Step 1 in Lugansk

We left the flat in Kyiv yesterday. There was freezing rain which made the traffic even worse than usual. We had to stop by the SDA to pick up our referral between 5 and 6pm. Then about 2-3 miles away to the train station for an overnight to Lugansk (I changed the spelling from yesterday. I think this is the better one, though I have seen both).

We got to SDA with just a few minutes to spare. Our facilitator had made arrangements for us to pick up our referral right away. Apparently that is a big deal as there were long lines there we passed right by. I don't think we want to know how that was done. Suffice it to say, we got there, then ran to the car and made a mad dash (at about 5 mph given the traffic) to the train station.

We got there with about 10 minutes to spare. We met our new facilitator Natalia (or Natasha for short) who is traveling with us, and said goodbye for now to Yulia and Yuri.

We had a sleeping cabin on the train. Kind of like in "North by Northwest", but not really. 4 folding beds and bedding. in a room similar to that on a battleship. Not bad at all really.
The beds were fairly comfortable. However, the train was HOT. At least until about 1am when they turned off the heat. By morning, it was fairly comfortable.

We passed through the night through long flat stretches of Ukrainian country-side toward the coal-mining area of Lugansk. Sorry for the bad picture quality but it was through a dirty train window.

We arrived in Lugansk a little later than the schedule 9:45 (out time in yesterday's post was inaccurate). We then got a car to our new flat in Lugansk. It is owned by a very nice couple named Nikolai and Nadia. Nikolai and I hit it off well, given our names and that today is St. Nicholas Day!

At about 2pm we headed off to the nearby town (basically a suburb) about 15 miles away. I don't recall the name off-hand, but it was south of Lugansk. We met with the local inspector. He found a couple of errors in the documents that had to be corrected. The birthday of one boy was wrong. He is 7 instead of 6. And there was some other family found, but we don't think that will be an issue.

The process here, is that you meet the local inspector who reviews all paperwork for accuracy. he also asked us questions as to why we were adopting; why from Ukraine; do we know the children are likely to have some developmental delay; do we realize it will not be like raising our biological kids since their personalities are developed, etc. Important, but also expected, questions.

He was very friendly and is trying to make arrangements for us to go to step 2 which is to meet the orphanage director. However, due to 1) parties at the orphanage for St. Nicholas Day, 2) parties with police at the orphanage since it is also Police Day, and 3) visiting dignitaries, she has been very busy to the end of the day.

We are scheduled to meet her tomorrow morning at 8am. Assuming she approves of us, we then can meet the children.

We stopped to pick up some toys for the boys. We got them a couple of Lego(-ish) sets. One is a city hospital and the other a SWAT team (actually spetznaz). They should like that :-)

Finally had our first meal of the day about 6pm. we ate pizza and cabbage rolls at a local mall, then picked up groceries. With the weakness of the hryvnia, they were cheap, about $15 dollars.

Please pray thanks that our trip has gone so well so far, and that tomorrow's meeting with her and the boys are well received.

Off to Lugansk

We spoke to Yulia this afternoon and got more information on the children. One may (emphasize "may") have some health issues that were not documented at SDA. Another one was good, but is in Italy on a hosting program until 01/16.

That leaves the 2 boys. One is 6 1/2 and the other is almost 10. They have been in the orphanage for about 3 years. They are somewhere in the Lugansk area, though I don't know where yet. The area is at the far eastern part of Ukraine and very near the Russian border.

We packed quickly and are waiting for our ride. From here we go back to SDA (is we can get through traffic in time) to pick up our referral. Then we head to the train station for a 6:45 governight train. we arrive in Lugansk at 8am.

Ate lunch at Mictep Cnek, CendbiY Bap (Mister Snack, Sandwich Bar). Had a pretty good chicken kebab. A nice man helped Colin order a couple of snausages.

With a lot of hurry up and wait (as well as jet lag), we really haven't had any time for sightseeing. But we will be back in Kiev for at least 1 week at the end of the process.

Got to run

opening and shutting doors

I'm praying that God opens the doors and shuts others. All sets of children look sweet and in need of parents. Yesterday, they told us two slightly older boys were diagnosed as "emotional." After reading their file, we found out that their mother had died over a year ago and they've been in an orphange ever since. Could that be the reason why their "emotional?"

