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.