trust that everything would work out. We had a cell phone with us from another past adoptive couple so Luba had us stop and get a phone card with prepaid minutes on it. Everyone over there uses these cards as they are sold everywhere. I think the idea of a monthly cell phone bill would be a strange concept for them. From there we were taken to our apartment about a block off of the main square. We had to walk through a gate and down a dark alley to the apartment and we were thinking- " great!- what a place to get mugged and killed". I don`t think Dr. John`s thumb trick would work in Ukraine. Our apartment building on the outside was far from fancy but the actual apartment itself was pretty nice. The next day was going to be our first appointment so Luba told us she would meet us at the square at I believe 1:00 for our 2:00 appointment.
The next morning after hardly any sleep we ventured down to the square to eat at the most popular restaurant in Kyiv. Yup- McDonalds. Real similar to home but way different. Some same items on the menu but quite a few different ones. Some that come to mind are the seasoned potatoes as well as french fries, sundaes with a cone cup, fried fish, coca cola "lite" not diet, no 1/4 pounders, pay for condiments ( nothing free). The strangest thing that first day at a Ukrainian McDonalds was the people drinking beer with their egg mcmuffins. It wasn`t uncommon at all to see drinking going on in the morning. Later on in the trip in Kramatorsk we saw 14-16 year olds on their way to school drinking bottles of beer. But anyways, at 1:00 we went to the corner to meet Luba for our appt. We dressed in our dress clothes we had along for our appts. and court. She met us right when she was supposed to and away we went. We walked up a steep street and across a courtyard and down a few more blocks where we arrived in front of a non-descript building which was the dreaded "SDA". We had no idea what to expect but figured we would just hold on and see what happened. We went into a little side door where there were a couple of other couples standing around and we waited for our translator to come and get us. Finally Luba came out and said to follow her. We went upstairs to a little office where there was one couple looking at pictures of children on the coffee table and we were taken to a little office in back. We were introduced to this little gal who looked like she had just flown in on her broom. After looking through our dossier and asking us why we were there and what we wanted she proceeded to lay I believe 11 or 12 files in front of us. At this point we were a little panicked as there were no files that "jumped out" and said " This is the one". All the kids had issues of some sort which is common over there but still we thought that something would stand out for us. Well, nothing stood out and to show that we were sincere, we picked out what we thought was the healthiest child of the group. This little girl was " Elina" in Mariupol. Luba had seen this little girl while at that orphanage before and didn`t remember her as being as ill as her file said. We left the SDA at about 4:00 with the understanding that we were to come back the next day ( Friday) to get our paperwork and jump a train to Mariupol. We contacted Dr. Yuri to travel with us to evaluate this little girl and determine health etc etc. Dr Yuri is a doctor based in Kyiv that does evaluations for adoptive parents as a sideline.
On Friday we packed up and were ready to do our paperwork and train ride to Mariupol. The paperwork went without a hitch and we were off to the train station to meet Dr. Yuri.------- continued on the next rain day-------------------------( my pointer fingers are getiing tired from typing) :-)

We`re gonna get to it!!!

2009-04-13T23:01:00.002-05:00

We haven`t forgotten about this blog. We will be doing our recap and update as soon as I get a rain day or two at work. Gail says that she would do it but having three kids plus a busy two year old takes up most of her day. I think she`s referring to me as one of the three but I`m not sure :-). Till next time, Gail,Craig,Collin,Tory and Briley.

WE ARE HOME!!!

2009-03-15T18:56:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone, Just as it says, we are finally home and boy does it feel good! From the time we left our apartment in Kyiv Wed. morning to arrival in Mpls. it was right at 24 hrs of travelling. Briley did very well on the first three hours from Kyiv to Munich, but got a little rambunctious on the long flight to Chicago. From Chicago to Mpls. she stayed in our laps and was fine the whole way. We have a whole lot that we want to fill everyone in on, from all that happened in Kyiv that we weren`t able to expound on before, to how everything is going now. I think we`ll do the "hows everything going now" post this time and do a "Journey recap" next time.
After saying our goodbyes in Kyiv to our Kentucky friends and our translators on Tues., we were ready to leave Ukraine. As miserable as we had been over there, there was still a touch of remorse when we were driving down the freeway at 4 in the morning to get to the airport. We had met some very nice Ukrainian people that we now consider our friends and we will more than likely never see them again. We will however keep in touch with them through e-mails. Our U.S. friends that we met over there will have to put up with us as we will definitely stay in touch with them.

The arrival in Mpls. was great!! Tory and Collin met us at the terminal with the "Welcome home Briley, mom, and dad" signs and with Kenny and Judy there as well. Briley was wide-eyed and pretty quiet but didn`t make a fuss. The trip home took a little longer than it should`ve because we had to stop and get a gallon of American milk. That too was great!! Had three glasses when we got to our house and I wasn`t even thirsty. After a late night of "welcoming back" with the kids we finally got to lay down on an American air bed. ahhhhhh. Every bone in our body thanked us for coming home to a decent bed. We let Briley sleep with us so as to not rile her much on the first night. Well, about 30 minutes later I hear little footsteps coming up from the basement and then we had 4 in bed! A little while later there were some more little footsteps making their way up the steps and before long there was 5 in the bed. Not totally unexpected but it made for a crowd!! Thank goodness it is a king size bed because with anything smaller we might have had issues with someone falling out. Mom and Dad didn`t argue a bit!! It was just nice to be home with the boys. Thursday was uneventful as all we did was stay home and restock our cupboards with a trip to HyVee. That was in itself very nice, being able to see a well stocked supermarket with everything that you may want and more!! The prices were a little higher than what we have been used to but we`ll take it!! On Friday I went back to work while Gail took Briley over to Kenny and Judy`s to meet her new babushka and her new dedushka(grandma and grandpa). That went well as Briley took to them right away. On Saturday we took the whole crew to Collin`s basketball tourney in Austin and things went really well there for Briley too. Today we took her to Church and she did very well. She even "boogied" a little bit on a couple of the hymns.
On Thursday we will be taking her to an eye doctor to see what steps need to be taken to correct her lazy/crossed eye. We have been assured that this is not going to be a problem but still look forward to having this fixed. As far as her thin hair goes, it has been getting thicker and a little darker since the day that we started smuggling in meat and food to the orphanage. Her scabs are clearing up very nicely and we hope that a little outside type playing will help her color a bit.
The only issue that has come up with her is her extreme reluctance to lie down and go to sleep. She slept 15 hrs a day at the orphanage and here we have a hard time getting her to sleep 8 hrs at night and to get an hour or 2 nap in the afternoon. We think it might be all the stimulation that she has been getting by being out of the orphanage and once everything calms down a bit it should go better. The boys have taken her under their wing and will be wonderful brothers. If they can keep the other boys away from her until she reaches the age of 24 I`ll be satisfied!!
We will be continuing with updates and as I said earlier, we will be giving a recap of our entire trip. Until then , we have two months of mail to go through and hope that there isn`t too many bills in the pile, we have to bring Briley to the daycare with Gail with her a couple hours at a time to acclimate her to that environment and try to show her more things that she has never experienced at a comfortable pace. There is one quote by Collin that you might appreciate. One morning when we were skyping the kids, Judy asked us how Briley looked with all the chicken pox blisters. Gail told her that between the blisters, shabby clothes, thin hair, pale skin and the lazy eye, Briley truly looked like a little orphan. After we had hung up Collin turned to Judy and asked " Just what do they expect Briley to look like? She IS an orphan!!!" We are still chuckling over that one.
Take care,
Gail and Craig

