Packing, packing, and more packing

38 hours til we hit the road. The last week has been a flurry of errands.

Buying gifts, getting clean $100s (folks in Ukraine worry about counterfeiting and won't take bills that are torn or have any marks on them. It takes a surprising amount to get clean ones. My accept rate is about 20%), making arrangements with Orphan's Hope, cramming Russian, etc.

For those that don't know it, Ukraine is largely a cash-based society. They also have a culture of gift-giving. That is true in the actual sense as well as in the euphemistic sense (though not to the degree of, say, the governor of Illinois). Hence the need for cash.

On the plus side (for us at least) is that the hryvnia (Ukrainian currency) has fallen to about 7.8 per dollar from a little over 5 per dollar in mid-October. So our money is worth 50% more (their currency has fallen by 1/3). Tough situation for the people there though. That's about how much the US stock market has fallen in a year. But it will help on our last-minute Christmas shopping (hope that didn't sounds too callous. Just making the best of it).

Nancy has been making copies of kids schoolwork for the next 6 weeks. She has a class on baking Old World Christmas breads tomorrow (my birthday gift to her. Well it was for my benefit actually, but don't let her know that).

Buying books to read, getting software updates and battery chargers. Dropping off our cat at Nancy's parents, paying bills, getting Christmas cards and adoption letters out to everyone.

Lots of mundane but critical stuff. 6-7 weeks is a long trip and it takes a lot more logistical effort than normal.

Colin's band had their Christmas concert last night. He is playing tuba (a chip off the old block). I have my choir concert tomorrow (but have to miss Sunday's).

Will try to post again before we go (then the interesting stuff starts).

Hi again!

Well, we leave in about a week from now. I'm in a tizzy just trying to get everything together I'm slowly packing my bag and my bedroom looks tornadoish. I've worked my wordrobe out to three outfits based off of a black and white mix and match design plus a black skirt for when we go to SDA meetings or to court. I also have silk underwear, cuddleduds, plus snow esentials. I bought the cutest hat to coordinate with my coat, so I hope to be stylin' occasionally.

We will probably have plenty of downtime in Kiev, so I got creative with some of the items I'm taking with us for the family. First of all, I'm bringing the kids homework, so they won't fall too far behind at school. I still have to make the xerox copies of their text books, but I plan on doing that tomorrow. Secondly, I'm bringing craft/fun activities that we often don't make the time to learn at home. I brought some knitting so I can help teach Claire how to knit. I also brought a book that teaches oragami and another teaching how to make really cool paper airplanes. These are all easy to pack and fun to learn. I just hope that the kids take me up on my fun ideas. Oh, I also bought dog balls which are excellent at teaching kids how to juggle! I am encouraging Colin to find music that he knows, so he can play it for the orphans when we get to the orphanage.

Colin Claire and I just finished devouring the "Twilight" series of books. So I was looking for some good books to read. My sister recommend "Enders Game" a sci fi series that she couldn't put down. I picked up the first two at the book store. I am also looking for recommendations for an easy family bible study we could do there as well. Something fun but simple.

We have bought many presents to give to people there. Uraine is a present culture and you are expected to give presents at different transactions so my mother and I have shopped a lot. Our Ukraine adoption agency, Orphan's Hope, told us that Ukrainians love to get peanut butter as a gift! They have a hard time getting it there so a peanut butter sandwich is looked on as a caviar sandwich! We'll be happy to oblige.

Dearest friends and family,

Thank you for looking in on our spiritual journey. We are all excited about expanding our family and "rescuing" an orphan from a potential hard life and giving them a loving family and home. I'd like to add my comments as to why we are adopting. I firmly believe the Holy Spirit has lead me to this decision. Did I say "firmly"? Actually I mean to say I believe, even if somewhat shakily but I do believe He gave me my desire to expand our family.

In a Bible study, a few years ago, we read "be fruitful and multiply" which was the command God gave to mankind. And although this child will not be my natural born child, he/she will multiply our family and we will teach him or her about our Lord Jesus Christ and how to walk by faith. This is another way to multiply our physical and spiritual family.

I had thought on and off about adopting over the past couple of years, but it was about a year and a half ago when I was at the ocean, that my desire to adopt really took hold of me. I took a walk early in the morning and just thought of how my own children were growing and becoming adults right before my eyes. I envisioned them coming home on holidays and eating with us at our dining table, and then I realized that there was room at the table! Having a larger family will bring Nick and I more joy. You see, you can always trust God. If He tells you to be fruitful and multiply, it's for your own good.

I'll write more soon. God bless!

Travel Plans

Everything continues to inch along. Except our trip, of course. It is approaching at high speed.

We finally got our plane tickets. The kids decided to stay with us the entire time. I think they were excited at the prospect of missing a month of school. But we will keep them busy. Bwa-ha-ha!

We will be leaving for Kyiv on 12/14. With a dinner-time departure, we will make it to Ukraine at about 4:30pm the next day. So we'll probably get to our room (flat?) around 7pm. Definitely a long day. But we are flying Lufthansa, which is definitely my favorite trans-atlantic carrier. No dice on an upgrade though :-(

So over the next 12 days, we will work on getting packed, getting gifts, etc.

And of course, we have to fit in Christmas concerts, Christmas cards, school, etc.

But that's the fun of it. And, in Ukraine, we get to celebrate Christmas twice! Gotta love that.

By the way, for anyone learning Russian, I recommend Pimsleur. It's expensive, but very good. I just started doing the reading lessons. I have been listening to the audio. But the reading lessons add a new dimension. It definitely is helping my pronunciation and understanding.

