Day 4 Travel to Region

This morning we woke up early and got ready to head to the Lavra Cave Monastery with another couple who are here in Kiev adopting.  Our driver Eugene was to pick us up at 10:00 but never showed until 11:30.  There was a HUGE bicycle race going on and many streets were closed and he said he couldn't figure out how to get to us via an alternate route, so we waited.  It was a beautiful morning and we sat in the park beside our apartment and watched all the bicyclers. It is so much fun to people watch here.  The monastery was mildly interesting for us.  It is a massive complex of churches, chapels, and caves that are still used to this day.  It is also the headquarters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  To go down into the caves, you have to purchase a candle.  It's really tight quarters down there and both Norm and I felt like we were about to be set on fire by the person walking behind us, not to mention the small spaces filled with lots of people made us claustrophobic.  We're glad we went, but it was definitely not our favorite thing we did in Kiev.  After the monastery, we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and headed back to the apartment and started packing up our things.  Eugene and Nico were both back for us around 5:30 to give us the paperwork we needed for the orphanage and to take us to the train station.  The train ride went by quickly.  We left Kiev at 7:20 on Saturday evening and arrived in Donetsk a few minutes after 7:00 on Sunday morning.  We watched a movie and fell asleep pretty quickly, but didn't sleep well.  In fact, I don't think I've had a good night's sleep since we arrived.  I hope that once we get settled in Donetsk we can begin to relax a bit and get some rest.

Some things we have noticed here:

-Ukrainians LOVE their soft serve!  There are little kiosks everywhere and you constantly see people eating cones.  I had one the other day and it was better than the soft serve ice cream at home.  It was much creamier, 
-In addition to soft serve, they also love their PDAs.  I was sitting next to a couple in a pizza place that were definitely beyound second base right there in the restaurant.  Yesterday as we walked on Kreschatyk, Norm saw a couple standing in the middle of the street making out and the guy's hand was up the front of the girl's shirt.
-The grocery store has tight security.  There are guards standing at the in and out doors and posted throughout the store. 
-Overall, the people have been very friendly.  Sure there have been a few that have yelled at us in Russian for something we inadvertently did, but most have gone out of their way to be helpful and nice.
-Out allergies aren't a lot better here than at home.  There is so much cottonwood (at least we think that's what it is) blowing all over Kiev right now.
-EVERYONE smokes here (which isn't helping our allergies, either), but the cigarettes are longer and thinner than the ones in the U.S.

Day 3 Referral

The weather in Kiev is absolutely perfect right now.  It's so beautiful here!  This morning we visited the FC Dynamo stadium.  This is Kiev's soccer team.  They don't give tours of the stadium, so we could only walk around and take some pictures.  When we got back, we walked to the souvenir stands near the SDA.  They sell all kinds of chachkes here like t-shirts, key chains, soccer jerseys, magnets, matryoshka dolls, etc.  We spent some time browsing before meeting up with Lisa and Terry Brown and the other driver named Eugene.  Lisa and Terry are another Reece's Rainbow family and they're here adopting two little boys with Down syndrome.  Then the five of us went into the SDA and picked up our referrals. This meant handing them our passports, them recording something in a book, us signing next to it, and them handing us our translated dossier and a referral letter.  This all took less than 10 minutes.  Once we were done at the SDA, Eugene drove us to buy our train tickets for Sunday night.  The train station was a nightmare.  It took over two hours to buy the tickets and they didn't even have what we needed.  They were sold out of all tickets for Sunday night, so we had no choice but to go Saturday night.  Then, and we still don't understand this, we were charged almost double for the tickets.  We quickly figured out that poor Eugene is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so Norm called Nico to try and figure out what in the heck was going on.  He didn't know, but agreed the tickets were overpriced.  He told us to buy them because otherwise we risked not getting them, so we did.  Once that fiasco was over, we headed back to our apartment and then to dinner.  We had read about an Italian place called Il Patio that sounded good.  We walked down Kreschatyk St., which is the main street of Kiev, looking for the place.  As we walked, we stopped to buy a phone card and a homeless girl pushed me because I wouldn't give her any money.  We have given to numerous beggars since we've been here, but tonight we had only brought enough money for dinner and the phone card.  Although I didn't appreciate being pushed, I felt bad about not giving her anything and, in retrospect, wish I had.  She obviously needed it more than I did.  Anway, we finally found the restauant.  For those of you coming to Kiev, it's right next door to TGI Friday's.  In fact, the two restaurants are connected and share a bathroom.  It was really, really good and I would highly recommend it.  They even have an English menu, which was a bonus! Today was the last day of school for kids in Ukraine and there was a party atmosphere in the city.  All day long we saw kids walking around all dressed up and wearing sashes across their chest.  Tomorrow is what's called Kiev Day and we were told that the city will be packed.  Apparently the celebrating started early because as we were walking home from dinner, we saw a huge concert taking place at Independence Square.  There were thousands of people dancing and cheering.  Once we got back to our apartment, we could sill hear the concert.  Then fireworks started going off so we went our on our balcony and got to see a great fireworks display.  Tomorrow we are waking up early and going to see the Lavra Cave Monastary with another Reece's Rainbow family.  It's the #1 tourist attraction in Ukraine, but I don't really get what it is.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow.  After that, we're going to come home, pack up, and head for the train station.  I can't believe that soon we'll be in the same city (well, almost) as Dasha and that we will finally meet her on Monday!! 

