Day #20

Seems like life here has kinda got into a routine and not a lot of exciting things to report anymore!
Yesterday Had our normal two visits with Kody and he was extra happy and sweet both times:) We invited our Georgia friends over for evening. We are both on the same schedule with visiting hours at orphanage, but they have about a 20 minute bus ride back so gave me a few minutes to come home and stir up some choc. chip m&m cookies (I did find a very small, like 1/2c. of choc. chips in store for $4!) , and some chicken salad made from my last can of chicken from home:( won't someone please email me some more?:) and I had found some red leaf lettuce to put in them. I had picked up some croissant rolls from the pizza restaurant down the street so they made quite a yummy little sandwich if I may say so myself! Called in Geiger's church service and then had snacks plus didn't think we could have Sunday eve snacks without popcorn and pop so added that to the menu yet. Was glad they had come and spent the evening, is good to talk to others in English and broaden our horizons a little!
Today we had a beautiful day! Suppose to be in the 70's tomorrow!! But just that fast gonna get cold, like in the 30's by the end of the week, brrrr.
Took Kody outside on both visits again. I'm quite convinced Kody is truly recognizing us now. He smiles great big as soon as he sees us and shows other signs that he views us as more than just another stranger. Does a mother's heart good! :) He shows his emotions with his feet, when he gets excited or sad he always starts kicking violently HA They always send him out with a paci, but it is so old and gross and dirty that I bought him a new one and tried giving it to him today and he was NOT impressed! Never could get him to take it:( If he doesn't have his paci he will suck his thumb(s) and with our experience with Peyton we are quite determined not to let him get attached to his thumb! I bought a little bigger one today and it's latex like the one he has so we will see if we have any luck with that tomorrow.
After our visit this eve. we took the bus down to a restaurant we had spotted last week. OK so it was in the mall that has my grocery store in it, but this was Bill's idea so I didn't have a choice but to go along and then when we were in the same building just couldn't resist to go down and get a few luxuries, like colby jack cheese:) The restaurant was half Asian and half Italian. Bill had a some sort of beef ribs in a sweet n sour/soy sauce and little rice balls deep fat fried. The rice balls were very good and he said the meat was also. I got Pey lasagna, which was so-so and a skillet dish for me off the Italian menu with chicken, potatoes, tomatoes and black olives and then it had a mayo dipping sauce. I thought it was some of the better food I have had at a restaurant here!
Ran into  Allen & Kristi at the mall, but they were eating at the most Americanized restaurant there:) They don't like to be very adventurous HA BTW if you want to see the little girl they are adopting go to Reece's Rainbow and type in Cox family in the search box and it tells their story.
Talking about looking up children.. I found this the other day on precious.org I think you have to log in to read his description. One of the nannies was out pushing him this afternoon and I stopped and talked to him for a second. It really makes you have mixed feelings about the whole deal! In one way I feel like we took away his chance at a family by turning him down, but I keep thinking surely the right family will still adopt him!!

Day #18

Here are some questions that have been asked so will answer on here in case anyone else is wondering...

1. What is your apartment like? Hate to answer that one:( Because of all the refugees that have moved here there are no apartments available for rent so we only have this one through connections. The man is security/maintenance at the orphanage and the lady is one of the cooks. The apartment complex is next building to orphanage so is very nice that we don't have to take public transportation every day! This couple moved in with her folks so we could rent this apartment so you can imagine about what it is like to live in someone else 'house' with all of there stuff, and believe me they have 'stuff'! They love stuffed animals, every shelf and nook and cranny has a stuff animal and all the big ones have on a pair of sunglasses! The apartment is not new and cleaning is not her specialty and you can fill in the gaps ;-) I did find some cameo like cleaner and will say after that afternoon in the kitchen the silverware has turned from golden back to silver and there seems to be a lot more shine around:)  You walk in the front and there is a narrow hall across the front. One the one end is a very small bedroom with a hide-a-bed and a computer desk, and of course all the stuffed animals. In the middle is the living room with 2 hide-a-beds, coffee table and chair, and of course all the stuffed animals. On the far left end is the 'bath'room with a small washer, and big porcelain tub and NO stuffed animals. Next in its own room is the toilet, and we can flush the tp!! Biggest plus of this apartment :) No room for any stuffed animals in this room. Then on the same side, in the back is the kitchen. Along the one wall is the very small, one basin sink, gas stove, small counterspace and then the fridge. The back wall is 2 windows. Along the other wall is a very small table with a bench along it. Bill says it is around 800 sq ft. which is hard for me to believe, but I guess it seems smaller because it is a whole bunch of little rooms and no open space. 
2. Do you have a washer and dryer? Yes we have a washer, very small, but it does wash good and since I have found some better detergent the clothes even come out smelling clean now:) Dryer? Yes. Looks a little different than what I'm used to, but it does dry clothes. It is metal and on a stand and has about 8 strands across it to hang clothes over:) We were in a large appliance store looking around and they had rows and rows of washers, but not the first dryer! Not sure they exist in this country and don't know why they don't?
3. What does the orphanage look like? It is a 2 story building and is very hard to explain the inside. It is quite cheery, but very sterile and institutional at the same time! Each room is painted a bright cheery color and they have things sitting/hanging around, but yet you almost feel like you are in a funeral home when you are there. You can here babies crying and children talking on the top floor behind closed doors, but downstairs there are always people coming and going in there white labcoats, with serious looks on there faces and walking with a mission! It's SO soviet there! When we get there we go to the  office and tell the secretary/receptionist? we are there and then she goes and tells one of the nannies and then they go and do I don't know what all to Kody before finally bringing him down.  There are always ladies walking back and forth and upstairs carrying big pots of food. What would be wrong with putting ALL the food on a cart and one lady pushing it to wear it goes and it only taking ONE trip?? One can just imagine all kinds of ways to make life a little easier and involving far fewer people and less time, but guess that's just there way!
4. What kind of food can you get in restaurants? Lots of pasta type food, like vereniki. Pizza and sushi would be equivalent to hamburgers at home. One food we have found that we like is a sausage dog. They take a hotdog bun and grill it in a george foreman type griddle and then open it up and squirt mayo/ketchup inside and stuff a sausage in it. Very good. Love what it does to the bun...crunchy on the outside, soft inside plus leaves those cool grill marks on it:) Try it! Makes it so easy to eat also. The pizza restaurant we have close here is OK, but it just has that 'off' taste and they always load the top with some green herb, looks like clover, never tasted it before, but sure doesn't improve the pizza any! 
5. How is the paperwork coming? We are waiting on a paper from the SDA and it was turned in several days ago. If we can get it next week, which our team feels like it is quite likely then we will have court on Oct. 2nd or 3rd. If we don't we have to apply for a different judge, because the one we were assigned goes on vacation for a month on the 4th so that will delay us 1-11/2 weeks. After court we have a 10 day appeal period. The first business day after that we can get Kody from orphanage! :))) It takes around a week here in region to get birth certificate and another document I can't remember right now and then we go back to Kiev and get visa and passport which takes another week and then Lord willing we will be ready to head for Alabama!!! (Home is looking better and better!) :) That puts us at end of October first of November. Bill is still kicking around coming home over the 10 day appeal period, but think Pey and I will stay if he decides he needs to.
6. Will we get to see Tanya (our host girl) while we are her? We are planning on it! Probably will go out to her orphanage when we are back in Kiev for that week. 
7. What really is wrong with Kody and how serious is his heart condition? His original diagnosis was... hole in the heart, hip displasia, gross motor delay and HIV. His hole has closed on it's own and should require nothing more. We will of course get him checked out when we get home to make sure, but it is quite common for it to close on it's own so we are not doubting it at this point. Hip displasia wasn't mentioned when we had his detailed, updated report translated at orphanage and we had read up on it and when we watched the Dr. give him his exam we couldn't detect any of the signs or symptoms of it so thinking that was a diagnosis they stuck on his chart. Gross motor delay? This was diagnosed at one month old so not exactly sure what you would look for to be able to diagnosis this?! :) We can def tell he has the usual signs of orphanage delay though. His head is very flat in the back and all his hair rubbed off, telling us he has spent way more time laying on his back than I care to even think about. He is very week in his legs, will hardly stand up on his own when we hold his hands, but it is already amazing the diff we have seen just this week! He is the very happiest if you hold him up and let him jump! I've already been looking for a jolly jumper, but haven't found one yet. The first day he could hardly push with his legs and now today he stood for awhile on his own and is getting alot more resistance when he kicks against you. I'm sad to say that I could count on one hand the times he has been held up and able to 'use' his legs! :( You just can't let yet your mind go down those avenues and especially when it's your child! I don't get the feeling that they are mistreated, they just don't have the one on one and extra love and attention that they so badly need!! HIV has been confirmed twice that it is negative. Only positive antibodies just like daddy(Bill) :) Which makes me think of the Ukrainian lady that was wanting to adopt him... Our facilitator said they day she came in to visit him she didn't want to hold him and finally took him and held him way away from her and quick put him in the stroller and Irina was sure it was because she thought he had HIV, because she only had received the original file and not the detailed, updated one at the orphanage. Ukrainians supposedly believe HIV is very contagious and can be caught by contact! Which also reminds me that I never said that we only found out later how much of a miracle and answer to prayer Kody really was! This lady called as soon as the office opened Monday and told them she had decided she wanted to adopt him!! The inspector knew this ladies boss and so she called her and asked her about this lady, because she seemed so strange to everyone and I guess her boss was quite alarmed that she was trying to adopt saying that she was not in a good stage in life to be adopting. The boss said she wanted to talk to her about it. The lady calls back at noon and said she was having second thoughts and needed more time to think about it, and this my dear friends is where our prayers and yours were undoubtedly answered, she called back at three and said she had changed her mind and she didn't want to adopt him after all!!!! We had no idea this was all going on as we worried and prayed and waited that LOOOOONG Monday! 
It seems like there were a few more questions some of you have asked, but can't remember them now. Ask again and I'll answer them:)
P.S. Was hungry for some of those cinnamon raisin biscuits kind of like you can get at Hardees this morning for breakfast, but couldn't seem to find a recipe that looked right. Then tonight made chili and you can't have chili without cinnamon rolls can you?:) Well was a little hard to find a recipe without baking powder or crisco , but finally did and wow were they ever good! Sure didn't taste like any cinnamon roll I've ever had, but... they did taste exactly like the biscuits I was hungry for for breakfast!! :) Blessing in disguise HA
How brave can I be with my cooking? We met up with the Georgia couple down at the market this eve. and then went and hung out at there apartment for awhile so was thinking about inviting them over here for dinner tomorrow, but.... you just never know what might come out of the oven!! :) I wanted to have a good ole Sunday dinner so bought a pork roast today, but will it taste good?, and I still haven't figured this gas oven out, how long shall I bake it and the last 11/2 hours we will be gone so can't check it , and I don't have much to season it with! Have some potatoes I can do something with and some apples for some fried apples and some of that good french bread (and we have some of that GOOD tasting butter to go on it! :) and what could I make for dessert? Any ideas?? We won't get back from our visit till 1 so it needs to be something I can make ahead..  Let me know and I'll pick from the best sounding suggestion in the morning! ;-) Which BTW it IS almost morning here... off to bed I go!