The final countdown has begun-FINALLY

2009-03-07T10:46:00.012-06:00

Well, as the title indicates we`re on the downhill part of our voyage. We can fill you in on some stuff that we couldn`t before. The last time that we were ready to start thinking about coming home, Briley`s groupa caught of all things the chicken pox!! We had to wait the 10 days for the scabs to go away or she would never pass the physical back in Kyiv. We couldn`t mention the chicken pox on our blog because if the officials caught wind of it they would quarantine the orphanage for 30 days. Just what we would have needed! We went to her birth town on Tuesday and got her birth certificate changed over, then went to Donetsk to get her passport. We even got to have a little "nectar of the gods" McDonalds!!!! Didn`t ever think that we would look forward to McD`s but it tasted awful good. We had Luba with us as well as the driver so I bought lunch for everyone. The bill came to over $20.00, which over here is quite expensive, so I wondered why that was. When we got our food we saw why. Luba, Gail and myself all had the usual sandwich, fries and pop, but our driver had 2 fish sandwiches, a big tasty, a fish wrap, super sized fries and a jumbo pop. He said that McD`s was his favorite restaurant, YAH, I can see that!!! Yes I said fish wrap, the McD`s over here have fish wraps, fish strips, sundaes with cone cups, potato wedges and a few other differences as well. Tomorrow (Sunday) morning we go to the orphanage to have a little party with her groupa, with bananas, juice, and candy to finish up the meal!! THEN- we bring her out of the orphanage for the last time!! She is ours and she ain`t going back to that place. We will board a train in Stravansk at 7:00 tomorrow night and go back to Kyiv. We are doing the train ride solo as Luba is already back in Kyiv. We are boarding in Stravansk as there is a 10 minute boarding there as opposed to 5 minutes here in Kramatorsk and with our luggage and a little girl we thought that it might be wise to drive the 10 miles to let us have more time. Not only will we have Briley, we will have a few souvenirs that Gail picked up today. I don`t know where we will fit the extra pallet but we will have to make it work. Last Sunday we went to the market, as we had said we were going to do, but we got there a little late, so things were all getting locked up. Not today!! Everything was in full swing and the weather was very nice for a change, so I`m sure all 250,000 people or so it seemed in Kramatorsk were at the market. BAZAA is what you tell the cabbie when he picks you up- English would be bazaar I`m assuming. We got there OK so he must have figured out what we said. Speaking of which- we were out of bottled water the other night so Gail had me go to the tiny market behind our apartment to get a couple little bottles to get us by. I had been in there numerous times and always had the same two gals wait on me and they obviously knew I was an American and we had some good laughs, but I always found what I was looking for. Well, Gail has been reading her Russian made easy book so she says " just say dva voda, it means two waters". So I go in there all cocky and say " dva voda" they looked at me like what book did you read that out of!! They had no idea what that meant! I went back to the tried and true way of pointing at the water and holding up 2 fingers. That works a lot better. Monday is a holiday over here so we will be able to go get my fur hats in Kyiv then. On Tuesday we will be at the embassy bright and early to do the paperwork for Briley`s visa and then take her to get her physical. From there we go back to the embassy to get the finished visa and then we are meeting our friends from Kentucky to celebrate a little as they are finishing up also. They were able to get Maxim (7 year old little boy)out of the orphanage a couple days ago and have had him with them. They have been delayed a little bit more than us with their paperwork but everything is hopefully coming together for them as well. They are more than ready to go home as well as us! On Wednesday morning WE FLY OUT!! That was sorta fun to write. I think I`ll do it again- WE FLY OUT!! ahhhhh. We will stop in Munich for I believe 2 hours then off to Chicago and then on to Minneapolis, hopefully arriving at 7:30 that night. Keep in mind we are travelling west, so we gain 8 time zones and will have 20 hrs. travel time. The outdoor market was everything we expected it to be. You can find anything and everything there. All we needed was a roll of duct tape to wrap our luggage and after looking in about 932 shops we found it! We got a "few" more souvenirs so we had to get a duffle bag also. Pretty cool looking big bag and it was only $20.00. Finished up the day by going to see Briley one last time at the orphanage and getting an " astronaut chicken" at the supermarket. You know the ones- whole rotisserie chicken with the plastic dome on it! Pretty tasty and they run about $2.50. We will try to post one more time maybe Tuesday night when we are still in Ukraine. Forgot to add that on our walk to the orphange this moring we saw another casket on the sidewalk by the apartments we walk by. This time it was open and empty and there was a guy crying on the sidewalk. Our guess is that maybe they don`t embalm here and when someone dies they come with the casket and put them in it right on the spot. Vladimir says that when a casket is by an apartment like we saw before, it is there for a short time for the people that lived in the same building to say their goodbyes. Sorta different.

Here are some pictures of what we have seen the last few days and the captions to explain them a bit..

Found this fish head on the sidewalk this morning. Have no idea how it got here, just struck us as rather odd. It rained last night. Instead of cats and dogs, it must rain cat and fish over here?

Three babuschkas that sell seeds and beans by the market down the street. They are there whether it rains , snows or whatever. The lady on the end likes to throw seeds for the pigeons. Yesterday she finally had one tame enough so she could pet it.

Had to check out the Ukrainian over the shoulder boulder holder stand!! Notice the lady in the red coat in the background laughing? Didn`t notice her until we posted the picture.Sidewalk in front of the market with all the misc. stuff.Fruits and veggies, the fruits are amazing here. Oranges and such are very good. Haven`t a clue where they get them though, surely not in this region.Typical alley at market.Lots of these babushkas selling seeds and beans here too. Once in a while you see them selling pickles on a plate. We watched one today restock the plate by reaching in barehanded in a large tub and grabbing a few more. We passed on the pickles.Lots of indoor alleys where the clothing is. Lots and lots of black clothes, boots and jackets.The fish aisle! Gail refused to walk down this one as it stunk so bad. :-)Lots of vendors with eggs. Funny to watch people pick a few and put them in a bag.Lots of cole slaw and salad tables. Yes- people are buying this stuff along with home canned thingys. I say thingys because we couldn`t tell what was in the jars.Strips of backfat for sale. Remember the previous post about using lard as a bread spread? Lots of lard tables here today also.Some cute little strollers that we haven`t seen at home.These aren`t for decoration- the babushkas use them to clean the sidewalks over her.Winner, winner, chicken dinner.I FOUND THEM!!! Boxes of chicken feet. You would think the claws would catch in your throat as they go down. Update!! Just talked to our landlord about the chicken feet. They don`t actually eat them- they boil them in a soup for flavor and take them out before the soup is served. I don`t know if that`s any better though.Bugs Bunny on the right and guess what on the left??? NUTRIA!- in other words over grown muskrat!! The ladies got a chuckle out of us checking out the feet. I had a hunch what it was but didn`t think there was any way that people would eat such a creature. Guess I was wrong!!Here we are at the local mouse store. Ironically, they were selling cats at the same stand.Care for a few chicken heads to go with your chicken feet?? MMM Finger-lickin` good. Update- they do eat the heads though!!!Fully armed guards keeping an eye on things. They didn`t look real friendly or we would have gotten closer for the picture. We didn`t want to push our luck on our last days here.This is the public sidewalks in most cases. Makes for wet, cold feet. And pants.Baby buggies over here have pneumatic tires and 4 wheel independent suspension to navigate the rough terrain, no I`m not kidding.The "WC" is what you look for over here when you need a biffy. Stands for water closet. Usually costs 1-2 gryivna to use, but they will hand you a roll of cardboard toilet paper if you need it for that price.This is the best picture of all. No, not only because it`s Gail, this is the start of our last walk to the orphanage. We figure that with all the trips we have made to the orphanage, we have travelled roughly 80 miles by walking. This doesn`t include the walking uptown trips or anything, just the orphanage miles. Our 3 pairs of socks that we both brought are looking might shabby right now.

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

2009-02-28T02:51:00.008-06:00

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!!!!

2009-02-23T11:55:00.013-06:00

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!!!!!

2009-02-17T10:50:00.010-06:00

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

2009-02-12T10:47:00.009-06:00

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...........................,

Fresh water out of the faucet: Yesterday a line of people were standing behind a water truck waiting to get their empty bottles filled.
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!
A car: I won't complain about my Ford anymore, I'm just glad I have one.
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.
A house: A home with two floors and our very own bedrooms. Many Ukrainian homes have the bedroom and living room together.
Roads without pot holes: not common here.
Country side without scattered trash: not common here.
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.
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.
Menard's, Lowe's, and Home Depot: They all could make a killing over here. Their local home store is put to shame.
A fresh variety of colors: All of the paint colors are still back in the 60's. Orange-blue-green are the basics.
Our select comfort air bed: All we have had is a futon mattress, with side boards.
A top sheet: They use the flat sheet to lay on and a covered feather blanket to cover up with.
Microwave popcorn: We haven't been able to find popcorn of any kind here.
Canned soup: None here, period! That we can recognize anyway.
A fresh meat counter: One that doesn't stare back at you!!!
Carpeting: Haven't see any since we left the States!
Clean sidewalks: Between the doggy landmines, the gravel ruts and scattered garbage you have to watch where you walk.
Charmin: It's made out of cardboard here.
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.
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

2009-02-09T14:12:00.014-06:00

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.

More things in Ukraine that make you go hmmmm.

