Day 19-8/22

Its Saturday morning 5:30am, I get out of bed didn’t get any sleep anyway. Heart was racing from 9:30 to 12:30 AM waiting for the final call and then lying awake thinking about the packets the rest of the night. Cheryl and I fold up our beds one last time. The girls, who normally sleep to 8-9am come out of the bed room at 5:45am fully dressed carrying their backpacks. THEIR READY! They won’t even eat breakfast. They watch cartoons and wait. Sasha and Sergey show up with the van right at seven, so we pile in and head to the Embassy. The roads are empty, so it’s a short drive. The Embassy is quite, only a single guard at the security office. I knock on the window, show the guard my passport and he passes me a green folder labeled “STEWART BABIES”. It contains two immigration packets, two Ukrainian passports and instructions for entering the United States of America. I feel as if the world has been lifted off my shoulders. Our drive to the airport is almost surreal, it seemed like it was never going to happen. We arrive at the airport 8:15 and breeze through the check-in / security without any issues. The passport check is a little unsettling as the inspector requests to see our adoption documents and verify we have the immigration packets. After close inspection of all the documents he stamps everyone’s passports and were done. The flight doesn’t even seem that long, the girls play with everything on the plane and are actually pretty good the whole flight. Ira sleeps for a couple or hours, but Ola just can’t get in a comfortable position to sleep. I keep one eye on them the whole time, so sleep is not an option. We land right on time and we are the first off the plane and into the passport/immigration line. The officer looks over the packets, stamps the passports and asks us to step into the immigration office for processing. They call us up right away, the girls sign their names in Russian, Jordan and Sara Stewart. The officer takes the index finger print and says “Welcome to America”. After three hours at the gate we board the plane for Denver, the girls are exhausted it’s 4 AM Kiev time. They sleep from the time we take off right until we land. No food, no beverages and no playing with everything on the plane. As we get off the plane the girls are already asking for “Mama”. We make our way from the concourse to the main terminal in record time. They see Cyndi as we reach the top of the escalator and run to her with open arms. This part of their journey is over and soon will just be a distant memory in their new lives.

Day 18 – 8/21

It’s Friday morning, first I send an email to the Embassy requesting one last time for any help they can provide to get the finger prints processed and the visas issued. A hearty breakfast and off to the park, follow our usual program to a tee. Then I get the call; Good Morning Stephen it’s Lililya with the Us Embassy I have some good news, Moscow finally sent over Cindy’s finger print records, it took a week just to get someone to email them to the Embassy. We also received confirmation the state department will have your prints processed by 12noon EST. Mike is not in the office yet, but I believe he is planning on staying late to receive the prints. OMG it’s a sliver of hope. This is the first time anyone from the Embassy has mentioned processing the visas. She follows up with “can you bring the girls passports to the Embassy today at 3pm so we can prepare all the documents?” I’ll be there before three. My mood is lifted and I feel rejuvenated. I run around the park for a half hour and feel I can run all day. I call Cindy with the news and with both breath a small breath of relief. Cautiously optimistic is the best way to describe it! Back to the apartment, a quick shower, lunch and we wait for a ride to the Embassy.
Sasha calls at 2:13PM the driver is tied up “can you meet me at the main post office in 15 minutes and we will take a cab to the Embassy” No more do I hang up the phone I’m out the door to the post office. Sasha walks up out off the subway and were off to the Embassy. I call Cyndi, to make a plan; if the embassy is going to issue the visa’s today she will cancel her flight, but the timing is close. Her flight is at 8am and my appointment at the Embassy isn’t until 3pm or 7am Denver time. So she will pack on a carry on and wait at the gate until the last minute before boarding. Worst case she fly’s to New York and she can call me from JFK. I arrive at the Embassy at 2:55pm, the facility is empty except for staff and security. I go right to the adoptions window and press the button for help. Lililya arrives at the window and ask for the passports. She says have a seat and Mike will be with you shortly. At 3:15pm Mike comes to the window. OK here is the situation: the state department has confirmed that they will have your finger prints processed by 12noon EST which is 7PM in Kiev, so we will process all the paperwork and place the unsealed packets at the security office, I will have the state department copy me on the email, forward the email to a co-worker and have her print the report
and bring the report to the security office. After that I will call you to confirm the packet is ready and you can pick it up tonight after 8 or so. Now that is all depending on getting the email tonight! WOW, that’s a lot of steps. I ask “How sure are you that you will get the email?”. Mike says “We work with the state department every day; if they say it will be sent today I’m 99% sure we’ll get it today. OK, I’ve got to make a call. I leave the Embassy pick up my phone from security, no cell phones in the Embassy, and I make the call. Cindy where are you? I’m sitting at the gate. We’ll you can go home, Mike is 99% sure we can get the visa’s tonight. OH THANK GOD. Ok, I’ve got to get back in the Embassy to finish processing the packet. We set up the plan and Mike will call me when he gets confirmation that the packets are complete. I head back to the apartment to start packing. I feel almost like a free man, but a little reserved until we pick up the packet. When I get back to the apartment the girls are ready for dinner and as one last treat we head back to the cafeteria. They order wild rice and mushrooms that of course they won’t eat, so it’s juice and bread for dinner. We walk up past the apartment two blocks to the Ukrainian Presidents house; it’s covered with all types of creatures sculptured into the exterior structure. At the apartment everyone is packed up and ready to go, except for me so I start packing, almost doesn’t seem real. Mike calls at 7:30 he doesn’t have the prints yet but no need to worry, he’s taking off to drop his wife and in-laws at the train station but will be home in thirty minutes. I work on the computer for a couple hours and we have some tea and muffins for desert. Mike calls at 9:30, Stephen I’m afraid we have a problem; the FBI hasn’t sent the finger print processing information to the state department yet. According to his source, the prints have been processed but the paper work hasn’t been sent up yet. You better get someone from the congressional constituent’s office to call the FBI. OMG, its 2:30 PM on Friday afternoon what if people are gone for the day. We send off a flurry of emails, we need someone to call the FBI and request that the finger print processing documents be sent to the state department and the US Embassy right away. Ken Salazar’s constituent is out of the office and no one is available to help. Peter King’s office is on it; they are making calls and requesting someone to expedite the processing. It’s now 10.15PM and we are running out of time. The email comes “ US EMBASSY HAS WHAT IT NEEDS”. I call Mike and sure enough he confirms that the documents have been sent, he has not received them yet but should have them shortly. I will call you back once I have them printed and on the way to the Embassy. He calls back ay 11:30PM “The finger print processing documents are on there way to the security office and you can pick them up any time”. After a short discussion we decide that traveling to the Embassy at 12 midnight is probably not safe. We will pick up the packet on our way to the airport, nothing like waiting till the last minute.

