Update on Jake

Jake is our easygoing boy, but he does have his moments! When he first came home from Ukraine he had a tendancy to throw flat out screaming tantrums when he was told "no" or disciplined. I guess that is pretty normal for kids in an orphanage. He is doing much better and is a good boy about doing things when he is asked.

He really loves our dog, Sasha, and is frequently seen hugging and kissing her. Sometimes during the day when Riley is at school, I will see Jake playing and Sasha is sitting as close as possible to him. And since Jake is the child who spills his food or drink quite frequently, that also encourages Sasha to stick close to him!

Jake started going to pre-K a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and he is really enjoying school. He goes on Tuesday and Thursdays from 12:30 to 3:30 and there are only 7 children in his class. School has really helped him pick up English. He had a tendancy not to try very hard with English since Poppa and Riley understood what he was saying. But with Mama and everyone else wondering what the heck he was saying, he has started using a lot more English. He is really good at cutting, coloring, and he can tie his shoes.

Jake is always quick with a big smile that melts your heart! He likes to play with legos and he really likes to do puzzles. He is hooked on Playstation like all American boys but Mom won't let him sit in front of the tv all day!

Update on Riley

The teachers at school say that Riley greets them every morning with a great big smile! He is adjusting to school very well, although it's a struggle for him to do spelling and a lot of his assignments. It's really amazing how far he has come in only three months since we got back. He has made friends at school and excels at gym class. He also loves music class and he goes around singing at home quite a bit.

Riley is not as easygoing as Jake, but hey, who ever gets two easy going kids? He can be mopey and smarts off every now and then, but that also comes with the territory of a nine year old. He has a good heart and is always willing to help people and is especially kind to younger children. I think that comes from the orphanage and taking care of his brother and the other small kids.

He is very athletic and can roller blade like you wouldn't believe. He put on ice skates at Thanksgiving for the first time and took off blazing around the rink! He is also fast at riding his bike. The boys love their bicycles and are sad that it's too cold and snowy to ride anymore. They do like going outside and playing in the snow and sledding.

Riley loves to draw cards and make pictures and generally any kind of cutting, pasting, and gluing! He is lucky that he has a Mama who has a closet full of craft things to play with. He likes all of my scrapbooking stuff and gets my cast off stickers and paper. He also loves the Playstation and any kind of computer games.

Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama

Gosh, I can't even tell you how many times a day I hear the word Mama! It does get old, but then I stop and think how good it is to be called Mama after waiting so long. And how much we love our boys. It's just been unbelievable how fast they have adapted to coming to a new home and getting a new family.

They love our parents and all of their cousins. They have stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Fenton's house several times since we have been home and they love wrestling with their Grandpa Fenton. Over Thanksgiving we stayed with Ray's sister and brother-in-law and their three children in Ohio. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins. Not to mention a houseful of toys that they could play with.

Food was quite an issue when we first got back as they didn't want anything but potatoes and sausage. And fried eggs. Food in the orphanage is very bland and they are slow to try spicy foods or ethnic foods. They just recently decided they like peanut butter and I told them they are now "All American" boys since they eat peanut butter sandwiches. It was pretty frustrating to cook a meal and have them both say "yuck". But as the weeks have gone by, I get more and more thumbs up on the meals I am cooking. Or as Jake says "yum yumchka".

Both boys have grown an inch and a half since we got back in September. Jake's face has thinned out quite a bit and you can tell that they both are taller. They are good sleepers and once they hit the bed at night they are out pretty quick. Jake was taking a nap in the orphange and still takes one every couple of days or he gets really tired out.

We have been making a lot of Christmas crafts and our house is decorated with all sorts of cute homemade items from school and church. The boys and I recently went sledding at a local park and we rushed out to make snowmen when the snow was just right the other morning. I have always been a kid at heart and now I have some kids to play with!

We are really looking forward to our first Christmas with our new family. We have been very blessed this year and may all of you experience the the joy and happiness of the season.

Take care everyone, Pam

Proud Poppa

I'm having a good time with the boys. They can be a handful at times, but I really enjoy them. Riley and Jake are BOYS - the real deal. They love riding their bikes, climbing, jumping, wrestling, playing video games, watching action movies and any superhero cartoon or movie they can see.

I really enjoy having an opportunity to share some of the "Skolna" or cool things I know. They've watched a few of my favorite movies with me and as long as they aren't too dialogue intensive (which they seldom are) they lock in and watch. Afterwards, they may try out some new fighting moves or reenacting a scene, but that's to be expected.

The boys, as I've mentioned, like to fight and I'm much more open to them doing that than Pam is. I realize that they are just doing it for fun and it burns off some of their energy. Riley is bigger, faster and stronger than Jake for now, but Jake can take more punishment than Riley too. In another year or two, Riley will only be able to say he's faster. At that point, he's got to hope that faster is good enough or Jake will pound him. I've warned him a few times that the day is coming when Jake will be bigger than him. He disregards it - there is no way his "little brother" will ever be bigger than him.

Riley is really coming along with his English and learning to read very quickly. Since starting preschool, Jake's actually finally started to use English. He's picked up so much in such a short time, it staggers the mind. He was understanding a lot before, but now he's also saying it. The other schoolwork is going to take some time. Riley's math and spelling are far less than perfect, but we are working on those.

Last week was a busy one!

We ran around last week getting the boys in to the dentist on Monday and a pediatrician on Wednesday. We stopped in at Verizon to see where Dad works and check out his office. And of course meet everyone who had heard and read all about them. (And get a lot of candy and treats from their Dad's co-workers!)

On Thursday Ray and Riley went to the school and got Riley registered at Northcrest school which has and ESL (English as second Langage program). Riley started this Monday, the 19th and seems to be doing pretty well. He will have two hours of tutoring a day to learn English. And his teacher sent a note yesterday that said she found a fifth grade student that speaks Russian and can come down anytime and tranlsate if they need it.

Ray is back to work as of Wednesday, the 21st, and Jake and I are home during the day. Finally I can get some things done and get organized. We assembled bunk beds for their room and a new dresser last Friday. Just need some storage bins for the toys. I have been doing laundry like crazy and running the dishwasher every day! Ray and I are holding up pretty good but we have had our "crabby" moments. It's just been a little overwhelming with these guys. We are starting to get in a routine with the school and bedtimes, etc. I am going to start looking at pre-school for Jake a few days a week. He needs to be with other kids and play.

Jake and Riley seem to be adjusting very well and are at home in our house and with us and our families. It really is amazing how quickly they adapted and became our boys. We get kisses and hugs from them and wake up to a couple of boys jumping in our bed with us in the morning! Sasha (our dog) is getting used to the noise level and realizes that when Ray uses his discipline voice that it's usually for the boys and not her. (His "dog" discipline voice and "boy" discipline voice are the same). They boys love our dog and frequently hug and kiss her and want to feed her.

We will try to get a few more pictures up soon. Take care, Pam-Ray-Riley-Jake

Fly Boys

The boys are growing up fast. They are now employed by the airlines as pilots. This shot is from our our trip from Amsterdam to Minneapolis.

Our first family picture

Picking up the boys at the orphanage

on August 31st to officially take them

with us and start our new family!