Later this morning, Yulia will call us with more information about the sets of children we've chosen so far. My prayer is that God makes it clear to us which children he wants us to have.

Please join me.

Nancy

SDA Meeting Complete. referral coming

As Colin said, we had our SDA meeting today. This is the entrance to the SDA. It is in a very nice part of the city with lots of old 1700s / 1800s style buildings.











It is next door to a beautiful church, St. Andrew's.










We got there a couple of minutes early and had to wait outside the gate. Claire wasn't too thrilled with that.














Once we got inside, the wait is in a very narrow hallway, with one sofa (and about 15 people). We only had to wait a few minutes.


The woman there was very nice. She looks like Pam from "The Office". She only spoke Russian, but clearly she understood (and presumably speaks) English.

We were only shown siblings. We saw no single children. I think this is partially due to our indicating willingness to adopt 2 siblings. Kind of like when I applied for a ROTC scholarship. I indicated desire to major in math or engineering. The Air Force needed engineers. They would not let me major in math. I think it is more difficult to get siblings adopted, so they will take that opportunity when possible. Can't really blame them. Also, we have heard recently that there are very few single children without significant health problems.

Besides all the kids we were shown looked very healthy. Very minor problems at most. Like astigmatism and myopia. And like most orphans, most had some developmental delay. We were expecting that anyway. Nothing of concern.

We probably overstayed our welcome a bit. We ran about 1hr 15 min. In the end, we had our facilitator call the orphanages to get more information. She will call us with what info she is able to get, and we will make our decision tomorrow (for a referral, that is. Not a final decision). Then, tomorrow afternoon we get our referral and Friday, travel to the orphanage to meet the children.

Yulia (our facilitator) is checking on 3 sets of siblings (2 boys, a boy and girl, and a girl and boy). They all have good information on their file. Hopefully, the file will reflect the situation correctly.

Water situation is slightly better. The girls had cold showers this morning, but Colin's and my showers were a bit warmer than room temperature (so that's probably in the 50s).

Thanks to all for continued prayer. We definitely need guidance in making the right decision for these children and for our family.

The SDA Meeting

We have now seen our choices so far. Now our process will be to meet the children and decide. I was hoping for a single child, but we have found that there is a higher probability that there will be health issues and were shown none for our option. Personally, I am currently leaning towards two boys, ages 6 & 9 (almost 10), but we will have to meet them before any decision is made. I always knew that this would be a hard choice because to accept a child you have to deny others. Yulia, our translator, is making calls to find out some more info on the three groups of children we are considering.

Ukrainian Cuisine and Cold Flashes

[Nick's comments are in brackets.]

Last night was fun. We went to a very traditional Ukrainian restaurant downtown [, called Schekavitza. The food was authentic Ukrainian and very good. It was pricy by Ukrainian standards. The 4 of us ate for about $120]. It was almost like Disneyland. Everyone was in these costumes and the decorations were covered with kitsch and cows and Christmas ornaments. I had borsch soup and lovely appetizers. [Nick had banush, which is like grits with cheese and pork. It was great.] Claire had chicken Kiev, Colin and Nick some kind of pork dish [Colin's was pork wrapped in bacon. Nick's was Pork in a potato pancake]. Their favorite spices so far are garlic and dill. Musicians sang and played the accordian. Like I said, we somehow morphed back to the Epcot center, but hey, we love Epcot! [Except that big golf ball thing. We still threaten to take the kids onthat ride again if they misbehave. Yawn!]

[Here, FYI, is the entrance to our flat.]


Another real adventure here is getting ready. Basically, the apartment is cold. We must be almost fully dressed to stay warm and there is barely any hot water.

We cannot figure out the hot water heater that is above our stove. [Actually it is to the right of our stove. Also, the stove reminds me of our old gas stove. you have to uses start the gas then light a match. I had forgotten about that]. We think the gas ignites and heats the water pipes. But this doesn't last. We just get a flash of hot water and then it goes back to being cold. The plumbing is backwards too. Hot is Cold and cold is hot etc. Guess what? Claire no longer takes long showers!

