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

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.