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.