Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A lot has happened since I got a chance to write. Charlene has covered things real well. The main thing is that we are so excited to be nearing the end of this adoption process; we hope we are anyway. There have been so many hurdles that have come up. I am happy to give my wife a compliment – she has risen and met the challenges. Some things almost blindside you. Like today, we mostly by accident found out that the U.S. Embassy will need a copy of some more of our records before we can file for a passport for Maxim. Duh! As Homer Simpson says, no one thought to tell us, so we find out by sheer accident. (And yes, Charlene thinks it silly of me to like to watch The Simpsons. But I do anyway.)

I really enjoy the time and activities with Maxim. It’s fun to share games, learning, and just plain fun stuff with Maxim. I love his smile and he has a good sense of humor. I have taught a long time, and the only thing I see that Maxim will have a little trouble with is having to learn English. To tell the truth, my old English teachers probably doubted I would ever learn English. ☺

Some other things to mention include a store like Sam’s Club, continuing to learn how to get around town, trying to buy a few clothes for Maxim, cooking and trying to cross-reference measurements, watching for money exchange rates to be in your favor, and last but not least, using Skype to talk to those at home.

Alla went with us to a shopping area we had gone to with another American couple – Craig and Gail. (Hi Craig and Gail if you are reading this. And Gail, you would have loved the store.) With a little direction from Alla, Charlene and I discovered two new shopping areas. And one of them was bigger than the Sam’s Club back home, really, it was bigger than three Sam’s Clubs combined! The only problem I had was that it was huge and the fish area in the food section smelled very bad. All the fish and fish parts were just laid out and it smelled a lot. When I get back home I don’t think I will rush to Red Lobster. But Charlene and I splurged after buying some good bargains on groceries, by getting a taxi. Neither of us wanted to try to carry all our stuff, including huge and heavy jugs of water, on the subway or bus.

Charlene is definitely a Mom. She is an expert at choosing fun activities to do with him daily and in buying the right size clothes, shoes, and stuff for Maxim. I admit she traced his foot. But the rest of the stuff she almost did by instinct. I admit I have trouble with the size system here. But then I have never been good at buying clothes for others.

Cooking is a challenge when you don’t have a measuring cup, proper bowls, or even utensils. So we cheated and bought only what we really needed. I mean after all, we don’t want to take anything that will be extra weight back with us. So anything we don’t take we intend to give either to the orphanage or our translator. But it was not a sure thing when the directions are in Ukrainian. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides if we can’t eat it, there are always hungry animals, birds, or trash cans. We even found $1.00 a piece plates so we got three of them. Yep, this ill equipped kitchen has only flat like soup bowls and large saucers for plates! It made us feel better just to have a real plate to eat from, even though the color is a sickly green.

Since we have been here the exchange rates for the American dollar went down a little and since then has steadily gone up. Great for me, I can buy a cup of American coffee and not feel I’m being wasteful. Of course, I have to be honest and tell you that I had been trying to give up coffee. And since there are few liquids I can drink here, coffee is back on the list. I would love a regular coke but my conscience (Charlene) reminds me that I am diabetic.

And Skype.com. What can I say but WOW! What a cool, cheap way to talk and see those at home. I have been slowly losing my computer skills since I retired from teaching, but Charlene has been helping me relearn. To any of you not using Skype, please try it. It is a free program and free to use – really, no strings like so many things in life have (unless, like us, you have to pay for every megabyte!)

There have been some things happen we have dealt with. I got news that my Mom had had a mild heart attack. I was going to return home but my Mom and family back home asked me to wait and see how she did. I am happy to say she is doing very well. Not quite back to her old self but still ok. And, of course, other worries which I know are like everyone has.

So for now, if you are here – don’t give up. If you are coming – sit back and enjoy the ride.

LOL

and God keep all safe,

John

It's a Red Letter Day

A major hurdle is now behind us. The judge here yesterday proclaimed that Maxim Christopher Spencer will be legally (legal from the Ukranian government’s point of view) our child once the mandatory waiting period ends. (The waiting period is time for anyone to object to this ruling—though this rarely happens, we need to keep in mind that it could.) Following the minimum ten day waiting period on Day 11, we can go look over the ruling to make sure there are no mistakes and that all names are spelled correctly (it becomes a huge deal later on if the names are not spelled correctly). Then, then next day we can go back and pick up these official documents. The day after that, I believe, we are able to pick up Maxim and he will then live with us while we finish up the U.S. documents. After we have him in hand, then we can take him for passport pictures and to apply for the passport. We are unsure how many days it takes to get his passport back, but once we do get it, we can apply for Maxim’s visa. The visa doesn’t take as long to issue, as we understand it, but there is one other Ukranian holiday in this time span somewhere that may cause a day or two delay. We also have a mandatory medical exam to get Maxim here in order to be able to take him to the United States as well as an interview at the U.S. Embassy. Once all these minor hurdles are passed, the U.S. government will also consider Maxim as our child and once his foot hits American territory, he is a legal American Citizen!! We can choose to or choose not to readopt when we get back in Kentucky so he will have a Kentucky sort of birth certificate. We’ll make that decision later; we have way too many pressing ones to make right now to give that more than a passing thought. I realize everyone wants to know when we’ll actually be back home; believe you me, we want to know that very same answer! The best guesstimate is by St. Patrick’s Day, but the way things work here, we may not know our actual return date until the day before we are to fly home.