Day #17

Happy's of the day...

1. Kody smiled when he saw us this morning! We aren't accepting the possibility that it was coincidence :)

2. Bill surprised me with a huge, beautiful bouquet of a dozen red roses! He said he thought all good husbands got there wife flowers when they had a baby :)

3. It was a gorgeous day again!

4. All 3 meals were edible today!

5. Peyton was happy and almost his old, carefree self all day!

6. Went to my favorite new supermarket again!

7. Found butter that tasted like REAL butter and not stale, used grease!

8. We were able to take Kody outside and he LOVED it! Ladies, you aren't dressing your babies warm enough, they had Kody in FIVE layers of clothes, plus his snow suit and hat! And remember I said it was a nice day, like wouldn't need a jacket nice! :)

9. They fixed our internet last night!

10. Got to talk to the twin boys family last night that live next floor down from us. They are 14 months and so cute and sweet!

Day #16

Got around fairly early this morning and took the bus down to a large supermarket we have been wanting to go to since we came. It's several miles so decided to save our legs, plus didn't like the lack of warmth outside this morning either:( We were in for quite a shock when we got there!! It is a huge building with a whole bunch of stores inside with one of them being this supermarket. And it was absolutely wonderful!! It was the closest thing to a Wal-mart that I think Ukraine has to offer:) We just walked around in a daze... It was clean, bright, new looking and even smelled like an American store! We were there to early for the 'mall' stores to be open, but they looked like they would be fun to shop in as well. It was getting late on us so went by there deli and got a rotisserie chicken and potato wedges for our dinner. The 208 bus stops right across the road from the supermarket and then just down the road from our apartment so is good connections and only cost 4 UAH per person (aprox 13 UAH= $1) Me thinks I will be a loyal customer of that little gem! :)
Quick ate our dinner and then headed to see Kody. He was in a chipper mood this morning:) They came and got him early for some reason and beings our Russian would quickly get us in a bind we didn't ask any questions as to why.
Just relaxed at apartment this afternoon then back to orphanage at 4. Went around by way of pharmacy and picked up some more little blue shoe covers that we are required to wear at orphanage. There has been a Ukrainian couple on the same visiting schedule as us, and yes usually in the same room which makes it kinda awkward. So this afternoon I tried to talk to them, they are adopting a 21/2 month old girl.
We usually take Kody to the big area rug in the middle and let him lay on his tummy (getting in that tummy time trying to strengthen core muscles:) Now yesterday the nurse came in and scolded us and told us we have to stay sitting on the chairs or standing up, because it is way to cold to have him on the floor ARRRG He is so bundled up and wet with sweat the poor child would love to have a little cool air for once! So now we kind of run out of things to do to try and entertain a 6 month old for 3 hours a day with nothing to do but hold him and then we have this other little 'problem' which demands quite a bit of attention! :) He is doing pretty good with it all and loves Kody to pieces and is already very protective of him, but he is def having some adjustments :(
One of the dear missionaries from here sent me some recipes to try and tips of what to look for when buying groceries so made her recipe of meatloaf tonight along with baked potatoes, cucumbers with my homeade ranch that taste much more like cucumber dressing than it did ranch, and some toasted garlic bread with some SOFT, fresh french bread I found at supermarket this morning. Wow that was quite the feast for us Ukrainians:) Full course meal let me tell you!
We have been having fits with internet last couple days, off one hour and on the next, but never sure for how long so not sure I will get this to send tonight or not.