News in Ukraine

CNN Report on Ukrainian Government

I found this very interesting. I'm glad we got the adoption finished when we did or we might have had some problems.

Home Sweet Home

We got back to the house yesterday late in the afternoon. The drive wasn't bad at all with the portable DVD player keeping Riley's attention with The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. Jake and Pam were both pretty out of it with their illnesses.

Pam went straight to bed when we got home and the boys quietly played in their room after a brief tour of their new home. They seem to like the house quite a bit and were especially delighted with the gifts waiting for them when they arrived. Pam's parents and her sister and her family had put up "Welcome Home" banners for everyone and had laid out some new clothes and gifts for them. Kim, Scott, Julie and Jenny also brought over some board games, toys and a huge bin of Legos. Riley loves Legos and has been asking for them since about the second day we knew him. Pam's friend, Michelle also brought some presents for the boys too. The two of them got some packs of Tic Tacs (their favorite) and each also got a very cool Matchbox monster truck.

In Ohio the boys were also well spoiled by my family and friends. My sister and her family bought them new booster seats for the car, some toys and the kids donated some of their old toys to the boys too. My parents bought them new bicycles which were a huge hit. They are actually currently bugging me about riding them. My good friends Matt and Mary and their daughter Emily were hugely generous in buying the boys not only a couple of trucks and some new clothes (including Spiderman t-shirts), but also a Playstation 2 and some games. Thanks, guys - Riley and I spent some good father-son time last night running down pedestrians with the driving game.

Jake crawled into bed last night at about 5 pm. The poor little dude was just wiped out from being sick for three days. He slept straight thru til 6 am this morning and it did him a world of good. I'm happy to report that he is back up and running today. Despite being afraid of eating, I convinced him it was some saltines or the doctor and he chose saltines. He then moved on to some dry cereal and (THANK GOD!) everything stayed down.

Well, I'm going to let Pam rest for a bit while the boys and I go grocery shopping. Dinner last night for me and Riley was a can of pork and beans and some chips. We are in dire need of groceries. Hopefully I can successfully shop for groceries and keep these two cossacks under control. It won't be easy.

Back in the U.S.A.

What a long strange trip it's been. We made it back to Cleveland last night and went to my sister's house where we have now got a night's sleep. The trip was very long and tiring, but we are so happy to be back home.

Yesterday we got up at 3:30 in the morning in Kiev and got our stuff together, then woke up the boys at just before 4:30. They didn't like waking up that early, but it didn't stop them from staying awake for far too long. In the 24 hours they were up, Riley got about 20 minutes of sleep in the car to Linda's and Jake got the same, plus about an hour on the 2nd flight of the day.

In Minneapolis, the boys became U.S. Citizens. While the U.S. doesn't recognize it, they are still Ukrainian citizens too and when they turn 18, they'll decide if they want to maintain the dual citizenship or just U.S. citizenship. When I told they they were now Americans, they were very happy.

The boys were not intimidated or scared at all until we finally met up with Linda, Bill and the kids - then they got quiet. This was new family and they didn't understand what the heck they were saying. Toward the end of the evening they started getting comfortable with them and this morning Riley is playing on the Playstation with Ryan and Jake is playing with a toy barn and a Noah's ark. Poor little Jake got a fever yesterday and was experiencing a lot of trips to the bathroom (I took that kid to the bathroom about 20 times). We gave him some advil and he seemed to be better, but this morning he's feverish again and throwing up. If you ask him though - he's "Hurashow" aka "Good".

Honestly, the boys were exceptionally good on the planes, in the restuarants, etc, but they weren't perfect and they squirmed around, dropped, spilled or lost just about 95% of what they touched. Pam was laughing her butt off at me for how much that stuff kept happening while I was watching them. It happened to her too, but not nearly as much. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Today we are going to visit my parents for a short trip and probably go to the Geauga County Fair later today. If Jake is still feeling rough, I'll probably stay home with him and we'll nap. He and I have got to be napping buddies. In a couple of days, we'll probably head back to Indiana.

Oh yeah - we lost luggage again. That makes 3 for 4 on this trip. We lost it going to Edinburgh, we lost it going to Kiev and we lost it coming home. The trip to France was by train and we didn't lose it, so that doesn't count. Only the flight from Edinburgh to London ended with us finding our bags at the airport. They should arrive later on today.

PS - in Kiev on Saturday we went to a Friday's restuarant where the wait staff spoke English and had some American food. I can not even begin to tell you what a boost that was for us. I love the Ukrainian food, but it was SO good to have some hot wings and nachos. The boys turned their noses up at just about everything except french fries and ice cream, but Pam and I had a great meal.

Another high point in the trip was on the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. The stewardess came by offering coffe and I asked, "Is this American coffee?" and it was. We drank coffee and espresso and cappucino in Scotland, England, France and Ukraine and enjoyed some of it, but for my money - plain American coffee is where it's at. The regular coffee in the other countries is more like espresso than coffee usually. It's good for a wake up, but not so great for flavor.

That's it for now. So much has happened since the last post, I'm sure I'm missing most of it. Those are what I can think of for now and we'll be updating later on. God bless, the USA.

Travel Schedule back to the USA!

We couldn't get any flights out of Kiev on Saturday so we will be leaving on Sunday. One travel agency said they did not have any flights out until September 15th, so we felt lucky to find one this Sunday! We will have to leave for the airport around 4:30 in the morning here! In Indiana time, that is basically leaving on Saturday night and getting to Cleveland on Sunday at 6:00 pm. It's going to be a long, long day or two of traveling. Hopefully we will all sack out on the plane. I have some "travel packs" of things for the boys on the plane.

We are going to stay in Ohio with Ray"s sister and her family for a couple of days and see his parents and our friends Matt and Mary. Then we will head for home with the truck stuff full of luggage, two boys, and a dog! YEAH! But be sure that I will be home by the weekend so I can go to the scrapbook convention in Fort Wayne with Mom, Julie and Jenny!

9/4/05

Kiev to Amsterdam - Flight 3097 leaves 07:05 a.m. arrives 09:05 am
(Ukraine International Airlines)

Amsterdam to Minneapolis - Flight #41 leaves 10:45 a.m. and arrives 12:45 p.m.(NorthWest Airlines)

Minneapolis to Cleveland - Flight 3530 leaves 3:10 p.m. arrives 6:07 p.m
(NorthWest Airlines)

Boys will be boys

Ok, so the first night back in Kiev at the apartment, our facilitator had a sofa bed folded out for both boys to sleep on together in the second bedroom/sitting-room. Well, you can imagine how that went putting two giggling, goofy kids together! After about 30 minutes of giggling,talking, and poking, I remembered that there was a cot in the apartment and folded that out on the other side of the room. Riley actually volunteered to sleep on that because he was tired and his little brother was bugging him. Last night they did better and we don't mind a little bit of talking a giggling before sleep. That is to be expected. And then their Dad had to go by the room and stop in and let out one of the biggest burps I have ever heard. Then I hear huge giggling and laughing from all three of them. It's wonderful thing to hear a couple boys and their dad cracking each other up. They have already started with the fart and burping jokes, even with the language barrier they seem to understand that kind of humor!