2009-02-07T09:59:00.010-06:00

We are in a routine now for the next 10 days of visiting everyday for two hours in the AM and two hours in the afternoon, so there won`t be much new stuff to report. Thought it may be a good time to show some more of the things here that are just plain different than we are used to. Briley is warming up a little more each day with us. She is young enough that we are sure she doesn`t grasp the whole adoption thing, but nevertheless she is starting to like being around us. It probably doesn`t hurt that she knows she can expect a cookie and some crackers everytime she sees us. We brought her a juice box today without even thinking that she might have never seen such a thing. She struggled at first but after a few dribbles she caught right on. Her given name is Oxanna which isn`t actually too bad, even sorta catchy. But we figured if she turns out to be heavier set that the "ox" part was a joke waiting to happen. Just kidding, we decided on Briley over a year ago.

This is Tory-age 6, one of the two main reasons we are ready to be back home. .

This is Tory with his head down, ready to race!!This is Collin our oldest boy, age 9. Reason #2 we want to get home.Collin also eats, sleeps and breathes racing all summer long. He is our Mr. Smooth.This is Babushcka Judy and the boys. Without Grandma Judy and Grandpa Kenny taking care of the boys, we wouldn`t have been able to come to UkraineWe were at a mall with John and Charlene from Kentucky when all of a sudden music was blaring, people were crowding around the red carpet, and red ropes were getting strung up with a lot of security looking guys. We thought great, we are going to see some dignitaries or some celebrities. The music reached a crescendo, the crowd was going wild and then.............OUT MARCHED OF ALL THINGS............DUCKS!!!!!!! I thought I had led a sheltered life but sheesh, give me a break!Charlie Brown lives in Ukraine and heres the proof- his Christmas treeIn Ukraine the cars are so small they don`t use a tow truck in our sense. They just pull up alongside with a little crane and hoist away. No bull, this is how they do it.They do value their meats here. Notice the anti-theft thingy on the sausage.Fish is really popular at the markets here. Here`s the fresh cleaned fish.Fresh carp, and Gail thought it was walleye she had been eating. Notice the price-25 gryivna (about $3.00). I could retire if I sold the carp in Geneva Lake at that price.Don`t like the whole fish?- not a problem, just buy the heads.Pick out the milk to drink. Took us three tries before we found one to drink.Good selection of fruit juices here. Mostly boxed and non -refridgerated.Like your fish fresh? Not a problem- take your pick, carp or catfish.Bagged ice cream. (we think :) )Wonderful selection of beer!!!I thought 9000 miles away from home would stop the antique bug. WRONG!!Elvis Lives!!!!And last but not least. Our new little one!!!!!And one more with Mama Gail. HOPE YOU ENJOYED!! Thanks for checking in. Gail and Craig

Our Journey ends- We`re coming home

2009-02-06T09:21:00.009-06:00

Not really, but that was how things were looking at our third appointment. We did end up getting a little 2 yr old girl that we were after. We wish we were able to say that things went well but that is far from the truth. If we were to write a book on this trip, the last 48 hrs. would take up 1/2 of it. For a number of reasons, we can`t elaborate but we are very pleased with the final result!! We are in the Donetsk region again in a town called Kramatorsk, coincidentally at the same orphanage where we had taken the 4 yr old to have her CT scan done. Things are going well as our paperwork got finished today and now just has to go through the proper channels, court etc etc. We are staying at a very nice apartment that is about a 10 minute walk from the orphanage and 5 minutes from a nice supermarket. Everyday we have to bring treats for our litte girl`s "groupa" ( ten little guys/gals) and for her too. We were able to spend about 2 and 1/2 hours with her today and it went very well. She was really shy at first but began to warm up to us in the play area which we were happy to see. She is very bright for a two year old and the only issue she has is a lazy eye that we have talked to Doctors in the states about and were assured that is minor. (Thanks Tim) We will be just fine with this little girl because I was schmoozing her with a cookie before we left this afternoon and when Gail took her out of my arms she said "NYET" ( no in Russian) She might even learn to like Gail after awhile!! :) The day of our appointment we spent the morning at Pechersk Lavra. This is the Cathedral with the underground tunnels where past monks and saints are laid in glass enclosed coffins. The bodies are wrapped in elegant cloth and very well preserved. When I say tunnels I don`t mean 8 ft. high and 5 ft. wide. Some of the tunnels are about 6.5 ft. tall and some were about 6 ft tall and the width was approximately 36 in wide. Oh, there wasn`t any light bulbs to be found either, we carried little candles to light our way along with scattered little candle lamps along the way. Needless to say after bouncing off the white whitewashed walls with my thin physique, Gails says I looked like the Pillsbury dough boy. After about twenty minutes I had had enough and got out of there. I was looking for a signed "confined space entry permit" but none were to be found. We don`t have much more to share for now, but here`s some pictures of our latest exploits. Take Care, Gail and Craig

PS- Our newest little household member's name is : Briley Ann Christenson

This is a picture of the Parliament building here in Kyiv. They have I believe 28 political parties here and none get along.

Snow removal Ukraine style if it gets removed at all.

Typical apartment building in Ukraine. Sorta rough on the outside but quite nice inside. Very high number of apartment dwellers here.

Picture of the infamous door that takes us into the SDA

Our newest friend here in Ukraine- he speaks English better than most people over here.

Sunday check-in

2009-02-01T13:40:00.008-06:00

Hi Everyone, Had a busy Sunday here, we were awakened by our cell phone this morning and it was Luba our translator. We were to be ready to move to a new apartment at noon. Right at noon she was at our door and away we went. Much nicer apartment and we have internet to boot. If you have e-mailed us and we don`t reply, please don`t be offended. We downloaded over 160 e-mails today due to our 3 day absence and there probably won`t be any way to answer them all. We spent the day with John and Char, our friends from Kentucky. We travelled on the subway and met them at a station where we were to tour the Chernobyl museum. We had directions but couldn`t find it, so we started asking 3 different people and got three different answers. After striking out with all three we found a taxi and made him aware of what we wanted. No problem- for 50 gryivna he would take us. (about $6.00) So all 4 of us got into this tiny car and away we go. We went about a block and he motions, we`re there!! So close and yet so far :))) and to top it off the darn thing was closed on Sundays. So we walk back to tour a Church we had seen and of course had to walk by the same cabbies parking spot. I`m sure he thought "what a bunch of stooges". The Church was actually a church that is currently in use, not just a museum type place. People would come in and approach not an altar but all sorts of pictures and statues and light a candle and say a prayer. No pews or anything like a service, just come as an individual and walk to where you want and for lack of a better term, just have your own private worship service. It was actually really neat to be involved in something like this. The subway rides are something else! We ride an escalator down about 344 ft.- no not a misprint, it is the deepest subway in Europe I believe. But anyways, once you get to the bottom where the trains are you have to decipher if you want the blue, red or green train and which way you want to go on it. Once you have that figured out, just stand with the other "cattle" on the platform. When the train pulls up wait for the onslaught of people coming off before the onslaught of people getting on runs your butt over. No hurry though, you have about 30 seconds before the doors slam shut and away you go at a very brisk pace. Oh yeah, remember the 344 ft. deep thingy? That means when you travel across town, you are also travelling underneath a quite large river. All we can think of is, we hope that the tunnel is better maintained than some of the apartments and buildings are over here. We were just getting settled in at the apartment tonight when we heard the Skype ringing. Collin had already noticed that we were back online so we were able to talk with the kids for a long time, and also Judy/Kenny so that alone made us feel alot better after 3 days of no skyping. Well nothing else to add but we have had a few requests for some picture so we will tack a few on here. Oh, one last big bit of news, Gail did finally give in on letting me get a nanny. She will love it in the U.S.. The only problem is that she has two kids of her own and I`m not sure if they will be able to adapt. I`ll put her picture down below.

`Til our next posting, Gail and Craig

Here is a picture of our new "nanny" and one of her "kids". Sorta cute eh? Doing dishes is easy with a little help from our own personal "Fairy"Street musician by one of the Cathedrals serenading us for a few gryivnas.Gail at the internet cafe doing her thing. The only person in Ukraine with a green coat.One of the buildings off the square lit up at night. Neat to see all these buildings at night. Picture from a bell tower of the St. Sophia`s CathedralOnce you get out of downtown Kyiv things aren`t quite as neat and tidy. This was at one of our subway stops on Saturday.