Day 16 – 8/19, Day 17 – 8/20

The package must be DC by now! I log into my computer with great expectations……….
only to find the package is still not in DC, 18hrs since the last update. I could walk the package from NY to DC in 18hrs. That’s some special express service on DHL. So off to the park, exercise, shower, cafeteria (the girls both order and eat cabbage rolls, they’re learning). Back to the apartment, its 7am in DC and the package has arrived and is scheduled for delivery on a courier service. The packaged is delivered 9AM. Again another barrage of emails, the finger prints have arrived and we need them processed. The first responses are that no one can find the prints and then they find the prints, but they need to be transferred to the FBI for processing. Then why did we send them to the State Department on the slowest express mail service system known to mankind? The prints go out government courier to the FBI. Another day down and no closer to home

No news, when we get up at 7am its 12 midnight in DC so we can’t even ask what’s going on and really nothings going on as everyone’s asleep. You know what’s next, yes back to the park, hey when you’ve got a system that works why change it! The girls are playing with other kids, dogs, cats and even some chickens in the park. Afternoon rolls around pretty quick, so we are back on the email wagon. Where are the prints and how soon can we get them processed. It’s been a day and we were told that reprints were very fast to process. We get the dreaded email; the prints haven’t even arrived at the FBI office and once they do it takes a day to process. Salazar’s office confirms with the FBI/State Department that the prints will be processed by 12noon ET on Friday. This means the Embassy will be closed for two hours before the prints are processed. I’m devastated again, we are heading into a three day Ukrainian holiday and we can’t get the finger print processing information until Tuesday. Delta doesn’t have a flight out Wednesday so that means we can’t leave until Thursday. OMG another week is all I can think about. I’ve been in country for nearly three weeks and I still can’t go home. We ask both congressional constitutes to make some calls, but they respond that Friday 12noon is what we can expect. Cheryl will be out of blood pressure medicine on Saturday morning and she has endured enough of my journey. I call Delta and schedule her flight home Saturday morning. Cindy’s at her wits’ end and decides I can’t be left alone with the girls for another week. Cindy is flying back to Kiev on Friday (arrive Saturday 9am) UGH…….
We also find out that Cindy’s finger print processing that were completed in one day at the USCIS office in Denver have not been sent to the Embassy in Kiev. The Embassy can’t access the DHS data base to pull the finger print records. So they requested the print records on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but DHS Moscow is not responding. So another round of emails requesting someone from the state department call the DHS office in Moscow to get the processing records emailed to the US Embassy.
On top of that our apartment has already been rented for the upcoming three day week end so we must find someplace to stay. Needless to say I don’t get any sleep Thursday night. My blood pressure is again pushing an all new high, eye is twitching again and my head in pounding. All I can think is this can’t be happening, I feel like we got nowhere in a week. We decide not to tell the girls until Friday.

Day 14 – 8/17, Day 15 – 8/18

Manic Monday: I track the DHL express document package with my finger prints and two my dismay they are still in the UK. Left the Ukraine at 6pm on Friday, 8/15, arrived Germany 10pm, left Germany 11:30pm and arrived UK Saturday 2am and is scheduled to depart Monday afternoon. Two days with no service on an express package, now that’s customer service.
We email everyone we think can possibly help get the finger prints processed, congressional constituents in Colorado and New York , former FBI agents and security officers for high ranking military officials in the hope that once the package arrives we can leave. Stay Tuned! Most of the rest of the day is the same as yesterday; park, exercise, shower, cafeteria (mystery foods that the girls won’t eat????) and big afternoon walks.
We are still having trouble figuring out what the girls will eat. Everybody likes grilled cheese sandwiches, right? They wouldn't eat the grilled cheese sandwiches! I think Jordan would have but Sara told her they were bad. They each ate two tomatoes a piece and one cucumber. Jordan ate one and 1/2 pieces of corn. Sara told her it was bad but she ate it anyway. The corn was OK. The cheese sandwiches were excellent. Sara refuses to try anything new and she uses the food as a control.

The DHL package arrived NY Tuesday morning, 8/19, and is scheduled to depart sometime Tuesday night….ugh. Express Package, not my idea of express. Stay Tuned
We confirm that we have some support; Ken Salazar’s and Peter King’s (Congressional Head of the Department of Homeland Security) congressional constituents have sent emails’ to the state department and the FBI requesting expedited service. Again another morning at the park, exercise, shower, cafeteria, this time Cheryl orders viriniki for the whole table as soon as she sets it down the girls dig in, now we know how this works. It’s still extremely hot in the afternoons (hottest week of the year for Kiev). We go in search of some coloring books and find a huge open framers market, a little expensive but the fruit and vegetables are great. Another day down and only a little closer to home.

Day 13 – 8/16

Its Sunday so we have another free day (no paperwork), we start with the yogurt / banana breakfast. Instant coffee with heavy sweet cream, hey I can’t read Russian and it looked like milk to me, and toast for the adults. The girls are still recovering from the emotional day we had at the Embassy. They didn’t understand a word but they knew it wasn’t good news, why else would he pull out all his hair and turn white like death. Ira is speaking only in Russian and Ola won’t even speak to us. They were feeding off our emotions, I tried for two weeks to keep a positive attitude and only have a smile on my face, but the Embassy was my final straw. I lost control of my mind, every challenge of the past 16 months came rushing in and my body responded with a heavy heart. Now is the time we find out what you’re made of, is all I could think about. We needed to have some fun and I needed to exercise out all of my inner demons. The park seemed to be the perfect place. The girls had everything they needed, even an inflatable bounce house with a slide. Cheryl and I took turns making laps around the ½ mile park until it was too hot. After a quick shower and fridge detail, oh yeah you can’t leave two ten year olds alone with any food right before lunch or they will eat everything except the lunch you just purchased, we head for another new experience Cafeteria style restaurant. The trays seem safe enough until they have an empty bowl, now we are in front of twelve different salads OH NO it’s brain lock, the girls walk back and forth like caged animals. What do we want? Not what someone put in front of us to eat. They go with “cucumbers and tomatoes”, this after 10 minutes of spooning through every salad bowl and investigating each ingredient.
Now we move to the main course, they look like deer in the head lights – eyes glazed over and frozen in there tracks. They walk back and forth; soup, meat, pasta, pizza, cabbage rolls, stuff peppers, viriniki, rice, bread and more food than they ever seen in one place. After 10 minutes of circular motion we find ourselves in front of the meat counter. The server asks what they want and they look as if they don’t understand Russian, just a blank stare until I start pointing out each item, eta ela eta ( this or this). Ira picks a fried chicken patty and Ola a fried round item covered in bread crumbs. I assume that this is something familiar to them and even though I wouldn’t order these it’s OK. Now on to the final journey, the drink selection; the shelves have water (regular, mineral, with gas or with out), juice of every flavor (by the glass, bottle, box or keg) , sodas , teas and even some energy drinks. Another ten minutes on gaze and we settle on some orange Fanta. With some strong herding by Cheryl, she has experience in herding three cats at home, we finally make it to the cashier to check out. The girls both are fascinated with the counter you can slide the tray right up to the register and stare at the cashier as she enters each item. Wow, 105.25 kryvnia ($23.00) for a dozen plates and four drinks. Again Cheryl uses her herding skills to guide them to an open table and we don’t even drop a single tray. The girls take one bite of the mystery meat and push the plates away with a crinkled face. OK they’re new to the choice thing. They eat the vegetables and bread circles, bread in the shape of the letter O covered in sesame seeds, looks like a pretzel but soft and moist. Doesn’t look like were going to starve for at least another day. We head back to the apartment to escape the mid day heat and watch some Russian and English cartoons. Later we take another big walk around the area to get the feel of the land and top it off with some soft serve ice cream swirls “Lemon and chocolate”. I thought it was vanilla. Oh well, the girls wear most of it anyway. You give them a nectarine, tomato or a plate of cucumbers and it’s gone in seconds. Now give them an ice cream on a hot day and they try to make it last for hours and of course it melts all over until it falls on sidewalk.