They are good boys but very active and we need to get used to that! We were exhausted last night and I know all of you with kids out there are laughing and understand. Especially my sister-in-law, Linda, who deals with three kids every day. She has been waiting for her brother to chase after kids and get a feel for parent hood! The boys have their "brother" moments with some head locks and fighting and Jake starts crying because Riley did something mean to him. But overall, they really are good kids. Riley wants to help me with everything. He wants to set the table and wash dishes every meal. Whoo hoo, I can use a kid like that!

Cooking is still a challenge here, even in Kiev, and I will be glad to be home in my own kitchen. There are so many foods these guys have never seen or tried before. And thank goodness for a washer and dryer at home because Jake gets dirty in five seconds. We have bought a couple of outfits here because they were filthy the first day! There was a second hand clothing store and we got t-shirts and some sweat pants. The weather has turned really chilly.

Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and support. It means so much to us. Love, Pam

Thanks

Hello everyone, Pam and I want to thank everyone who has been praying and wishing us well and keeping in touch with us throughout this. I know the trip is still far from over - 18 hours of traveling will be a big trial too, but we are feeling very thankful for everything right now and wanted to share that with everyone who has been pulling for us.

We had a pretty quiet day with the kids so far. We went out to the playground and watched the boys climb around like monkeys. We then took a trip to McDonald's for lunch and the boys were very excited by the happy meals, but not as excited by hamburgers. I had to take Jake's toy away to get him to try the burger and then he said he liked it, but didn't eat even half of it. French fries on the other hand are a big hit with Riley who is kind of finicky. Actually both of the boys are kind of finicky with "meals", but love all junk food.

On the food subject, we went out and did some shopping last night after running around for more documents and picked up a roast chicken. Chicken is a big hit with Riley. That boy put away a lot of chicken, while Jake continued to focus on bread and cheese. Jake wants bread all the time and Riley always wants potatoes.

According to Lera, who was our translator in Kharkiv, orphans who are adopted generally believe that because they've been adopted, they can have anything they want. The boys want a lot and aren't keen on us telling them "no". Unfortunately, the boys are also kind of fond of using the word, "nyet" themselves. We've had a couple of tussles due to that, but they are starting to get the picture that we are in charge. As stubborn as the two of them can be, we can generally match it. We are picking our battles wisely, but the boys are much better behaved after being with us a couple days now.

Well, that's it for now, Pam wanted to load some pictures, but apparently our camera isn't taking the pictures in .jpg formatting and she has to find a way to change them over. At home, it won't be a problem, but it is kind of a pain here. I'm not sure if we'll make it to the internet tomorrow, if not - I'll update from my sisters on Monday most likely.

We've got the kids!

Howdy all. Good news from Kiev - that's right, we are back in the city. Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur. Court and chasing paperwork, then a day of paperwork and driving 5 hours.

Court went extremely well. It was very short, few questions and no 30 day wait. All in all, it couldn't have went any better. The paper chase afterwards was long and frustrating, but it wasn't too bad with good news carrying it along.

Wednesday we went to the orphanage with treats and candy for the two groups of kids (the groups Riley and Jake were in) and then took off with them after giving the orphanage a modest donation. The kids are sent out the door with "nothing". They left everything they had at the orphanage for others to use, they didn't even get to keep the underwear they were wearing. Luckily we'd brought clothes for both kids. It was kind of rough riding around in the small car (Daewoo) with the two boys, the two of us, Alexi, Tatiana and our new Kharkiv translator Lera. Lera was nice by the way, but we only saw her for two days. About 5 pm, we finally left Kharkiv and drove back to Kiev.

The drive back started out okay with everyone having more room since Lera was still in Kharkiv, but they got very restless. We also hadn't eaten since our late lunch at 2pm and Tatiana decided to feed the boys candy and coca cola to get them really riled up. By the time we got to Kiev, they were literally bouncing on the roof. Needless to say, our first night alone with them made it kind of rough getting them into bed. Once they did get to sleep though, they slept like little angels.

Today we played paper chase some more and spent a couple hours in the U.S. Consular's grounds getting them set for U.S. Citizenship. The boys are very tired of paper chasing and frankly, so are we. We got just about everything taken care of today and also have the tickets for our flight back purchased too. We are leaving very early Sunday morning and will be getting into Cleveland about 6:30 that night. Total time from Kiev to Cleveland is actually going to be 18 hours, so we'll be very tired people by then.

That's about it for now. We are going to be taking it easy tomorrow and then joining Tatiana and her family for dinner in the evening. Hopefully we'll be posting again before leaving, but if not - you know we are on the way.

Tomorrow is the Day!

Hi All,
We woke up in a pretty good mood today knowing that court is tommorrow at 10:00 am! Everyone please say a little prayer today that the 30 day waiting period is waived for us tommorrow. I honestly don't know how I will be able to handle that if they don't waive the waiting.

Ray is still coughing and probably has bronchitis but he started on the amoxicillian we brought with us and is on the road to recovery. Somehow he managed to get cold medicine from a drugstore for me when I was so sick on Saturday and I am feeling much better also. Hopefully that was our bout of sickness for the trip. After not being able to visit the boys on Saturday because I was so sick, when I went on Sunday I got big hugs from them. I really missed not seeing them for a day.

Riley surprised us today by strapping on a pair of roller blades and skating like you wouldn't believe. He was really good at it. It's amazing how athletic these boys are. They can throw balls and kick like crazy. We've been seeing some stubborness in Riley and some teasing of his little brother but that is to be expected. They don't like to be told no and Jake is good at a little pouting and crying act. Things will probably be a little rough the first few months until we get to know their personalities and they know how far to push us. But they are really good boys. Especially compared to some of the other terrors at the orphanage!

Jake has a big "goofy gene" in him will will fit right in to our family. For those of you who know Ray and I, goofy is part of our lives! Jake makes faces and does these silly walks that just crack us up. I am very sad that I don't know anything Jake is saying because I am sure he is funny. Riley has his moments of silliness, but he is older and more serious than his brother.

We assume that our facilitator, Tatiana, will be showing up tonight or maybe early morning for court on Tuesday. Her son, Sasha, calls us from Kiev every couple of days to let us know what is going on. Sasha is the translator that originally met us at the airport with her and is excellent at English. I guess we didn't really spell out that our tranlator, Luba, is not here in Kharkiv with us. She left on Saturday, the 20th because she took a job as an au pair in Norway with a family and had to leave. So we have been here on our own since then and just relying on Ray's Russian. I was kind of scared to be left all alone in this city without anyone who speaks English or anyone close by to help us, but we have managed pretty well. People try to talk to me and I just shrug and say "English" and they realize I don't know what the heck they are saying!

I keep thinking about how strange I feel in a country where I don't know what is being said or going on, and then I wonder how Jake and Riley are going to feel when the come home with us. But I guess kids probably can adapt more easily. Ray says "Hi Buddy" to the boys and they repeat "Hi Buddy" to him. Riley is especially starting to answer things in English, like yes, no, thank you, please, etc. Also, kids don't really need to speak the same language to pick up some toys and play with each other.

Well, time to go to the Market and pick up a few more things before tommorrow. I am sure that shopping with the boys will be much more difficult, so we want to get a few things. I hope when we get back to Kiev to buy some handmade Ukranian items and things of Ukranian nature to bring home with us. It was hard enough just dragging Ray along when I am shopping, three guys is going to be really rough!

