Much better afternoon

Just wanted to let you know that our afternoon visit with Victoria went much, much better than the morning. Again, we expect a wide range of emotions and behaviors, so we try not to go with any expectations of how the visit will go. After this morning I wasn't sure, but we were pleasantly surprised at how pleasant and sweet she was. So, we had a lovely afternoon.

After our visit we went to a place called Arizona BBQ for dinner. It was pretty good. It is not too far from our apartment, but it is down the hill from where we are staying (when I say down the hill-I mean a really, really big hill). There is a thing called the funicular that takes you up the hill. Well, we walked from the restaurant to the funicular to ride it up (it isn't a far walk to our apartment once you get off at the top) and it was broken down!! So, we walked up what felt like at least 1,000 steps to get to the top of the hill! Morgan was such a trooper and didn't complain once - she was even cheering on Joe and I. The Ukrainian's must have been cracking up at us fat out of shape Americans as the women were all traversing the steps with no problem in their 4 inch high heels. Thank goodness it wasn't hot out!!!

Anyway, we made it home a little out of breath but other wise okay. I am headed to bed now - I'll be sure to update if we hear anything about court.

A beautiful Sunday in Kiev

After a cool and rainy day yesterday we woke up to a beautiful day today. It is in the 70's and very sunny with a slight breeze. The weather couldn't be better.



Our morning visit with Victoria on the other hand could have been better. It started off well, but then she starting getting pretty hyper. She wants to be spun around and rough house a lot. When we tried to calm her down a little she starting hitting Joe. I know it is mostly from being bored and frustrated because we can not communicate well. She is used to doing the same thing over and over for 4 years and now we have broken that routine. I'm sure she just doesn't know what to do with herself. She is so excited to have someone paying attention to just her that she seems to get carried away. It is hard too, because you know everyone is watching you. We ended up cutting our visit a little short so that she could get back to her groupa and calm down. She is very, very well behaved in the groupa and with her caregivers, so I know things will get better. Yesterday was great though because she gave me a few kisses without me even asking. Don't worry though, we are not discouraged. We know there is going to be a whole range of emotions that we all will go through and we know it it going to take time. We are going back this afternoon and hopefully things will go better.

After we left the orphanage we came back to our apartment. We decided to try some authentic Ukrainian food for lunch, so we went to a little cafeteria type place near us. I had some borsch and it was so good I had a second cup. After lunch Joe and Morgan went to a park while I went to St. Sophia's cathedral. It is breath taking. You can not take pictures of the inside so I am going to have to buy one of the book about the cathedrals here. I'm sure pictures would not do it justice anyway. I met Joe and Morgan at the park when I was done and we spent some time there.

We are now at our apartment for a little while before going back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit.

On another note, could I please ask for prayers for the orphans in Simferopol (which is where we were supposed to go)? We found out that things there have gotten bad again and it doesn't look like there are adoptions happening. I know that we are where we are meant to be, but my heart still breaks for the children there that may have lost their chance at finding a family. There is another family I know that was supposed to go to the same orphanage and they have also had to accept a referral for another little girl. They are also happy with their decision, but still sad for the little girl that they had thought would be theirs.

Our paperwork was submitted to the court on Friday, so hopefully I will have news on a court date tomorrow. I'll let you know.

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!

A little more accomplished

Just a quick post to let you all know that things are continuing to go well. Our visits with Victoria are great. She opens up more each day.

We only got to go on our afternoon visit today because we spent the morning running around to the notary, the inspectors office, etc. So, progress is being made in all of the right directions.

We stopped this evening to pick up a few more toys and things to take with us on our visits. I'm sure Victoria will have fun with them. She is very smart and figures things out very quickly. She loves my camera!

We found out today that the other little girl we were interested in is not available. Her parents rights have not been terminated yet. It is sad because they probably will be at some point, but she will probably never get adopted.

So, it looks like we will be coming home with only one. That is okay though because I think Victoria will need a lot of one on one attention, so it will be good for her.

I'll update as I have news!

Did I say shy and scared???

Well, not today! Victoria was very interactive today. Both of our visits went very well. She is quite the little firecracker. I think she is going to give Morgan a run for her money. I also think she is going to be a Daddy's girl, as she has taken quite the liking to Joe.

We got to spend a lot of time together today. We played separate from her "groupa" for the most part and every time one of the other kids would come near us Victoria would chase them away. She definitely understands that we are there for her and doesn't want anyone else taking our attention. I brought a picture book with me and she kept it with her. It was so sweet to see her keep looking at the pictures and pointing to all of us. I also brought bubbles today and she had fun with them. She also really liked my camera and taking pictures with it (although I'm not sure if all of the settings are still correct now).