Day #15

Not a lot to report on today. Went to bed late last night so slept in this morning since we didn't have anything on the agenda till 11:30. Made an early lunch of Mexican corn chowder and bread since it was winter weather today! Was such a nasty day:( It was a typical Alabama winter day.. cold, rainy and breezy! The soup turned out fairly good even though it was lacking quite a few ingredients that would have made it better:)
Found out Kody has different visiting hours since he is in the youngest group. 11:30-1 and again from 4:30-6. He was in good mood again this morning and wasn't long and he wanted to just cuddle in and go to sleep:) Would so love to know what all goes through his little mind, he has so many expressions go over his face!
Bill ordered sweet n sour chicken for supper so we decided to brave the weather and go get the ingredients. We got chilled to the bone and quite wet, but what else did we have to do this afternoon than change clothes and warm up?:) The other day we found an upscale grocery store (at least for here HA) right behind the one we had been going to. It has most of the lights burning and seems so bright and clean! Its prices are more expensive, but it has a lot more variety than we have found anywhere else. Found enough stuff that I thought it would work for the sweet n sour chicken. Found a head of what looked like romaine lettuce, but the price should have caused red flags.. $.30 for the head:) Found some dill and parsley so attempted to make some homeade ranch and have a lettuce salad. Still don't know what the 'lettuce' was, it tasted just like cauliflower! and the ranch well.. it wasn't bad tasting, but sure didn't taste like ranch either. I would be discouraged with cooking, but it still tastes better than anything we can get in the restaurants around here, so.... I try to be a sport and accept that it just won't be delicious! I did finally find a sort of measure cup today so that will help some.
Of course went to evening visit at 4:30. They told us he had a medical examination and wouldn't be back for 10 minutes. She said not to worry he wasn't sick just examination. Wouldn't think they would bother with him being so close to adopted. 10 minutes ended up being quite a bit longer, but they finally brought him in. He was super happy and cooed and laughed for awhile and then all of a sudden he got fussy and wan't himself most of the rest of the time. Not sure if he got shots at the Dr. or what his problem was. Feels like our time is so limited with him I want him to always be in a good mood! :) Hoping for our happy little boy back tomorrow.

Another Day in Ukraine

This morning Irina (our facilitator) got here on the morning train at 6 and hung out at the apartment till the day officially starts at 9. Its chilly, breezy, cloudy and raining off and on all day.  Then we all went to the orphanage and signed some papers then on to the notary.  After that was done we all rode along and waited in the car while Irina filed papers for court.  Not sure yet what will happen with that.  The judge we were assigned goes on vacation October 3 for a month and our projected court date is October 14.  Irina just called all excited and something or other got done quicker than expected so now she thinks maybe she can get everything done and have court by October 2.  They are working the connections so we will see what comes of that.  I don't believe these people use bribery to make things happen but they do seem to have a limitless network of connections.  We got back to the orphanage at 12:30 (visiting hours 11:30-1 and 4-6 approximately) so we got to spend a few minutes with Kody.  Back to the apartment for a few hours and a bite of lunch and we were back at the orphanage at 4.  Kody seems to be a little nervous of us and wasn't near so animated as when the orphanage director had him.  I'm sure we are very strange all the way down to the way we talk and smell.  Steph held him most of the time and at the end he fell asleep in her arms.  She thought that was pretty special.  We ran down the the local grocery store and got some ingredients for supper.  Steph is making french bread (brave lady, eh?) and me and PJ are just vegetating.  If you want to see where we are here look up

Vasylevs'koho Blvd, 27

Kryvyi Rih

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

on google maps.

Till later

Bill

Praise God!!!!!!

After waiting all day we FINALLY got the call we have been waiting on..... The lady decided not to take the baby!!!!!!!!! 
The director was in court, but as soon as she got out we could meet her and see baby again. She called about 45 minutes and we walked over to orphanage and met with inspector, translator and Dr. translated all of his medical, social records and then went back to a room and Dr. checked him out, the whole time he lay there grinning and cooing at us trying to see around the Dr. :)
Went back to first room and they asked us what we thought and if we thought we could give an answer by tomorrow? We said we would like to give our answer right now! WE WANTED HIM!!!
They all congratulated us and told us they were very happy we were taking him and thought he was meant for our family. We agreed! :)
So for some of the specifics..
His Ukrainian name is Eugene and we are re-naming him Kody Eugene. He was born March 20, 2014 so is 6 months and 2 days old. He has a round face, brown eyes, just a little bit of  med-dark brown hair. Is a very happy baby. He has stolen our hearts already!! :)
He was to the heart specialist on the 12th and his hole in his heart has closed on its own, and our other concern was possible HIV and he has since had two tests that have both come back negative, so good on that one too!
We have visiting hours from 10-12 and then again from 4-6 every day so should get to know him pretty good here shortly:)
As far as our time frame here, we will know more tomorrow when our facilitator gets here from Kiev. It usually takes 2 weeks to get a court date, but Irena did say this is one of the fastest regions so may be a little sooner than that. We are planning on coming home over the 10 day appeal period after court.
We are so very thankful to God for what he has done and feel like we watched a miracle happen!!
I will always remember the sacred moment after we got the news that the three of us knelt in our humble abode in Ukraine, with tears of thankfulness streaming down our faces, thanking the Lord for blessings more than we deserve!!!

Anxiously waiting for tomorrow

Our prayer as we close this day is that if this is the Lord's will that he will intervene and make it happen and if not that we will be able to accept his plan and in the meantime we can have calmness of heart resting in the thought that he has it all under control!
Praying we can sleep tonight and that we will here something sooner rather than later tomorrow!!!!
Thanks to each of you that have prayed on our behalf...

Random Ramblings

This will be a very random collection of things I want to jot down for my own memory:)