Hopefully tommorrow the boys will be officially our sons and we will be back on our way to Kiev. Pam and Ray

New Court Date

Hello everyone. Things are looking up in Kharkiv. After another semi rough day yesterday, today is going much better.

Yesterday, Pam had barely any voice and didn't even feel well enough to leave the apartment once. You know that's got to be bad since she hates that apartment. I went to visit the boys in the morning and wasn't feeling so hot myself. I explained to them that we'd be back in the morning and we ended up napping most of the afternoon and then still sleeping a full night.

Both of us are feeling a fair bit better today, though still tire easily. Just as we were getting ready to go visit the boys, Sasha called to tell us that we had a definite court appointment on Tuesday at 10 am. That lifted our spirits quite a bit. He also explained that the landlady has supposedly just been checking up on us to see how we are doing and he told her not to bother us any more. Unfortunately the hot water issue doesn't look like a quick fix. We'll continue with the cold showers for the remainder of our stay in this fine, fine apartment.

We visited the boys a couple of times today and had a good time. This afternoon we took the clothes we bought for them and they were very excited about wearing them. Riley especially liked his court outfit. He had a couple shirts to choose from and chose a green and cream colored one to go with his jeans. We was very excited about getting a pair of jeans.

Now - we are back to where we were last Wednesday or Thursday, just waiting for court to arrive and hoping the 30 days are waived.

Rough 24 Hours

We are not having a good 24 hours here.

It started yesterday with our landlady barging into the apartment when we got back from shopping for clothes. She snooped through the apartment snitting at things and crabbing at us in Russian. I was ready to toss her out on her ear (note - ear is used in place of the part of the anatomy I actually said), when I finally understood something - she was asking when we'd leave. I explained that it could be a couple of days, but it could be over a month. She through a fit about that and said we'd have to leave before the start of September.

As Tatiana, our facilitator handles our lodging, I told her to call her. She didn't like the idea of a long distance call to Kiev, so I told her that Tatiana would call her. She kept jabbering and complaining and I kept saying, "Tatiana telephone you". She finally got the hint and left.

When we got up to see the boys for our afternoon visit, one of the rough necks that is always causing trouble started running after Riley and ended up knocking him over and ripping up his knee really good. The poor boy was crying and his bag of stuff was scattered all over. Pam had put some extra bandages in her purse earlier that afternoon, so we cleaned him up and bandaged him up while a mamachka dragged the brat away. As of today his knee is looking fine and he's back to normal.

Last night, Tatiana's son, Sasha called and told us that the paperwork was delayed so we couldn't make it to court today. We are probably looking at getting the paperwork on Monday and hopefully getting to court on Tuesday. I can not wait for court at this point and really, really pray we get the 30 days waived.

When we woke up this morning, I was feeling better after a decent night's sleep. I still have a very deep cough and it hurts my ribs when I cough, but at least I don't cough nearly as often. The bad news is that Pam is starting to feel worse now too. She is very worn out today.

At the orphanage this morning, we stayed inside for once and had a room to just ourselves and the two boys. I think Riley was upset that court was delayed, because he'd been looking forward to it - for the car ride if nothing else. Riley told us to wait and left to get something and never returned. I went wondering around the whole school looking for him and over an hour later, we finally found him. He'd joined a class going out for a walk in the neighborhood. It was led by our favorite mamachka, Natasha (who is also Riley's favorite). I explained to her that Riley took off without telling us and we didn't know where he went. She gave him some words - I understood "plahoy" (bad) in there and it got Riley all mopey.

Wow - this note is a long crab session. I'll leave it on a more positive beat. This afternoon we took a nap, feel a bit better and visited the boys without incident. We took a deck of Uno cards with us and I taught Riley how to play. He caught on really quickly and it was about a draw as to who won more games. We then did a bit of rough housing and carrying the boys around, which was fun. Jake is continuing to be a source of constant amusement.

Now we are headed to get more groceries, since it looks like we'll be here for at least four more days. Pam is going to get to visit her precious Target Supermarket again. At least I'll get a good dinner in the cafe before the punishment of a crowded store.

Hi guys. Thanks for all the responses and e-mails again. We greatly appreciate those and the occassional phone call. Pam needs to get her gab on and I'm not cutting the mustard by any means.

I'm trying to load up a picture of Pam and the boys at the playground, but it doesn't seem to be cooperating. Too bad, it's a good shot.

We are heading off to lunch at the infamous Target and then shopping for clothes for the boys. We'll probably need a new piece of luggage too while we are at it. Tomorrow is our court date as long as Tatianna gets all the paperwork done in Kiev today. She is probably coming in tonight, we imagine. God willing, we'll have the 30 days waived and be heading to Kiev either tomorrow night or Saturday morning.

Pam is luckily avoiding the cough that I've got. I started taking some antibiotics this morning after a long and rough night of not sleeping. We did pick something that is probably cough syrup yesterday while we were out, but it hasn't done much for me. Thanks for all the well wishes and sympathy.

Greetings from Pam

Hi All,
First of all, thank you Diana Bruns and Lisa Bowser for checking in to the school situation for Riley. I really appreciate it and it's one less thing that I will be worrying about! Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem to get him in to a school that will help him learn English. Diana, I will call the contact you gave me as soon as we get home. I know Jake is already five but I think it will be best if he goes to pre-school and waits for kindergarten until next year. Riley is going in to second grade here and I suppose should be in third grade since he is nine. But he is small and I think he will be fine in second grade.

We started out the week with so much energy when we visited the boys twice a day, but we are wearing out quickly! Especially since we both have colds and stuffy noses and not feeling up to par right now. So we have gone from kicking balls and tag to sitting and coloring. I guess we had better get used to less sleep and trying to keep up with two bundles of energy!

On the plus side, there is a huge market here called "Target" (Not like our Target's in the US) but I was able to find plastic plates, cups, and silverware at the market. So being the wasteful Americans that we are, I bought a bunch of them so I don't have to boil water and try to do dishes all the time. And the store has a "deli" counter that you can buy salads, side dishes, and meats that are already cooked. That has made meal time immensely easier for me. We bought a hot pot to boil water but the apartment is old time Russian wiring and we blow the fuse everytime I try to use it! I am washing our clothes in the bath tub. I guess that beats pounding them with rocks down by the river!

I am going crazy with only Ray to talk to. My friends, you know how I like to talk! I am understanding more of what the boys are saying every day. But mostly I only have Ray to talk to and half the time he answers in Russian. Look out when I get home, I am going to talk your ears off!

So looking forward to getting the boys home and starting our new life as a family! They are great kids and we are so happy to have found them. Just hope their old mama can keep up with them. Once again, I think God knew what he was doing when he gave me older children instead of a little baby! Talk to you soon. Pam

Counting down the days til court

It's Wednesday afternoon here in Kharkiv and we are back at this nice air-conditioned internet cafe. Both of us have colds thanks to the boys and I learned the word for "blow" yesterday since one of the kids wanted to blow his nose. My cold has moved into my chest and I've got a good cough going in addition to the head cold. Pam so far has only the head cold, but I think she is a day or two behind me in the symptoms. It's miserable.