Holding pattern

2009-01-31T01:33:00.004-06:00

Good Morning Everyone,

As the heading states we are in a holding pattern. We thought we would have an appointment yesterday (Friday) but it didn`t work out. Our translator called us in the morning and said that someone(SDA or something) lost power and heat and everything is backed up a day or two. So now it is supposed to be Tues. or Wed. Not a good start to the day and it was to get worse. We called the kids before they got on the bus and you could tell they were getting pretty lonely. Kinda made us wonder what the heck we are doing here, but I`m in the mindset we`re here, we`re gonna get`r done.

The bureaucracy is unreal, if you don`t like what you hear from one individual, ask someone else in the same office and you will get a different answer. You still won`t like the answer but it will be different. It`s like dealing with the Freeborn County zoning and planning office every single day. Our internet in our apartment still isn`t working. The landlord did send a guy up last night to tell us as they have before that it has to be our laptop. His final analysis after working on it for an hour- it must be the internet connection, WELL DUH -I`ve been telling you that for three days. Now they will maybe get someone to check it out Mon. maybe. We called our translator after that and said to move us because we took this apartment to be able to use the internet so we could "Skype" the kids every day. (skype is where we use webcams and talk directly with them).

Other than that there is nothing to post other than some of the other "differences" over here. So, here are some of the things that make you go hmmmmmm.

- Apartment elevators, about the size of a manlift in a grain elevator, really small and creaky and which by the way, ours doesn`t work and we`re on the 5th floor

- Toilet paper, no charmin quilted over here, think paper towel texture. (John Wayne style- rough as heck and doesn`t take any ....well you know)

- As we said before, we walk everywhere and everyone moves right out, I know I`m getting in shape because yesterday I was able to pass a couple older ladies. It might have been because they were both carrying shopping bags but I don`t think so.

- Haven`t seen a fire truck here yet, but yesterday I heard an air horn and sirens so I sat back to see what a firetruck here looks like and wouldn`t you know it, here comes a VW rabbit cop car blaring an air horn.

- There are two pairs of Carhart blue jeans in all of Ukraine and I have both pair.

- Garbage cans, we have had one garbage can in our apartments thus far. It is about the size of a 3 # coffee can, we don`t know if this is normal but it wouldn`t last an hour at home before being filled.

- The electrical outlets are very different- two big prongs and the electricity is way higher voltage than ours. Gail`s hair dryer lasts about 10 seconds on high before it kicks out and with my clippers that I have I can shear a large sheep in under a minute the way it sounds.

Uncle Georgie borrowed me his money pouch that he had used on his Africa trips and told me where to carry it to keep it safe. Well, lets just say I don`t know if it will ever be the same!

Well, thats about it for us. If anything changes we`ll let everyone know on our next posting.

Gail and Craig

We are back in Kyiv

2009-01-28T07:44:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone, Gail here
We are at a internet cafe today because our wireless in our apartment isn't working. Half of my screen and keyboard is in Ukraine, at least what I think is Ukraine, so I'll do my best.
As you probably have guessed we are not going ahead with adopting the little girl. The test that we had done did show some damage but they are going to still keep the sisters together. It did show different results than what her file had said so the Director was thankful that it was done. As far as epilepsy it was inconclusive and still undetermined because a ct scan does not always show it. It did show some other damage that could have long term effects. We felt it was a case for a prospective family that had no other children who could concentrate on the special needs of these children. The Director and the Doctor both agreed with our decision but also said their charts look to be much more promising now that it is closer to a correct diagnosis.We finished the paperwork needed so it could be entered at the SDA office, had our first meal of the day (3:00), and flew back to Kyiv. Our flight was only an hour and half and we arrived back at Kyiv around 10:00pm. It was nice to be back in Kyiv again after feeling like we were out in the boonies. Craig got up this morning and brought back some Mc Donalds. I never thought I would look forward to eating "Mc Donalds", now I know I must be getting sick. If anything maybe it will help my hips fill out again as Iv'e had to resort to rolling the waist of my pants over because my pants are getting baggier by the minute. I guess what I'm trying to say is I am not enjoying the food.!! Yesterday ,after being in the boonies for four days I did speak up and tell our translator that I needed something that looked like real food.( I was done with the experimenting) Our driver told us he would take us to a nicer restuarant with American menus/ American food but it would cost us more. At that point we did not care, but the funny part was, Craig had steak, Luba had pork , and of course I had salmon, beers for all of us with two different appetizers plus three very good desserts and the whopping bill came to whole $ 30 dollars. I'm going to eat fancy everynight from now on! :) OK- Craig here now- Gails taking a breather. Some observations that I have gotten a chuckle out of.
- police looking guys lining up cars to park on the sidewalks for a fee and surely pocketing the cash.
- As some of our pictures show, I am wearing my WFS coat. We all get asked at home what WFS stands for and sometimes get a funny look when we say " Working for Farmers Success or Watonwan Farm Service" imagine now when approached over here by some guy on the street and they say" Whot eesss theeess duubba u eefff esss meeen? I try to explain it is initials for my company and they come back and say eeenneettials? I gave up after the third guy asked me. Now I just say I found the coat! :)
- If someone comes up to you on street trying their best to talk English you can bet that they want something thats gonna cost you some gryivna. I`ve heard about lost uncles in Chicago, relatives in Kentucky and the list goes on. Usually 10 gryivna will cure whatever ails them. My new game plan is when they try to speak English I`m going to fire back " sprekenzee doich" and if they answer to that I`m gonna say " no comprende" Maybe they`ll leave me alone.
- As Gail said we are at a public computer so no pictures today.
- Ketchup is hard to find once you leave Kyiv- potatoes in all forms are served with sour cream or mayo. I did find some ketchup in Donetsk at our hotel. The problem - it was used as the sauce in the pizza I ordered.
- We had a mini bar in our room in Donetsk and one night we used two bottles of coke, two beers, a can of peanuts, two waters,snickers and a pack of gum. Total damages here compared to the potential $ 40.00 back home- a grand total of $4.00. The clerk looked at me goofy when I ask if that`s right.
- in the US it`s "Got milk" here it`s "Got Beer"- sorta strange to see people eating a sausage, egg and cheese Mcmuffin with a liter of beer.
- The ct scan that we had done for the little girl was estimated to cost about $90.00 and when we got done with it the total came to $43.00. Unreal that it was that cheap. It was done at a private clinic where we were able to get right in. If we had wanted it done at a public health care place it would have been cheaper but it would be a month before we got in.
- We should have our third and final appointment tomorrow maybe. We are pretty confident it will work out. If it doesn`t we will line up our return tickets and be home next week. If it goes as we hope and we accept a child we then have a mandatory 10 day waiting period and a couple days to get a visa for her and then we come home.
- What we have not really explained very well is that all the children over here in orphanages potentially have a number of problems. First and foremost the alcoholism is very high, drug use is high and prenatal care is minimal, and orphanages are not conducive to the nurturing that children need. This is no way a slam on the orphanages, the ones we have seen are old but they are clean and the caregivers truly do care about the children. Sometimes the kids are not malnourished, they are what I would call undernourished. Lack of vitamins, exercise etc. etc.
We had no illusions about finding what the "Oldies" call a "Gerber baby" because if that is what you expect to find you will be dissappointed!!
- I can say if we were a childless couple, we would be doing the paperwork to bring the two little sisters home regardless of the medical issues. Ironically over here they consider epilepsy to be a major condition, if that was the only issue with a child we would consider it pretty darn minor. Although, they do not consider fetal alcohol syndrome a major issue as we do. This means the mother was drinking during pregnancy and messed up the development mainly in the brain of the child. The ct scan did show abnormal white matter in the brain which was probably FAS.
- We did get a chuckle out of the private doctor when he asked what we did for a living. They had no idea what a grain elevator was so I gave up on that one. Gail said she was a hygienist which cleans teeth and treats perio' issues and the Dr. said " oh, your a doctor!" We said no, not a doctor,I just work with the dentists and help treat perio' disease. His comeback " you treat disease- you a doctor" We`re still laughing about that one, because no matter what we say " she still a doctor!" :) :)
- On Sunday at the hotel we were bored and I asked Gail how many people do you think are looking at our blog? Her reply was " oh, maybe 30 or so" I figured maybe 40. I then got on a site that will track "hits" on a site and got it downloaded. After two days we were humbled to say the least!! In the first two whole days we had over 800 hits on our site, so we just want to say thanks for checking in, it means a lot to us.
- Gail says that I am supposed to mention we haven`t even strangled each other yet!! :) I figure she has to keep me around to be a body guard, she will probably kill me once we get home. :)
- Gail also stated that she is to the point that she doesn`t even care that we draw the funny looks because of our clothes or my height. She is proud to be the "Stupid Amerikkan in Ukraine" I think the people are looking at us because of my stunning good looks but she says "NYET!!" Which means No way, no how, and give me a break in Russian!!
- When we visited Brent and Cath in Blaine I had asked Brent if he would do it all over again, stupid question I know, but his reply was " if I won the lottery we would bring home 50 children" We can now say we know what he means!!