Pey woke up in the night wanting a drink, so went to fridge and asked him want he wanted.. pop ( a 2 liter of pop is only .75$ here although the selection only consists of Pepsi, Fanta- orange, Sprite and the same 3 in the store brand) juice, milk or water? He just started crying and said Mama it just all tastes so funny I don't want any of those things! BTW he chose water if that gives you any hint of how "funny" it does taste :) When we get back to America will we remember just how strange everything tasted, smelled and was here??? :-) :-(
The first thing Pey said this morning when he woke up was.. ONE MORE DAY, ONLY ONE MORE DAY MAMA!!! I must have looked a little blank because he said You know mama only one more day till we know if we can get my little brother! :) Ahh yes very much realize it's only one more day, but guess I didn't realize he was counting too! HA
After finding a few more things yesterday at the market I made baked oatmeal for breakfast this morning and dear friends it actually turned out and was GOOD!!! I was so impressed if you looked close after my first bite you may have seen tears! :) It was a bit of a gamble because I wasn't completely sure the baking powder wasn't cornstarch and haven't been able to find any vanilla and of course there are no measuring cups or spoons here so had to try and put equivalent amounts in according to recipe using the same coffee cup. And then baked it in a big bowl since didn't find a 'greased 8x8 glass pan' in the cupboard here:) and THEN the thermometer on the gas stove doesn't work and the temps are all wore off the knob, so the baking temp and time was more guessing!! :) do you see why the simple act of making baked oatmeal and it actually turning out produced great satisfaction?? :)
After being out and about here I'm VERY thankful our apartment has the luxury of being able to flush the toilet paper! You have to pay for most toilets here and then you have to put your nasty gross toilet paper in the basket beside the toilet... want any more details? Probably wouldn't have had to write that one down for me to remember LOL
The children here are very well behaved and small children seem very secure and content, it is striking difference from home. You never here mothers hollering at their kids and the children all play very nicely with each other when we are at park, playground etc. You can tell the children are very much loved here and don't get the feeling that they are nuisance and interfering with the parents life like you do at home sometimes!
There are lots of  tables sitting around outside and often there will be older men sitting around playing chess, checkers, cards, etc. I'm sure the beautiful weather has more people outside, but it seems to be lots of people out and about at all times of the day.
The women, of course do the high heels here. Still amazes me even in this region of dirt walks, and big cracks in the sidewalks they do have they continue to speed along in those spikes!
Children dress up to go to school! It is not uncommon to see the boys walking to school in the morning with suits and black or navy dress shoes. The girls would wear tights or hose and dress shoes and usually skirt/blouse or something similarly dressy.
You very seldom see 'strange' looking people... the men/boys all have decent haircuts and dress very 'normal' and the women would do their hair and wear makeup, but not any of the wild stuff to make you stand out, no tatoos that sort of thing. Of course very few overweight people. Not sure if its culture, lack of money or just what all contributes?
It is VERY dirty here!!! lots and lots of dirt everywhere and the little bit of grass there is, is not mowed. Have found that a lot of the buildings are nicer inside than out, everything looks very old and dilapidated  on the outside, but some of them have been updated inside.
We met a family from Savannah, GA that is adopting from this region. We went out for supper with them the other night and I think they are more country bumpkins than we are even! :)) IF he has been out of his county think it would be safe to say he's never been out of Georgia, so they have been having quite some shocks trying to adjust!! :) They have 4 bio girls with the middle having Downs and now they are here adopting a 10 year old Downs plus cerebral palsy girl. She is in a wheelchair and doesn't even talk! She is a real cutie and seems to be a sweetheart, but me thinks they are some brave parents! And they have NOT had a smooth adoption either! Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, but they have great attitude and smiling their way through it :) Hoping to be with them again soon.
My turn for the shower so will have to add more later as I think of them...

Day #11

Had a very interesting day, but when I try to think what to write it's hard. So much of the experience is being here to see it, smell it, and witness it all, so after I write a post describing something it seems so blah and nondescript when in reality it is quite amazing!! :)
My eyes are drooping so going to just copy and paste an email to a friend of what we did today..

As you know we are just waiting on adoption related activities so we made our own fun today.. took the metro to the city center. We had to walk about a mile to the closest metro station and then the metro is an experience all in its self! Nothing like you've ever seen, I honestly had to wonder if it would hold up till our destination, but it actually did and even kept going :) Didn't know what station to get off at as we can't seem to find a metro map so we just had to wing it! Got off at the station where the most people seemed to be getting off and it seemed just a touch nicer than previous stations and low and behold it actually was where we wanted to be! :) We were hoping to find something to DO, but never did so just ended up walking around exploring stores, stopping at parks, getting icecream at McDonalds etc. It is so much fun to watch Pey interact with the children here, they talk to him in Ukrainian and he talks to them in English and  they all get along just fine! :) Wish it was that easy for us!! We stopped at a little kiosk for dinner and had a burrito type thing... they start with a big rectangle burrito then put sour cream, ketchup, shredded cabbage, shredded cooked carrots, thinly sliced cucumbers and tomatoes and then the meat that is quite good. They have a huge chunk of sliced meat on a pole that is slowly turning with a fire on the one side and then he gets a big knife and shaves it off, chops it up a little and puts that in yet and folds it all up and grills it a little on a griddle. We saw these in Moscow and never got one and now we had a kiosk close to our apartment in Kiev that we tried several times to get from and he either was out or the meat wasn't ready so we were glad to finally get to try it! The man was very nice and knew a little English, he was from Persia and he said he remembers how it felt when he came here and didn't know the language! :) 

Came back home and stopped at a supermarket a ways from the house that was quite a bit bigger than our local one here. Found some spices and a few things I have been looking for to make cooking a little more tasty here :) It is so disappointing to cook and nothing taste good:( It just all has an off flavor or funny texture to it. I made a sorta stir fry meat and ate it over rice tonight for  supper and even the rice tasted funny!! How can rice possibly not taste like plain ole rice?! :) It is just amazing to buy groceries here!!! They have just the basics of everything with only one brand of most things and only one size! I'm just thinking of our isle at Wal'mart that has the flour, sugar, spices on it... well here that isle is only about 12 feet long because it only has one brand/size of flour, one brand/size of sugar, 3 different kinds of spices plus salt, soda, and corn starch, and thats IT! Can't seem to find pepper or even basic spices like garlic salt etc. You don't realize how much our stores have until you see one of these! 

Well better shut this off and get my tired little boy ready for bed! He put quite a few miles on his little legs today and with no nap is showing signs of a great need of a bed, or actually a couch since this apartment doesn't have any 'bed'. 3 couches and 2 chairs which all pull out into 'beds' :) 

Making memories yes we are!! :)))

Goodnight from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine!

Day #10

FINALLY have internet again!!!! Wow it's amazing how disconnected you can feel without technology!:) 2 days is a long time to be without when you are an ocean away from civilization HA