Good News

Stephen called me at the airport before I boarded, he had a call from the Embassy so I didn't have to fly back. Thank gosh!

The fingerprints were processed today at 12pm est and after many phone calls to congressional support they were sent over a little before 12am Ukraine time. Its the first time people were willing to help out. They just stopped by the Embassy to pick up the visas, its 7:30 am on Sat there and they are heading to the airport.

They will land in JFK at 2pm, leave at 7pm, and land in Denver at 10pm.

YEA!

Update

Im heading there tomorrow. Stephen's fingerprints left Kiev Friday night and got to DC Weds. Nothing was done yesterday, today they were moved somewhere else and are suppose to we done tomorrow by 12pm, but the Embassy will be closed by them and of course yet another Ukraine holiday on Mon. So that makes Tues the earliest and now we are dealing with the Democratic Convention and we cant find any flts into Denver for 4 people.

We have contacted many congressional people. Today the immigration specialist asked me why our agency didn't make sure these were updated before we left. I told her we have the same question. At this point no one will take responsibility for this and they have washed their hands of us. Im sure they are sleeping fine at tonight.

We will update the blog when we know more on Tues.

Blog Update days 10 & 11

We received a call from Sasha that he had arrived in Odessa and wanted to see me before they pick up the passports. Sasha arrives at the hotel at 11am, during our meeting he receives a call that the passports arrived at 10am, we finish discussing all the challenges and our plan forward. He will leave with Sergay and his driver
from Kiev (Alex) they will go the passport office, pick up the pass ports, fax a copy to his office in Kiev and then Alex will return to transport us to Kiev in an air
conditioned Audi station wagon.

The van had no AC and our last return to Kiev was brutal. So we check out of the Hotel Odessa at 12noon, the cashier accuses us of removing a towel from the hotel. We must look through out luggage to see if someone backed a towel in our completely full carry on bags. After 15 minutes of arguing the cashier calls the maids to check one more time, they find the towel hanging on the bathroom door. Five days $2000 and they
want to charge me for a towel ………….

Sasha calls at 12:30 the passports have been faxed and the driver is on his way to pick us up. He arrives at 1:45 and we are off to Kiev. The car ride is much nicer and quicker than the van, we arrive in Kiev at 6:45. The apartment is clean and has three beds so we are going to settle in for the night. Its 95 outside and 90 inside, we run the fans and open the windows, but at 10PM its still 80+. We convince ourselves that it’s only for two nights and we will be at the embassy all day Friday and on a plane to NYC Saturday morning.

Bad decision, none of us got more than two hours of sleep, it was just to hot. The driver and translator pick us up Friday morning at 7:30am. We pack into a Suzuki Vartri SUV, 4 of us in the back seat and headed to the Ukrainian Immigration Health Services medical center. The traffic is bumper to bumber, so we arrive at 8:25am only to find out the clinic opens at 9, but they have AC and we wait. The doctor sees us early and we review the medical records around 8:45. The girls are healthy but need vaccinations hepatitis B booster and rubella for Sara and rubella for Jordan. We pay for the exams $170.00 and vaccinations $50.00 and receive a health packet for the US Embassy. Off for the US Embassy and the final leg of our journey. There is a huge crowd at the embassy, organized by times in ques, we show the US passports and go right into the embassy. We arrive at the adoption waiting room to find the room full; they ask Cheryl and the girls to wait in the next room.

I submit my I600, health packet and passports. They return all three with circles around items I left blank to discuss. They ask me ten questions about the agencies (the stork and Adoption Journey). Have a seat and we will call you for your interview, but your fingerprints for your USCIS I-171H expired last month and we will need to re-submit before we can issue the visas.

My heart feels like someone has ripped it out and all the blood has rushed to my feet. I’m now white as a sheet and they ask me to fill out another form, at this point my mind is at a complete lock-up, frozen and pounding with a headache. I can’t even remember the spelling for the girl’s names. I fill out the paperwork and return to the window. I ask to speak to someone about the finger prints. Michael comes to the window, I tell him I can’t understand, CBI ran my finger prints three times April 2007, October 2007 and March 2008 each time telling me it takes 4-6 weeks for FBI to review the prints.

Michael explains that the USCIS and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) have a separate data base and the finger print processing expires after 15 months. The I-171H has a date of completion of 7-06-2007 and in the body states that the expiration is 18 months after being issued. At the very bottom there is a note that finger print processing expires after 15 months. No where does it state that the finger prints expire 15 months from the time they were taken back in April 2007.

After ten minutes of pleading Michael agrees to send an email to DHS in Moscow to see if they can accept the finger prints since I was actually in the Ukraine when they expired and the fact that we are 5 weeks into this process. We must come back after 2PM. We head to lunch with a glimmer of hope, all I can think is this can’t happen now. My own country is splitting hairs over my finger prints, to get two ten year old girls in the country. Needless to say lunch was not good. We returned to an empty Embassy, they are changing out the emergency generator and all the power will be turned off at 3PM. I meet with Michael and DHS refused access until the finger prints are processed again. They require ink prints to be taken and sent to DC, this normally takes 4-6 business days and expedited 2-3 business days.

They take my prints and send them off Friday and we are stuck in Kiev until someone in DC can input my prints manually in the system. Michael then informs me Cyndi will also need to get her prints done and sent to DC for processing. Once again my heart is heavy, my blood feels thick like cold motor oil and my head is bounding worse than ever. I have developed a twitch in my eye that lets me know that my blood pressure has probably reached an all new high. I inquire if anyone knows where we can get a hotel and/or apartment with AC.

Michael says he can get us a list and returns with one of his team, Lena. She informs us she has a friend at an accommodation finder service and they have apartments in downtown Kiev at reasonable prices. She makes a call and we can stay two blocks off the main square in a very nice neighborhood with AC. We booked it over the phone and Lena took us to the Rental office and then she walked us over to the apartment showing us all the good coffee shops, restaurants and markets along the way. That was above and beyond the call of duty. Everyone keeps telling us to look on the bright side, the weather is good and it’s better to be in Kiev than a lot of other places.