Maxim was quite nervous at the meeting with the judge, though she was kind to him. She used legalistic terms to ask him questions; some of them confused me when translated, so no wonder the little guy was a bit shaken. However, we were very proud of how Maxim responded to all the questions. The gist of their conversation was that, no matter how she worded and reworded the questions, Maxim kept responding he wanted to live “with them,” meaning John and myself. He walked closer to her to try to hear what she was saying; the judge had bronchitis and so was talking quietly. Other than that move, he stood by my side holding my hand. I started to turn loose of his hand once, thinking he might be tired of standing there like that and was going to just put my hand on his shoulder, but he held on more tightly and so I of course never did let go—I let him take the lead there. : )

Another cute story: The judge and the others in the room—her secretary, the prosecutor, the Social Worker (called Inspector here)—all greatly enjoyed looking at our family album. They took interest in our children and the room for Maxim of course, but they were most impressed by our yard. We had pictures in the album from late last summer when all the flowers and bushes were in full bloom, and from the angle of the camera , it make our yard look enormous—it isn’t , and we hadn’t even tried to make it look so, but I digress. John spoke up and said he did all the flowers and took care of them all. Poor John. He (other than little Maxim) was the only male in the room. The women all kind of smiled and nodded. Alla later told us that none of them believed him anyway. Then John said that I did just a little bit of work on the flowers too, jokingly. They all laughed and it made for a good feeling in the room.

The judge asked Maxim how he would tell us on the plane if he was hungry or thirsty or needed to go to the bathroom. He responded that he would tell us in Ukranian, very matter of factly. She also queried if he knew he now had brothers and sisters. He said yes. She asked how he would talk to them; again, he responded in that matter of fact tone, “In Ukranian.” Of course, he was speaking Ukranian so I am quoting what our translator told us he said. The judge thought that was pretty cute. Guess we’d better work a little harder on teaching the lad English. : )
The judge soon thereafter ruled in our favor, telling Maxim to be a good boy, to be happy, and to do well in school.

Never will I be convinced that just because a child passes his seventh birthday he should be put through this very stressful court date where he or she has the huge responsibility of deciding their future, of deciding where and with whom he or she should live. Can you imagine your seven or eight year olds being given such a daunting responsibility? But this part is past, for us anyway.

Last night, we met up with Chan, another person here adopting, and her two year old new son, Alex. We all had a good time comparing war stories and holding and playing with little Alex. He is small for his age, but, my, did he enjoy eating! Makes a person feel good to see someone appreciate food like that. We greatly enjoyed getting to know Chan in person after following her odyssey online, and we wish her safety on her flight home today and a happy future with her husband and her son.

This weekend we have no real plans, though we might finally get to go see the Chernobyl Museum as well as a larger groc

ery store so we can buy some cheaper food items. After the larger than expected expediting fee for the judge, we have to watch every penny, plus, I like finding bargains anyway. And I need to find so

me food I can cook and eat because I am still losing weight. My belt just doesn’t have room for any more holes to be put in it. The weather is still cold for today, though it is no snowing as it has been the last two days. It’s the largest snow we’ve seen since being here; John says it’s been more like the Ukraine he expected.

Thanks to all of you who are commenting or e-mailing or somehow responding to our blog and our journey.

Charlene

Activities with Maxim

Trains are a favorite of Maxim's as are puzzles. Here's a picture he took of his work today and a cat (another of his favorites) puzzle from a few days ago. Our visits with him include at least one puzzle each time. He's very good at figuring out how to put all the pieces back together. Oh, sure, occasionally we give him a hand, but most of the time, he sees how they pieces fit back together before we do. This past week we taught him to play Trouble, the game where you have to count to get around the board and by landing on an opponents token can send that person back to start. Maxim caught on very quickly to this game. Though he loves landing on us and getting sent back, it makes him just a little sad if we end up landing on him. Maxim has also taken very readily to playing games and music on John's iphone. He's going to be another boy who loves gadgets, much like our older sons. We also played the little wind-up fishing game (thanks, Kelly) this week; Maxim enjoyed the use of the magnet on the end of the pole. John also found this very small remote control car that Maxim remembers to ask us for each day. His word for car is something like "machina."

