Tag Archives: Traveling

First Adoption

The Phone Walk

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Our visit today was quite a bit different, as we have another family joining us now. It is nice to have company, but also difficult to share the same small space. We have developed something of a routine with Ilya and Lena and they were a bit confused this morning, as to why it has changed all of a sudden. I am sure it must be even harder for the other family, just getting acquainted with their daughter and having the distractions of four other people around!

Ilya fell and hit his head today. He jumps around like crazy on those foam blocks. We try to keep a close eye on him, but he is really something. The block he was on was just about 6 inches high, but he still starting crying. I went over and picked him up. I sat down on the couch with him and he just snuggled up to me, thumb in his mouth. He stopped crying and just sat there for a few minutes. He let me comfort him and kiss him. It was a bonding moment for us and a little lesson on what mamas do for him. I would describe him as independent for the most part… he acts like he doesn’t need our help, so it was nice to see the other side of it today. And he was completely fine… back to jumping on the blocks 15 minutes later.

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In case you don’t know, we’re celebrating another birthday tomorrow! The birthday of a certain sweet little redhead. We don’t think we’ll be able to do much for her birthday (because of the orphanage rules), but we did get her a special toy. A little phone which talks. “Priyet!” (“Hi!”). “Paka!” (“Bye!”). I think it plays some music too. We knew it would be the perfect birthday present after she stole someone else’s new phone today.

Here is Lena’s special I have a musical phone walk…

Here is a not-very-good-video of Ilya. I did not get any good videos or photos of him today… he is hard to catch!

Some of you have asked me what the orphanage looks like! This is the building…
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They also have large grounds with a lot of playground equipment, a bit of which you can see here…
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We’ve had a lot of people ask how we get around here, which I’ll tell you about in a post soon. Anything else you want to know about?

First Adoption

WOOOHOOO!

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The celebrating begins!

Reed Ilya and Scarlett Lena will officially join our family. (in ten days that is!)

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Court was very quick, easy and totally freezing. Sasha said it was her quickest court trip! They didn’t even ask us why we want to adopted when we are so young. Which we were totally anticipating. No questions about why we want to adopt or why Ukraine or anything. WOW!

Sasha said it is very possible that we will be home for Christmas. She hopes to send us to Kiev for our last 2-3 days on Monday the 20th. We would really like to be home for Christmas.

I have a special request… tomorrow is Aaron’s birthday. He is very happy to be here adopting and excited about being a papa/father/zaza. But, he admitted he’s still a bit homesick for red velvet cupcakes. Will you all wish him a happy birthday, please? He shares his birthday with his sister Rachel, who has been extremely supportive throughout the whole process… please wish her a happy birthday too!

First Adoption

The Weekend

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We don’t really do too much on the weekends. Yesterday, we went off to try to buy Ilya and Lena boots. We didn’t bring them shoes, not knowing what size they’d wear. Ukrainians are very particular about how bundled up their children must be in the winter and so, we need to buy them decent winter boots when we break them out of the orphanage.

We went to the children’s shoe store down below us and had some sticker shock. The shoes were American and from other countries… Sketchers, Clarks, Ecco. Nothing below $50 USD. So, we went to another store. The shoes were more like $20-35 there. Not as cute at all and they didn’t have the sizes we needed in the shoes we liked the best. We certainly can buy shoes there, but we wanted to look around some more first. So, we walked around for awhile.

Anyone want to guess where we ate? I don’t even remember the last time I ate at this chain at home, but here we are a bit desperate.

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I saw this store after we ate. I think I know what that means!
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We found another shoe store. Also about $50 for children’s boots. So, we returned home to a night of watching television on the internet and eating grilled cheese.