On Friday it was hard to think of anything but defeat and disappointment. I pay my taxes, I’ve followed all the rules and fought a good fight in Odessa and now 24hrs from our flight to freedom it’s taken away. The girls are feeding off our emotions and are clearly upset and scared. We try to reassure them that everything is okay. I have the translator explain that this is just a set back and we will be leaving next week…………………………….sometime.

We have requested a congressional letter from Ken Salazar’s office to expedite the finger print processing. According to the Embassy, if the office receives the congressional letter they have 48hrs to respond. Cyndi went to the USCIS office and they sent her new finger prints to DC electronically which should arrive Monday morning for processing. Why can’t they use my electronic prints from last year? Did they change? If so doesn’t that defeat the purpose of finger prints?????? Stay tuned.




Day 11

The girls sleep to 9am Saturday morning and we convince the girls to go for a walk around the main square and get some coffee for the frazzled nervous adults. The square is beautiful with large fountains and green parkways. The girls play in the fountains for a while and the discover that they can hand feed the pigeons. After spending an hour or so trying to catch a pigeon they final decide its time to move on. We then enter unfamiliar territory for the girls, a Mexican restaurant. We order fajitas and the look on there face when the waiter delivers bowls of tomatoes, chicken, beef , peppers and tortillas is priceless. I show them the proper way to build a fajita, but they keep eating all the stuff off the tortilla before we can roll it up. They eat all the bowls clean, but the tortilla is safe. They don’t have hot sauce, but give us garlic butter that will straighten out your hair and keep the vampires at 50ft for a month. On are way back to the apartment we stop and play in the park. Several playgrounds with all the essentials; seesaw, swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars and one poor pekapoo/pug dog that the girls would not let lie down. The owner got the dog to lie down in the grass and drink some water, only to have the girls run him around the sand box ten more times. Cheryl cooked some veriniki and made a tomato/cucumber salad for dinner. Looks like and early night for the girls. Thank God. We’ve finally come to grips with the situation and can only look forward to our safe return.

I keep you posted on our ongoing saga.

Update

Just when we thought we have made it through all the hurdles, we are hit with a big one. Stephen was at the Embassy at 4pm to pick up the visas and found out the background checks we took with the I600 expire at 15 months which was end of July for us.

So glad we paid all these "so called experts" for their services. No one told us this could expire, what a basic thing to take care of at home, in the Ukraine, not so basic.

Stephens fingerprints were taken at the Embassy on the "paper" version and being overnight service to and from Ukraine is 3 days... not to mention the weekend, and then it has to be processed, so we dont know when this will be done. Mine were re-done today, since its the electronic version, the results will be in the system Monday.

The Embassy told Stephen to have me call the Senate's office to have them contact the FBI registry and put a rush on our fingerprints. I spoke to the lady in immigration and I faxed her some basic information. Hopefully she can do something.

Numb is the best way to describe the emotion and the girls are so confused.

On top of that, the apartment they were put in Thurs night was the size of our living room and had no air conditioning for the 90+ degree weather. Stephen asked the Embassy if they knew of an apartment they can move into. When the Embassy asked where they were staying, they were shocked. Its in the ghetto part of Kyiv, nice choice for Americans with newly adopted children. The Embassy hooked them up and they are in a nice, larger apartment with air and its in downtown Kyiv so they can do something this weekend.

Day 9

I’ve lost track of the days. Oh today is the day we get the Illichivs’k passport office to sign our de registration letter. The drive seems to get longer everyday, but we arrive at 9:50am for or 10AM meeting. The manager of the housing authority has agreed to meet us at the passport office. She’s right on time. The passport director is telling everyone about her private meeting with the president and her twenty five thousands (ok five thousand) close friends (ok co-workers, she can’t have friends). So we wait for 30-40 minutes for her to clear her busy schedule. She looks at the documents, appears to read three or four pages in one-two minutes sets the documents down and leaves the room. She returns and again scans the documents, signs her name and requests copies from an assistant. We receive the documents and are off to the Odessa passport office.

The hope is that we can drop off the documents and pick up the passports; unfortunately the passports have not arrived so it is a bitter sweet day. We confirmed that the passports have been completed and arrived on Thursday. We will fax copies to Kiev so our documents can be submitted for the visas. Our plan tomorrow is to pick up the passports between 10am - 12noon and drive to Kiev (6-7hrs). Get the girls medical exams and visit the US Embassy on Friday to receive the final documents, the golden visas.

We now have a flight Saturday to return to Colorado, we can’t wait any longer. The girls are doing great, maybe better than us. The restaurant visits have been very entertaining. At first they pronounce that they are vegetarians that eat chicken, shrimp, salami, hot dogs, ham, bacon, eggs, ground beef as long as it is not in a hamburger (according to them they make you fat) and never fish unless is breaded and deep fat fried.

They will eat any fruit or vegetable not tied down, so I’ve been making daily runs to the market for bananas, peaches, apples and lots of bottled water. Ice Cream and French fries are still the top of their food pyramid, but hamburgers make you fat. I’ll never let them forget that fact and some day I will convince them that fried foods are not health food. I think this is my last update until we return. Thanks for all the comments see ya soon.

Quick Update

They were told the passports will be couriered to Odessa today and they can pick them up tomorrow. They will drive back to Kyiv tomorrow and go right to the Embassy. Stephen called the Embassy and they said they can have the Visa's ready by Friday. They are booked to leave Saturday and arrive in Denver at 1Opm Sat.

I cant wait until they are home.

Jefferson county school district has a Russian translator, Anna. Anna will meet us at school on Mon to introduce their teacher, their class and buddies, explain what a buddy is, explain how lunch works and take a tour of the school. Hopefully this will ease them a bit and they will start school on Tuesday.

Day 8

Another big day: Off to court to the de register the flat, we arrive early so we wait a few minutes for the prosecutor and the magistrate. It’s a small chamber, a conference table with twelve chairs and a section for a small audience. The prosecutor has prepared a three page brief describing the situation; the girls are being adopted by a family in America and need to be de registered from the apartment to receive their passports. In lieu of the fact that they probably will not return, the magistrate decides to de reregister the girls from the apartment, but if they return before there 18th birthday they can again lay claim to the apartment or some other said premises. The whole process takes 10 minutes, everyone is happy and cordial. The paperwork is signed and we wait for copies with an official stamp.

After receiving the documents we head to the hosing authority where we provide them with the paperwork in triplicate. The manager of the housing authority calls the director of the Illichivs’k passport office at 9:30am. She states that we have the paperwork and can be there in 5 minutes if she can sign. No she must go to Odessa at 10am to see the president and cannot sign today. We must return on Wednesday at 10am.