We're also working on the English alphabet with Maxim. Though many of the letters look the same, their sounds are far different, so it's quite a challenge to learn that the same letter sounds totally different in another language. Still, Maxim is giving it a good effort, but he is far from being able to speak English yet. He is learning how to say a few of the numbers, though. Games like Trouble and Uno are helping as are the math worksheets we ask him to do daily. He gets to choose a pretty sticker for each page he completes; he really likes stickers so this is a good tactic to get him to do this activity. For language we just talk to him a lot and get him to repeat some words. That Memory game I've mentioned before is still a favorite. We are using the one with animals so it should help him know the words for many animals before too long. Maxim was asking us to play Memory with him every single day, but I think we've skipped a day of it here and there the last week or so. Not so, Trouble. I guess it's replaced Memory as his current favorite.

It is cold and snowing here and blustery. A couple of inches of snow are predicted overnight with maybe another inch tomorrow; I think it's predicted again on the next day, too, but I'll try not to think about that right now. I hate the cutting cold winds and very wet blowing snow; they chill you to your very bones! But overall, I still think we've had fairly good weather considering where we are and the time of year it is. Of course, spring couldn't get here too soon for me.

Finally, last night I got the peanut butter cookies made. This apartment came with very sparsely supplied kitchen utensils, etc. With no cookie sheet, no mixing bowl, no mixer, no sturdy stirring spoon, no measuring cup, no measuring spoon, and all the ingredients having the writing on them in English, maybe I should just be glad that the cookies are at all edible. Margarine here is not sold like at home. That means we buy it in a block and there were no numbers on it to indicate how much weight was in it so I tried to guess. I guessed that since it was only a little bigger than our 4 sticks of margarine that I should cut off 3/4 of the package and use it for the one pound of butter. Then I took a small glass and estimated how much would equal a cup. Alla helped me find vanilla the other day and baking powder. Both are sold in little tiny packets. The vanilla was not liquid but powder too. The flour I couldn't figure out if it was self-rising, but I assumed it wouldn't be. So I added in the amounts of flour, sugar, brown sugar (much bigger grains here and much more expensive), eggs, etc. and mixed all together. It was way too liquidy. So I added in one more cup of flour and the sugars. Then I figured I'd better put in another egg. Even after all that, the dough just wasn't like dough but more like a thick paste. But I decided to try baking one pan full. So I put them into a roasting pan (we had to buy one of those in order to be able to cook anything in the oven) and put them into the gas oven. Then the real fun began--trying to figure out how far to turn up the gas in the oven in order to be at 325 degrees. Even though I checked on them every two or three minutes, somehow the bottoms got just a little too dark and the butter just oozed from the tops. So into the rest of the batter I added in another round of all the dry ingredients and another egg. Of course by then, I'd run out of vanilla and especially baking powder. After using up most of the bag of flour and bags of sugars, I decided it would just have to do and, thus, gave the oven another shot. John and I thought they weren't too bad, though quite rich from all that butter and sugar. But the real test came today when I nervously handed one to Maxim. He took a bite and I asked him if it was good. He nodded his head, smiled and circled his palm over his tummy. What better compliment could any Momma want? : )

For some reason today the bus driver on our ride back from the orphanage pulled over to the side of the street and started handing back the bus fee money to each rider. So John and I just went with the flow and took our $2 Hrvna and exited the bus. Luckily, it was next to a McDonald's and indoor shopping area. So we split some fries for a snack and then found a toy store where we were able to locate a gadget that says the English alphabet and sounds aloud. We hope that will help Maxim learn how to say the letters a little better than we alone can do.

We had planned to visit the Lavre Cathredral today; it's the one Craig and Gail blogged about going to that has tunnels underneath it where you can see the people buried there from years ago. I'm not sure I really want to look at dead people; even John doesn't seem too interested in that part, but then again, we can't imagine being here and not at least going to look at the cathedral. Since our day today was taken up otherwise as mentioned above, the cathedral visit will have to wait for another day--would be nice if the sun smiled on us for that anyway.

The other picture is of that red bag I mentioned last blog that John totes for us back and forth to visit Maxim every weekday. It is jam packed with all kinds of different activities, plus snacks and a camera or two, so it gets kind of heavy. But boy, do Maxim's eyes light up when he sees it; he always wants to look in it and see what new or different activity we might have for that day. Fun.

Lastly, the shoes. Don't think we need to say what caused John's shoes to get so worn out that we bought him a new pair yesterday.