Today, we ventured out to get lunch. Off to the pizza place, only to find out that they were closed. But, I had done some internet research and found another place I thought might have English menus. An Irish Pub. Not sure if they’d have anything that I could eat (I don’t eat meat), but they certainly did. It looks like the kind of Irish Pub you’d find in the US. They have a whole several page alcohol menu. But their food menu… um, interesting? Dozens of kinds of sausages, two pages of sushi, and another two pages for sandwiches, ribs, pizza and salads. I thought I’d try another Caesar Salad and Pizza Margarita. Aaron got ribs. The Caesar dressing was not neon green this time. It was a bit watered down, but pretty good. All of the rest of the food was very good. Aaron had the most amazing baked potato. The Golden Lion. For those of you coming to Donetsk, check it out.

That was pretty much our day today. Eat. Do a bit of grocery shop. Now, who knows what?

First Adoption

Again

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Aaron taught Lena a new word today. She caught on very quickly. I think he realized his mistake in teaching her… you teach her that and you can’t ever put her down! What word, you ask…?

Lena sat on my lap for about an hour today! First, she wanted to play the upside down game. She hangs her head over my knees and every thirty seconds pulls herself up to look at me. I say “HI!” and she nods and says “da, da” (yes, yes). Then, I took out the camera to take a photo of the boys’ monster creation. Well, she discovered how fun it is to watch the world through the camera. So, she sat there playing with the camera. Then, we gave her some juice and… she learned how to drink out of the sippy cup! YAYYY! She couldn’t take the lid off with the camera in one hand, so she tried drinking it and figured it out. She seemed to be having fun with it. I hope we can get her to drink like that for awhile… at least until we get home.
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They made up another fun game today. Lena was laying on the block that Ilya wanted. So…

This is the monstrosity that Ilya and Aaron built today. No way this would have so high without a little trouble maker staying on my lap.
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But it had to fall over sometime…

We think Ilya calls Aaron “Zaza”. You can hear him saying in the video. Today, he was trying to get Aaron to do something and he was saying “zaza! zaza!” And I said “papa?” And he said “zaza!” He also says “juice” like “seuss”.

I really liked Lena’s little jumper/pinafore today. It was a bit short to wear with just tights, though! The nanny brought a jacket down for her. A 2T this time. It was a bit big, but I think the 18-24m stuff we have for her should fit her nicely.
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First Adoption

Some Questions Answered

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What video camera are you using?
We just brought our Olympus Stylius 850SW and take both photos and video on that. We chose to bring this camera because it was designed to be nearly unbreakable. Waterproof, freezeproof, can stand a 5ft drop (and our trail guide tested that horse back riding last year!). We’ve used a Flip video camera in the past and the quality seems to be a bit better, but I am not sure if it’s worth lugging both across the ocean!

Also, do you then use Flicker to upload them?
Yes, we’ve found Flickr is the best way to keep the picture and video quality high! We import the photos to iPhoto, select our favorites and then click “Share” and “Flickr” up in the top bar. With videos, you have to upload them to Flickr manually. I also highly recommend Flickr because if you ever lose your photos, you can download them again at a high quality resolution.

How long did it take the orphanage director to give the thumbs up to allow you to see the judge?
About 5 minutes? She asked us a few questions and we were good to go! We’ve only met the deputy director, but she seemed to have no problems with us. She will also have to testify at court that this is in Ilya and Lena’s best interest. 


Are you still on to see the judge soon?
Yes! Next Monday! Please pray that it goes well for us. Our facilitator walked us through the whole thing, but I am still nervous about remembering everything that I have to say.

You had said something before about the 10 day wait being waived. Is that still possible and if so when will you know if it has been waived or that it won’t be?
Well, someone who adopted from here 3 years ago told us that there is a prosecutor who always contests it if it is waved. And the length of time which we would have to wait then is 30 days! So they do not waive the wait. That was over 3 years ago, and we do not know if that applies to this specific region. We  only know of one family who adopted from this orphanage and their wait was not waived. We are planning for it not to be waived but praying that it is! If it is waived, we will know at the end of our court session, when the judge reads his decision.