Oh the feel of power. It must be something like a high for her to have that kind of power or maybe it is a prerequisite to be crazy to get a job in the passport office. Who knows, but now we must wait another day. The passports have not arrived in Odessa yet so we can’t leave anyway. The passports can take up to ten days, but normally its 3-5days. Again this is something new, old passports were made in the local offices in 1 day, and the new passports are all made in Kiev and shipped by government courier back to the originating city.

By the way the president will be in Odessa today, so the passport office in Odessa was empty. I guess all government employees can go to see him speak (another day off). So we wait………

Hopefully we can get the signature tomorrow and the passports arrive. Then we are off to Kiev (6-7hr drive) and the US Embassy. I’m told this is a 48hr process to get the girls Visa’s, but Christina says it is much more difficult with two girls. Hopefully we can make contact and get some help. We are so close, but so very far, far, far away.

Day 5

We started the day off with a trip to ILLICHIVS’K. The passport office is open , but they are little help. No one seems to know what paperwork we need. If the apartment is government owned we need some official approval and if it is privately owned we only need notarized letter stating the girls will not return. Back on Monday to the housing authority, this must be resolved before we can receive the passports

Well it’s been a long and painful delivery, not to mention expensive, but worth the wait; we now have twin girls 53” and approximately 65lbs. I officially picked up the girls from the orphanage yesterday. We brought 2 large cakes, one honey and banana and the second of chocolate.

When we arrive at the orphanage the children were at church, so we waited until 11:30. The director arrived first with three large area rugs; the bus driver even carried the rugs into the orphanage and the director’s office. Shortly there after another bus arrived with the children, they filed out in an orderly fashion and some of the children were wearing new clothes, must be something at the church. We also found out later that the children also ate brunch at the church.

After meeting with the director and signing for the responsibility of the children, we were informed that our donation was used to purchase the three large area rugs and they would be used by the 10 year olds. The rugs were rolled out and placed in the play room, changing room and the largest in the class/lunch room. Everyone was very excited; the teachers because the noise of forty feet would be less and the children would no longer need to mop the floor. We gave the teachers gifts and the children cake and balloons, everyone was happy.

All the children were rounded up for one last picture with the girls. Several of the girls were crying and very sad to see their friends leaving. Dacha and Nadia (see picture with the fantastic foursome; Nadia, Era (Jordan), Dacha and Ola (Sara) ) were obviously upset that the girls were leaving. The director saw the girls crying and said enough was enough and we were escorted to the gate, the children said their good-byes and out we went. The girls didn’t even get to share the goodbye cake.

They watched the gates close and were looking very sad as we drove by the house they lived in for seven years for the last time. It was short lived as we drove by the beach and then into down town they started asking a million questions..why..why..why, what..what..what. Thirty minutes and ten thousand questions, good thing the girls don’t work for the court. We arrive at the Hotel Odessa, located ¼ mile into the Odessa harbor on a pier with cruise ships docked on both sides. The hotel is a western style hotel, 14 floors with 150 rooms. The girls jump on the beds, turn all the lights on/off and look in every drawer, cabinet, frig, tub, and even under the beds. It’s all new. The hotel has an indoor pool so the girls ask every five minutes if we can go to the pool, so after I hold out and give them tough love, NEIT (no) for all of fifteen minutes we are off to the pool.

I ask the reception “where is the pool” they reply it’s on the Second floor. We load back in the glass elevator and head down to the second floor. The girls pile out and start opening all the doors, nothings labeled, until we find the fitness room. The staff stares at us like we just arrived from mars. I ask “where is the pool”? Its closed today they reply. I ask when does it open? Tomorrow? No it’s closed for a month starting today. Reconstruction during the peak season makes complete sense to me……

Back to the rooms and the girls have an idea; fill the tub with water and splash, splash, splash for an hour. Seemed to work just fine, water is water. For dinner it was more tough love, the girls had French fries and milkshakes. Hey it’s their first day of freedom, what would you eat? Cheryl and I suffered with vegetarian pizza (very good). The girls watched TV for an hour or so and then kick me out so they can go to bed right at 9pm.
I finally sleep more than 3hrs and feel like a new man. With these two a tried new man.

PS: the new Hotel has Internet Access but its not working either

Day 4

Still trying to recover from day three. Our day started out with a trip to ILLICHIVS’K (girl’s birth city) to deregister the girls from a flat that was left to them by their mother. We drove the 15 miles in about an hour, single lane road over a floating bridge- only road from Odessa to Illichivs’k, only to find the passport office closed. They are open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 9am to noon.

We are told that they know what paperwork needs to be filed out to deregister the girls. After we knock on the door a woman opened the door pointed at the sign and slammed the door. We were at least hoping to speak to someone about what we needed for this paperwork. So we headed to the housing authority in the hopes someone could help us with the paperwork odyssey only to find the office is closed on Fridays.

Some days just don’t go the way you wish and you feel you should have stayed in bed. With dimmed spirits we make the drive back to Odessa to see the girls at the orphanage.

The girls are just waking up from a nap ( 1-3PM) when we arrive. They seem upset and I’m afraid they are mad that we haven’t removed them from the orphanage. After feeling absolutely terrible for 30 minutes I find out that the other children went to the park to play and the girls had to stay with us adults, oh-no not that. The drama was short lived as we worked on the final documents to remove the children.

I had to sign documents stating the girls are being removed and we are completely responsible for their welfare. The documents also had to be signed by the director of the orphanage and the regional inspector ( never heard of this process).

Tomorrow we are going to pick up the girls. They are planning a going away party; we will provide some cake and candy for the final day. I will need to bring a change of clothes so we don’t take anything from the other children. Now I’m excited and can’t wait until tomorrow.

Day 3

The day started off with great news. We received the ID numbers from the tax department at 10am and proceeded to the notary to finalize the paperwork for the passports. Now we are off to the orphanage to pick up the girls. Upon arrival the girls are dressed in there Sunday best (see pictures) and look adorable. They only found out this morning 8am that we were coming to pick them up. Are original schedule was not to arrive in the Ukraine until 8/9, so they were totally surprised and very excited.

No time to waste off to the notary to pick up the documents, We wait for what seems like hours, actually 45 minutes for the notarized documents. The “NOTARY” or “HOTAPIYC “ as it is spelled in Russian , is the busiest place in Odessa. All documents must be notarized to be considered legal (drivers license, marriage license, bill of sale, birth certificates, contracts, etc) Notaries go to school for two years to learn how to handle and manual record all types of documents, very serious business.

Arriving at the Passport office we find the inspectors are leaving for lunch and ask us to return at 2PM. So off to lunch we got…borsch soup and varyneki (dumplings with meat. The girls eat like we’ve been on a several day journey.. followed by a kids cocktail (cream soda).