Well that`s about it for now, we have to go back to our apartment and pay our landlord and hopefully get our internet working so we can give you some pictures and such.

Later,
Gail and Craig

Part 2

2009-01-26T10:58:00.003-06:00

qjju hyfb hurikdm
jdhf bdgdrwkc kgihnhm hdg hjdgfsd cbd tajddu th rqpo ih ya zlon jdim.!?@#* If your wondering, I asked how is everyone at home doing?(Ukrainian Style) This what it feels like over here-very foreign.
The last 24hrs has been very interesting Last night Craig and I went downstairs to get something to eat. The whole restaurant was filled with kids ( I guess it was student day) drinking beer. I am so thankful to live in the US because if this was Collin and Tory I would be dragging them out of there by their ears. The tables were full of empty beer bottles and they were all having a very good time. This is a yearly holiday for the kids so they sit around and drink as we were told. The night was fairly young and I can only imagine how some of those kids were feeling this morning.
Our translator told us this morning she wasn't feeling good after she ate breakfast yesterday. She wondered if she ate something that wasn't fresh. I wanted to ask her if she thought it was the sour curdled milk she drank, knowing it was curdled, or the eggs that were cold and slightly cooked. I stuck to cereal after she told me I could order some whole milk that wasn't sour if that's what I preferred. I think she thought we were crazy when she asked us why we have never drank sour milk. Craig said he had but only by mistake and he spit it out. (To think they wait until it gets rotten before they think it`s good.)
Well I suppose I should get back to the reason why we are here. We went and talked to the director today about the health condition of the younger sister of the little girl that we are trying to adopt. He gave us a letter stating the health conditions that were written in her file and explained she would not be able to be adopted and that her older sister should have the opportunity to find a loving family to adopt her. Therefore ,they should split the referral. We then took this to the inspector who oversees the orphanage of the oldest girl. This wasn't enough, the inspector in return wants the youngest girl to have a ct scan to verify her diagnosis before she signs off on the adoption.
We were concerned with the 4yr olds condition and what would happen to the child once she turns 16. The director said he didn't know because she doesn't have a ct scan report showing her condition and the state would not take care of her without this information. It hasn't been done because of the cost of it.( a whole $90.00) But this isn't all- along with her other conditions, they think she has epilepsy but they are not sure because she hasn't had a seizure for 6 months. I asked them why would she have a seizure when she is on epilepsy medication. They thought that was a good point. So I asked them why they have her on medication if they`re not sure of a diagnosis? The answer is they do the best they can. We told them to get a ct scan and we will pay for it. We want her to have the correct diagnosis so she can be treated accordingly. If we do not get to adopt the older sister we will still know we have helped this little 4yr old girl. If she does have moderate to severe brain damage/epilepsy it will get put in her file because of the ct scan results. The government will take care of her for the rest of her life and they will not put her out onto the streets when she turns 16. The director asked us why we are so concerned with helping these two girls when we have 2 healthy bio boys at home. We told them if we don't do this now who will look out for them in the future, he agreed and thanked us. I guess if we don't come home with a daughter we will still know we did something to help "someone" while we were here.
Well, stay tuned and hopefully we will have more information tomorrow. Have a glass of milk for us and enjoy every minute in the great USA! Craig and Gail

The Plot Thickens

2009-01-24T23:53:00.005-06:00

Good Morning Everyone,
As the title says things are getting a little more different every day. After only a 12 not 14 hour train ride we arrived at Donetsk. Gail and myself couldn`t get the same berth as our translator and Dr. Yuri so we had to live with two Russian strangers for awhile. This turned out pretty good as one was an approx. 25 yr old student type and the other an older gentleman that was very polite. The younger girl could speak a little english so we communicated very well. The man stated that he thought Gail was a " Princess Dianna" so yeah her head was swelling a bit. I was thinking along the lines of her being "The Queen" but didn`t want to try to explain that one in translation. Our translator and Dr. got stuck in a berth with two guys drinking and eating dried fish. We could smell the fish down the hall so the berth itself had to be nasty. To top it off the two guys snored all night and our two friends didn`t get any sleep.
As for the plot thickening, here is what went on from there. We arrived at the first orphanage where the younger sister is at about 8:30 A.M. We were greeted by the director who was without a doubt a very nice gentleman. He truly cared for his kids and it showed. Dr Yuri interviewed the doctor on staff and then they brought in Angelina. She was 4.5 yrs old but we could tell she had some issues. Dr Yuri did his testing and that showed what I guess we already knew, she had some permanent issues that would probably need institutionalization for the rest of her life. The director stated that because of these health issues he would recommend a separation of the two sisters as to give the other sister a chance at adoption. At that point we got a little confused because the files state that the younger sister is healthier than the older one. We then left to go to the next orphanage to see the other girl and were told by our translator that there is no way to split up sisters. We asked to not even go to the next stop then as long as that wasn`t possible. They said we had to go because we have to give an official rejection on all referrals and that was one of our referrals. So off we go across country to another village. I actually got a picture of a grain elevator which is the first we have seen. You know we`ve been here too long when I get excited to see a grain elevator. Anyways we arrived at this retreat area where the kids were for the weekend and met the director and a couple staff. They then brought in this little girl that was diagnosed with "severe mental retardation". We were pleasantly surprised to say the least. Dark skin, pig tails, missing front teeth and a big smile. Our unprofessional opinion-"WHAT A CUTIE!" and Gail stated that she has a cavity. Always on duty as a hygienist :). Our doctors opinion- healthy and the only thing he could find wrong is an "educational delay" which means she hasn`t attended formal schooling yet. Well long story short Gail and I both knew this was the one! BUT!! We asked our translator what can we do about the other 1/2 sister issue. We were told nothing can be done and we had to refuse and go back to Ky iv for our third appointment. At that point we were getting more than a little ornery because it didn`t seem like anyone cared about these little girls. By the way, the whole while this was going on, the little girl was looking at our little photo album picking out the two "brots"(Tory and Collin) Mama(Judy)Papa(Kenny) Mischka(teddy bear in her bedroom) and kot (cat) for our cat Pester. She didn`t know what we were there for which was probably good in case things don`t work out.
On the ride back to Donetsk Gail and myself were steaming, the doctor driver and translator were all yacking and on their phones and nobody seemed to care about the girls. Finally about 30 minutes into the trip the translator turned back to us and said there may be another way. She had been on the phone to the first director that I had liked and explained the situation. He said he would help in anyway he can which would mean updating the younger child's file to make it accurate and trying to persuade the inspector to change her mind. We were asked if we wanted to fight for this. It was a no-brainer as it was definitely YES. We will also go back to inspector on Monday to try to reason with her. If that doesn`t work we go to the local mayor of village and to the judge to explain the situation to have him override the inspector. We have always said that we wouldn`t split sisters up and it is eating at us but it is the Drs
recommendation to split them up. The two girls have always been at different orphanages and we don`t think that they know of each other but we will check that out on Monday. What bothers us is if they don`t get split up neither of them stand a chance. We did get on our private angel site and explained the situation. One the the "oldies" replied and stated that he had something similar and recommended $omething that $peaks in all language$ to be tried ,I`m not $ure that i$ the way, but it i$ an option.
We will try to post as time and Internet access allows so be patient.
Gail and Craig

-update- we just got back from breakfast and wonderful news WE GOT A GLASS OF MILK!!
also ordered what looked to be a 1/2 pound chopped steak and dug in .Guess what- It was CHOPPED LIVER!! YUCK Good thing I like cole slaw, it is served with every meal.