Well, that's about it from Kiev.

Keep those comments and e-mails coming, please.
Charlene

Dreary Days

A bakery with real bakery items--they actually have a normal, sweet taste.
(Thanks Craig & Gail, and Alla.)

This is the outside view of the circus. Sorry, we have no

inside views, but still hope to get to go one day.

Another dreary Sunday afternoon in Kiev. Wonder if the lack of sunshine is why everyone walks around with a gloomy look on their face and why the locals don’t bother with common courtesies? Recently, I read an article in an English language Kiev newspaper by a native to here who strongly suggested that Russians (she included all of those who used to be part of the Soviet Union in that label) all learn to behave more nicely, more like their neighbors in the European Union. Her point was that when they then become tourists in the E.U. or elsewhere, for that matter, then their boorish ways wouldn’t make all Russians unwelcome guests. She specifically pointed out things that we Americans take for granted. “Excuse me,” when someone knocks into you on the street or a simple “I’m sorry” are phrases rarely heard here in Ukraine. The locals here love to cut right in front of you in line, by simply shoving your or nudging you out of their way. The author also chided Russians for how they let alcohol control them—how rowdy they think they are allowed to become just because they have a bottle of vodka for example. The list goes on and on. . . Again, we are thankful to be Americans!!

Speaking of liquor reminds me of riding the bus last week. One day, this sweet faced girl of about thirteen or fourteen heard us speaking English and after a few half turns to check us out, she turned around and started up a conversation with us. Her English was very good. She told us that she and her seatmate were headed to school—an English school. She responded that she thought it would be good to know English for her future when I asked her about why she chose the English school. The conversation was brief but had a lasting effect on me, not because of the words spoken, but because as she exited the bus I noticed what she was drinking. I thought it was a cola of some sort, but no, it was a beer she was swigging! And at 10:00 in the morning!!

Something I admire about guys here in Kiev: they are not hesitant to carry their wife or girlfriend’s purse. It always amazes me when I see that here as it is so uncommon in the U.S. It doesn’t make them seem less macho for doing it either. To be fair to John here, I must mention that the red bag (thanks, Alesia) we used for a carry on on the plane and now as storage for all the workbooks, puzzles, games, cars, snacks is toted daily by him back and forth to the orphanage. It is just too heavy for this gal. But I’m talking about men carrying the lady’s shiny, black purses for them when they need them to, and they seem to do so readily. Just an observation.

We went to the Museum of Russian Art today. We would post some pictures here for your enjoyment, but seeing as there were large signs indicating no cameras, John decided he didn’t want to get kicked out of another place (referencing St. Vladymir’s Cathedral incident) and so didn’t try to take any pictures. The museum was okay but not all what most of you would expect an art museum to contain. Most of the paintings dated back to only a hundred or so years ago. Still, there were a few amazing works.

Other than that and shopping (just looking) at a couple of stores, there’s really not much going on here. On weekends, you all will recall, that we don’t get to go visit Maxim. John and I both enjoy our time spent with him, plus, it gives us something worthwhile to do with our days, so we are both looking forward to seeing the little guy tomorrow morning. He continues to impress us with his sweet disposition, his sheer pleasure in just seeing us, and his fortitude for doing puzzles. : ) We hope to have more pictures of him posted soon as well as the missing post from last time re-established.

Alla did show me how to buy vanilla flavoring and baking powder because I have been wanting to bake some homemade cookies to take to Maxim one day. Can you imagine living in a large city like this and there not being any cake mixes, cookie mixes, refrigerated cookie dough, self-rising flour, etc.? Even peanut butter is hard to come by and expensive. And chocolate chips you just cannot find at all—not even cocoa! So I will try my hand at either sugar or peanut butter cookies. Wish me luck because the very ancient gas stove has no way to know what temperature you turn the gas up to, and there is no baking racks inside it—just the bottom pan which we have started using as a rack. Ah, the joys of pioneer life.

You’d think with some extra time on our hands, we could write novels or come up with great philosophies, etc., but I tell you, my mind is so frayed just trying to decipher the adoption process and finagle everyday life that a bit of crocheting and listening to a book on tape are about all I can handle. And an occasional blog of course. : )

We didn’t realize how much we craved hearing their native tongue spoken until last night while standing in line at TGIF’s for a real treat of dinner out with an American menu we overheard American English being spoken. So we started a chat with the guys and gals and learned that they were from all over the United States here working for Peace Corps. On our long walk back to the apartment, all John and I could talk about was how good it was to hear English; we even knew exactly how many different speakers of English we’d conversed with—8. We also overheard two other couples there speaking English. Like I said, you have no idea how much better just hearing our home language spoken made us feel.