The other thing is that the cyrillic alphabet is so different. After all, you might recognize a word on hearing, but completely miss it in print.

For instance, would you know that PECTOPAH means "restaurant"? When you pronounce it ("ristorahn"), it is obvious. But not so much in print. Should help with shopping and restaurants as well.

Gotta go decorate for Christmas here. Can't have the place bare before we leave.

Playhouse, etc.

Well, the playhouse project took 6 full days of work (not the 1 afternoon I had expected). It's a good thing I don't make estimates for a living.

The job is pretty much done, though there are some punch list items to complete. It looks the same as it did when I started, except I added a new deck, there is a floor inside, and there are no black widows. I think it's important for a child's play area not to be infested with poisonous bugs. But that's just me....

Nancy and the kids painted it yesterday, so we were able to button it up before the rain came. And we were able to get it done without the Homeowners' Association having a cow about the mess in the yard.

I also did some work on getting plane tickets. That would probably be easier if I weren't so cheap. We have reservations, but I think I can get a better deal. Either way, we are traveling on 12/14.

The open question is when Colin and Claire are coming back. We probably will have them return on 1/10 and stay with grandparents. I still like the idea of them staying with us the whole time. But the good news is we found an airline that will escort them so Nancy won't have to travel back and forth.

Lufthansa will do it for an extra $150. That just happens to be my favorite trans-Atlantic airline too, so that's probably what we will do, though I need to do a bit more checking.

I also started haunting some of the other Ukraine adoption blogs to try to get a better idea what to expect. Need to get in the loop of other adopting families.

Russian and Playhouse

Been listening to Russian I tapes. I had listened through Lesson 10 about 2 years ago, but lapsed. Started over again, and have re-listened to Lesson 10. That actually helped as hearing it a second time, it is sinking in more. A long way to go though.

Was listening to Russian while making repairs to our playhouse. We put up an 8' x 10' playhouse with a little porch about 7-8 years ago. But it has been unused for a while, and the floor had rotted out. I thought this would be a good afternoon project to repair.

So far, I am up to 3 full days of effort. Like most home projects, the more work I did, the more problems I found..

I found that the rot had gotten to the front wall, so I took that out. Then I found the front porch deck was rotten, as well as the rails. Then I found out it wasn't just a 2 foot section of the floor that was rotten, but about 1/2 of the floor. The problem was that the builder let the front porch slope toward the playhouse, this let water run under the door and onto the floor.

What a mess.

The demolition took about 2 days because I had to keep as much as possible, and remove the sections carefully so I could add the new repaired material. I began the construction today using pressure treated lumber.

I decided to add some flashing to minimize the water incursion. As I was installing the aluminum flashing, I noticed it said "Not for use on pressure treated wood". Thought maybe I should look that one up on the internet.

I knew PT lumber had arsenic in it. Well, it used to. I didn't know it had changed. Nor did I know that it also contained copper. So, that would cause a dissimilar metal problem, and basically would cause the aluminum to rust.

That got me thinking about the bright common nails I had used in buildings the joists and stud wall. Oops. That is a no-no as well. Fortunately, according to an old hand at Lowes, I can just add stainless steel nails (which are ok for PT wood) and I do not have to remove the others I had used. Just be prepared for them to rust.

Anyway, not exactly an adoption story, but it is a part of our preparation for our new child. Well worth it.

Logistics and Language

Logistics are a bit of a wrinkle. We have arranged for the kids to come with us to Ukraine for the entire time. Essentially, we will home-school them for a month, but will follow the chapters they would be covering in school. We can keep up with homework by using email. I'm sure it won't work out as easily as we hope, but the school is being very flexible. That's another advantage of a small Christian school.

We have yet to nail down when Claire (and perhaps Colin) will return to Charlotte. They might come home early, or may stay the whole time. I guess that means we will need to get them tickets with adoption fares (so their return date can be flexible).

We need to nail these dates down soon though, as tomorrow is 30 days from our departure date....

I really have to get going on my Russian. I waffled for several months as to whether to try to learn some Russian or Ukrainian. Ukrainian is the national language but from what I understand Russian is more predominate, especially in the eastern portion of the country.

I finally decided to try to learn some Russian as it might be more useful. I have volumes I, II, and III of the Pimsleur Russian program. We'll see how that goes.

Weather Widget

Well, I'm kind of psyched. I got the weather widget working (after several hours of trying). Just a tip. If you click on the links in the widget, it will try to open the link in that tiny window. Instead, you should right-click on it and select "Open Link in New Tab" (Firefox) or "Open in New Tab" (Internet Explorer).

Another odd thing is that sometimes the weather map shows up (bottom half of the widget) and sometimes it does not.

I still would prefer to widen the panel so the entire widget would be visible.

Oh well. In time.

Kicking it off...

Nancy and Nick are in our mid-40s and have two children, Colin (14) and Claire (13, as of tomorrow). We are a Christian family living in Charlotte, NC.

This past spring, we decided to begin the process to adopt a child from Ukraine. We are looking for a child between 4-10 years old (more on that later....).

We completed our dossier in September and were expecting to travel to Ukraine around February, 2009.

Well, big surprise to us. We heard last week that we are now schedule to meet with the SDA in Kiev (henceforeth "Kyiv", the preferred spelling) on December 17th. So we are in catch up mode.

In this blog, we will describe the process of adopting as a future record for our family as well as a guideline for other families considering adoption.

Like many other families, we are just beginning our blog shortly before our travel. But I know from our experience that info on the process so far would be helpful. In some of the future posts, we will fill in some of the detail on the process to date.