Last night we left the bunson burner running on the stove and it really did help warm up the apartment.

Day 1

Well, its been a good day so far. Ukraine is a bit different then America. My family is strictly 2% milk. We find 1% to taste really bad. Unfortunatly they don't have 2% here. It goes 1% to 2.5%. It tastes kind of sweet. I can get use to it. The supermarket had some strange foods. Cheese popcorn, crab flavored potatoe chips, it's pretty weird. Also, instead of diet coke, they have coca-cola light. There are no tv shows in english, except for some music videos (most of the stuff i've never heard of), and some shows that have been dubbed. We will have a translator to help us, named Yulia (sounds like Julia). Well, the last thing that I've noticed is that there are alot more tobbaco ad's. People smoke more. I don't have a problem with that but it just feel different. That's all for now.

our first house

hi! right now we're staying in a flat in kiev. my parents have the bedroom and my brother has the trundle and i have the couch. ya... but its not that bad. today we've been inside the whole time and its really cold, like really REALLY cold.
anyways miss you guys

We are in Kyiv

Sorry for the delay, but just got internet access set up. That took about an hour until I found a security setting that needed to be changed.

About a 21 hour trip. We left Charlotte at 2pm Sunday and got into our flat at 7pm Kyiv time. Pretty uneventful trip which is good. Ate a late lunch at Chili's Too.













Lufthansa definitely is the way to go across the Atlantic. I prefer their business class, but even their coach is pretty good. Only problem was they wouldn't let us in the Star Alliance club in Munich (though they should have), and US Airways let us in their club in Charlotte (which they should not have). 5 hour layover in Munich, then a 2 hour flight to Kyiv.

We got through passport control and customs in about 10 minutes (without using VIP service), but I think we were lucky to get in at a non-busy time. That caught our facilitator by surprise who was not expecting us for another hour. But that aside, we got in with no snags. Very tired but no problems.

Colin passed time by working on his new 5x5 Rubik's Cube.

















Nancy waited for Yuri to arrive.
Yuri (our facilitator's husband brought us in, got us set up in our flat, and took Nancy to get some money and a few groceries). Nancy exchanged dollars for hryvnia at 7.70 UAH per dollar. Today the rate is 8.12 UAH per dollar. The hryvnia has really melted down in the last month, and even more in the last week.

Slept about 12 hours last night (which is good after about 2 hours on the plane). Virtually no hot water. It was piped in to the cold faucet. Used nothing but "cold" and was able to get a cold Navy shower (wet down, water off, lather up, rinse off, get out).

Met with our facilitator this morning for a couple of hours and got the run-down on our SDA meeting (at 2pm Wednesday, which is 7am EST), got set up with a cell phone and internet (just dial-up though so it is pretty slow).

Prayer requests:
- Pray for the people of Ukraine and their economy which is having a very rough time (as evidenced by the exchange rate)
- Pray for God to grant us a smooth meeting with the SDA and to lead us to the child He has chosen for us
- Pray for hot water (if you have any time left)

hey guys

hi well we're in the airport right ow and about to leave for germany its an eight hour flight so ya super fun anyways when we're in germany we have a 5 hour layover so ya again that'll be great and then we fly to ukriane! i miss u guys email me if u want

Hello

this is my first post here in this blog, so here I go. We are now in the airport waiting for our plane to arive. Thankfully th airport has internet connection, although I am worried about how much internet I will be able to get. My hope is to adopt a boy. I wonder how many books I will go through with my free time there. Well, I guess that's it, I don't have much else to say. I'll try to write soon.

zoooooom

Well here we go! We've been packing for hours, days actually. but of course there is always that final push where you find you really need an extra bag or two. The kids are picking out dvds to bring. oh well. Plus, yesterday before we left, Nick had signed me up to take a cooking class at Johnston and Wales downtown. Then last night Nick's choir gave a lovely performance with orchestra and everything! What a rat race.

We appreciate everyone's well wishes and prayers. we are excited to go and a little tired too. But we have plenty of books and games and presents for orphans etc. My mother and father are waiting to drive us to the airport. We fly from Charlotte to Munich then after a 5 hour layover it's off to Kiev. Our facitlitator will meet us at the gate.

love to all,

Nancy