We're still okay

We're all still here and doing well.

Our visits with Victoria are going well. The communication is hard. We have picked up some of her words and she has picked up some of our words, but we can't really talk to her to see how she is really feeling. Right now we are just some people that come to play with her each day and bring new toys. We are all getting along though, so everything is good. She will soon learn all about having a family. She has spent 4 years in the orphanage, so it will be exciting to see her learn all about the world outside of the orphanage grounds.

We got the official approval from the SDA on our request to adopt Victoria today. My facilitator will take that to the judge in our region tomorrow. Hopefully we will know when our court date will be scheduled soon. It will be nice if Joe and Morgan could make their flight, but we will see.

There is a coffee shop a few corners down from us and Morgan really likes their ice cream. She had cherry earlier in the week and today she had strawberry. It is very good. We also got to go food shopping yesterday, so we have cooked the last few meals in our apartment. We haven't had any problems with the food here though or ordering when we are out. Some places have English on the menus and others we just point and nod. The people laugh at us sometimes, but they definitely do much better with their English than I do with my Russian or Ukrainian. We have been eating very American since we have been here. We have a pizza/pasta place very close to us that has good food and we had lunch on Tuesday at TGI Fridays with a few other adoptive couples from America. That was very nice. It has been really nice to get to know some other adoptive families and to talk English to people.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our apartment, some of the sights of Kiev and a few teasers of Victoria (where you can't see her face - because we haven't had court yet I am not suppose to post pictures publicly).

The bedroom

Please excuse the mess - we weren't sure if we were staying when I took this so we hadn't unpacked yet

The living room (and Joe's bedroom - he has been sleeping on the couch and Morgan and I share the bed)

Our kitchen

The bathroom - and yes, we have plenty of hot water for showers!

Washing machine - very handy now that we know how to use it!

A cute little sculpture outside of our apartment - it is made out of screws

One of the many, many beautiful cathedrals in Kiev. They seem to be everywhere you look.

Outside of the SDA the morning of our appointment

The first afternoon we met Victoria! I love this picture!

The second day with Victoria. I can't wait to show you the other pictures of her!