John's RamblingS

Well, Charlene is trusting me to write again. I have a lot to say before I start writing, but when I start my minds gets fuzzy. :) I hope it is just being here and not that last birthday catching up with me.

First, let me say that Maxim is really COOL!! We are getting really attached to him. And it definitely seems that he is getting attached to us. When we visited him today Charlene was sitting in a chair and could not see him as he came into the room. He saw that I could see him, and he gave me a sign to be quiet. He sneaked up and surprised Charlene. He got a big kick out of doing that. The little rascal has a good sense of humor. And he gives great hugs to us. Of course we give them back to him.

We played some games today, plus Maxim did some fun work sheets that actually give us a better idea of his working level. So far he seems to like all the things we get him to do. But his favorite things to do are to play Memory, Connect Four, do dot to dots, color and take pictures. Seriously, he seems to have real talent. :) Charlene is too polite to point out that it may be that I have little talent with the camera. :( Whatever we do, our time with Maxim goes by too fast. I will be glad when this is all over and we ALL get to go H-O-M-E!! Home really is where the heart is.

Oh my! Saw something today that is very unusual for here. We saw Sunshine. By my count today has been only the fourth day of sunshine shince we got here. But the weather is changing. Went for some water bottles earlier and it was either raining or sleeting a little. See, playing the song "Sunshine on my Shoulder" did some good today.

Got to tell you about the ducks. We went with another American couple to a nice shopping mall (or building), Ukrainia. When we went in there was red carpet on the floor coming down the stairs to a large fountain in the center of the entrance. There were even ropes set up to keep back the crowd. And there was a lot of people gathered. So of course the four of us waited to see what was going to go on. SURPRISE - young men in Tuxes led out a group of ducks. Just plain grey-like typical ducks. They herded the ducks into a large fountain and being ducks, they swam around in the fountain for a few minutes. The crowd and kids clapped and cheered, then the ducks were herded away. (I got some pictures.) And that was it. We think it was to celebrate a weather or calendar date for after their Christmas. Never seen so much pomp and cere

mony given to ducks. They weren't even white, pretty ducks but just ordinary old gray ducks. Whatever it was for, the kids and everyone in the crowd loved the ducks.

What else should I include? That I got us lost? No! About getting caught taking pictures in a church? No. How to lose a passport? No. I know! How much fun it is to have a young one to shop for again. No, really. It is so nice to have the chance to shop in toys again. And see his eyes light up. He really has nothing to call his own. When we get him from the orphanage, he even has to leave the clothes he has worn. Amazing the things we take for granted.

You know something I am looking forward to??? Getting a drink of water out of the tap. Simple I know. But what a pain to have to buy bottled water. Not to mention not having a car. See, said I wouldn't mention that. Something else I look forward to is using the phone without worrying about how many minutes are on it. Newspapers! Other people using English! I can go on but you get the idea. I miss home and the people there.

I guess, though, that with fewer distractions around it is easier for Charlene to keep me out of trouble. But when you get the chance, ask her about what happened at church. Enough said.

This apartment promised internet and we thought it would be unlimited like the others. Guess what. It isn't. So we are trying to use our on-line time wisely. I guess we either need to use an Internet cafe or see about getting more time on our account here.

I think I am restless. Charlene is too. And we are tired of all the walking or waiting for a bus. For some reason the first Bus # 18 passed us right by today and then we had to wait about 45 minutes to catch one later. Thank goodness it was on our return and not going to the orphanage.

I do have one worry. I think I am becoming addicted to espresso. I had actually almost given up coffee, but since it is a choice here between bottled wated, soft drinks, coffee or juice - I am on a caffiene high. I do not really care much for the juices. And I am lactose intolerant- at my age.
The program Skype.com is very nice. It is great to talk and see those back home. But the video part is very slow and unreliable if you have the old fashioned dial-up. It has been nice to see those at home, and them to see us.

We still want to go to the circus. But we are putting that off until we have Maxim. I am sure he would enjoy it. But Charlene and I are going to try to go to a couple of museums later this week.

A suggestion to anyone who plans to come here, buy a cheap MP3 and fill it with lots of music. Also bring yourself movies. If I had thought to do it, I would have recorded the morning news shows so that in the morning I would think I was home. And be sure to have pictures of home and people. Nice to look at them. And if you like Kool-aid, be sure to bring it. I have not found any for sale here. Glad we brought some.

I guess I have typed out enough. See, being a Special Education teacher means I can spin it out. But Charlene says it is just natural talent. LOL

To everyone, take care of each other, keep on reading and responding to our blog, and those of you still to come, be sure the money you bring is clean and new. It is hard to exchange any old money.