After hiking back to the passport office we find ourselves in a group of ten to fifteen waiting for the inspectors at 2PM. The building is a typical government structure, no AC - hot and many doors with very little information. Everyone who enters asks “Where is the passport office”. At 3PM the inspector moves us to the front of the line. This almost starts a riot, some people were waiting from this morning are arguing with the inspector to no avail. We enter the office under the stares of the small crowd and hope this will be over shortly. The inspector takes one look at the paperwork, two rather large piles (judgment from the court, birth certificates, adoption certificates, power of attorney, tax ID numbers and everything in doubled sided notary speak) and says this is no good.

The office will need to confirm that everything is order before we can proceed; she marches into another office speaking loudly about all the paperwork and comes back with a superior officer. They discuss the situation for a while and she again goes off about the paperwork. We are now back at the end of the line to the smiles of the angry crowd. Christina (our translator) is now negotiating the superior officer behind closed doors, she emerges after some time and says OK they will start the process today, take the pictures and fill out the passport request, but someone will need to confirm that all the paperwork is correct and has been processed correctly by the other offices (tax office, courthouse, records for birth certificates, etc,) So we wait again.

We enter the inspectors office to another tirade of loud complaints about the paperwork, she enters two or three lines into the computer and again starts to question the paperwork, she again brings the superior officer back to her desk and complains about the piles of paperwork and states the she can’t process the passports and will not take the pictures.

It’s now 4:00 and we are again at the end of the line. We wait to speak to the superior officer (she’s in a meeting upstairs with other employees). When she returns at 5pm Christina again pleads our case and the officer agrees to send us to a different inspector, so to the back of the line we go. But this time we enter to a smiling face, she notes the beautiful girls and how cute they look. She processes the paperwork in 15 minutes, takes the photos and wishes us the best of luck. They even convince someone to stay late to process the paperwork while we wait.


At this point we must look quite the site..only one last never, sweaty and pounding headaches all around. But we stayed fast and pull victory from the jaws or at least the desk of defeat. The only set back is that we must go back to the birth city to un-register the girls from their flat before we can receive the passports. The girls have been very good in a very bad situation, so we stop at the market for two ice creams and two larger watermelons for tomorrow.

The director of the orphanage has requested we return the girls back to the children’s house for one last night. I leave the girls we a little regret, but this has been their family for sevens years and they need to properly say goodbye. I think they are having a little party tomorrow to celebrate the children’s new births, the teachers and care takers look happy and sad to see the girls go.

Now we wait for the passports. I believe they are going to be printed in Kiev and shipped down to Odessa. All the information was entered into the computer, photo’s and signatures were scanned in the document. Stacks of the documents line the passport office walls, so I’m assuming the files are transmitted electronically and processed in Kiev.

My payers tonight will be for a swift delivery of the beautiful new blue passports.

Short update

GREAT NEWS, we have the ID numbers and are heading to the orphanage to pick up the girls. We will get the passport photos and apply for the passports TODAY

Day -2

We started the day with only limited sleep, but optimistic to get off to a good start. Christina picked up the final judgment documents at 9am and we were off to Illichovsk (birth place of the girls).We arrived at an apartment building with a small office built on the front and were treated like guest’s. The manager came in on her day off to help process the paperwork.

After several revisions we received new birth certificates and official documents making the adoption legal. Back on the road to the notary and sitting in very heavy traffic into Odessa, 30-45minutes for a 10 mile ride. We arrive at the notary’s office only to find she is leaving for lunch and we must return after 3PM. So we head to the tax office to get the girls identification numbers (similar to a Social Security Card). The clerk says he can’t process the paperwork until Thursday after 2PM.

So with little to do we head to the license office to register the new birth certificates and get the official stamp of authenticity. We arrive at the office only to find that the manager of the stamp is only available Tuesday and Thursday from 10-12noon and 2-5PM . After some long faces and desperate looks, someone steps out of an office and offers to process the paperwork to get the stamp. Then we are given a slip of paper and told to take it to the cashier. We arrive at the cashier fourth in line, after 30 minutes we are still three people from the counter ( one old man stepped in front of us to pay his bill) but at this rate we can’t pay the bill and make it back to the Notary.

So off we race to the notary, pick up the documents and race back to the license to see if the line is gone. Instead we stop at the Ukrainian back pay the bill and head up to the license office where we wait for another 30 minutes to received the stamped documents.

After a quick stop at the market to pick up water, bread and some cheese we arrive back at the hotel. Nine and half hours, two diet Cokes later we have made good progress, but are still missing the ID numbers to submit for the new passports.

Cheryl and I finish out the day with a trip down the beach for a Ukrainian burrito and beer….yum yum. Hopefully we can get a full night sleep. I think we are going to need our energy tomorrow. We will try to get the ID numbers and pick up the girls from the orphanage.

Wish us well, all the positive thoughts can only help.

2nd trip - Day 1

Hello everyone.
It’s finally time to start the last leg our journey and yes bring the girls home. This leg of the journey will be completed by my sister (Cheryl ) and I (Stephen. So I left Denver Monday morning 8am landing at JFK right on time 1:30PM met up with Cheryl (Lives in NYC) and left JFK 5:20PM just an hour late, I’m told that’s normal for one of the worlds busiest airports. A fantastic flight on Delta airlines and landing right on time, somehow the 9hr: 45 min flight was made in 8hr 30min. We then negotiated the passport lines in record time 20 minutes and only waited for the bags 10 minutes. On the hot streak we continued through customs with no lines or waiting. After chasing down documents in Kiev for several hours we left for Odessa around 12 noon . Six and half hours later we arrived at our hotel, a little less for the wear. Our home base will be the Grand-Pettine (www.grand-pettine.com). A wonderful resort right on the south beach of Odessa’s Black Sea.

Court date

Everything went fine. They asked all the important questions of being good parents; how big is your house, how may floors is your house and how much money do you make.

The girls did so good, they were nervous, especially Olga, we were so proud of them. Typical court room setting, no air conditioning, the judge is smoking, the women are dressed like they are going to a night club and Stephen and I are in suits.

The Orphanage Dir and Inspector (like a region orphanage dir) are asked why we should be allowed to adopt the girls. The inspector’s reason was because no one else wants them. Very professional response... and I cant believe the girls had to hear that.
The judge agreed in the court room, we heard sometimes you have leave for 5-10 mins and come back, and we were done. It took about 10 mins.

We weren't allowed to take the girls out afterwards so we bought all the children ice
cream and said our good-byes. That was hard but this time they gave Stephen a hug good-bye.

We had to get the passport documents notarized before we left because I’m not coming back and we found out notaries go to school for 2 yrs to learn how to stamp paper.
To end the trip appropriately, it felt like 100 degrees out, no air conditioning and the van broke on the way home. Luckily, Sergay realized something was wrong before it wouldn’t run at all and he knew a shop on the way home. Our 6 hr drive became 8, we got to the hotel around 11:30pm and had to get up and 3:30am but the plane was on time and we are home.

We learned anyone speaking English, US and Canadian, in the Kiev airport is their for an adoption. A lot of Intl adoptions from the Ukraine, it was nice to speak English after a few weeks.

