We are the proud parents of Bianca Anastasia and Julia Svetlana!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Yesterday and today
Yesterday and today have been pretty much the same: visiting with the girls morning and afternoon. We've been sharing taxis with the Italian and French couples and it is an absolute riot when the 6 of us are together. I think one of our taxi drivers was ready to throw us out the other day. He couldn't find the orphanage so he was getting directions in English, French, Italian, and broken Russian. He was very happy to drop us off. :) :)
Both the French couple and Mark and I have court tomorrow at 10am. We aren't quite sure how that's working (since both the city social worker and the orphanage lawyer have to be at both of our courts) so we may actually have court together. My French is gradually coming back but I'm hoping to brush up a little while we're home. Both of the other couples are staying the whole time, so they will be here for our return trip.
I have eaten so much that every day I swear I'm not going to eat anymore. And then we smell some yummy Ukrainian food and I'm hungry again. It's a vicious cycle. ;)
Today we took the mashrutka (bus) to the orphanage with the other couples. They had tried it the other day but had gotten lost, so we had to convince them to try again. Mark and I have never ridden a mashrutka in all of our times in Ukraine so we really wanted to. Now we have, and it was definitely worth the 2 grivna ($0.25) each versus the 20 grivna ($2.50) for the taxi. We have a bit of a walk after we get off the mashrutka which wouldn't be bad if it was something over 19F...it's a bit cold, and the windchill makes it even colder. I have been VERY glad for my thermal tights.
Tomorrow, Sasha will be here about 9 and we will pick up the social worker and the orphanage lawyer on our way to court. Court is at 10am (4am CST in the US) so we should be done by the time most of you wake up!
Both the French couple and Mark and I have court tomorrow at 10am. We aren't quite sure how that's working (since both the city social worker and the orphanage lawyer have to be at both of our courts) so we may actually have court together. My French is gradually coming back but I'm hoping to brush up a little while we're home. Both of the other couples are staying the whole time, so they will be here for our return trip.
I have eaten so much that every day I swear I'm not going to eat anymore. And then we smell some yummy Ukrainian food and I'm hungry again. It's a vicious cycle. ;)
Today we took the mashrutka (bus) to the orphanage with the other couples. They had tried it the other day but had gotten lost, so we had to convince them to try again. Mark and I have never ridden a mashrutka in all of our times in Ukraine so we really wanted to. Now we have, and it was definitely worth the 2 grivna ($0.25) each versus the 20 grivna ($2.50) for the taxi. We have a bit of a walk after we get off the mashrutka which wouldn't be bad if it was something over 19F...it's a bit cold, and the windchill makes it even colder. I have been VERY glad for my thermal tights.
Tomorrow, Sasha will be here about 9 and we will pick up the social worker and the orphanage lawyer on our way to court. Court is at 10am (4am CST in the US) so we should be done by the time most of you wake up!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Video and photos
For you-know-who, from Miss Big Meanie Pants. LOL
The girls love to sit on my lap and listen to me read from our Russian phrase book, especially B. 
Coloring together. J LOVES to color and draw.This is a video of Mark playing with the girls. J was trying to balance a box on his head and B is sitting at the table playing. I tried to keep their faces out of the shot, but most of you have seen J's picture before anyway. ;)
Our romantic Valentine's Day
For Valentine's Day, Mark and I decided it would be fun to go to the beach. And so we went.
Don't believe me? I have pictures to prove it. :)
Oh, you don't believe we were really there today? Here's the sea behind us.
Mark says his face looks like that because it was so frozen that was as close to a smile as he could get. My face had been wrapped up in my scarf so it was still thawed (mostly). The high today was supposed to be 18F, but I guarantee it was NOT that warm on the beach!
Happy Valentine's Day! Hope yours was WARM! :)
Don't believe me? I have pictures to prove it. :)
Oh, you don't believe we were really there today? Here's the sea behind us.
Mark says his face looks like that because it was so frozen that was as close to a smile as he could get. My face had been wrapped up in my scarf so it was still thawed (mostly). The high today was supposed to be 18F, but I guarantee it was NOT that warm on the beach!
Happy Valentine's Day! Hope yours was WARM! :)
Court date
We have court scheduled for this Thursday, Feb 17, at 10am. If everything goes well (we'll know right after court), we should be home this weekend! Then one or both of us will return in a couple of weeks to finish the process and pick up the girls. :)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Adoption in Ukraine
Yesterday we saw a commercial in Ukrainian. There were a bunch of kids (cartoons) playing soccer. Then one mom called her son in, so he left. Gradually more and more kids got called away for supper, and it got dark.