Well, my brain is getting tired of coming up with cute things to say about Ukraine. Time to recharge. More ramblings another day.

Apartment, etc.

Our new apartment is spacious (separate rooms for living, bed, and kitchen) with tall ceilings that have intricate, beautiful scroll work on each corner of them. The hardwood floor boards are diagonally placed and attractive. We also have an elevator this time. Now, now, before you all think we are living the life of Riley, here's the real scoop. There are no rugs anywhere, not a one. The elevator is so old that it rattles and shakes and makes such noises that we wonder each time we use it if we will have a sudden drop of three floors! The facilites are a bit lacking too. The shower can only be turned to a certain point or something happens--we couldn't understand the man's Ukranian enough to figure out what that might be and decided we'd better just stop at the halfway point on the shower. The commode here, if you need to flush it, you have to turn on the valve and flush and then don't forget to turn the valve right back off because it leaks.


Apartments here also come with washers; a very antiquated one is with this particular one. That same man drew little marks on it to show us where to start a cycle and where to twist it to to make it spin. We never have figured out rinse though. But the washer leaks too. Want to know how we found out? There was such constant ringing of our doorbell yesterday morning. . . The people in the apartment on the floor below came up to tell us in very broken English and lots of hand motions that the water from the washer was leaking down the wall into their apartment! Alla to the rescue. She called the owner of the apartment for us and someone came and told us to unplug the washer and today at 11 someone is to come repair the washer. I think this washer is probably the first ever made once wringer washers went out of fashion--it is that old--so I don't know how long a repair will last, but at least maybe we won't have to keep sopping up the floor with the few towels that are in this apartment.


This apartment was to have come with a couple English t.v. channels and to include internet, but you guessed it, when we got moved in we realized there was neither. Alla to the rescue. She called the owner and demanded that these two items be realized. So two days later the owner came and had the cable guys come and fix it so we had both. Yes, I meant to say "had" not have. Because guess what? Today, (Sunday morning) John got up to check e-mails only to get a warning message stating that if he wanted to continue using internet, he had to pay the bill. Alla to the rescue. She called the owner who said she would pay the bill later today. Depending on if/when that happens, you will be reading this. I am typing it and saving it to uplaod to the blog once we have internet restored.


We got lost the other day. Bus # 18 brings us back and forth from our neck of the woods to the are of the orphange. Trolley Bus # 18 does not. We obviously didn't pay close enough attention and got on the trolley instead. They look exactly alike except that the top of one of the cars of the trolley bus has the wire mechanism that hooks it to the trolley line. Anyway, after standing out in the shivering cold for about twenty minutes, we were so excited to see the # 18 that we just hopped aboard. Imagine our surprise when ten minutes later it stopped and a bunch of people exited. We didn't realize that not just a bunch but every single other person had gotten off! The bus started moving again and the lady who takes tickets came and talked to us in Ukranian. I guess she was telling us that was the end of the line. Anyway, yes, again, Alla to the rescue. We finally got off when the trolley stopped again, and Alla got a taxi and came to rescue us. Man, we are going to have to give her a very nice gift when this is over to thank her for all the rescues as well as to thank her for helping us find Maxim.


When we heard the word translator used before we came, we assumed it meant just that she or he would translate Ukranian into English for us; however, the translator serves as much more. So those of you still to come--be sure you make friends with your translator. She is of course a translator, but Alla has also served as a negotiater, an advisor, a tour guide, a secretary, a lawyer, a food buyer, a moderator, and a ton of other things as well. In addtion to all that, Alla realizes we are on an extremely tight budget (getting tighter with every delay) so on the rare occasions when she agrees a taxi is necessary, she will negotiate with the driver and get the cost down to what she considers reasonable. She can argue up a blue storm with the best of them. Taking a bus is far cheaper than a taxi; walking is even cheaper, and Alla's attitude is why ride when you can walk? We have walked our legs and knees off this past month though and are quicker to say isn't there a bus somewhere near or maybe even a taxi to her. A couple blocks to her is about a mile to us! Anyway, Alla's been great to us. I asked her once if she'd ever been to visit the U.S., but she said it's about impossible to get permission from Ukraine to go visit the United States because the government thinks people will leave and not return back here. She has indicated she would love to come and visit and get to see some of the many families she has helped adopt, but that without an official invitation from a senator or someone like that, she would never be given permission and that she'd just waste her money paying the fee to go to her government and asking.