See if I can back up to were I left off.
Wednesday... last I wrote Serge was trying to get us an appointment hopefully by Monday, actually he managed to get quite a bit more than that done in quite a bit less time!! :) He had a couple weeks of documents and appointments completed in ONE day!!! Wednesday night found us back on the train:( Definitely not my preferred mode of transportation! Let me back up just a little, Serge did get everything done very quickly, but we did have one very large problem! A Ukrainian family had asked for permission to see this child the same day we did and of course they have first rights over an international family so we were in limbo as what to do. Do we go back to region and wait on this family to decide or do we try and go for another referral or what? The problem is that this is a young child and they found out there is a line of Ukrainian families waiting to see him wanting to adopt him, so that is why if we wanted a chance at him we needed to be in region and ready to jump as soon as this family declined IF and WHEN they did! We felt like this was the child we should pursue so the team got all and by all I mean every paper necessary to adopt this boy and we have everything signed and notarized already so our ducks are def in a row:) Our team has very good relationships with the orphanage director, inspector, judges etc. in this region and they are all for international adoption over domestic, because obviously they get money and also most domestic adoptions are done for the money and thus they think the children get better families if they are adopted internationally. So the inspector has told the our team that if this family says no she will accept us before the official 10 day allowed time is up and thus giving the next Ukrainian family rights to have a chance at him. Not sure if that makes sense or not, but hard to explain without going into specific minute details.
So now for were we are now... We are back in the same region, same apartment waiting on this family, ( we now found out she is a single lady) to decide if she wants this boy or not. Here is a little funny, our facilitator, Irena wanted to be at orphanage when this lady came to visit boy so she could watch and see if she could get any clues how interested she was and beings she is good friends with director and staff she went and sat over there till the lady came and then they gave her a white coat and she pretended to be the nanny!!!! :) so she was in the room the whole time and was able to observe! She said she is a very strange lady and she showed absolutely no emotion the whole time and she only took the baby and put it in the stroller, never holding him. She had permission to visit until 3, but Irena called at 11 and said she had already left. She told inspector she would go home and think about it and consult with her mother and then let her know Friday if she would take him or not.
So we sat at apartment all morning on pins and needles this morning waiting to hear something and finally at 3 this afternoon they called and said the lady says that her mother advised her not to take him, but she wanted to consult with a Dr. before making her decision and she would let inspector know on Monday. We are not sure what she will consult with Dr. about because she did not ask for any medical records. So we have made the decision to stay in region until Monday and see what she says. If we would go back to Kiev and try for another referral we wouldn't be able to do anything over the weekend anyway so we will really only be out Monday if this doesn't work out. We are still hopeful that she will say no because this little guy has a heart problem and Ukrainians are very scared of any diagnosis of the heart because heart surgery is a very big deal here! Serge was telling us that any heart operation is done in at least 3 procedures and then they don't have a very good success rate, so if her mother is advising her not to accept and she knows he has a heart problem hopefully she will consider it too risky!! We have such mixed emotions over it all, we feel a calm about inside, but on the outside emotions and stress are raging!!! The unknown is way harder to deal with than if we just knew what the answer would be!
In the meantime we continue to survive on this huge adventure!! :) I wish I could somehow portray this place and culture and people to you, but I'm quite certain you couldn't get a remotely close idea of how it really is! :)
The eating has been the biggest adventure.. we have a grocery store just down the street er dirt path from our apartment that has the basics and when I say basics you must understand that the large supermarkets have less variety and selection than most small grocery stores you have been in! What I find so interesting is the duplicates they have here next door to the grocery is a meat store all they sell is fresh meat and right beside that is another one that looks exactly the same with just a different name! They also have many, many people set up along the path selling there wares, most of the ones here by our apartment would be selling fruits and vegetables and then a few have some random other things. It's not uncommon to have 3 or 4 in a row selling the same thing for the same price. Had a lady selling fresh, actually that would not be the correct term, raw would be more accurate:) meats today. Had her big knife out and would cut you off a slab of whatever you wanted. I just can't imagine how dirty it would be from all this dirt around here and then just to sit out in the open air all day with no ac??!! :/ But yet every child under 3 you see is bundled up to the nines with stocking cap and all already! Guess you can't be careful in every area eh? :) They also have lots of other separate food stores like one that sells all different kinds of fish, a bread store, a dairy store that sells everything dairy, BTW I got sour cream on the first try and it was GOOD!! Haven't had such good luck with milk, but we have finally found the right one now. They have drinkable yogurt in milk bottles, all different kinds of buttermilk in milk jugs plus other stuff that we don't know what is yet because we found the milk know so don't have to keep experimenting HA We have a couple translation apps on our phone, but they all use internet so doesn't do us much good in the store!
Today for dinner we had baked leg quarters, baked potatoes (with our good sour cream:), and some cucumbers and tomatoes from the little stand outside. It was the first meal that when I got done was actually full and had enjoyed! I just love good food way too much and it has been hard on me to have such questionable food all the time:( Pey has really been having a time too, of course he doesn't realize whats going on, but he will be so hungry and eat a few bites and say he is full and I know it's because it doesn't taste good to him. He complains of being hungry almost every day here and he never ever did at home! My dear very unpicky husband has fared the best with the food, he can manage to eat about everything, strange flavors and all and proclaim it all good! :)

People... the people here are for the most part friendly, although very few know english unlike Kiev were most of the younger ones would know at least the basic greetings etc.   There definitely is not the money here like in Kiev. You can tell it in vehicles and clothes etc. Irena told us that there have been a lot of people move here from the East since the unrest.

Weather... The mornings and evenings are cool enough that you need a jacket and then the afternoons warm up to just short sleeves. Has been clear and sunny every day since we have been here.

Could write lots more about it all, but this is getting lengthy so will quit for this time.

Thanks SOOO MUCH to each of you that have taken the time to write a comment or written an email, it means more than you will ever know! And the prayers... we have felt them very much and continue to need them!!! It has been a very tough week, but we are hoping and praying that next week will be more positive! Somedays it is hard to keep the morale up when we have no idea how the adoption will go from here, but we are hanging in there and trusting it all to the one who sees it all and gives us strength to keep on keeping on!

Heartbreak and Hope!

Ok so I have been absent, silent, missing, gone, and not writing, but in reality we are very much here, in action, writing and signing just not blogs! :)
A lot has happened in the last couple days and I will try and write a few of the details...
I didn't go back and read last post so not sure where I even left off, but we got to Kryvyi Rih Sunday morning and Monday morning we walked across the path to the orphanage and went to our first visit with Max. Sat down with director first and she went over his file with us explaining his SNs and medical history and then we went to meet him. Serge had told us he was a big boy, but we weren't prepared for quite that big! He is huge!!! Was just in a small room for about 30 minutes with him and felt very sterile and uncomfortable. We just sat on the little toddler bed and his caretaker and our facilitator were in the room the whole time:( We left with kind of a bad feeling about it all and thought a lot of it was nerves and the awkward situation. We talked about it some, but think we were both hoping the other wasn't as uneasy about it as we were. Went back for the afternoon visit and were able to have him in a big playroom and had brought some toys this time and had a more relaxing atmosphere. We interacted with him more and if you have adopted it is hard to describe all the emotions and feelings you go through on those first visits... your mind goes 100mph trying to assess this child and criticize every move they make wondering if it means something etc. the whole time trying to sort your feelings with it all. We left that visit with more questions and still an uneasy feeling about it. We took pictures and videos and sent that along with all the medical info we had to our IA dr. at UAB and then waited for her to get back with us. We kept talking about it and we couldn't pinpoint an exact medical condition or anything that would make us say no, but it was just a feeling that this was not our child. Our facilitator encouraged us to get an mri of the head as that is what our international adoption dr. had wanted. We scheduled an appointment with Max's regular dr. so he could get a referral for a mri. We called and talked to our agency at home and told her how we were feeling and our concerns and she said it was ultimately our decision but she felt like we were uncomfortable with this child and she would advise to just decline right now and not make the child go through an mri etc.  We were very happy that she supported  us and understood!!! She said she was going to call Serge and tell him that we were considering declining this referral to give him a heads up and Terri thought we should make our decision by evening. Well 10 minutes after hanging up with Terri, Serge calls US and you just have to know Serge and his ways, but he said if we were thinking about saying no that we needed to cancel the Dr. appointments right now and move on! And when you deal with Serge 10 minutes ago is not soon enough!!! :) So after many tears, and prayers and heartache it all ended within a 5 minute phone call!! Turning down a referral has more emotional trauma involved than you can imagine... it is not a quick or easy thing to do!!
So now we wait to hear from Serge on what to do next.. we knew we would be going back to Kiev to start the process over, but didn't know when. We walked down to the market to get some fresh air and relax our minds a little. Serge suddenly calls and says he has another child for us at the same orphanage and we need to be there NOW! He says the director will take us to the room where his group is and point out which one he is and we can LOOK ONLY for five minutes before we come back to Kiev! We run back to the orphanage and meet an out of breath facilitator who has LEFT a family in court to meet us there! She later told us Serge had called her 20 times while she was in court and she finally answered and told him she could not go now she was in the court room and Serge told her you must go NOW! Well you know who won:) So we got to get a little peek at him and the caretaker actually brought him over to us and he just grinned and grinned and loved Peyton right away and just laughed at him! I say this because Max didn't have any interest in Pey and that was hard on me! Now don't any of you go and report us or the team here!! :) This was very much against all rules and strictly forbidden thing for us to do!!! Connections ;-)
Oh yes we need to pack our bags and get on the overnight train yet tonight for Kiev!!! Don't think my blood pressure has come down from the sky since we left home! :)
Our facilitator had been planning on going back to Kiev already so she just came and hung out at our apartment while she got our train tickets. She said she was starved and wondered if we could go get pizza? Well yes we are starved too and would love to get pizza, but the time my friend, just not enough minutes in the hour! Yes we walked/ran down and scarfed some pizza, trotted back threw the rest of our clothes in the suitcase, lugged it all down and loaded in the van and off we go to the train!!! BIG plus they were totally sold out of 2nd class tickets so we had/got to get 1st class and my dear friend.... it was LUXURY!!! I mean I don't think there is a train in the good ole USA as old and rattly as this first class one, but.... compared to the other one it was delightful and oh yes it had a bathroom you could squeeze in with out rubbing all the walls AND running water AND toilet paper!!! :)))
Got back to Kiev at 5:45 and our driver brought us to our apartment which is oh so nice! :) Ok so I'm a wimp and like to have a FEW nice things, but that's just the way it is! I can survive quite fine in the not so modern lifestyle, but I go crazy and get all giddy when things improve a little! :) Had 2 hours to settle in a little and get freshened up and then went down to get some papers notarized and apply for our 2nd referral.
Now we are back at the apartment. Serge took all our papers and went to see if he could get us in to the SDA on Thursday or Monday instead of the normal week time frame you are suppose to wait. He sounded a little doubtful on the phone when he called just now, so if he's not sure then I'm not at all hopeful!
So we will be in Kiev at the shortest till Saturday/Sunday night and at the latest a week from Saturday/Sunday night, then we will go back to our same region of Kryvyi Rih and start all over.
That is barely skimming over the top with the details, but maybe will come back later and fill in.

