Yesterday

Yesterday we left our apartment at 4:30am and headed for the girls' region. It was not a bad drive, especially since I gave the boys Dramamine before we left and they slept most of the way there. ;) Serge drove and Marina and the rest of us pretty much just slept.

As soon as we arrived, Marina went to the social worker's office to get permission for us to meet the girls. We then went to the orphanage, knowing we wouldn't get to stay long as we had a notary appointment at 11am. The goal was to get all of our pre-court paperwork done in one day so it could be back on its way to Kyiv that night with Serge and Marina.

When we got to the orphanage, we ran into Dana in the hallway. She was a little bit shy but very cute and happy to see us. She was on her way to music class, so we went to see Eve first.

Eve was a surpise. While we were prepared for her cleft palate, we were not prepared for the neurological issues that she appeared to have in our very short visit. We played with her in her groupa for a few minutes and then went to see Dana in her music class. We didn't get any pictures of Eve today as we weren't in her room for very long.

Dana's class was preparing some sort of musical program and they were dancing to music played by one of the caretakers (at the piano--she was quite good!). Dana was dancing and running around with the rest of her class. Although her gait is a little off, she is very functional with both walking and running. We got some great pictures and video of her and her class (and no, I won't share them until after court ;) ).We were in there for a few minutes and then headed out to the notary. Even though Eve's issues are more than we were prepared to handle, we feel that we are already committed to her and Dana and that God has chosen us to be their family.

Dana and her bed

After the notary, Marina ran across the street to the social worker to try to get that paperwork moved forward, and then after a few more stops we headed to the hotel to get our rooms. Unfortunately, we had to get two rooms because they would not allow more than 4 people in a room, but this turned out for the best. We got settled in our hotel room, only to be told that we needed to move because they had accidentally given us a room that was already reserved. We moved up two floors and shaved 200 grivna off of our bill in the process. :) Two rooms are costing us 600 grivna per night, and the exchange rate right now is 8 grivna/dollar (so about $75/night for two rooms--not each, total). We got settled in our new rooms and got a call from Serge and Marina that they were outside and wanted to show us to the cafeteria they had mentioned earlier in the day. While we were driving around, they got the call that our last document was done so we went and picked that up and then they dropped us off at the playground. I feel like we have a new goal of playing on every playground in Ukraine. :)

Along with that phone call we got the news that our court date is next Thursday, April 16! :)

We let the boys play at the playground for awhile and then went back to the hotel rooms. We've got a couple of stores right next to the hotel so we're able to pick up groceries easily, and they have precooked meats so it doesn't matter that we don't have a kitchen. We're pigging out on great chocolate, my favorite soda (Schweppes Bitter Lemon which I can't find in the States), and lots of different types of cookies (we just found the cake section today--be prepared for some cake reviews over the next few days)!

We're here!

Thanks for all of the prayers!!

We arrived without incident (more or less) yesterday. So far the "only carryon luggage" has been a great thing. We had our appointment this morning and will pick up our referral for the girls this evening, then drive to their region tomorrow morning (very early!!). If everything goes as planned we will get all of our initial paperwork done tomorrow and will be staying in their region over the weekend.

Our luggage

The boys are doing fantastic and are loving being in Ukraine! Their favorite part is the playgrounds that are everywhere in Kyiv. Tami, yesterday we walked to O'Panas and the boys played at the huge playground there. :)

The playground outside our apartment

Having my mom here has been great. She was able to stay with the boys this morning while we went to our appointment so they got to sleep in. We're all pretty sleep deprived after the craziness of the past few days, so the extra sleep for them was wonderful. We are headed to their favorite playground (at O'Panas) next so they'll sleep well again tonight.

Before our SDA appointment

Sorry if this is a little disconnected. I'm typing fast and trying to use as little time as possible. We don't have internet here in Kyiv so I'm using an internet cafe. We should have internet in-region and I'll do my best to catch you all up on the past few days.

We're really excited to meet the girls!! :) :)

Tuesday, April 7

Last night my mom drove up and stayed with us so we'd be ready to head out in the morning. Mark and I stayed up most of the night finishing the beds and setting them up and finishing up packing. In the past few days we painted our room and the girls' room, and Mark has been working like mad to finish the beds. I'm happy to say they are DONE and they look great. I think he wishes he'd had a little more time with them, but they really are nice. We slept about three hours then were up to get ready to leave.

Monica picked us up bright and early--I think she might have been at our house before we were awake. :) She took Mark to pick up some McDonald's for breakfast while I got the boys up and dressed. They were very excited to be leaving and get ready even more quickly than usual.

We made it to the airport and Monica took a family picture of us on the way out. I'll try to get a copy of it on here when I get a chance. All of our flights were on time and went great.

I feel like I'm doing something illegal

If you've been reading our last few posts, I've talked repeatedly about the "new" money we were trying to get. The money doesn't actually need to be new, it just needs to be "new"--no marks, or tears, or significant folds, or anything else that would make it appear used and worn--thus the use of the quotes around the word "new."

Yesterday, Mark and Zhenya went and picked up the money. I didn't know at the time I posted, but apparently our bank ordered NEW money...as in, we now have a very large chunk of cash in sequential bills. LOL We're going to sit down and mix up the money so we're not handing over sequential bills to people. It's just a little weird to have this many NEW bills on hand.