I doubt I'll post tomorrow since we'll be on the train, but I'll be back on Sunday and then Monday with PICTURES!!  :)

Day 2 SDA Appointment

Last night I set two travel alarm clocks and our cell phone alarm because I was so worried about oversleeping and being late for our SDA appointment.  I shouldn’t have worried about it because I didn’t sleep well at all.  I was awake several times an hour checking the clock.  I finally got up at 7:00 and got ready.  Our apartment is about a 5-10 minute walk from the SDA and our driver, Nico, walked us there.  I had some concerns about whether or not Dasha would be available due to several factors.  International adoptions are on shakey ground right now in Ukraine and lots of changes are about to take place.  We met with Serge (our facilitator) right before walking into the SDA and he lead us up to the office.  We sat on a little couch and he introduced us to the psychologist.  I could see she had Dasha’s “file”, which was several pieces of paper inside a sheet protector.  There was a picture of her stapled on the back.  They asked if we came for Daria's referral and we said yes.  I felt so much relief at this moment because I knew this all meant that she was cleared for international adoption.  The psychologist wanted us to tell a bit about ourselves and why we wanted to adopt.  Then she started reading Dasha’s file and told us about her health status, her personality, and her family.  We found out she has two older brothers who are in the custody of their grandmother.  This little girl was destined to have brothers and lots of them!  That was pretty much the appointment.  All total, it took 5 minutes.  We walked outside and Nico was still there, so Norm and his new BFF stood and talked for a long time.  Oh, one other thing.  They gave us the picture they had of Dasha in her SDA file.  I didn’t even have to ask.  They just pulled it out, shoved it at me and yelled at me to hide it.   I wasn’t expecting it but certainly didn’t argue. 

We headed home to email and let everyone know about our appointment, but the electricity in our apartment was out.  Apparently there was a city wide power outage.    We decided to take a walking tour of Kiev.  We found a company online who does free tours of the city in English (http://www.freetours.kiev.ua).  Our tour guide was a college student who was super knowledgeable about the city.   She took us all through ancient Kiev.  One thing that struck me was how many churches this city has.  There are something like 300 of them.  The government has spent so much money rebuilding or restoring many of them to their original condition.  I can’t help but wonder why when this country has so many social problems the government chooses to spend its money fixing up old churches so tourists can walk through them.  Doesn’t make a lot of sense.   There were two other guys on the tour with us.  One was from Argentina so he and Norm had a lot to talk about (Norm’s family is Argentinean).  Once the tour ended we went to lunch with the tour guide and the two others at a Ukrainian buffet.  We weren’t that hungry so we only had pierogies and some bread, but it was good.  I love how all the English speaking Ukrainians pronounce buffet like Jimmy Buffet.  Believe me, I am not making fun of them.  English speaking Ukrainians are my very favorite people right now!  J

After lunch we headed home and took a nap.  I never take naps, so it was kind of nice.  I don’t think I’m caught up on sleep yet, especially since I didn’t sleep that great last night.  I think I’m going to take something tonight to help with that problem. 

We have to go back to the SDA tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 pm to pick up Dasha’s referral.  After that, we’re going to buy our train tickets for the 12 hour trip to her region on Sunday night.  She’s in Donetsk, which is in southeast Ukraine.  The region borders Russia. Serge said he’s going to see if they’ll let us come a day early, in which case we’ll be traveling on Saturday night.  I doubt that happens, but we’ll see.  In the meantime, we’re going to spend the next few days checking out Kiev. 

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us to have a successful appointment today.  I am so grateful things are going well and working out as we hoped.  I really feel in my heart that this little girl was meant to be in our family and we are literally counting the hours until we get to meet her. 

Day 1 Travel and Arrival

I wrote this last night but didn't get the chance to post it.

Our trip so far is going exactly as planned.  The flights were fine and we were able to make all connections without a problem.  I fly fairly often, but I always have my kids with me, so to be able to sit on a plane and sleep, read, and watch movies was a treat!  On our long flight to Germany, I chatted quite a bit with the lady seated next to me.  She asked me where we were going and why and I was telling her about Dasha and our adoption.  She (very seriously) told me that she had done something similar.  Once she drove 5 hours to Detroit to adopt a West Highland Terrier.  LOL  Even though she obviously didn’t quite get it, she was a sweet lady and kept me entertained for most of the flight.