If you need something specific to pray for, pray for Peyton. He is very sensitive when we get stressed and he gets to really be a mess! He has tears at the surface at all times and gets so tired of all the driving and sitting in all these places with nothing to do and having to be quiet etc. We are not sorry we brought him, but just remember him in your prayers that he can be strong!!  

Day #6

Made it to Kryvyi Rih!
Vitalia picked us up at 8:20 last night and got to the train station a little early so went across the street to the super market and got some food for the train since we didn't have time before we left. Oh boy how many details do you want about the train?:) It def wasn't a first class luxury liner, but it served the purpose. Since it was an overnight train you buy beds instead of seats and Vitalia advised us to buy 4 so we could have the whole room to ourselves and are we ever glad we did, would have been quite less than ideal to have another passenger with us! :) there were 4 bunks in a room with a small table under the window and a little walkway between the 2 bunks. It was a very old train and left so much to be desired. The bathroom was horrible:(( You could barely squeeze in it and then it was full of something all over the floor which I really didn't want to know what it was beings the faucet didn't work so knew it wasn't from that and I have always considered toilet paper a necessity, but not required on this train :) Pey managed to sleep 4-5 hours, but Bill and my quality of sleep we did get was rather questionable. Arrived on time and was greeted by the regional facilitator, Yurina and her husband. We sorta kinda got all our luggage in the little car, had to leave the seats tipped forward because they wouldn't latch back and had Pey on my lap and big suitcase between us in the back.. was thankful we weren't in for a 2 hour ride! :) Got to our apartment and decided the train was a good start to breaking us in! I knew we had it nice in Kiev and wasn't expecting it out here, but wasn't expecting to rough it quite this bad either!! Maybe the description will have to come another day and will just say that this spoiled American is used to a LOT more luxury and space!
One really neat thing is our apartment is backed up to the orphanage!! I heard children outside before when I was out and tried peaking through a crack in the wall, but couldn't see past all the bed sheets flapping in the sunshine! If I knew our little one was out there I might get more serious about scaling the wall! HA 8:30 tomorrow morning has been successful in taking forever to get here!!!
We took showers and went to find the grocery store and hopefully a restaurant for something to eat. The market is right close to our apartment, but no restaurant. Didn't find any meat that we were brave enough to try, and no vegetables so not sure what all we gonna feast on for the next few weeks! Did pass several vendors selling a few fruits and vegetables, bought a big bag of potatoes for $.50  so might be having a lot of potato dishes :)
Finally got all of our clothes unpacked and organized. Will be so nice to not scrounge through suitcases to get ready!
The weather continues to be wonderful! This morning getting off of train and at apartment it was quite cool, but now when we walked to the market it had warmed up and wouldn't have needed our jackets anymore.
Think we are going to catch a couple hours of our missed sleep from last night and then want to do a little something special for Sunday. Hard to believe it's really Sunday! I brought stuff along to have SS with Pey so will try and have our own little church service way over here :)
Just remembering a funny from Pey... Bill turns the water on in the shower this morning and hollers out that we don't have much pressure and Pey sighs while looking around the apartment and calmly says, 'we don't have many blessings and joy here do we mama?' :) Didn't have his big words quite right, but I knew what he meant:)
Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday!!
P.S. I haven't been getting all the e-mails:( I have replied to every one I get so if you have sent or no of someone that has and I didn't reply that means I didn't get it!

Day #5

Nothing adoption related to write about today, so for my memory will tell a few highlights of the day. We won't talk about the night or jet lag syptoms:( Did I forget what it was really like in Russia or does jet lag just have no mercy once you turn 30 or am I making things up or is Ukraine casting a spell on us or WHAT!
Did the usually lazing around the apartment  till about 10:00 this morning. First stop on our agenda was St. Andrews descent. St. Andrews church is I'm going to say one of the highest points in Kiev although I've never heard anyone say that. Nonetheless its clear at the top of a very high hill and then all the way down on both sides of the cobblestone street are vendors set up selling there wares. Comparable to Arbat street. Mostly would be souvenir type stuff. We happened upon a chocolate restaurant we were wanting to look up! It was really lunch time, but hey if your at a chocolate cafe with homemade chocolate who would ever be so ridiculous as to have to eat 'real' food first? :) Pey whimped out and got a strawberry milkshake, I ordered some kind of chocolate torte, and Bill had ? don't know what it was called but it was so ridiculously good there is no way to even describe it!! First off  don't forget the quality of chocolate here is quite superior to what you are used to, and then just imagine a coffee cup filled with melted chocolate that was extra thick, think thin pudding and then a huge dollop of whipped cream that is starting to melt on the bottom!! They served it with a spoon and every bite required your eyes to light up and a little sigh escape and a big MMMMM to escape as the delicacy oozed down your throat, no doubt 500 calories a bite! :) It will definitely be a priority to return as many times as we can squeeze in when we come back to Kiev!!!
Finished walking the street, buying a few souvenirs along the way and ended up at St. Andrews church, which BTW is right beside the SDA building. Took a look around inside and watched a baby being christened, with which he was very unimpressed with! Felt sorry for the little guy, crying his little heart out not having any idea what was going on!
Walked back down the descent, stopping at a neat little Italian restaurant for some 'real' food this time:) Bill ordered smoked salmon which came out in the form of grilled shrimp on skewers:) and Pey and I shared a very unique spaghetti dish. It was really thick noodles that had more the homemade taste and then thinly sliced ham and bacon pieces covered in a white cream sauce. Was very good, but just not what you think of when you think spaghetti! Did a few more miles of walking and some metro riding, which was nearly as full today! You could actually shift from one leg to the other if you wanted HA Had planned on going to a big 3 story place? it's called Dreamworld and sounds like it would be a childs paradise! Has about everything imaginable, the top story is a big waterpark and the rest is just fun fun fun :) Vitalia said it is two big buildings, but not sure if they are both children oriented or not. As the day wore on the feet and legs wore out!! Decided it would be best for the 4 year old in our midst and truth be told the 34 year old wasn't disappointed either:), if we would go back home and relax a little. We need to run down to the store and get some snacks to tide us through the night as I don't think there is any food available on the train. If time permits I would like to find a park around here or maybe scout out the big underground mall... definitely haven't run out of things to do or see yet so shouldn't be a problem filling a few hours this evening! :)
Next time I write we will be in our new apartment in our child's region!!! I am SOO excited to go to the orphanage Monday!! It's hard to know how to feel about this adoption with it feeling so...uncertain. What if we decide not to proceed with this child? Just so many unknows and what ifs at this point!! Will be so glad when all of that is behind us!!!