Friday over here= train loading time

2009-01-23T01:57:00.006-06:00

Good Morning everyone,
As the heading indicates we are heading for another train ride. This time to the Donetsk region. Yup- another 14 hours of paradise. We had our appointment yesterday and it was frustrating to say the least. They showed us files of what they thought we should take but not of what we wanted. When we did our original home study we had put ages of 0-6 yrs old. For a little more flexibility we upped the high end to age 10. I think that was a mistake as that was all they were showing us. We had to come right out and pretty much say " either you show us what we want or we`re going home". They seemed a little more willing to talk at that point. We saw a file of a cute 4 yr old that had "epilepsy" and her cute sister that was "mentally retarded". The 4 yr old had a "seizure" at one point in her life so she is "disabled" even though she had that 6 months ago and the 6 yr old was was deemed mentally retarded for whatever reason. The picture showed a very bright eyed little girl who looked normal in every way! We feel they just didn`t want us to take the younger ones. Both girls have been available for 6 months and couples have tried to adopt them both but the directors have not allowed it for whatever reason. The other files as I had stated were for older children and had older boys so we weren`t interested. The translator called the orphanages and the people there said the girls were fine so we are throwing caution to the wind to go see them tomorrow. Actually by travelling we are saving money as the train ride is cheaper than renting an apartment til our next appointment. The Spencers from Kentucky struck out and are going to wait for their third appointment so good luck to them also as they hope for better news on their third appointment.We also ran into a very nice couple from Michigan at the SDA when we were there and they also felt they were getting kids pushed unto them that they were not interested in. We don`t know what to think because every kid has a story about them and if you don`t believe what they tell you they come up with an alternate story, thus our frustration. We told our translator about my run-in with the law and she said that is an old scam used by the police here to get some foreigners to give them money. So as much as I hate to admit it, Judy you were right :). We hope everything works out and if it doesn`t we will go to our third appointment and see what happens then. If that one wouldn`t work out we would be on our way home empty- handed. Not the result we had hoped for but we would be able to say we tried. If we decide that one or both of these are for us we will be staying in that region for the 10 day waiting period so our internet usage is liable to possibly end.
Thanks for checking in with us,
Gail and Craig

A picture of the local highway department.

Typical city street in Kyiv

We would find out what this is but there was nobody around that spoke English- some type of warrior dude.

Tried to go to this Cathedral but some celebration was going on so we had to settle for a picture.

Thursday ramblings

2009-01-22T00:26:00.004-06:00

Good Morning Everyone,
Reporting live from Puxatawney,PA today- no not really, it just seems that way. Every day seems to be the same routine. Not much to report on so will just ramble a bit.
We do have another appointment today @ 4:00, so we will see how that goes. Cant really figure out how the SDA works but we just have to go with the flow. We will let you know how this goes when we get back tonight. Not much else-just thought you might want some of our observations.

- coffee here is extremely strong ( Digger would love it)
- Everyone is in a hurry and can move out fast- Sorta funny when I consider myself a fast walker and I get passed by a 60 yr old lady.
- When you order banana bread at a coffee shop, you have to decide if you will pick out the mystery meat in it or just eat it.(sweet breads like this have some kind of meat in it)
- average wages for teachers and police officers are between $200-$300/ month
-speaking of police officers/ I had a run-in yesterday with one of Kyiv`s finest. I had went to the market by myself, without my passport, without my American money. Coming back to the apartment with about 2 blocks to go, a guy walking ahead of me reached in his pocket to answer his cell phone and out dropped a rather large wad of bills( i would say many thousands of American dollars in a baggie) I didn`t pick it up, I just hollered up to him and pointed back at the ground. He picked it up and thanked me many times over after he caught up to me and shook my hand. Just then a policeman was there asking what was going on. Try explaining that when one of you don`t speak a lick of the language the other two are speaking. The policeman asked for ID and guess who didn`t have any? :) I was hoping they had a English speaking bail bondsman at that point. He made me show him my money which was only a couple hundred Gryivna(30.00). At that point I could understand the guy telling the policeman in broken English " he good man, he saw money fall and tell me." Whew!! The policeman told me to have a good day and be careful"(I hope that`s what he said). I guess that`ll learn me to make sure I have my ID along. Scam?? I don`t think so but who knows. Gail says to quit wearing the darn sunglasses when nobody on the street wears them so I don`t look like the mafia.
- The only thing consistent over here is the inconsistencies- if that makes any sense.
- You have to go with the flow and roll with it because if you have it in your mind how it`s going to work, you will be dissappointed.
- Every shop sells elegant pastries, too bad they are really bland( no sugar) or full of waxy type stuff or mystery meat.
-The groceries(market) have pretty much everything we need. The strange thing is- you get your meat in one area then pay for it, bread in another area then pay for it, water in another area then pay for it etc etc.
- Underground malls go for many blocks at a time- the streets look as normal as can be then you go under ground and it`s another city there.
- lots of beggars
- lots of dogs running around
- If this farm boy doesn`t get a glass of real milk pretty quick I`m gonna go for a drive in the country and find my own- the milk here smells nasty( we might have chosen the wrong box but I don`t think so)
- We were told to not bring any white clothes because they would no longer be white after a couple washings- I can believe it because the water has an odor to it when showering.
- real dreary here- sun was out for maybe 1 day total so far.
- we were told that when walking across ice " walk fast then you not fall!!" I`m not sure if that would work but these chicks in high heels move out and I haven`t seen any fall yet.
- Yes Digger we are still looking- haven`t given up yet.
- vodka- it`s for what ails you, people believe that medicine is bad, vodka is good for cure!
- liter of vodka is roughly 3-8.00 American money
- cigarettes are $ .30 to $.80/ pack and sold everywhere because everyone smokes
- life expectancy of men is 58 yrs.- see two above facts about cigs and vodka
- everyone is on the cell phone-worse than at home. you buy the minutes at little street vendors.
- people are reserved and avoid eye contact while I`m a " hey there how ya doin" type person who had to rein it in over here.
- over here you have to pay for the condiments when you get your meal, yes even McDonalds- no pumping the handle till you have everything full.
- sour cream is poured on many items.
- absolutely no big cars here, no full size trucks all dinky little foreign to us cars.
- if you cant find a place to park on street not a problem, drive on sidewalk and park there.
-food courts everywhere with lots of different foods ( safe to eat) I love them Gail hates them.
- went to TGI Fridays with the couple from Kentucky, that was normal price otherwise really inexpensive to eat here.
- lodging is spendy- apartments range between 50- 100.00/ night
- Like we said before we stick out over here and the people typically avoid eye contact but you can see them checking you out out of the corner of your eye. It is fun to turn your head really fast and catch them looking. Boy do they turn away quick.
- people drink beer on the streets and beer can be bought just about everywhere with no age restriction.
- the restaurant with the biggest lines are the McDonalds.
- the farmland is a very "rich" black dirt much like Minnesota- it is owned by the government so private farmers are not found except for little hobby farm type farms. With no incentive to do well the ag economy is really poor. If they would open it up to private enterprise it would thrive but evidently they have no intention of doing so.

Well thats about all I can think of for now- wish us luck for our appointment. People ask us why Ukraine? We really don`t have a good answer for that. So many things have fallen in place since we started talking about this and they all pointed here. God`s will? Destiny? Who knows but we like to think that ending up thousands of miles from home in a different land, that there is a plan for everything. We are prepared to come home empty handed but no matter what, this whole adventure will work out the way it is supposed to.

Thanks for everything ,
Gail and Craig

Tuesday tributes

2009-01-20T12:52:00.005-06:00

Howdy Everyone,
Not too much to report from Ukieland today. We slept in late and took in some sightseeing. We actually were able to talk to people today as we met up with a couple from Kentucky. John and Charlene are here doing the same thing as us and are waiting for their second appointment as well. Tonight at supper they got the call that the appointment is for 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. So, good luck to John and Charlene. We spent the better part of the afternoon at St. Michaels Cathedral. The Cathedral was started in 1108. So it is 900 years old this year. Pretty awesome building with gold plated steeples as you can see in the pictures. After that we did some haggling with some souvenier vendors and went to supper at TGI Fridays. Just ready to sit down and watch a dvd and relax. Thanks again for everything that people have done to help with our trip.
Gail and Craig

Check out this handsome guy trying on his new snowblowing and ice fishing apparel. Danny Boy the vendor says that goggles really make the man!!!

This is the panoramic view of the happenings in the square on a Tues. afternoon. Click on picture to enlarge. Way on left side people are skating and having a good time.

We got a few pictures inside the Cathedral before we got scolded.

Don`t really know what the mural was but it was cool enough to take a picture of it. (leads into the entry of the church.)

Front of the Cathedral as we approach from the front.