There is another little girl in Victoria's groupa that I am just in love with. We are going to try and find out on Monday if she is available for adoption. If she is we will see about getting her referral. If not, we will just be coming home with one.

I can't say enough how impressed I am with the orphanage and the director. The place is such a contrast to many of the pictures I have seen of orphanages and what I pictured in my mind. The place is so clean and cheery, and you can really tell how much the director cares for the children. He is very proud of all of them.

The adjustment is going to be hard for us all, but we will work through it. We really feel like we are blessed.

We have decided to stay in our current apartment. My facilitator was able to negotiate a monthly rent with the land lady that everyone is happy with. I really like it here. We have everything we need and we are very close to a lot of restaurants, shopping, etc. We joke that we must be in the rich part of the neighborhood. There was a Bentley on the corner today and then an Aston Martin on the same corner later, then we Joe took the trash out tonight a pink Lamborginii (sp?) drove by. We are on the other side of the river from the orphanage so we do have to arrange transportation. Right now we are taking cabs back and forth but my facilitator says she is also going to show us how to use the subway. She says it is much, much cheaper so we will have that as an option too.

We will continue with our daily visits with Victoria and hopefully some more paperwork towards our court date will be started on Monday.

Amanda - I hope you aren't losing your mind yet! Give the puppies a kiss for us. Thank you so much for everything. We love you and miss you.

Mom - you can cancel your Wizzair ticket. I will pick you up in Kiev. Jacqueline will still be flying from JFK to Kiev with you. I'll explain the "immigration card" that you have to fill out on the plane before you land. Other than that customs was a breeze and our luggage was out before we even got over there. We'll keep you guys posted about Joe and Morgan's return. Love you all!!!

Wonderful day!!!

After a slow morning and waiting a while at the inspector's office this afternoon, we were able to go to the orphanage.

We met Victoria and she is absolutely wonderful!!!! She just turned 4 about 2 weeks ago. She is shy and scared, but that is to be expected. I won't give out too many details about her yet because she is not ours yet, but we have officially said yes to her referral. Her story is amazing and she really is a miracle. Her and Morgan played well this afternoon and I can't wait to see their relationship develop.

So, now we will continue visiting her and hoping that she will continue to warm up to us. It is going to take her some time, which is fine with us. This is the only place and people she has ever known and she was told today that she would be leaving with these strangers that talk funny. I'd be scared too. She is beautiful and has the cutest little giggle!

We are not sure about a second referral. There is another little girl in Victoria's groupa that we are going to inquire about but we are not sure if she is available. The orphanage she is in is very, very good as far as orphanages go. It was very clean and the children seem well cared for. The caretakers and director all seem to care very much for the children.

We aren't sure if we are changing apartments yet. We may look for something a little cheaper for the long term, but we have everything we need here so we will see.

We truly feel blessed and Morgan said Victoria is perfect! She is right. I can't imagine feeling better than this.

I will keep you updated about our visits and as we here any news about court.

SDA appointment

Well, as of this morning things were still uncertain in the region we thought we would be going to so we decide to review the files of other children.

Long story short, we decide to accept the referral of a beautiful little girl who turned 4 a few weeks ago. We were able to pick up the referral this afternoon and will be meeting with the inspector of the region tomorrow at 3:15pm. I am not exactly sure yet when we will be able to go to the orphanage.

Then as we were getting the paperwork for the referral we found out things had been straightened out in the original region. Unfortunately because we already accepted the referral the procedure is that we have to go meet this little girl first and then we can decide whether to go through with her adoption or go back and get the referral of the original little girl. A few hours could have made a huge difference but for whatever reason things have worked out this way for us.

We do feel very good about this referral though, so as long as things go well when we meet her we feel like we will be going through with this adoption. It is still very hard especially since now the other region is open again, so we are just going to pray and see how things go over the next few days. The other thing is that it doesn't look like there are any other HIV+ girls available for adoption from this orphanage, so if we say yes to this little girl we will only be adopting one. We did find out too that the SDA is not giving referrals for two unrelated children at the same appt., so if we were adopting two from another region we would have to meet the first one and say yes and then travel back to Kiev to accept a second referral.

If we adopt the little girl whose referral we accepted we will be staying here in Kiev. We will be moving apartments though because the orphanage is on the other side of the river. The downside to this region is that it is know to be very slow. It takes a long time to get a court date here. Once we know more certain how things are going to go and when our court date is we will make the decision about what to do. Probably Joe and Morgan would return home and then Joe would just fly back here for a few days for court and then go home. We will see.

But for now, things are good! We are all enjoying our time here in Kiev very much. I really like it here a lot, although I am sad if we stay here I will not get to see more of the country. I may have to go sight seeing. Morgan is being so good and seems to be having a good time. They have a zoo and a circus here in Kiev, so we will probably be checking them out if we stay.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! It really means so much to us.