Things went fine at the airport in Kiev.  Our driver Nico was there to pick us up and helped us exchange some money.  As we were leaving the airport, I asked him a question but he didn’t understand it.  He said he’s not so good at English and mostly speaks Spanish.  Norm speaks Spanish, so the two of them immediately began chatting away.  We noticed how much more helpful and friendly Nico was when we (well, one of us anyway) spoke the same language.  I sat in the back of the van and enjoyed the hour ride from the airport to our apartment.  The apartment is in a great location.  We are less than ½ mile (about a 5 minute walk) from Independence Square, which is the center of downtown Kiev.  The building is located literally right next door to St. Michael’s cathedral.  The inside is pretty much what we expected.  It’s very basic, but clean.  It does have air conditioning…yay!  The building has an elevator that I refuse to use.  I have visions of getting stuck and nobody finding us, so we’re walking the four flights of steps.  It’s good exercise.  J  After getting settled, we ventured out for something to eat.  We were headed to a café Nico told us about and had to cross the busy intersection via an underground walkway.  As we entered the walkway, we came across an entire underground mall!  We found the food court and since we were hungry and tired, we just decided to find something to eat there.  We ended up getting chicken, mashed potatoes and a crepe filled with shredded chicken.  We found it kind of tricky to order the food because we didn’t really know what most of the things were and you can’t figure out anything by looking at the Russian word.  We’re trying to stay away from McDonald’s and TGI Friday’s, but it’s so tempting when you see something familiar and in English! 

After dinner, we found a small grocery store.  So different than at home.  There were about 4 or 5 small connected rooms and each had something different.  One was dairy, one was meat, another was alcohol, and another was packaged things.  We just picked up some water, yogurt, and a sweet roll for breakfast.  We hope to find a bigger store with more variety.

We came back to our apartment and were able to Skype with our boys at home and my mom and grandparents.   Before we left, I taught Matthew and Sam how to log in to Skype and find me or send me a message.  When I logged on tonight, I found a message from Sam (he’s 5).  It said momihowpzatursafendurhapeyandiloveyoo.  Translated, that says, “Mom, I hope that you’re safe and you’re happy and I love you.”  How sweet is that?  I love my Sammy! 

Tomorrow morning is our SDA appointment.  I’m so glad we didn’t arrive a day early.  I don’t think I could stand the suspense!

Paka Dana in Eastern Europe!! Preevyet Dasha in Ukraine!!

Finally the blog is private and I can share more information!  If you haven’t figured it out by now, we’re in Kiev, Ukraine.  Dana’s real name is not Dana, it is Daria.  The nickname for Daria is Dasha and that is what she is called at her orphanage.  We are planning to rename her Rachel Daria.  We will call her Dasha as long as she wants/needs us to since we’re not looking to make more changes than absolutely necessary for her right now.  For those of you not familiar with the the adoption process in Ukraine, it works like this.  We travel to Kiev for an appointment with the SDA, which is the government’s adoption ministry.  At this appointment we let them know we want to adopt Dasha (so far, check).  The following day we pick up the referral that gives us permission to travel and meet her (we do that tomorrow).  Then we take a train to her region of the country.  She’s near a city called Donetsk.  Once we get to Donetsk we will meet her and tell them that yes, we want to adopt her.  Our regional facilitator will start the paperwork process and work on getting us a court date.  We don’t know how long it will take to get a date, but we’re praying it’s quickly.  All the while, we can be visiting Dasha everyday and getting to know her.  Once we have court, we have a 10 day wait before we can take Dasha out of the orphanage.  We are allowed to stay and continue visiting daily with her or we can go home.  The plan is that I’m staying and Norm is going home to be with our other kids.  Once the 10 days is up, we’ll take her out and she and I will head back to Kiev for a couple appointments at the US Embassy.  Then we are free to go HOME!!!  That’s the process in a nutshell.  I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but I’m obviously hoping things move quickly.  I miss my boys and don’t want to be away from them one day longer than I have to.

SDA Appointment

Our appointment went GREAT!!!  I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner.  There was a city wide power outage here and we have a land line modem that must be plugged in to get internet.  We're going to get some dinner and when we get back I'll post a full report.  I'll probably turn on the privacy setting so the blog will be private for the next post. 

We made it!

After a full 24 hours of traveling, we are now in Dana's country!  We even managed to get some groceries, find an underground mall with a big food court, and order some dinner.  We're exhausted and can't wait to get some sleep!  Our SDA appointment is tomorrow morning at 9 am.  Please pray it goes well.