Monday, April 13, 2009
We`re gonna get to it!!!
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.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
WE ARE HOME!!!
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
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
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The final countdown has begun-FINALLY
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.
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.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Y`all ain`t gonna believe this, we`re staying!!
Well, we have good news and bad news. What do you want first? Your going to get the good news first. As of 5:00 pm yesterday our ten day wait is up. No appeals, no nothing, Briley is ours!!! More good news- we`re still coming home. What is the bad news you may ask? - we won`t be coming home on the 4th as we had anticipated. We had to cancel our tickets. Due to reasons beyond our control and nobodies fault, we will be delayed a few days. When we get out of here we will be able to say why, but not until then. Today( Saturday) Vladimir, our landlord is going to take us to the big open market. There we want to find an authentic Ukrainian dress for Briley to wear someday and have as a keepsake. From what we hear there are quite a few out of the ordinary non U.S. type things there also that we will be taking pictures of I`m sure. Boxes of chicken feet come to mind. :) If something changes we`ll post more, but not a whole lot changes here. Remember the Groundhog day analogy? It hasn`t changed! Here are some more pictures that we thought you might like to see.
Hope this works- a little video of "The ride". This is when we found out about her no guts no glory, she wanted to pick up the speed. Yes, she is going to take after her mother!
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!" :-)
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!" :-)
Monday, February 23, 2009
8 DAYS 6HRS 12 MIN. TO GO!!!!
Hi everyone, As the title states we are counting down. The time is really d r a g g i n g here. We continue to visit Briley twice a day and that helps, but not enough. Tomorrow we get to take her out of the orphanage to get her visa and passport photos taken. We are looking forward to seeing how she reacts to being out in public and just being "out" of the orphanage. We have her new duds to put on her for her pictures , so that will be fun to see also instead of the typical orphanage attire. We did take a cab today to a store that says it`s a Target store but not quite by our standards. It was nice for here and it helped alleviate our boredom somewhat. Last week we were whining about the rain. Guess what- we`d like it back because now we have snow and cold and that is worse yet. On Sat. afternoon we didn`t even go on our visit as it was blizzarding out. We don`t go on Sun. mornings so on Sunday afternoon when we finally got back there Briley gave us the "look" as if to say where in the world have you guys been!! She got over it right quickly and we are back in our daily routine. You know the one- two juice boxes, 1 banana,meat or cheese and assorted cookies plus 2 hrs of horseplay!! She continues to warm up to us to the point of throwing the other kids out of her way when she sees us. When we show up the caregivers say "Oxanna- mama and papa are here", so the other kids start saying "mama, papa, mama, papa". It doesn`t help that I like to grab one or two and put them on my lap, then they all get wound up, much to the dismay of the help. I figure they`ll get over it! :) The last few visits we have been using the office off of the groups play area to visit. Briley makes sure that the door is closed so she doesn`t have to share us with her little friends. For those of you asking about a potential go-karting career for Briley: she showed us today that she has the "need for speed". One caregiver brought us a little tykes 4 wheel scooter for lack of a better term. Gail would push her from one end of the room to me and I would push her back. She leaned back to minimize air friction and away she went. The faster the better was her theory. We all had a hoot for the better part of an hour. We`re going to call her the "Ragin` Russian"!! She`s going to have a sign on her bumper that says "You just got passed by a girl!"
On Monday we will finish up paperwork in her birth town and the region. From there we will head back to Kyiv. On Tuesday we will do our visa, medical exams and passport stuff. We will load and go early Wednesday morning. Hopefully everything goes alright. By the way, we are down to 8 days,5 hrs,58 minutes to go!! Not that we are counting or anything!
On a side note once the weather has gotten cold our apartment has gotten a little chilly. The floor is downright cold. Gail just got the idea to warm up her skechers over the flame on the stove. Not a good idea- she now has scorched skechers!! Her favorite pair too. Can you imagine what she`d call me if I did that? No, I didn`t say a word. I know better!!!
We have noticed that over here that the mechanical aptitude is not very well displayed. We got some pictures of some things that we noticed and will put down below. We have a few more things that we made a mental note to photograph this week pertaining to the same type of repairs and will put them on our next blog.
One thing we haven`t elaborated on is the driving here. For those of you that have been here before you know where we`re going with this. Typical taxi ride: drive up on curb to pick you up, try talking to you 3 times before he realizes that no, I really don`t speak Russian! Drive down two lane road as quickly as possible while honking at the rude pedestrians who dare to walk in front of you! If car in front of you is too slow take the middle lane! Notice that previously I said 2 lane road- it is still 2 lane but the middle is open to whoever gets there first in whatever direction they happen to be going. Don`t worry about other traffic as they will move out of your way. They usually do move as we haven`t seen any accidents, just near misses. While doing our taxi ride today the driver tried to talk to us in Russian and he finally realized that it was futile to communicate as he didn`t speak English either. The funny part is after we paid him his fare and gave him a little tip he says " Thank you very much" clear as a bell. hmmmmm.