Monday morning musings

2009-01-19T09:16:00.007-06:00

Hi Everyone,

Today we did some more exploring. We decided to hit a few more blocks of shopping that we hadn't seen before. Craig had to wear his sunglasses today and boy did we get the looks. They look at him as if he's part of the mafia. One lady at the grocery store just stopped working so she could stand and watch him. I told Craig - us Americans must look pretty strange-she must of figured out what I said so she started working again.

Another gal was shocked when Craig opened the door for me and then waited for her to pass through also. She told him thank you in English. We have noticed if you don't keep moving you'll get mowed down. Everyone is in a hurry and all to themselves! If you want to cross the street you just cross and hope the cars stop for you.

I haven't been able to find a good cup of coffee all week. The coffee I ordered on the train Craig said I could use it in my car with the next oil change. Dr. Yuri said it wasn't strong at all. It was weak by his standards. (yuk) Today we found a coffee shop that asked me if I wanted my coffee American style. Finally, some coffee that tasted great!! At the supermarket we bought a few bags of groceries to take back to the apartment. It's very difficult trying to figure out what things are. Some groceries are packaged different so you have to go by the pictures. We bought some milk and needless to say it went down the drain after I tasted it. Craig wouldn't try it because he said it smelled. We did find some good peach yogurt, cheese, and salami though, so we filled up on a sandwich.

Tomorrow we may go see some of the cathedrals. We bought a Kyiv tour guide that is in English so we can explain to you what are pictures are when we post. Talk again soon.

OUR E_MAIL IS FIXED!! BRING ON THE E_MAILS :)

New pics

2009-01-18T15:53:00.003-06:00

This is the kitchen in our second apartment. Not too bad of a place. We have to buy a few groceries tomorrow to try to save a little money.

This is the toilet at a supermarket in Mariupol. Still haven`t quite figured out what to make of this. My question is where is the toilet paper? Maybe I don`t want to know.

The lovely toilet on our first train ride. The picture does not do it justice because a picture is single dimensional and does not show depth of liquids on the floor very well!

This is the entrance to our first apartment. The flash lit this area up very well, but was not nearly as bright in person.

This one is the hallway down which we had to walk to get to our entrydoor on the 1st apartment.

Strike one- we`re back

2009-01-18T00:25:00.003-06:00

Good morning Comrades,

We are back in Kyiv after another 12 hr train ride back. We left Kyiv friday night to go see the 4.5 yr old girl that we had mentioned earlier. As we said, we had narrowed our 11 files down to two and decided to gamble on the younger one, going on our translator`s opinion. We arrived at Donetsk at 7:00 am and had a driver waiting to take us 2 more hours by car to the Sunshine orphanage in Mariupol. When we arrived at Mariupol we had to first go to "inspectors" office to get official referral for orphanage. After about 1 hr. we were on our way. In the directors office we got to see a more recent photo of Elena. The picture sort of took us aback a little. She did not look well at all. After an exchange between our translator, Dr. Yuri and the director, the child was brought in to see us. At this point things were not looking good. We went to a different room where the doctor tested a wide range of skills. He checked motor skills, speech and cognitive abilities. His conclusion: not just delayed as the file had said but severely delayed to the point of retardation, permanent disability etc, etc. With our unprofessional eyes we felt the same. Why the file said what it did and the misdiagnosis is anybody`s guess. At the inspectors office we typed up a letter of refusal that had to be notarized locally to be submitted at the SDA office in order to receive our next appointment. We had a chance to go to a supermarket like "HyVee" with a deli and what not. We ate various Russian type foods due to the closeness to the Russian border. The food was very good and the 4 of us ate for about $8.00. From there back to Donetsk to board the train back to Kyiv. In the last 36 hrs we have been in a train or car for about 28 of those hours. The other file that we almost chose had a very bright eyed 9 yr old girl with dark hair and very pretty eyes. We didn`t choose this one due to the age and wondering why she had not been adopted earlier. In hindsight we probably should have selected her anyways but we cannot dwell on this or it will eat us up.

The SDA will be notified tomorrow about the issues on the first child and why we turned her down. We can then get our second appointment which can be from 3-5 business days later. Hopefully the next one will turn out better.

Dr. Yuri was wonderful. He is a very well read individual who is current with the world political scene and many other interesting topics. We chatted with him many hours about everything. He particularly took interest in Collin and Tory and how good of kids they are. He said as we have been saying, we need to take care, so that their life will not be disrupted due to an unhealthy adoption. He seemed particularly surprised that we had never before travelled by train.

The train ride is a story in and of itself. The train station is like something out of Dickens in a way. It was kinda surreal the many 100`s of people and the languages flowing. We were shown to our "berth" and we got in. The berth was approximately 6.5 ft wide and maybe 7 ft deep. Both sides had two bunks and that was it. They supply a little mattress type thing you unroll and cover with a clean sheet and you have a pillow that you put a new case on. Then you climb in with two somewhat strangers about 2 ft away and fall asleep. Well that`s what supposed to happen in theory. What really happened in reality is Gail and myself pretty much stared at the ceiling for the next 12 hrs as the train rocked back and forth, groaned, creaked and lurched. This was nuts!! The best analogy for this whole thing is: take one little red wagon with a 16 in wide plank about 6 ft long strapped to it. Hook this wagon unto a lawnmower and have someone drive around your yard at night in the pitch black darkness as you lay on it. Just for good measure have someone put a light in your face every 2-3 minutes to mimic the lights along the tracks. Now the fun part- FALL ASLEEP! No way, no how did it work for us. We survived but boy was it a long night. Oh, I forgot about the bathrooms. They were down the hall way at the far end. They did have an actual toilet- not that anyone who used it actually hit it. Take that plank on the little red wagon that I told you about and stand on it instead of laying on it. Put a 3 lb. coffee can on end of plank. Now have your driver start pulling little red wagon across yard once again. Guys- now all you have to do is hit the coffee can as the wagon is moving. The toilet was nasty to say the least. On a brighter note- the train ride home was a new style car with better everything and rollup shades etc,etc . We were actually able to get a little sleep this time. Exhaustion does wonders to make you able to sleep.
We now have a different apartment about 2 blocks from the square and it is very nice. We continue to have internet so we can stay in touch. We hopefully will hear tomorrow when our appointment is. We will spend much of our time this week visiting the Cathedrals and the museums which are said to be great. Till then take care and we`ll stay in touch with any further developments. Gail and Craig

Friday update

2009-01-16T06:06:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone, not much happening today. All we did was go to the square to grab breakfast and are now packing for our train ride. Just wanted to see if we remembered how to post pics so we put a couple of the apt. and a couple of the view at night in the square. As we get some better pictures, we will be sure to put them on here. The buildings and architecture here are pretty neat. The way it sounds and we may be wrong but we will know shortly, the bathrooms on the train consist of a hole in the floor that opens unto the tracks. I think we will try our best to use our facilities at our apartment before we leave. Thanks for checking in, Gail and Craig

Our SDA visit

2009-01-15T08:40:00.001-06:00

Where does one start???? Very interesting day to say the least. We arrived at the SDA at 9:00 a.m. after a 20 minute walk from our apartment. We were accompanied by Luba our translator, and were met there by Vlad (our facilitator) and his "secretary". We waited quite some time before we were allowed into the office but were given a full hour to look at files. We were shown 11 files of little girls ranging in age between 4 yrs old and 8 yrs old and this took the entire hour. We have been telling everyone that we were confident that once a decision was needed on choosing a child that "one would stick out" or " we would just know". How wrong we were!!! This was gonna be a tough one! Out of the 11 there was maybe only 4 or 5 that we could say no to without having any doubt. Keep in mind when you set a file aside it isn`t just a file, it is a little kids life, so this wasn`t exactly easy. (The other Ukranian. Angel families say that you have to remind yourself that your not giving up on a child, you are letting another potential family have a chance to see that child)We narrowed it down to two children and we are going to visit a 4 yr old in the Mariupol region. We were maybe a little hesitant to visit this child at first because the picture in the file was of an infant and was for lack of a better term, not of her good side. BUT! Luba had seen this child before while at that orphanage and said that "the picture does not do her justice" and over here we have to be willing to go with our gut instincts and what other people say. Now the really good news! (tongue in cheek) We get to go on a 15 hour train ride in the wee hours of the night to get to Donetsk(sp) and hire a driver to drive one more hour to the orphanage. Dr. Yuri will be traveling with us as well as Luba, so all 4 in a 4 person berth for 15 hrs. (Dr. Yuri is a private doctor over here that checks on the condition of the child and makes us aware of any issues that he sees). I have a hunch that this "berth" isn`t a real large area, (might make the airplane seats look pretty desirable) The total cost of this trip for 4 people was 600 Gryivna. Which with the 9:1 conversion rate works out to be just less than $70.00 or approximately $ 17.00/ ticket. If your interested I believe the exchange rate has been down to around 4:1 and has really been rebounding the last several months, so this works real well for us in lowering our costs. We head out tomorrow evening after we go to the SDA for our "referral" tomorrow afternoon. We were prepared for weather like ours or even colder but when we got up this morning it was raining and about 40 degrees. They seemed to think it was icky but we sorta enjoyed it because we have been watching the temp at home on Weatherbug and that looks a little nasty. We are not sure if we will have internet in Mariupol so this may be our last post for awhile. This is our only contact with the outside world so we appreciate the comments that let us know you are thinking of us!