Day #4

Pey and I had a better night and Bill worse... Just hung out at the apartment this morning till about 10:30 then struck out for some fun :) Tried out the metro and first stop was a place for dinner that advertised vereniki. I ordered cabbage and Pey some potato and Bill got a meat platter that had several different kinds which sounded quite unappealing to me! Lamb, veal, rabbit etc. :( He didn't know what was what and said some were def better than others :) I thought the cabbage were delish and the potato were ok, just a little bland. From there headed to a big mall and did some window shopping as we quickly found out that's all our budget would allow! ;) Had arranged for Vitalia to pick us up there instead of apartment. He got stuck in traffic so gave us some time to watch people.. SOO interesting!! I think I mentioned before, but we have found the people quite friendly here. Most have a pleasant expression on their face and very much unlike Russia they will almost all look you in the eye, even when passing on escalator to metro etc. Speaking of metro... we were reminded again just how many people you can squeeze into one of those cars, WOW! The last stop we squished so many in we were completely packed like sardines and I don't mean just tight, I mean all sides were touching someone, but wait! next stop we had a few more people that needed on :) I had everything sucked in as far as it would go to lessen the poking and pressure of fellow passengers HA felt so exhilarating to step off that train!! :)
Vitalia took us back to SDA to pick up our official referral. Were quite a few families there and the ones we started talking to soon found out were adopting from the same region as us! They were a very nice couple and were from Montreal. Will be interesting to see if we are actually adopting from the same orphanage! We exchanged phone numbers and will probably be seeing more of them in the next few weeks. When the lady that issues the referrals finally arrived I wasn't overly surprised that we were the first ones called back ;-) About took my breath away when she opened our file and there was all of paperwork that we labored over for ? many months! The same papers that sat on my kitchen table and that I personally filled out we meet up with again in a little office in Kiev, Ukraine!! She filled out a paper and we signed and she handed over our dossier with our referral paper and out we go. Vitalia offered to take us around the city, but we opted to just come back to apartment. We relaxed for a little then went exploring again. Ate supper at a restaurant called The Burger. Vitalia had recommended it and said that a lot of Americans have told him its better burgers than they can get in the states. It was a very good burger, cooked to order with all the fixings and gigantic in size. Checked out the oldest farmers market in Kiev, but didn't buy anything as it was 2-3x more expensive than other places. Did some more walking and shopping and topped it all off with ice cream cone from McDonalds:) Also stopped at the little babushka that sits at the end of our street and bought some more raspberries. It's a big solo cup for $.75 and they are SOO yummy! My hubby who does not like raspberries declared that if all raspberries tasted like that he would like them:) She just won't be convinced that we can't understand her and continues to try to conversate and  get Peyton to talk to her! :)
Well we have some Melatonin in our systems and had a lot of exercise and fresh air and resisted all urges for naps today so hoping we will make great strides with this jet lag thing!!
Goodnight from Kiev! :)

Day #3

I'm just going to copy and paste my family email for this day so just overlook any info I already covered and the bad grammar etc. :)

Just got home from our SDA appointment!

Had quite an expected fitful night with the usual waking up at 2am hungry and raring to go :) Finally around 5-6 we all were in bed and slept till 9:30. Bill had just got back from running and Pey and I were still lounging around in our pj's when Vitalia calls and says Serge wants us their early and he will be here in 30 minutes to pick us up :-0 Had to really hurry since we are still living out of a suitcase and searching 10 minutes to find the iron which was in the bottom cupboard of the kitchen HA Was a little worried why Serge wanted us their early, but Vitalia said he never knows any personal information and all he knew was that Serge had said nothing was wrong. Got to the famous- infamous SDA building that looked very unimportant, with a little side entrance with the pink door:) Met Serge and then went across the street to a pizza place to talk. Since we hadn't had breakfast and was just going to walk down the street for some lunch when we were summoned to go, we were all hungry so ordered some pizza. Serge never did say why he wanted us there early, but he explained the procedure and that he had a 6month old baby boy picked out for us! He left us there then and went back to see if we could get in before our appointment, I will insert here that we have already found out this is a very respected man with the adoption officials and I think they jump when he says instead of the other way around! :) He soon calls and says we can come. We go up a couple flights of rickety stairs and enter a very nondescript room with not much in it but a desk in one corner and an L shaped couch in the other. We sit down and a lady soon brings out a file of the boy. Serge translated it for us explaining his diagnosis. It was some kind of heart condition were the lining on one side of his heart wall was thicker than normal. He all of a sudden stopped and said that his file said he has HIV. He said he did not know that, so he started calling around and found out his mother has it and the babies first test tested positive but then when they did the second more extensive test it came back negative, so just positive antibodies. He went and got 'THE' book of apparently all the available children and started leafing through it (I'm quite certain he wasn't legally suppose to have access to that book!:) all of the children had obvious problems with quite severe special needs. He said he had another boy that was 31/2 years old that he knew of that we could have for an option, but he didn't see anything in the book that would be of interest to us. So if we wanted to pursue this little guy he would proceed. We didn't have any special feeling that this was the right one, but no glaring reason why we shouldn't proceed and the other boy seemed at the high end of our age range so we told him we would like to go see him. He started trying to get the paperwork for an official referral and found out that a Ukrainian family had just asked for permission to see him! :( He gets on the phone and after awhile he said the family had decided not to take him, but their 'official' time was not up until 2 weeks! The family lived 4 hours away and refused to come and sign papers that they were not taking the child allowing us to get permission to visit. the family said it was nothing to them that we wanted to go before there time was officially up... :) Just remember this is all taking more than a mere 30 minutes and Peyton is sick and tired of sitting on the couch, trying to be quite and still, and had looked at all his books and written in his tablet till he was bored silly and was starting to get whiny, but of course refusing to sleep!!! I sense Serge getting very antsy and stressed and I asked Bill what time it was... I was hoping it was getting close to 2:00 and all our prayer warriors at home were on their knees!!!!!!!!!! It was 1:50!! HOPE:) If you prayed on our behalf take the credit!:) Serge all of a sudden had an idea, he babbles away to the lady and she leaves the room. Serge goes and gets 'the' book again and more slowly turns the pages to see if he had missed anything, the whole time his face is wrinkled and I can tell this was not going as he had planned! Eventually the lady returns with a file and a big smile and Serge says THIS is the one for you!! The wrinkles fade and is replaced with a very relieved look and smile! He said I have been knowing about this child and it is a GOOD one! I have been to it's orphanage and interacted and you will love it! He said he all of a sudden remembered this child was suppose to be coming available for adoption soon so he had the lady check to see when it was....and it was TODAY!!! Today folks!! Is that coincidence??? My heart tells me no! :) So we will be the first family to visit it and if we adopt it we can say it was adopted on the first possible day it could have been!! :)) 