Mark started the girls' beds last night, and I primed our bedroom. Whoever commented and said painting is therapy (Amy B?), feel free to come over for some at my house. I've about had enough of this "therapy." ;)

We have the money!

You guys are really amazing at these specific prayer requests!

I got a call from our bank today that the "new" money is in. I set up a wire transfer (long story) to get the money to the account it needed to be in. Mark and Zhenya picked up the money this afternoon so we're all ready to go! Right?

Personally, I can live in the same clothes for 3, 4, even 5 weeks, but we couldn't go without the money, so yes, we're ready to go.

I do plan on packing some clothes over the next few days. :) :)

And...we have a dogsitter!! I could have told you we had one yesterday, but that would have turned out to be incorrect. Now we really do have one. She is very responsible and will love being so close to her work, since she happens to be Dima's teacher! LOL Yes, I called and asked his teacher if she would be interested in housesitting for us. She lives quite a ways away so I thought she might be interested in being closer for a few weeks. We've got a few people who are able to help her out if she needs some extra coverage (thank you Ryan and Thuy and DMAG family!!) so I am finally feeling some relief over that situation. It kind of felt like we were getting down to the wire with finding someone to help with the dogs.

I've only been a little stressed lately--to the point that Mark said last night "You know we leave in 5 days" and I turned away from him and very maturely said "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! I can't hear you!" and put my hands over my ears. No joke. :)

I just can't even think about the amount of time left before we leave. Every time I think about it I start to get sick to my stomach, thinking there's no way we can get everything done. And we probably can't. But we'll just keep plugging along, getting the things done that NEED to be done and letting the rest fall into place wherever God wants them.

Do you know that if things go as expected, one week from tomorrow we will be meeting our daughters? :) :) :)

Memories

This upcoming trip has stirred up a lot of memories for Mark and I, thinking back to the trip to bring the boys home. While it has been very stressful trying to get everything done between the move and the upcoming adoption, we have had a lot of laughter between the two of us over various things that have been happening. I love my husband very much and am so glad I get to go through all of this with him. :)

We've been doing a lot of the "Do you remember when..." in reference to bringing the boys home, and it's fun to think that soon we'll have those same types of memories for the girls. It's amazing how vivid the memories are of all of their firsts--first self-flushing toilet, first hand dryer, first drinking fountain, first baths (and then when they learned to enjoy them). They didn't like pizza the first few times they had it--now they ask for it once or twice a week. :) We found the sippy cups and containers we took with us to the orphanage and both boys commented on the things that they remembered having in them (juice, goldfish, and peanut butter crackers). Zhenya even asked why it was so hard to get the goldfish out of the container--which it was, and in the orphanage Mark and I got a kick out of watching the boys try to figure out how to either get into the container or get the goldfish to come out the little pour spout (they didn't want help, but inevitably ended up asking for it).

The preparations for the upcoming trip have stirred up some memories for the boys, too, which I think is a good thing. A few nights ago Dima was trying to tell me something about going on the plane to get the girls. He was getting pretty upset because I couldn't figure out what he was saying...something about the plane and not being able to sleep and not enough seats. Keep in mind, Dima claims not to remember anything from before he lived with us. I know this isn't true, but he has no desire to talk about any of his memories prior to joining our family. I think somehow he's afraid that if he talks about them they will become reality again.

So he was trying to communicate this thing with seats and a plane and it finally clicked--he remembers. He remembers the flight home, where he was sitting in the seat and didn't get to lay down to sleep (he actually did, on the seats, but I think in his mind he just remembers not being able to sleep in a bed). He was very upset about this until I told him that we would have 5 seats, and plenty of room to sleep, and that we could sleep on the plane. Then he was as happy as could be, content knowing that he would be able to sleep on the plane. Interestingly enough, he will claim that he has never been on a plane, but this reinforced for me that he does remember because his concern was specifically over not being able to sleep on the plane, so he did know we were on a plane before.

I know this trip is going to stir up a lot of memories, especially for Dima. However, I think it will be really good for us to be able to deal with a lot of the memories that I think he has negative impressions of--like the flight home (apparently) and some of the first few days we had in Slaviansk and Kyiv as a family. There are a few things I am interested to see if he remembers, but we don't push him to talk about any of his memories. We let them come out and deal with them as they do. I'm hoping that as some of these surface, we will be able to work through them with him and bring him some comfort and healing. This trip may help fill in a lot of gaps for him, and I'm especially hoping that it will solidify even further his status as a part of our family.

The little things

Slowly but surely things are getting done and checked off of the list(s)...in fact, some things are getting done which hadn't even made it on to the list yet.

One of the (many) things we were needing to get set up for the girls was their beds. Mark plans to make their beds, but now we're a little worried that we won't be coming home in between trips and we're going to lose out on a little preparation time. This has meant a little scrambling around here as we try to make sure everything is set up, ready to go for the girls, before we leave.

Yesterday Mark went and bought some of the lumber he will need for the girls' beds. But regardless, we still didn't have mattresses for them. I've been perusing Craig's List for awhile, looking for twin mattresses, but most people were only selling sets of mattresses with box springs...for way more than we wanted to pay.

Until this week.

Yesterday, I found a set of TWO twin mattresses (no box springs) for sale for $25 each. We drove out last night and picked them up from a parsonage. They've had minimal use and are practically new Serta mattresses. Now even if the bed frames don't get finished, at least the girls will have a place to sleep! :)