We do not get to go visit Maxim on the weekends; we don't really understand why, but do not want to shake the boat by arguing about it since we still need papers from that director in order for this adoption to progress. Pictures of Maxim that she hopefully has taken over the last few years we are also hoping to talk her into letting us make copies of, so we are trying to stay on her good side. Tomorrow is Monday, though, so we should be able to see the little guy around 11 a.m. We are both looking forward to that. He continues to impress us with his eagerness to learn and his open affection. It is very humbling to realize that he is willing to leave the place he knows as home as well as his country and come with us, people who were total strangers to him just one week ago, Would any of us have that courage?


John and I both detest the games the government plays here; we equally detest waiting. When there is no visits to Maxim nor any adoption work to be done, then it is quite boring so we have to work hard not to get depressed about it all. Having had only three days of sunshine in the month we've been in Ukraine has not helped our spirits either. I even have a few of those "sunshine" light bulbs at home so I really need to have some more sun. This week the forecast is for cloudy days and then later in the week for snow, so I guess we'll have to wait a while longer to feel the smile of the sunshine.


Not this week but maybe next, we are hoping that the court date might occur. That's a huge step forward, whenever it happens. That's when the court system in Ukraine starts declaring Maxim as our adopted son. Then there is a ten day mandatory waiting period before we can start the U.S. part of the paperwork which also takes several days. Nothing yet has moved quickly for us so we aren't expecting any of this to either. We thought our documents about the adoption would be processed and ready to submit to the SDA by last Friday, but the birth mother had gotten married sometime so the papers that had her name on them all have to be redone reflecting her current legal name. Alla says it's better we found that out now before it all started moving forward and then it would have taken even longer to backtrack and get things fixed, but it surely felt like a big setback to us. The court date cannot be set nor occur until the SDA gets our documents and processes them. We are hoping this starts happening this week.


It's been kind of a rough weekend for me; a queasy or nauseous stomach that just won't go away. All I want to do is lie around on the couch, but I am going to try to make myself get out of the apartment today so John doesn't go too stir crazy. I traced Maxim's feet the other day so maybe we'll go buy him some shoes. I think I've journaled before that when the child leaves the orphanage for the final time, they get to take nothing with them, not even the clothes on their back. So we will also do a bit of clothes shopping sometime this week. I am going to take my measuring tape tomorrow and hope to be able to get a better idea of his sizes. Of course, the sizes here aren't the same as those in America, though he had on a sweater from the U.S. the other day because I peeked and it said 7/8. It was a snug fit, but it was also over a couple of layers, so I thought it might work better if I get at least a chest and leg measurement. I can't wait to get this child out into the sunshine. He is blonde so pale by nature, I suppose, but a little sunshine would get a little color into those cute cheeks. I can't figure out eye color. It seems to change. One thing for certain is that he is not brown-eyed like the rest of our kids. His eyes are more similar to John's which change color depending on what color he wears.
We have some pictures of other churches, etc., that I will try to put a few of on this entry if the internet starts working well enough for me to do that. So for your enjoyment:

This is a picture of a Catholic church near our second apartment. We weren't brave enough to go in, after our experience at that other cathedral, since it appeared to be a very active church.

Here's Andrea, another of the kids we left behind in the U.S. Just need to find a picture of one more. . . : ) We miss them all so very much.

We do not know the name of this church/cathedral, but can tell you that it is in the same area where the Chernobyl Museum is that we could not find last weekend for the longest time; then, we finally found it after paying a taxi to drive us two blocks only to discover it is closed on Sunday's.

From John's Point of View

Yes, I finally get to put in a word or two. It has been very hectic since I last wrote anything. It is amazing how much red tape the country has. I think they have even improved on the concept of red tape and on 'hurry up and wait'.

We are now in another apartment. The last one was about three or four miles away. Of course that is a rough guess. It is two stops by Metro (subway). And it is a long ride on the subway between those two stops. It was frustrating being in a new area. You have to learn the shops and ins and outs there. And it takes a while to get back to the central area where SDA is. Plus that area was not as nice as here. A lot of it was sort of run down. I guess every place has in between areas, not ritzy nor ready to be torn down - just regular and sort of tired and old.

But enough of that. We are back in framilar territory. Up the hill is SDA, down the hill is the large street with lots of shops and underground shopping areas.

Oh, for any of you who have ever worked as a cashier, especially in a grocery - the grocery cashiers here sit down and ring the purchases up. Cool! Wait till I tell the cashiers back home at Kroger.

Had a big surprise yesterday. Charlene insisted I get my hair cut. So we went to an indoor four floor shopping center accross from Independence Square (which is down the hill from our apartment). Wow! I have never had my hair given such luxury treatment. It was cut, washed, massaged (I don't mean scrubbed but a real head massage), dried, cut some more, then styled. I took a picture of my hair stylist. Not to make Charlene annoyed at me, but my "barber" lady is beautiful and could not have been older than maybe 22 or 23. And yes, I tipped her--tipping is not common practice here.