I explained to Riley yesterday that he would be going to court with the two of us. This morning he asked about going to court and about going to America. He's very eager to go. We showed him a map I printed off of America and pointed out Fort Wayne and Cleveland on them. Cleveland is where my sister lives and where we will be returning. He asked how far between the two cities too. He's a curious little boy.

These kids have toys around the orphanage, but not a whole lot of them. Instead, they end up running, jumping, climbing and using their imaginations. Reilly and his buddies built a fort yesterday with a downed branch, several stumps and part of a cabinet door. It actually turned out pretty good.

We had a small picture book with us and I was working with Riley on his English. It really helped him when I spelled the words in the Cyrillic alphabet. Pam thought I was writing the Russian words down til I asked Riley to read them to her. A few letters/sounds don't translate too well, but he was able to say all the pictures in the book in English by reading them in the Cyrillic letters.

We've discovered that the boys (especially Jake) like Tic Tacs. Jake likes all candy actually. We've started the boys asking for things in English in order to get them and Jake actually caught on as quickly as Riley when he figured out he'd get a Tic Tac for saying it right. It's very cute to hear them say, "I want a tic tak, please." and then the following "thank you."

We had lunch at the gyro place again where the guy speaks a little English. He and I talked more today - it turns out he is from Morocco and is a student here in Kharkiv. His English is nearly as good as my Russian, but he makes a very good sandwich. Those of you who know Pam will be shocked to learn that she's had lamb on two different occassions on this trip. She keeps trying to fool herself by saying it is chicken, but it was definitely lamb.

Court is on Friday and we are really praying to get the 30 days waived and get home. If they waive it, we'll probably be back in Cleveland within a week of that time.

Going to the Circus

When we went to see the boys yesterday, one of the "Mamachkas" caregivers told us that Riley was going to be going to the "Tseerk" aka Circus later that day and that we were invited to go along. How could we pass up that opportunity.

One of Riley's favorite Mamachkas, Natasha and I talked later on and without too much difficulty determined that we would meet at the orphanage at 2pm and walk to the circus.

We had passed by the tents for Circus Karabov a few times as it was on one of main roads. It took about 30 minutes to walk there at a good clip. This was an old style 1 ring circus, much like you used to see in small towns. One of the mamachkas explained that the circus was from Moscow.

Honestly, it was a great circus. You don't need to understand the language to understand a circus and we all had a very good time. Monkeys, camels, cats (housecats), trapeze artists, gymnasts and unfortunately clowns. I say this because, I am cursed to be the perfect target for clowns. The last time I was at a circus is was a big Barnum and Bailey production in a coliseum with three rings and thousands of people. Yet somehow the main clown found me and took me center ring. With a tiny circus tent, I was doomed.

They picked about 6 other people first and had them ringing bells, clanging on pie pans, playing washboards and horns, etc and then they picked me. I was given a big garbage can lid and instructed to scream and throw it on the ground. Luckily the clowns only used pantomiming to instruct me. When I let out a big roar and threw down the lid so it clanged, the crowd went nuts. Then they had me sit down and wait while some music started up and they directed the other 6 to start playing their instruments. When they finally had it going the way they wanted, they had me take my turn and roar and throw. Again, the crowd went wild and the clowns and I joined hands and bowed to both sides of the tent. The mamachka in front of me was crying she was laughing so hard.

Pam was very upset that she didn't have the camera, so luckily no photos of my spectacle exist. Riley mimed me doing my act later on and everyone apparently thought I was a good sport about it. This show appears to have been for the various orphanages mainly so only a couple of men were actually in the audience and I believe the clowns thought that I was actually with the orphanage. It was a very good time.

Oh yeah - cross dressing is apparently the height of humor. From what little television we've seen at least a couple of comedies feature men in drag and at the circus one of the acts was four very large men in drag and one tiny man in a sailor outfit. It was pretty odd, but the audience found it hilarious.

Riley

Jake's Smile

Yikes!

Hi all,
Should I be really scared of living with a houseful of boys? It's so amazing to us that we found these boys and they are perfectly healthy and so great. We get to visit them from 10:00 to 12:00 and 4:00 to 6:00 each day. The first day we met them Ruslan gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye. I was worried about how an older child might react, but he is very loving. Jake (Artyom) is one of those kids you have catch to get a kiss in, but he is cute as a button. His grin just melted my heart.

As you can imagine, my brain is just spinning with all the things to think about with two children and one that will need to go to school soon. I was planning on having a bit of time before thinking about school. If anyone in Fort Wayne has some time and wants to maybe check with Fort Wayne community schools to see if they have an english as a second language progam, or a school for kids learning English, I would be very grateful. I am so happy that Ray knows the Russian that he does and we can somewhat communicate. Although today Ray had me repeat something that was "I like pigs" instead of what I was trying to say that was "I like flowers"! Nice.

It breaks my heart so see all of the children at the orphange. They are so cute and I am in love with a little blond girl. They all run up and want hugs and attention when we get to the orphange. I think two will be enough for me!

The apartment in Kharkiv is a pit and I refuse to walk around without shoes on, let alone take a bath without my netted bathing shoes. We were living in the lap of luxury in Kiev and didn't know it! Can't wait to get back. And boy do we need a good shower because I have never seen a kid get dirty as fast as Jake. I am carrying wet wipes and tissues all the time now. Such will be the life of boys!

Praise God for being so good to us and we can't wait until we get home! Pam

Big News!

We can not even begin to tell you how happy we are. We had discussed coming home with two kids quite a bit and it turns out that our little man, has an older brother and both of them are as perfect as can be. Riley Fenton Stephens (aka Ruslan) turned 9 yesterday and our little brute, Jacob Lee Stephens (aka Artyom) was 5 on July 16th. Originally, we thought his birthday was in September, but it turns out the NAC had that part of the document wrong. The two are biologically half brothers and are very close to one another. When one gets a treat, he'll hold on to it til he can give his brother half.

The day we met them, they understood that we were going to be their new Mama and Papa and that they were going to live in America. They were very eager to meet us and are looking forward to going to their new home.

Riley is a bit short for his age, very lean but amazingly fast. He climbs like a monkey and seems to be very active. Jake is not fat, but is stocky. He apparently has a bottomless pit for a stomach and is always smiling. He's not as much of a climber as his brother, but can kick a ball nearly as far as Riley who is four years older. He's got the makings of a linebacker, I guess. By the way - Riley is in green and Jake is in red.

We showed the boys the pictures we brought with us of their new families two days ago. Today Riley remembered who everyone was and their relation not only to him, but also to us. He pointed at his grandparents and said "Dedushka and Babushka", but then pointed at me for my father and said, "Tvoy Papa". Smart boy.

English is going to take a bit. Jake won't sit still and Riley can't sit still for long. Both can repeat the words I tell them in English and they both sound pretty good at it. Riley can also count to 7 in English - they apparently taught him that in school.

Hopefully we will have a successful court date next Friday and be able to take the boys to Kiev the next day. If we are able to do that, we will probably be coming back into Cleveland sometime around the first of September.

Referral

We are happy to say we did choose a referral today. We'll actually get the referral tomorrow (signing papers and such) and then travel to Kharkiv (XAPKIB in Ukrainian).