We miss the girls already.

Day10-11

Today was a fun day, all the kids were hanging around talking knowing tomorrow is our court date and we leave. We have gotten attached to all the children in the house. Its neat to see how all of children’s English has improved and they are singing the words to American music, they like Jewel, Anna Nalick and KT Tunstal.

Stephen video taped asking the girls what they are looking forward to in the US. Era asked us a few days ago if she can pick her own profession so when she answered saying she wants to be an archaeologist and go to Egypt we understood what she meant. Olga said she didn't know, then she asked us to give her 3 professions and she will pick one. We then asked her what she liked and she said dolphins, she wants to swim with dolphins....she first needs to learn how to swim, she said she isnt that good.


Tomorrow our court day at 12:30 and we'll leave for Kyiv afterwards. We cant believe we have been away from home since July 7. We have been trying to find out if there is a grave site of their mother, so if they ask, we can take them to it, but nobody knows anything. Strange leaving here without any information on their family except the Aunts first name.

For those of you who read the post from Cara looking for the brother of her son; good news.... Sasha is very close with the girls so Sasha has been with us every day. Now Cara and her family have a picture of Sasha. They live in SD but have family in CO so when the girls heard they can keep in touch with Sasha they were very excited.

If we dont have access to the internet tomorrow night, well post the court experience when we are home Weds evening

Day 9

Today they were making clay pots when we got there. They were very secretive with their pots, Stephen had to work hard to get the pictures today. Every time he went to take a picture they tried to turn or take they clay elsewhere. Something in the air today, usually they are all for pictures. The pictures are on flickr.

We found out most of the kids in this house were in NY for a hosting program last yr and are waiting for their parent to pick them up. We are glad; as we get to know most of the kids we want them all to be adopted

We also took some pictures of the beach today. The beach is very crowded and the water was very cold, reminds me of the NE beaches.

Also at the beach we tried the Ukraine version of a burrito, that’s what looks like to us . The bread was like a flat bread, the chicken was on a rotisserie they cut off, and added lettuce, tomato, mushroom, cheese and (French fries if you want, we skipped the FF) the sauce was mayo and ketchup and then rolled up on put on a Panini grill. The end result, it was $4 and pretty good.

Day 7-8

We have good news, we have our court date Tues at 12:30 and should be home a day earlier. We also finally have a battery for the camera so added a few new pictures to flickr.

Today was the first day it wasn’t raining so we were able to walk down to the beach and grab dinner. Everyone dresses up here all the time and we just brought shorts and t-shirts so the beach is the only place we don’t stand out.

Each day we are all getting more comfortable with each other. Now they are into listening to American music, its easier than talking English. They know the English version of most words but putting it into a sentence is difficult for them.

We met their school teacher and she showed us their school work. She is the one who teaches them English, but she can hardly speaks English, go figure.

Yesterday was bath day and clean clothes day. They were cute, they knew they were clean and felt proud. Olga had make-up on; from the pictures it appears Era is the orphanage make-up artist.

They had a lot of questions about school, they are nervous about the change and doing well in school. They wanted to know what time it starts- ends, they only go to school for a few hours in the morning so they aren’t use to a full day and they wanted to know if they will get lunch there.

They were told today that Stephen will pick them up them with their Aunt Cheryl and they were fine. The things we think will upset them so far hasn’t, we’ll see what happens when they get home.

We went through their food preferences today, it’s pretty much eggs, bread, butter, soup, ice cream and all junk food. They said they dont like chicken, meat and cheese, but they eat it here. I think they are pulling one on us so they can eat more junk food.

Day 6

We moved into our new hotel yesterday around 6pm after spending all day at the orphanage, we were tired. You end up caring for all the kids, its fun, but tiring.

We dont know if our paperwork was submitted, hopefully. If not, it will be submitted tomorrow.

We found out we cant take the kids out of the orphanage until after court, so we think we may have a few hours with them after court before we need to head back to Kyiv to catch our plane.

Its been raining here. We picked up Ice Age at the market when we got here assuming it would rain one day. We played it yesterday, with the rain we'll play it again today. None of the kids were able to sit through the movie, they arent use to watching movies and sitting in once place for over an hour. We'll see how they do today.

We still dont have a battery for the camera's, so no new pictures. Well see if they can take us downtown today.

Day 5

No luck finding a camera battery today, we need to go downtown. Maybe tomorrow we can get downtown, but it may be on Thursday. We had to redo documents...etc today and if we dont get everything done tomorrow we cant submit to the SDA until Fri. The SDA accepts the paperwork for the conclusion on Mon, Weds or Fri, so from tomorrow or Fri it will be 5 days.

Today was different; it was the first day we sensed the girls want to leave the orphanage. With only spending a few hrs a day together its takes longer to get comfortable, usually they are carefree and playing but today was different. Every day here is interesting in its own way. \

Twyla, the sink stopper came in handy today, Thank you. We had to wash clothes in the bathroom sink. Dry cleaning here is $10 a piece so we dropped a few things off, the rest... in the sink.

Tomorrow we move to the new hotel. Its been in the 90s here so we will take advantage of the pool/beach.

Day 4

Unfortunately, no pictures today. The battery in our backup camera died today. We have been shooting video and taking picture with the video camera but we didnt take the flash drive to download pictures-video from the video camera to the computer. If we can’t buy a battery for one of the cameras, we will buy a new camera.

Today the girls had to sign paperwork to be adopted, we weren’t aware that they would sign anything today, so they found out they were getting new names during the process. They were fine with it. We thought it would upset them, and it didn’t even phase them, just Era couldn’t remember how to pronounce her name. Olga's name is Sara and Era's name is Jordan, their Ukraine names will be their middle name.

After they signed the paperwork the first thing they did was dig into our backpack (normally they ask) and started eating/drinking the food and water we brought. I guess that’s "their" way of telling us we are officially their parents...feed me.

The funny part is they feed the dogs that live on their property their left over lunch soup. Today I followed the kids to feed the dogs, and when they put out the food, the dogs wouldn’t even eat it. Can only imagine what that soup tastes like.

Tomorrow, there are some documents that need to be picked up from their birth city, it about 30 mins away. We are hoping to join Christina so we can see where they lived before the orphanage.

Orphanage Day 3

Only 2 new pictures loaded on flickr today. Realized we can only upload a certain amount of pictures and we are almost at our capacity.

Any other places to load pictures???

One of the pictures has them in new clothes and of course they were in the same clothes when we arrived today. Oh and it’s not easy to find kid appropriate clothes here. The choices are between the night club short short skirts that we would be sent home from work if we wore them or the dresses that we may dress a doll in, so needless to say, what they are wearing was a difficult find.

We spent a lot of time this afternoon looking for a hotel. As Wendy mentioned, it’s a resort area, so most of the hotels don’t have rooms available, and the hotel we are in now is filled up as of Weds. The pros of Odessa is its very pretty and a lot to do, the cons are the cost.