We have also been looking for some clothes for our new boy. We figure that he has very few since he usually has the same clothes on. And he desperately needs shoes that fit. And maybe a toothbrush and tooth paste. At least it gives us something to do on off days from adoption work. We'll have to have things for him anyway when we finally get to take him with us from the orphanage since they don't get to take anything at all from the orphanage when they bid it farewell.

Another American couple we have got to know remain hopeful about getting a little girl. But I do not know any more at this time. I hope the best for them. They are from Minnesota. We enjoyed hanging out this couple a lot--now that they're gone to a distant region to visit that little lady, we are really missing them.

We got Maxim some games that work with memory skills, logic skills, and some other areas we were curious about. One of the games we got him is 'Memory'. The one where you turn pictures up and try to find the matching picture. He is really good and has beat us each time so far--without us trying to let him win even. His favorite colors seem to be orange and yellow--we can tell because those are the two crayons that already need sharpening!

Another game he likes is 'Connect Four'. He gets so excited when he wins. Though I guess the game was new to him, he picked up the idea and rules very, very fast. Maxim also likes puzzles. We have had to get some tougher ones for him. Charlene got a 3-D Cat. It comes apart into 24 pieces. It was for ages 8 and up, but Maxim worked it well. We were not sure that we could get it back together, since the few little clues to working it are in Ukrainian, but were successful after a bit.

I guess we are spoiling him. We found out that he likes bananas and potato chips, plus juice. So we try to take him something like that each day.

Which reminds me, you know the saying that 'boys are boys' or 'boys will be boys'? Well Charlene found out that boys everywhere like pirates. I got Maxim a small set of pirate figures and a small ship and cannon. He was the most excited we've seen him yet and proceeded to get really involved playing with them. Then he gave me some figures and we had a mock battle. Of course he beat me.

Well we finally have internet and a couple of English TV channels. It is nice not to have to go to the internet shop. And it is nice to watch the news and know what is being said.

Got some unhappy news yesterday about illness in my family back home. I am waiting for more information.

Back home has been having severe winter weather. Ironically, here in the Kiev are we have been having above normal temperatures. But a few nights have dipped from 8 to 10 C below. And it seems rare here to see sunlight. Almost every dday has been overcast and downright dreary. Heaven help you if you suffer from that illness some people get when they do not get enough sunlight. And that also explains why so many people here look pale.

A small comment for anyone who has ever had to use a tow truck. Most of the tow trucks here have a big long arm (kind of like the one on the space shuttle) that reaches above the car and lifts the car up onto the tow truck. Have seen it done a couple of times. It takes a team of three men to pick up a car.

One last thought at the moment from me. I am so looking foward to getting water from the tap and being able to drink it. To not having to go out, buy 2 gallon jugs of water, and lug them upstairs to the apartment.

That's all for now. LOL John

Molasses is quicker

We now have internet again in our apartment so expect more posts, starting hopefully even as early as later on today. Meantime, things are progressing fairly smoothly with the adoption process for Maxim, but it's two baby steps forward and ten giant leaps backwards. Hurry up, hurry up, then wait, wait, wait, so our return date has been delayed by a few more weeks than we'd thought even a week ago. Molasses is much quicker than this process. After this morning's visit, we will have gotten to visit with Maxim four out of the last five days. We are not sure that we get to go over there on the weekends though. Would love to hear from more of you.

Charlene

So Far, So Good

There is no internet at the different apartment we had to move into yesterday is partly why we're not posting much. We've also been advised to be very sparse in what we say about the adoption of Maxim until it's more a sure thing and probably not to post pictures yet. We don't really understand it, but we don't want to jeopardize the adoption either.

But so far, so good as far as the process goes. It's hurry up and wait and hurry up and wait repeated over and over daily--it kind of drives one crazy! But Maxim is worth it. He seems to be a typical 7 year old. He likes cats better than dogs; he likes coloring which he does very well. : ) He also prints very neatly, can read in Ukranian and some in Russian. He's very happy to see us each time we go visit him, which we get to do for an hour or so each day, usually around 11:30. He like bananas, ambulances, trucks and cars and the colors yellow and orange. He really enjoyed John's iphone yesterday--how you can just slide your finger across and see picture after picture.

Hope we get more of the required paperwork today (but we were promised it yesterday as well so don't hold your breath) and then we can breathe part of a sigh of relief. There are more hoops to jump through, but only more major hurdle, or at least that's all we know. Tons of paperwork and time in between, then the last part consists of us and the U.S. and the Embassy here. So, though, it seems like it will never end, surely it will in a few weeks.

Keeping our fingers and toes crossed and knees bent,

Charlene & John