We don't really want to say too much more at this point. We are excited and freaked out a bit. Hopefully the referral will work out well and we'll update you all from Kharkiv with some pictures and more info.

Kharkiv is to the east of us and we will be traveling by car to get there initially. The drive will be done overnight according to Tatiana, so that means Alexei isn't going to get much sleep.

At the region, we'll get an apartment for us and Luba to share. She'll be staying with us after today, I guess until at least we return to Kiev. We'll visit the orphanage with Tatiana and Luba to meet our referral.

Following that Tatiana will be returning to Kiev to work on paperwork and such. If all goes well, we'll be Kharkiv about two weeks before returning to Kiev. In Kiev it will be another 2 to 4 days before we finally come home.

I guess that means we'll be coming back in about 3 weeks - Hopefully!

I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to jump the gun in saying too much. I apologize for the vagueness, but if things don't work out in Kharkiv, we feel being vague is better.

Thanks for the continued well wishes and prayers. We are both very optimistic about this referral.

Here's some more about Kharkiv
http://www.kharkov.ua/region/region-e.htm

Kiev churches











Babushka's taking care of the
flowers in front of the apartment

More Pics

Ray and I at the open air museum
looking very tired!

St. Andrews Cathedral in Kiev


Traditional Ukranian folk singers

Pam and Luba

(Click to enlarge the picture)

This is our translator, Luba and I. We are
standing in front of St. Sophia's Cathedral
in Kiev. She is probably in her mid 20's
and a very nice girl. She grew up in an
orphanage in Ukraine and then lived in
a group home.

Pictures of the Apartment in Kiev

(Click on a picture if you want to enlarge it)


Bedroom
The Apartment Complex

Kitchen and sitting room

Appointment on Tuesday?

Howdy everyone. We got a call last night from Luba saying that we should have our appointment on Tuesday. We'll find out what time it will be later on today. If anyone's willing to hit their knees for a little prayer on this appointment, we'd appreciate it. We'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes when it is over. Hopefully we'll be on our way to find some rowdy youngster shortly after that.

Today we are on a long walk around the neighborhood trying to find the "supermarket". We didn't go the right way, but we are trying to circle back on it. I won't go into who wasn't allowed to ask for directions to it.

We stopped at the universal restuarant, McDonalds for lunch today. The best part of the meal was the air conditioning. We've not had a building with air conditioning since London that I can recall. If anyone recalls the conversation from "Pulp Fiction" about there being no Quarter Pounders with Cheese in the McDonald's in France because of the metric system, the same goes here. In fact, the name is similar to the Royale with Cheese they mention in the movie. It's something like a McRoyal, but with cyrillic letters. Pam went for a McFish herself. The fries were just called potatoes in Russian.

We decided to split a pie and I went to up to ask for a "McPerok" basically McPie and they in bad English told me I could choose between cherry and something else. I offered, "Apple?", they said no. Finally someone said it was Woodberry Pie. Well, I just had to try that. Turned out to be some kind of mixed berry with blueberry and raspberry together. It was really tasty. I can't say the same for my burger. It was pretty lousy.

We are currently in an internet cafe that I really like. It's called The Vault and is a huge warehouse type of room just packed with rows of computers. Most of them are set up for gaming, which would be a blast, except for the language barrier. I watched a kid playing Grand Theft Auto next to me for a while. I'm also sipping a beer while I type. How cool is that? If it weren't a half hour walk from the apartment, I'd be here every day.

These computers are also Windows XP, so we have the ability to finally load up some pictures, which Pam has been doing. They show our apartment and \I think she is loading one of her and Luba that I took in front of St. Sophia's Cathedral.

Pizza for Dinner

As Ray posted, I went running through the big supermarket grabbing Pringles, Cheetos, Cadbury chocolate bars, and the best thing of all, a frozen pizza with identifiable meat! It was ham and pineapple. Low and behold, the stove in the apartment worked just fine and we had pizza for dinner. At last, a meal I didn't have to cook from scratch. Believe me, I won't take a washer and dryer and pre-packaged foods for granted. Now if I can only find some nacho chips and cheese sauce! Hello to Everyone! Pam

Sunday Afternoon

Hello everyone. We appreciate all the e-mails, please keep them coming.

Yesterday's trip to the Open Air Museum was actually pretty interesting, despite the educational aspect of it. Actually, I like history a lot and this was a lot of history.

The Open Air Museum is a huge place, according to our translator Luba it is 180 Hectares, which works out to about 444 acres. They have buildings that are representative of all the regions of Ukraine here. It was a nice day for walking around, but it was a lot of walking around and it ended with us walking uphill for at least a mile. Yep, it was another of the patented Ray and Pam "Death Marches". Luckily Alexei was waiting with the car to take us home.

Here's the link to the museum: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museumstudies/websites04/martin/Ukraine.htm

On the way home Pam said something about the supermarket after Alexei had dropped Luba off. She meant the market across from our apartment, but I was unsuccessful in explaining "magazine nedelacor v'kvarteera" (the store not far from apartment) and he took us to a place actually called a supermarket. I had noticed the signs saying supermarket before. Pam loved the place. You could use a cart and pick up things from the aisles and ring up everything at a cashier before leaving. Heck, I loved that part of it myself.

On the way back, I told Alexei, "Maya jenna, oichin loobeesh supermarket" to which he replied, "Da, maya jenna toja". Translation, "My wife very much loves the supermarket" and his reply, "Yes, my wife too."

This morning we went to Luba's church for the 11:00 service. Her church offers a translator that speaks over an FM transmitter to radios with headphones that Pam and I wore. It was a good service, but like so many places here in Ukraine, the church was up 4 flights of stairs and was extremely warm.

After service, Alexei and his wife Oxana drove us home. It sounds like we may be going to the NAC again tomorrow, but we've not heard that officially from Tatiana. We are doing some serious internet and relaxing today and hopefully we'll get on to the real business Monday or Tuesday and find a child to go visit.

Cell Phone is Working!

Okay, we finally got to the root of the cell phone problem by trial and error. Our phone isn't working right for the card. Luckily, the phone prices here aren't too bad and we ended up getting another cell that our sim card works in.

Our number is 38 097 382 9814 which includes the country, city, etc... that will work throughout the country, so we are set for moving on to whichever region it may be. That was the important part of getting this working.

We are doing just a quick visit to the internet today before going to visit an area that is basically a miniature Ukraine. It has samples of architecture, culture, etc from all the regions within the country. I figure it's educational and good exercise both, so obviously, I'm not so interested at this point. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Ironing Ray's Handkerchiefs!

Hi all,
Gosh, I know that I am going stir crazy when I ironed all of our clothes today including Ray's hankies! I got up this morning and found a vacuum and cleaned the whole apartment and did laundry and dishes. We have a washer in the apartment and then I hang the clothes on a line in the balcony/porch of the apartment. I do feel lucky that we have a washer and and iron at this place. I washed out clothes by hand in London and it was no fun! It actually felt good to have some tasks to work on today. I am not one to sit around and it's driving me crazy.