Sorry all the juicy details on the child are deleted for now... will share as soon as we see the child  and decide on our answer! :)

Peyton is extremely excited and doesn't think he can possibly wait another day to 'play' with HIS new sibling!:) Bill likes this option better than the first because he thought 6 months was too young and for me.... I deal with emotions by putting up a wall and therefore I'm neither here nor there with it yet! :) It was not love at first sight with Peyton and I doubt I will let myself with this one either! :( Like I said I was very impressed by the facial expression, l think there was a lot of personality behind those beaming eyes! :)

So what from here? We go back to pick up our official referral and permission to visit the orphanage tomorrow and then leave on the train to the region Saturday night at 9 and arrive at 6 Sunday morning. The region which translates 'crooked horn' is in central Ukraine. Vitalia said it is a long city of about 10 kilometers with only one street through the middle:) 

One note of interest and I know this is getting a little random, but I'm very tired and emotionally drained so it is what it is:) When we left we took the official that helped us at the SDA to some bldg way on the other side of Kiev and then picked up another lady and took them both back to the SDA. I asked Vitalia what was up with that and he smiles and said we do these kind of things so we can get what we want with the adoptions! ;-) I told him in America we have a saying that it's not what you know but who you know and he said Da Da that is right!! :)

After dropping the 2 ladies off we went and got our train tickets and it was the same story there...tickets were all sold out, but for some reason we could get in a line with only one person in it while the other lines had 50! Our line had tickets available:) Vitalia got questioned down by several people who were not impressed with his powers HA

So now we are back at the apartment and had us a little snack and Pey is sleeping, Bill reading and after awhile we are going to go out on the town and enjoy this awesome fall weather!! We have a metro stop at the end of our block and its only $.20 a ticket so think well ride that out aways and see what we can find. Just like every big city it's not lacking for things to do!! 

If you have any questions about something I didn't cover just ask away :)

First days in Ukraine

OK so I am doing just what I hate when other APs do it!! Get in country and STOP blogging! :(( I am so non techy and had fits getting everything set up private and sending invites and of course the first time I had it all done we had to leave and when we got back everything was...gone. But think were good to go now. If you know of someone that is still wanting an invite have them email me for an invitation.

Let's see how far back I can remember here :) Mom and Mom-n-law took us to Bham airport and we had a very non eventful flight over here, getting all our luggage and not missing any flights or any of that extra excitement sort of stuff:) One funny I'm just remembering is when we were in Zurich Pey played a long time with a group of kids in one of those kids cornerz play yards and all of a sudden he came running over and whispered  some gibberish and said he was talking English! :) Was fun to watch all the children all talking their own language and still getting along just fine!
Got to Kiev and made it through customs fine and the officer VOLUNTARILY smiled first!!! I loved Ukraine already:) We have found the people as a whole here to be way more friendly and open than in Russia! For example the  lady at the front desk here at the apartment smiled the first time we walked in the door and will wave at Pey, while the security people at our apartments in Russia took a very diligent effort at smiling and greeting them every time we went bye and if we were lucky the last day or two would get a half smile and feeble nod out of them! So walked through the last set of doors and there stood Vitalia holding the Nichols sign :) I recognized him from pics a friend had sent who was just here (thanks Kristin:) He is a nice looking, 33 year old man, and knows very good English! I hope we get as lucky with our driver in region as we did here! We packed all our luggage in Vitalia's little suv and headed out on our Ukraine adventure!:) I remember this from last time...everything you do is such an adventure and so packed with emotions!!! (fertile ground for a migraine:( I'm happy to say that as of this morning we are all feeling normal and good! No migraine, no "mommy my tummy hurts, it just feels so funny inside" ) We stopped and exchanged some $ and also stopped at a big supermarket for some groceries. We didn't stock up to heavy because we didn't no how long we would be in Kiev, so just got snacky stuff and some things for breakfasts. BTW it is WAY more fun to go grocery shopping here where you can get a buggy of food for under $20! Come U.S. catch on be like UA, get your prices down were people WANT to buy food! :) Actually can't imagine how many obese people we would see waddling around if they had to pay half price for their food!
Vitalia told us we would like our apartment, and that we do! Brand new and very nice! It's 6 complexes of 31 floors each. It looks like our complex is the only one open yet, the others are still under construction. We don't dare hope for one this nice in region, but hey it doesn't take a big king bed and touch screen cooktop and tile shower to get a lovely child so we won't complain:) This country bumpkin doesn't mind the luxury while she has it thought either ;-) Got settled in a bit and had to keep very occupied to resist the urge to crawl in bed and SLEEP! :) We went down to the playground for awhile and then in the eve we went exploring down the streets. Pey has been a trooper with all of our walking for which we are VERY thankful!!! We made it till 7:30 before we succumbed to dreamland! :) Shall I tell which hours I gazed out at the beautiful Ukrainian night or the hours I looked at the back of my eyelids, not sure which one got the most hours? :-/ Jet lag is such a cruel creature!!

Going Private

So it's the last day before we leave! I'm waiting on this last load of wash to finish drying so I can pack a few more clothes and zip these big bags up and set them by the door! And then I'm ready to GO! I'm tired of this waiting around and hours dragging into days and stomach churning:) let's just get gone and get the show on the road! Oh I wish we could fast forward to next Monday and just skip over the looooong flight, jet lag, grueling SDA appointment where we are required to PICK a child that will be ours for the rest of our lives and then wait for an entire 3 days before we can even see the child!!! So much waiting and unknowns! :(((

For obvious reasons I am making this blog private and will need to know who is reading it, so if I haven't sent you an invite and you want to follow this part of our journey shoot me an email and if you pass the criteria of a most loyal, loving friend that is always supportive and makes lots of comments on blogs, and knows the importance of not sharing any of the very sensitive information that will be posted about the child then I will add you to the 'invited readers' list! :)

SDA appointment date!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!! we got our date :)) We were expecting to hear last week and didn't and then the first of this week and didn't and when our agency got to investigating they found out the lady that issues the dates is on vacation till next week Monday and then of course will be backed up and we didn't know when we would finally hear! That was yesterday..... now today when we were trying to decide what to do about all of our papers that are fixing to start expiring, we called the agency for advise and she stutters around a little and then finally says, we have a tentative appointment date for you but, it may be too soon. Excuse me!! too soon?? Yesterday wouldn't be too soon LOL She said she would have confirmation in a couple hours. So 15 minutes later she calls back and said appointment is confirmed for September 11 and we need to fly out on Tuesday, less than a week!!! So now I panic, scream, cry, gulp, laugh, jump up and down with Peyton and then just sit there and try to let it sink in!! BTW I told Bill just yesterday that I had given up and didn't think this adoption was going to work out, so I had a long ways to come from that mindset to leaving in 5 days HA Don't ask me what all happened between yesterday and today, but I'll accept it and run! :-)
Now just a few more drama filled days and then on to the REAL adventure!!!! Stay tuned the best is just around the corner :))