Observations from Gail:

90% of Ukrainains wear black
No sunglasses
No beards or goatees
Men are shorter in stature
Very few fat women or men (They walk everywhere)
90% of the women wear heels (Black boots with 4-5inch heels-which they walk very fast even over ice. Very graceful I might add!
Most of the women wear fur coats or leather coats with big fur collars. Their coats are beautiful.
The women wear narrow legged jeans / short skirts/or shorts with black nylons. All with boots up to their knees. Accompanied with tight fitting tops.
Ukrainian women are beautiful-although Craig says if it wasn't for all of their primping the American women are prettier:)
A cigarette in one hand and a cell phone in the other hand is very popular.
Independence Square is very busy during the day. (I'm wondering when do they work?)
Their stores are underground as well as above ground. The stores underground are very nice. Something like you would see at the mega mall. You would never know you were underground.

Well enough observation for now. All I know is when the sun comes out and if Craig puts on sunglasses, has a goatee and stands 6' 4" we will be screaming Americans.:)

My just for fun:

Craig is liking it here ( He wants to bring home a nanny- I told him NO!) :) Digger -Craig is still shopping for you! :)
I'm feeling a little out of place / some Ukrainians speak English but not many.

TaTa for now-keep the prayers going

Gail and Craig

We made it!!

2009-01-14T11:12:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Kyiv at 3:00 pm here which would be 7:00 am there. Our appointment is 9:00 tomorrow am. This is where we meet with the SDA and they show us files of available children. We are obviously hoping this goes well. Some quick observations about the trip so far.
-The longer the plane ride the harder and smaller the seats get.
-It`s extremely hard to leave your kids at home when you leave the country.
-Formula 1 race car drivers have nothing on the drivers here in Kyiv.
-1 big mac meal supersized with a burger and fries on side cost us less than $6.00 American
- When you start a long series of plane rides with the stomach flu, airline food does not make it better.
- Getting arrested at home is probably better than the security check points in Dusseldorf(lots of clothing getting removed and frisking for contraband- none found by the way)
-To get to our apartment which is 1 block off the square, we go down a dark alley past groups of people smoking , a little different than downtown Clarks Grove on a weeknight.

Well that`s about it for now we need to get some rest for tomorrow. To all the friends and family that are helping Collin and Tory keep busy when we are gone- Thank You!! We really appreciate it.

Gail andCraig

2009-01-10T21:22:00.000-06:00

Well, we only have a few days now until we fly out. Last night we met with Matt and Kathy Johnson from Eden Prairie. They have 2 small girls, Leeza and Sarah, Leeza was adopted from Ukraine last year at this time. Sarah is Tory's age and Leeza is just a bit younger. Both were very sweet little girls. Leeza has adapted to American life very easily as she ran around with her pink toy iphone in her back pocket.:) Matt and Kathy gave us some very helpful information and we feel we are very fortunate to belong to such a great support group. I've said this before, without them it would be pretty scary to get our butts on that plane!! Thanks Matt and Kathy we had a fun time and we look forward to seeing you sometime again. Let us know when your passing by on your route to Iowa.

Today Collin had a basketball tournament in Kasson. They started at 8:00 and finished around 3:00. They finished 3rd today and Collin was pretty tired. We almost made it home before he crashed. Collin's coach will be picking him up for practice and will take him to the upcoming tournaments. One more thing we don't have to worry about. Thanks Again, Candy and Darian!

Tomorrow will be a busy day trying to wrap everything up. We will be taking Collin and Tory's clothes out to my folk's along with the needed stuff for their cat. I'm not too sure my parents offered to take care of "Pester" but the kids would be lost without him. I never thought pets could be so smart , he definitely knows something is up!

Just for fun:

Craig's favorite color is green.
Mine is also green.

2009-01-04T22:35:00.000-06:00

Today we met with Cath and Brent Hendrickson from Blaine, MN. They adopted 2 children from Ukraine. It will be going on 7yrs from when they traveled. Their kids are wonderful preteens enjoying the life in America. I asked their daughter Julia what she enjoyed the most living in America( other than Mom and Dad), her comment was everything! She warmed my heart !

One thing that has been very helpful to us is the support system that has been created from the new people and from the oldies who have adopted through the help of Cathy Harris. A private website has been created for all of us who have been waiting, those who are in Kyiv now, and for those who have adopted already. Each day we get several emails of people sharing their stories and giving guidance and help. As far as our visit today we had a great time. The Hendricksons made us feel very welcome as if we had always known them. Their kids are wonderful and they made a great influence on our children- only to reinforce them that adoption is a great way to go. Thank you Brent and Cath for your hospitality! Brent we enjoyed hearing you speak Russian . I will work on trying to roll my R's. :)

Just for fun-some facts you may or may not know about Craig and I. After each post I will try to enter a new one.

I love to shop antiques, shopping in general. It's called retail therapy:)
Craig has been a Fireman/First Responder for almost 20 years.

2009-01-03T21:46:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone,
Well our holiday season has slowed done so we can concentrate on our travel adventure. Now is when the emotional roller coaster begins. We are busy trying to get the last minute details all together along with trying to spend some quality time with Collin and Tory. (Our two boys ages 6 & 9).

Some of you are probably wondering why we have decided to adopt. So here's the story. Tory was what you would call a miracle baby and a true gift from God, unfortunately we lost his twin early on into my pregnancy. After he was born our doctor recommended we have another one right away if we wanted anymore children due to medical reasons. That is when Craig told me , someday we would have more kids , they just wouldn't be biological. Once again we were on the same page. We both feel there is plenty of homeless children who need a loving family. As Collin and Tory have grown they have both commented they would like a sister or another brother. So it's now or never and that's what has brought us here today.

We have chose to do our adoption independently, which means without the help of a adoption agency. Ukraine is a country which allows couples to do this. We researched into this more and found a lady named Cathy Harris which has adopted several children of her own throughout Ukraine. With Cathy's help she has guided us through the paper work with step by step instructions on how to proceed. With her help she has made it possible for many families to find their Ukrainian angel. "She has truly been a blessing for us in the United States and for the many Ukrainian orphans wanting a place to call home."

On March of 08 we sent our dossier ( the needed paperwork) to Ukraine. Cathy set us up with a
facilitator in Ukraine and he has kept us informed throughout the year if any paperwork has expired and need of updating. We are proud of ourselves knowing we can turn over a new dossier in a matter of a few days , a far cry from how long it took us in the beginning. :) On Oct .29th we were informed by our facilitator that our dossier was submitted to the SDA (State department of adoption). Our appointment is scheduled Jan. 15th, in the afternoon.

When we meet with the SDA they will review our dossier , discuss what age of child we would like to add to our family, etc. Then they will proceed to pull a few charts of children that are up for adoption. This process takes place in Kyiv, if we choose to meet one of these children we then travel to the orphanage in their region. This is were we will struggle to keep our emotions together!! It may be the hardiest thing we ever do but we have each other and our faith will guide us.

Well enough for know. Will post again soon.

Pretty Bare site

2008-12-25T12:33:00.000-06:00

Yup- we know there ain`t much here yet, but don`t have much to put here yet. :) Gail will put some pertinent info up here as quick as she can. Shopping season is done so she should have a little more free time.

You tube video on Ukrainian orphans

2008-12-08T22:10:00.000-06:00

Please take a minute to watch these videos on the Ukrainian orphans. You can also go to youtube and do a search for "Ukraine adoptions" and view many more like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApimI5pF2gs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTJ_28J6K0

2008-12-03T20:50:00.000-06:00

December 3rd,2008- Just received our airline tickets for our flight to Kyiv on January 13th. Also testing our new blog skills