Oh yeah, one other thing his week that made us go hmmmm............. We were leaving the orphanage one morning at 11:00 and as we came out of the gates we looked ahead of us at an apartment building and saw a bunch of flowers. I thought it was a flower stand at first glance. WRONG- there was a casket with stools around it right on the sidewalk and the flowers were for the memorials. It was an old style casket that is narrow at the bottom and wide at top. Looked to be made out of cardboard and purple velvet and it was parked right at the entrance to the apartment. I hope we don`t come out of our apartment some morning and get greeted with that sight. We would love to know the full story on why this is done but again, No speak Russian! We also don`t have hot water tonight so we have to plug in our auxiliary water heater in the closet to get hot water. Just another day in paradise. When we first got here we were curious as to why there was so much alcohol consumed by the young and old alike. We now have it figured out- if we were to have to stay much longer we would have to start drinking too, because there is nothing else to do!!!! Thinking about trying it nonetheless as it would have to help our ability to sleep on these things that they call beds here. In the US we would call it a sheet of plywood with a sheet but NO- here they call it a bed. We did look at some new cars today and they will be in the pictures below along with the prices.A little cheaper than the U.S. but not too sure about the brand names of some of them.
Some more of the food differences here:
- mushrooms are very popular and inexpensive, pickled, canned, fresh etc.
- Lays potato chips: crab flavor, mushroom flavor, ham flavor, bacon flavor, red pepper flavor
- piranha in the fish section- picture down below, Looks like piranha anyways
- whole Easter bunnies in the meat section( without fur or eggs of course)
- pig ears, pigs feet, not pickled- whole, just boil and slice according to our friend Vlad mmmgood
- fried lard slices- haven`t tried and don`t care too
- bread is eaten with lard spread on it. Have to request maslo(butter)better restaurants only- some don`t have butter at all
- pop- looks to be coke, coke light not diet, pepsi, sprite, fanta-haven`t seen a Mountain Dew since we left home.
- canned veggies, peas,peas and carrots, corn or mushrooms, no green beans to be seen
- icky looking watermelons in the meat case floating in a tub of liquid stuff
- haven`t bought any of the wienies over here, sorta scared of what`s in them
- there are things in the beef section that we didn`t even know are on a cow!!
- lots of alcohol in the aisles, mostly vodka obviously
- bulk frozen veggies in big boxes, just scoop what you need-
- bulk frozen whole shrimp with the eyes, again scoop what you need
- still can`t wait for a good glass of milk
- oranges here are very good- better than home
This is the $10,000 house I mentioned in the last post. Tin type roof and wood type siding.
Every apartment has these benches outside, some nice, some broken or bent.
Trolley bus that runs on electricity, notice the rods going up in the back to the power lines. Lines go everywhere in town.
When the base board is too wide to get cabinet up against the wall. No problem,you trim the cabinet off to fit.
Picnic table along our path we take every day.
Sewer cover by all the apartments, this one is actually in good shape. Most are in disrepair.
Hole in the side of the apartment with a coat thrown in to help the cats keep warm.
Pretty typical car here. Notice the static straps hanging off of rear bumper.
Ukrainian pickup. No Chevys, Dodges or Fords here.
New 4 door 4 wheel drive, make unknown- About $12,000
Nice car for $11,000. A little"bug" type car inside the store was $6,000
Good 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.
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.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
SEE YOU SOON!!!!!
Hi guys and gals,
We know it`s been awhile but between the internet not working( In Russian - "when it rain internet no work") and our schedule we have not been able to post anything. Here`s the scoop. We had court today!!!! We appeared before the local magistrate at 9:00 this morning for about 45 minutes. It was a little more intensive questioning than we had expected but we survived. We were asked about our income, our house, our communities, our jobs and why we wanted to adopt and why we chose Ukraine. We must have answered with satisfactory answers as we got our court decree!!! We spent the rest of the day getting documents notarized and getting a full wardrobe for Briley capped off with a very nice meal at a neighboring town. I would give you the name of the town but I can`t pronounce it let alone spell it!. Everyone has been asking as to when are we coming home- we didn`t feel too comfortable before even guessing but after today we can officially say that we are booking our tickets home right now for Mar. 4. We have our official 10 day wait starting tomorrow, but because the tenth day falls on Sat. we have to wait until Monday to finish the paperwork. From there we are going to probably hire a driver to drive us to Kyiv as we have travelled at night on the train every time and have not been able to actually see anything. Then once in Kyiv it is 1 days work to get a visa. We had told everyone that the whole process could take 3-6 weeks but in all reality we couldn`t see how it could take 6 weeks. Guess we learned how eh? We did have a chance today to ask the orphanage caretakers about Briley`s eating and sleeping habits and got a chuckle out of it. We had been bringing her little cups of fruit yogurt with fresh fruit everyday and she has loved it. Today we were told that the yogurt is not good for her because it is not "natural" and the oranges she has been eating with us lead to allergies. Again- things that make you go hmmm....... Gail did get to sit in on her noon meal and here she is to explain how that went. And now..... heeeeere`s Gail!!!!!