Cooking is interesting and doing dishes takes a long time. I heat the water for washing and rinsing since I don't want to take any chances with getting something from the water. The market has lots of fresh produce from the country people and we have been enjoying fresh peaches and tomatoes. But I would sell my soul for a plate of nachos right now!

I have been reading the Lemony Snicket books on my Palm Pilot. My niece Jenny took me to see the movie with Jim Carrey as Count Olaf and I was interested in the books. I really enjoyed the books and want to go back and watch the movie again.

Tommorrow our translator, Luba, is coming to take us out again. We are going to some place that has houses and replicas of how the people live in the villages of Ukraine. Not quite sure what we are seeing but she said it's very interesting and a lot of walking.

I am so proud of Ray and his Russian. I don't know what we would do if he didn't know how to ask for things and talk to people. We would have to rely on a translator all the time.

Thank you all for your prayers and hopefully our next appointment will go better at the adoption Center. Miss you all! Pam

Daily Update

Hi guys,

Not much happening here today. Pam did some cleaning this morning while I worked on my Russian for a while. (Yes, I am avoiding housework even here.)

The phone rang about 8 times so far today, but most of those calls were people wanting to look at the apartment, I believe. They used the word "kvarteera", which is apartment. I didn't understand the first guy who called and he just hung up on me. In fact most people hang up on me when I ask them if they know English. A few I've directed to the owner's mother's number. I hope the apartment isn't going to get rented out from under us.

We've got a big shopping list today as we are out of about everything except some frozen vyriniky. The meat in that batch is a bit funky even for me, but I guess I'll survive a second serving.

In my Russian studies today, I found a useful phrase, "Ja hachoo pateet..." That's basically, "I want to buy..." It's my first time using a verb plus an infinitive and I can't wait to add that to my point and grunt repetoir. Honestly, it's not too different from the ".... pajaloosta" that I've been using, but it's probably going to be more polite.

The life in the apartment is kind of getting old. Both of us are bored and just waiting to get back to the NAC and get down to some serious business. We are enjoying the e-mails and replies to the blog, so please keep them coming. If anyone by chance is just checking the blog and doesn't have our e-mail addresses here's what we are using. Pam is pjstephens@verizon.net, while I am using raymond.stephens@gmail.com for mine. I find the web based e-mails esaier for traveling. Send us some notes, we are looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Ukrainian Cuisine

A couple of people have asked about the food here, so I thought I'd post about that today. I'll include some odd phonetic translations of things too just for fun.

They don't have any prepackaged foods here really, so we go to the store about every day and buy fresh or frozen things. The one prepackaged thing we do get is vyriniky (that's as close as I can translate it), but it's a lot like perogies. We enjoy the "meat" ones, but they also have cheese and potato types too. Yes, it is just "masa" meat, non specified as far as I know. I did hear someone say the word for pork one time though, so I think that batch was more like sausage.

A lot of the foods tend to be breaded or wrapped in a dumpling or pancake. Cheese and bread are at least as big here as they are in France. We identified one of the bread stands as being a better one by the number of people we see visiting it and have been buying our "bulka" white bread there. The "hkleb" dark bread is not bad, but the bulka is much better. You know the old saying, "it's the best thing since sliced bread?" We now understand that a bit better, you buy loaves or half or quarter loaves of the bread and slice it all yourself.

I'm happy to say they have Diet Coke here, but it is called Coca-Cola Light, just like it was in the rest of Europe. I bought one on the way in, "Skajeetsee pajaloosta, ya hachoo adeen coca-cola light, adeen liter." Excuse me please, I want a coca cola light, 1 liter. They always tell me the price to which I say "skolka?" How much? Because they always say numbers too fast. 1 liter of diet coke was about 65 cents in US dollars, things are very cheap here.

Yesterday, we went to lunch with our translater and I paid for all three of us. It was just under 50 hryvna, which translates to about 10 dollars american. That was for a lot of food too. The place we lunched was much like a cafeteria, you get a tray and select the dishes you want to eat then pay at a cashier on the way to the tables. Interestingly enough you pay for everything except the plates and silverware. If you want salt or a plastic cup to drink out of you pay for it. Once again, it is very inexpensive, but it is odd. I think it is their way of keeping people from walking off with extra salt, ketchup, etc..

Telephone Number

Hi guys,

Just a short note today. We took some time to go play tourist with our translator Luba. We took public transportation down to see some churches in Kiev. St. Andrews, which I'd read about looked nice, but was closed. St. Sophia's was open and was really amazing. Following that we walked about 2000 miles to a restuarant and had a late lunch.

We are so whipped from walking that it isn't even funny. Both of us are exhausted and stopped by the internet cafe mainly to take a break in walking back to the apartment.

Here's the number to the phone in our apartment here in Kiev - 380-44-565-3906. The 380 is the country code, 44 is the city code and the rest is the actual local phone number. How you dial it from the US - well, if I were there to try it, I'd tell you.

Seriously - if you do feel like giving us a call, we'd appreciate it, but it is going to be fairly expensive, so we understand for anyone that doesn't. And for those of you that do, we understand that you need to keep it short. Please also keep in mind that we are 8 hours ahead of you right now. At I right this it is after 5pm here, but it is only 9 am in Indiana. Not that we'd not like to hear from you, but Pam is awfully grumpy when you wake her up at 2am.

That's going to be our phone number for at least another week and maybe we'll have the cell phone issue resolved before we move on to a region. We'll post more tomorrow.

Kiev so far

Kiev has been interesting. To start with, I understand more Russian than I thought I did. Even sitting here in the internet cafe, I can understand some of what is being said behind me at the counter. It's not a lot, but I'm picking up more all the time.

We were met at the Borispol airport by our posse. The posse is made up of Tatiana our facilitator who knows English about like I know Russian, Alexi (Tatiana's son in law), our driver who doesn't know a word of English and Sasha (Tatiana's son), a translator who speaks very good English. We were very late due to our plane being delayed and an hour not finding half of our luggage.

The apartment they took us to startled us because the buildings look like Cabrini Green in Chicago. AKA - the slums, but in reality the apartment itself is very nice and we feel very safe there.

Sasha took us down to the market across the street, which is a series of small buildings selling a variety of goods. We picked up some bread, cheese and sausage for dinner and some water too. We've been back to the market area a few times since - that's where we are now in the internet cafe.

I've had an interesting time making my needs known to people in my poor Russian. Sometimes I end up resorting to the point and grunt method, but I know enough to ask for most things. I just now went up and asked for another hour on the computers and had a heck of a time. I couldn't recall the word for hour and ended up pointing at my watch after saying something like, "two computer plus". It takes time, but I usually get my point across.

Our time at the NAC (National Adoption Center) did not go as well as hoped yesterday, but it is pretty much par for the course when dealing with the NAC from what we know. Sasha was not available, so Luba joined us as a translator. She isn't related to Tatiana, but is much like a daughter to her. Her English isn't quite as good as Sasha's, but good enough.

The office is at the top of six flights of stairs, which was quite the workout. We looked through profiles of children for over two hours with a lady named, Oxana. All of the children had some type of health issues and we finally left at Tatiana's suggestion. She has heard that more children will be added to the roster on the 15th. We wrote up a request for an appointment before leaving.