We cant stay in apartment, something with the adoption process in Odessa, so check out this hotel we are moving into Wed. www.neapol.od.ua. I assume its much different from Mariopul.

Christina called a bunch of hotels and they were all sold out so we drove around until we found one that has availability. Its 1 blk from the beach (darn), its about $180 a night which isnt bad for a beach resort if were on a beach vacation, and on top if it …they dont take credit cards, cash only, but at least we have a place to stay.

The second picture is from downtown Odessa, some famous stairs we climbed, we both cant remember the name but its part of the fort that protected the city from the harbor.

Tomorrow we start all the running around chasing paperwork.

Orphanage Day 2

More pictures added. From the pictures you'll see the children got creative posing. They had so much fun, it was nice to see their personalities come out.

We decided to go ahead and adopt them today. We are excited and nervous, its so difficult to learn about them in 2 days for a few hrs each day. We really see the benefit of hosting. The kids are excited as well.

We have the full story. They have been on the Intl register for 1yr, but in the Orphanage for 7. This is the concerning part because they haven’t experienced a family setting.

Their mother was alive when they were first placed and she didn't release parental rights, 3-4 yrs later she passed away, no info on the father, they said he passed away as well.

Their aunt was trying to adopt them so they were stuck in a legal situation for a few yrs because the kids didnt want to be adopted by their Aunt.

The Dir said the Aunt never visited them until the mother died and she only wanted to adopt them because the aunt wanted the mothers flat.

End of last yr they were put on the Intl registry and were in a hosting program in NY, so they are familiar with the US and looking forward to moving there.

They are so loving with each other and play and laugh a lot together. Its nice to see the twin connection, so we hope having each other will be helpful through the transition.

They wanted to know what their school looked like and where it was, they brought it up, so we are glad they are looking forward to school.

They loved the pictures of Zac and the bicycles. This orphanage has a few bicycles so they know how to ride. The most popular gift for all the children were the water goggles. They are excited to be able to see under the water when they go to the beach.

Since they were in the same clothes as yesterday we figured a new outfit was needed for tomorrow’s pictures, and they requested from us fruit and water in a bottle... like ours.

Odessa Orphanage day 1

The picture of Olga and Era (like Vera without the V) is posted on flicker. More tomorrow, we didn't want to overwhelm them.

Crazy but good day. We left at 5am to leave for Odessa. It takes 6 hrs to drive there, it was a nice paved highway and we had a chance to see the countryside ( we have pictures on our other camera, but the battery ran out and we forgot the charger). We got to experience the "European toilets" or holes in the ground on the highway.

We arrived at the regions inspectors office around 11:30 and without adding all the drama, we finished up around 2:30 and got to meet the children at 3.

The orphanage is very nice and the Dir was great. The children were sleeping when we got there, so she had to wake them up and tell them why we were there. It was so cute they were running back and fourth to the bathroom getting dressed and fixing their hair, their friends said "the Americans are here". Before they came to meet us they were whispering with their friends looking at us.

Olga came out first and sat next to me and Era next to her, they were so scared and of course terrified of Stephen only being around women.

Once they got their Barbie's things got better. They are learning English in school but they were so nervous they couldn't talk in English, they said tomorrow they will ask us questions. They wanted to know where we live.

We got the basics out of them, foods they like, they swim in the Ocean, they want to see pictures of Zac (our dog) and they want to show us their swings/playground area tomorrow.

Olga appears to be the outgoing one and Era was very shy, though they were giggly girls and visually very close to each other.

As with Anastasyia, its difficult not to fall for these kids. Since we got there so late the Dir said she will go over their file with us tomorrow. Being its a Ukraine holiday tomorrow (we figured we would hit at least one of them) its nice of the Dir to meet with us tomorrow.

At first they gave me a hug good-bye and wouldn't look at Stephen. Then ran around the back to see us leave and for another hug. This time they looked at Stephen so he stuck out his hand to shake their hand, they shaked his hand and giggled. It was so cute.

More tomorrow!

Adoption Day 2 and 3

By request, going forward, view all pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewartadoption2008/. We dont know the names of everything we have pictures of.

Yesterday the driver, Sergay, and our interpreter Christina picked us up at our hotel for a city tour. We first ate at a Ukrainian restaurant and went for the favorite dish, I dont remember the name but it looked and tasted like Chinese dumplings. We walked through the city and took various pictures of churches, historic buildings and statues and again had our share of cappuccino's. We learned much of Ukraine was destroyed during WWII so most of the buildings were re-built. In some areas they have stand alone pieces of remains of the old buildings.

Day 3- As some of you are already aware, we found out at 9:30 this morning the children were adopted yesterday by a Ukraine family. The adoption process is challenging if you dont have children pre-selected. To make a long story short, we are heading to Odessa tomorrow, if we get approval, to view twin 10 yr old girls. Their names are Olga and Era (cant pronounce the second name, need to roll the RRs), they aren't identical and have been there for 1 yr because their mom passed away and no known health problems. Looks like we are driving to Odessa instead of the train. Our agency has adopted from this orphanage before and its considered good like Maripol.

We didnt take pictures today, it was very emotional but we hope for the best tomorrow. If we dont want to adopt them, then we go back to the SDA and see if they will show us other children.

We dont think we will have access to the internet tomorrow.

Adoption Day 1

We left Denver 2pm Sunday July 7 and arrived in Kyiv Monday at 4:30pm. Kyiv is 9 hrs ahead of Denver. The service on Lufthansa was great. We had a long lay over in Munich but the airport was clean and we had our last "large" cup of coffee and a great pretzel.


The flt to Kyiv was quite an eclectic group from business men to families to one step up from carrying live stock. When they said we can board, everyone ran and pushed their way through the gate, note we had assigned seats. Makes you appreciate the US boarding process. The man in our row stunk so bad so Stephen got to sit next to him.


Kyiv airport is old and doesn't have terminals inside, so we exited outside and a bus took us to the main terminal. We must of looked very American, our customs VIP service picked us right out of the crowd and our agency picked us out as well. Alex got us through customs, a man of few words, half the time we didn't know where he was. We collected our luggage, it all arrived, and we were met by Sasha, the driver, Sergay and our interpreter Christina and headed for the hotel. The weather has been very pleasant, 70s, but the humidity and my hair are another story.

We decide the stay in a hotel instead of with the host family. We are in the Opera, a new hotel downtown. Nice size room and bathroom for Europe. We completed the adoption money exchange at the hotel right away, we were relieved to pass the money on quickly.

Everyone at the hotel speaks English and the menus are in English. We ate dinner at the hotel, Stephen went for the Ukraine favorite, borsh soup, which was very good and I stayed with the reliable chicken ceasar salad. Afterwards we walked around the city. A new mall is close by, but it was closed, so we had one more cappuccino to stay awake for the walk back to the hotel.