Well, it wasn't the most pleasant experience and I can say I'd do it differently if I had the chance again. The head caretaker told me to go in their room to watch how good she eats. The cooking crew comes in and dishes up the kids food and then helps them eat. The cook in charge of Brileys table was not happy to see me for whatever reason. She waved her hands at me to back up away from the children. She then tells the kids to eat. Briley wasn't eating fast enough so this biddy of a woman scoops a big spoon full into her mouth. It startled Briley and she started crying. It broke my heart because I had never seen her cry before. Then the woman starts to proceed to tell the other women that she is not being good because she will not eat with her momma in the room. I wanted to say maybe because you just shoved a spoon in her mouth that is twice the size that it should be. Or maybe because of the crap you just put in her mouth. From what I could see it looked like watered down chicken broth with three or four pieces of potato. It's no wonder she likes yogurt, the all "natural" is for the birds! "Hang in there Briley,only ten more days!!!"
- We did learn a Ukrainian saying: to drink beer without vodka, you could just as well pour beer on the ground. Some theory huh?
- Both of us went to have our haircut on Monday night to try to look halfway decent for court. The stylists wore a "tool belt" for their tools and my haircut was 30 gryivna( $3.50) and Gail`s was 45 gryivna ( $5.60) Not bad $9.00 for two hair cuts eh?
- We figured out why cabbage is a mainstay here- 1 big head of cabbage is about 12 cents
- We slept in on Sunday and treated ourselves to 2 premade ice cream sundaes from the market. They didn`t taste very good and we left the partials in the sink. Nothing too remarkable other than the fact that 2 hours later they weren`t melted but were warm. I don`t think that was ice cream we were eating.
- While at the orphanage after our court hearing, we gave the director a donation for him to use at the orphanage as he sees fit. ( common for an adoption) We asked Briley`s head caregiver what she would want for Briley`s group if she had a wish. Well, included in our shopping spree was what she wanted: 1 blanket to cover old couch, 13 pairs of underwear and t-shirts, a big box of vitamins and prescriptions, lots of diapers and stockings for all of them. It is always fun to give presents at Christmas but that doesn`t compare to giving these kids these needed things to help them in their everyday life.
- The director told us that the government allows approximately 10 cents per day/ child for medicine and vitamins(less than $40.00/child/year) and this doesn`t come close to what they need for the children.
- $ 1.50/ day/child for food. Food is fairly inexpensive here, but they do try to have the kids eat 5 times per day. Again, I think corners have to be cut to stretch things out. Gail saw firsthand today at the noon meal.
- We asked him about sending clothes and toys here as we have done for children in Afghanistan and we were told not to because the packages would be opened and pilfered off of before they reached the orphanage. I do think a little green could find its way okay though.
- We were able to talk with our driver/ landlord Vladamir a little the other night and we got some very frank answers about life here.
- salaries of government workers as shared before- about 2-3 hundred dollars/month.
- orphanage caregivers- 12 hrs/day/ 5 days/week- $ 100.00/ month (not a misprint)
- a heavy crane operator at the mill- 12 hrs/day/5 days/week- $200.00/ month
- very little benefits like insurance etc.
- no social security- retirees are on their own for the most part
- some unemployment if laid off but doesn`t amount to much.
- no middle class for the most part- either rich or very poor
- a little house that we will show in pic`s $10,000
- a big new home $ 100,000- sounds cheap right? refer to above wages
- interest rates approximately 20% if you can get a loan.
- Older Ukrainians still have tie to native Russia, younger ones not as loyal.
- families can typically afford only one child.
We asked Vlad if we could hire him to drive us around for a day in the area to see some sites and he says "NO". We asked if he was that busy? again "NO". Is it because you don`t like us? "NO, NO,NO" We say why not then, his reply? " You waste your money- nothing to see here" and sure enough when we got home we "googled" Kramatorsk sightseeing" and it says page does not exist!!!! :) There is absolutely nothing here to see NADA!! That`s why we are looking forward to going back to Kyiv. Two weeks ago we didn`t think there was any way we`d ever say that but we were wrong. Kyiv looks pretty good right about now.
Everyone tells us how good of a thing we are doing. I guess we would have to disagree. We have a tendency to think that we will benefit from this immensely also. In the past four weeks we have met some great new friends and gained one great little girl. Yes, she will be better off but we will be also. Now would be a great time to thank all of the other people that have helped make this trip possible for us.
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!
- WFS for allowing me the time off without question.
- The Clarks Grove guys for taking over when I`m gone!
- Potach and Mitchell Dental clinic for allowing Gail the time away!
- Dr. Bob @ Dental Associates for allowing Gail the time away.
- Evan for filling in for Gail. We realize it takes up the better part of your week.
- Brady for watching the house. Don`t get used to it your getting kicked out soon!! If your gonna have a party you`d better hurry, not much time left- just pick up and no holes in the walls!! :)
- Jeff and Greg for doing chores and chipping ice.
- Grandpa Kenny and Grandma Judy for watching Tory and Collin
- Auntie Sheila for taking the kids on adventures
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.
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.
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