We had dinner with the posse at a nice cafeteria serving Ukrainian food after the appointment. I had some borsch and vyriniky (kind of like perogies) and a big bottle of beer. Ukrainian beer is pretty good, but not quite as good as the English beer so far.

After dinner we took a long walk with Luba around some of the squares downtown in Kiev. She showed us the sights and it was very interesting.

We rested all day Sunday and aside from shopping and internet are taking today easy too. Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing with Luba, which should be interesting. We are kind of disappointed with our meeting at the NAC. We had hoped that they would show us a healthy child right from the start, but waiting another week is not so bad in the big scheme of things.

Paris

We are playing catch up on the blog. It's been a few days since we last posted. We didn't find any internet cafes in Paris and currently don't even have the GSM phone working, but that's one of my chores for today.

Paris was a beautiful city. We were very close to the Arc de Triumph at our hotel. The morning after we arrived we went out to catch a double decker tour that let us listen to commentary in English and get off and on the bus as we pleased. It rained off and on, but the weather wasn't unpleasant.

Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower where we rode up to the lowest level and looked around for a bit. I had a hot dog for lunch, which isn't as plain as it sounds. They stab a piece of french bread on a inch diameter metal prong that heats it from inside and then stick the sausage inside. It was very filling. I guess I'm not one for the fancy french food. The tower gave us a good view of the city and we moved on to the bus again.

We also visited Notre Dame Cathedral which was just amazing. The ceilings are a couple hundred feet up and the place is just huge. There was a lot of artwork and sculptures, but honestly none of it compared to the actual architecture. The arches and woodwork and stained glass windows were beyond words.

All in all, Paris was very nice. Pam was more enamoured of it than I was. Scotland is still leading in that respect for me.

Leaving London

We had a good day of touring yesterday. We took the double decker down to the Tower of London and checked it out. That was the highlight of London for me. The armory was especially cool.

We then took a boat up the Thames to Westminster where we headed to Buckingham Palace. Pam loved that part, but I'm not into the overly ornate stuff, but the history and art were interesting.

We then had to take a trip to Harrod's. Again - not my cup of tea. We did pick up a copy of the new Harry Potter book (the British Version). We closed out the night sitting by the Thames and listening to Big Ben sound off.

Today we are headed to Paris. We'll be catching the Eurostar train in Waterloo and traveling thru the Chunnel to get there. We'll post more later.

Pam's Chocolate Tasting

For my part, the beer is ok, but I am working my way through all the wonderful chocolate over here! There are candy bars that I have never seen and so many kinds of Cadbury chocolates. Chocolate tasting is a serious job and I am up to the task! Cheers, Pam

Scotland is complete - on to London

I wrote this on the PDA a couple nights ago. We've checked out Edinborough Castle and flown to London and toured the city since writing this, but didn't have a chance til now to post it to the blog. All is going well so far. Here's the write up from the other night....

We just got back from a two day tour of the highlands of Scotland. The highlands were amazing. It was stunning scenery and the air was amazingly clean. Every Scot we've met has been exceedingly friendly. It's worth a trip if you ever have the chance.

Our driver/guide, George Shank was very good. He has the real Scottish brogue, a good sense of humor and lots of patience.

It was a very diverse group on the tour, besides us, we had two ladies from Idaho, two Chinese, one lady from Taiwan, a guy from South Korea, two Germans, two Australians, two Basque Spaniards and another two from Barcelona. Except for the Korean guy wandering away for shots of things like traffic, cattle and fence poles, everyone got along well.

George was an 'aggressive' driver and these were some winding roads. If not for some dramamine, I'd have likely joined the Chinese lady losing her lunch in a ditch. Pam is using a watch to stop motion sickness, but the turns today were even getting to her.

Let's see - scenery was good, people are nice... let's talk about the food. The short version is "good, but different." The long version is probably for another e-mail, but I'll give it the old college try.

Breakfast isn't too different aside from apparently always serving a half a cooked tomato unsliced, bacon that's closer to salty ham and sausage that has leeks in it.

For lunches we've had some interesting sandwiches. My favorite so far are the cheese and onion sandwiches- very tasty. I also have tried what they call a sausage roll, which is a bread shell shaped like a hot pocket, but filled with something like deviled ham. And being me, I ordered haggis at the first place I found it. I was a bit disappointed- it was kind of bland, though George said it usually has a good bite to it.

Strangely enough, three out of three dinners have been in pubs. Bar meals are a good deal and so far been very tasty. I've had the traditional British meals of fish & chips, steak pie and bangers and mash. With each meal I've sampled some very good brews. Barmen keep suggesting weaker lagers, but I've been sampling some fine ales and an occassional stout.

Not only have I sampled a number fine Scottish ales, but at our tour driver's suggestion, we stopped at a little distillery. I personally sampled about 10 different types of scotch. They were just tiny amounts, so it didn’t add up to more than a couple or three shots worth, but it was a good ride back to Edinburgh. I may have dozed off for a bit.

The Trip Starts Tomorrow

In about 21 hours we'll be on the plane heading to London on the first part of our trip. Tonight, we are both pretty tired, but are just about set for leaving for Cleveland tomorrow.

We'll drive to my sister's to drop off the dog and the truck and they'll give us a ride to the Cleveland airport. We fly out at 7:30 eastern time and will arrive in London early the next morning. We are switching airlines in Gatwick after going through customs and will continue up to Edinburgh.

I'm hoping to sleep for most of the flight to help with the jet lag, but that might be a long shot. We'll have to wait and see.

Last Weekend at Home

We finally got our packet about traveling to Ukraine today and I read it while eating lunch. We were supposed to get this at the start of June and it arrived today only 50 some days late by my estimate. On the plus side it has some very good info in it. I especially like their recommendations for dealing with the NAC and trusting our facilitator to make the decisions on negotiating.

There is a section on culture shock that I found interesting. The discuss how people tend to get a brain overload from trying to take in and comprehend things they don't understand. This applies to written and spoken language, but also to customs, mannerisms, food and accomodations. Everything is different and you can get fatigued from trying to understand even a part of it.

They suggest taking refuge in the familiar (which we are prepared for naturally). They say that listening to familiar music, watching familiar movies, reading books and other entertainment is a good way to relax and decompress. They also talk about getting familiar foods in Kiev. If we've been out to a remote region for a few weeks, getting a cheeseburger and fries will be like a plate of ambrosia.

Ray

Here's a link to a site with some pictures of Kiev (Kyiv) Click Here

Appointment in Kiev

Our appointment with National Adoption Center is scheduled for August 8th in Kiev. Since this may be our only chance for visiting Europe, we are going to take some time and go to Scotland, London and Paris before getting to Ukraine.

We've got our reservations planned out for just about everything and our facilator, Tatiana will be arranging an apartment for our stay in Kiev. Any other travel and lodgings in Ukraine will also be handled by her.

Our job now is to make sure we're well prepared for an extended trip, but trying to keep the luggage to the minimum possible.

The Beginning - creating a blog

This Blog is intended for us to journal our travels to Ukraine so we can adopt a child. We'll be posting news and photos from our trip as time and access to internet cafes permit.

The trip will be starting and ending in Kiev (Kyev), thus the name of our Blog.

There isn't much to report at this time - we'll hopefully get our appointment date soon and update the blog at that time.