And one little boy was left all alone on the soccer field.
It cut to a screen advocating adoption in Ukraine and giving the sirotstvy website.
YAY for promotion of adoption IN Ukraine!!
And one little boy was left all alone on the soccer field.
It cut to a screen advocating adoption in Ukraine and giving the sirotstvy website.
YAY for promotion of adoption IN Ukraine!!
Yesterday and today
*We have internet in our hotel now! It's not good enough to Skype (we tried) but it's internet!*
We've had a couple of great visits with the girls. It's been good to see especially how B tests boundaries and how she responds to discipline (which is pretty limited in our current setting). We've been doing mini-timeouts with her sitting next to me in a little chair. We have her sit quietly for about 60 seconds. This has only been after deliberate disobedience where she has been instructed numerous times not to do something (or to stop) and has understood and has continued (or returned to) the behavior. It's been fun to watch how she tries to "negotiate" so that the discipline is on her terms. She's a smart little girl!
J has continued to pep up as she's beginning to believe we really are her mama and papa. As soon as she saw the photo album today she grabbed it and started pointing at pictures asking "mine? mine?" in reference to all of the family members and rooms in our house. She was wound up today--I think the correct term would be giddy. :)
We won't see the girls tomorrow as they have some visitors to the orphanage and don't want any adoptive parents there. But we were able to communicate to both of the girls' caretakers that we wouldn't be there tomorrow so they could help the girls understand.
Other than that, we've been hanging out at the Amstor a lot. :) They know us by sight now and are so friendly. I think they like the funny Americans (or at least like to laugh at us when we order food). We Skyped with the kids yesterday which was great. They wanted to know when we're coming home, but we won't know until we hear about court.
And we've made friends! There is a French couple and an Italian couple adopting from the same orphanage we are. They are all staying in the same hotel and we are going to ride the bus with them on Tuesday. We've had some fun conversations with them, especially the French couple. I speak about as much French as the wife speaks English, so we have some really fun conversations, and we're both translating for our husbands. And of course, the Italian couple speaks Italian, French, German, AND English! :) Both couples are adopting "older" boys which I am so excited about. Most people don't want older kids and they usually don't want boys, so this is great for those kids. And both of the boys look really sweet.
Tomorrow will most likely be a couple of trips to Amstor if it's not too cold--it's supposed to be super cold here for the next few days!
We've had a couple of great visits with the girls. It's been good to see especially how B tests boundaries and how she responds to discipline (which is pretty limited in our current setting). We've been doing mini-timeouts with her sitting next to me in a little chair. We have her sit quietly for about 60 seconds. This has only been after deliberate disobedience where she has been instructed numerous times not to do something (or to stop) and has understood and has continued (or returned to) the behavior. It's been fun to watch how she tries to "negotiate" so that the discipline is on her terms. She's a smart little girl!
J has continued to pep up as she's beginning to believe we really are her mama and papa. As soon as she saw the photo album today she grabbed it and started pointing at pictures asking "mine? mine?" in reference to all of the family members and rooms in our house. She was wound up today--I think the correct term would be giddy. :)
We won't see the girls tomorrow as they have some visitors to the orphanage and don't want any adoptive parents there. But we were able to communicate to both of the girls' caretakers that we wouldn't be there tomorrow so they could help the girls understand.
Other than that, we've been hanging out at the Amstor a lot. :) They know us by sight now and are so friendly. I think they like the funny Americans (or at least like to laugh at us when we order food). We Skyped with the kids yesterday which was great. They wanted to know when we're coming home, but we won't know until we hear about court.
And we've made friends! There is a French couple and an Italian couple adopting from the same orphanage we are. They are all staying in the same hotel and we are going to ride the bus with them on Tuesday. We've had some fun conversations with them, especially the French couple. I speak about as much French as the wife speaks English, so we have some really fun conversations, and we're both translating for our husbands. And of course, the Italian couple speaks Italian, French, German, AND English! :) Both couples are adopting "older" boys which I am so excited about. Most people don't want older kids and they usually don't want boys, so this is great for those kids. And both of the boys look really sweet.
Tomorrow will most likely be a couple of trips to Amstor if it's not too cold--it's supposed to be super cold here for the next few days!
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