A Definite Maybe

We'll know more on Monday, but for now, it looks like adopting Maxim is a definite, well a definite maybe. It's complicated to explain in a few lines, so we'll leave it at that for now. Also, we have to move apartments early tomorrow and won't have internet in that apartment. So other than going to internet cafe to pay to check our e-mail (yes, please still e-mail us), we won't be much online until probably Tuesday when we'll move to a longer stay apartment which will have internet, assuming the adoption is a go. We were given the most stressful interview of our lives today, let me tell you! To be fair to the orphanage director, it was obvious that she cares a lot about the kids there. Maxim is a very sweet boy with an engaging smile, a little behind in some areas, but that is to be expected for the most part. Sorry, we weren't allowed to take pictures yet; it has to be more certain first. Again, we hope to have some by Monday or Tuesday as well. Then the paperwork begins in earnest. It takes weeks in this region (yes, even in Kiev) to get this all accomplished, though our translator says she'll try to "hurry up" anything that is possible for us. Let's hope so--we're both ready to come home!!

Friday and our Future

After picking up our referral from SDA tomorrow evening around 5p.m., sometime Friday we will go visit a young boy whom we'll call Boy M for now. Possibly, a second meeting on either Saturday (if orphanage allows weekend visits) or Monday will ensue. That's really all we know for now. Prayers that all goes well are of course always appreciated.

Keep those comments and e-mails coming our way as well; they truly lift our spirits.

Limbo Land

Limbo land is not a place we enjoy being; that is probably a strong understatement for the emotions we are truly experiencing at the moment.

Since we are still awaiting information (hoping for a few more details) on these boys and to see if any of the three boys are truly adoptable or want to be adopted (the SDA files aren't always up to date), we thought we'd go ahead and post some pictures of St. Vladymir Cathedral, the Golden Gate and the Opera House, taken yesterday. It helps to pass the time as well as it gets pictures on here that might otherwise not get posted because we will a. either be too busy because of pursuing adoption, or b. we will be too dejected to do so, plus, we will be busy packing and trying to get flights changed, etc. if "a" doesn't happen. Just trying to face facts.

So here goes:

St. Volodymyr's (their spelling) Cathedral is a couple hundred years old, we think, not nearly as old as St. Sophia's Cathedral which dates back to 1017. It is also a gorgoues building. You might want to ask John how he learned that it is still an "active" church.

Not being Catholic we did not know what to expect. What we witnessed were all of the candles being lit by most all who entered, the glass coverings of statues to Mary and others being kissed, etc. The paintings in this cathedral, just as in the others, are truly magnificent. We regret that we cannot post any interior pictures here.

The brochure claims that the "Opera House" is one of the most beautiful buildings in Kyiv. In the French Renaissance style, it was constructed in 1901. Here are

a wide view of it as well as a close up with John standing in front of it.

These two pictures with grids on them are of "The Golden Gate." We were told that it was created in ancient times, then almost destroyed when it was covered by earth and abandoned. Then in 1834 when they removed so whatever was built on top of it to build new streets, they discovered what remained of "The Golden Gate." So they restrengthened the old stone work and surrounded it with an elegant fence.

And the beat goes on, and on, and on

A quick update for all you blog followers:

From the files shown us today at our final SDA appointment, we have narrowed it down to three boys who we are to think about over night. (The girls that were available in our age range had too many medical issues.) As well, Alla will try to make phone calls to obtain more information about each of them before we have to make the decision as to which one to try to visit.

As you might expect, there is a problem with each potential adoption:

Boy 1 visits an Italian family so we don't know if that is truly just a visit or if he would want to be adopted by others. Alla has no contacts at his orphanage so she doesn't know how the director feels about adoption.

Boy 2 is visited in the orphanage by an aunt who also occasionally takes him to her home for school holidays, so would the child want to leave that behind? But she has never tried to adopt him. The office of his orphanage was closed also by the time we finished our appointment.

Boy 3 wants to be adopted but is an orphanage where the director is kind of like Hitler. She could stand in the way of a child being adopted from this orphanage. She also could be accepting of it. No one knows for sure, though the SDA said she's hard to work with. She also could not be contacted this evening.

Are you beginning to think orphanage directors have all the power? I think you might be right!!!

We are discussing all this and praying about it all as well as waiting until in the morning when hopefully Alla will have more details for us before we have to make the decision on which one to pursue. The problem is we have to make our decision and inform the SDA rather early so that gives Alla little time to obtain info from offices that sometimes don't even open until 9.

I feel like we're on "Let's Make a Deal" and we have to choose between Curtain number 1, Curtain number 2 and Curtain number 3. That or that we should roll the dice!

But, no, we will come to a decision somehow by tomorrow morning at 9:30; we pray for divine guidance as we make this enormous choice. Please pray with us.

Feeling like we're mired down in the trenches,

Charlene & John

Sights on a Sunday afternoon

There isn't much to write since I just finished the last post in the wee hours of this morning, but we did take several pictures today as well as have a few others we'll try to upload here. We label the photos but the labels don't stick when we put them onto this or even onto the slideshow at our kodakgallery. So if anyone knows the trick, please do tell. The wall fronted by John is all made of bronze.

Today we ventured on the metro once again. Surprisingly, we were helped by a young lady maybe 20 years or so of age who was out with her sister and cousin, she later told us. We can buy tickets to get on the metro with no probs; however, when it comes to figuring out which subway line to actually get on, well, we seem to always get confused. We were trying to ask the ticket taker who was being no help at all when a voice from behind us asked if she could help. Thankfully, she spoke English fairly well and seemed please to assist us. She directed us down the escalator and to the left to get on that line. We made it down two extremly long and steep escalators (John took a video of the escalator ride to put on here but we left our connector cord for it at home, sorry) only to have the girl rush up to us and say oh, no, this is not the correct line. She has made a mistake. She started to just direct us another line a lot farther down, but we must have looked very confused because she changed her mind and decided to escort us all the way to the next line, motioning her two companions to follow along. John took a picture of her and me right before we hopped on the metro and I told him to give her a five U.S. dollars. She saved us a lot of turmoil. She seemed very surprised and very pleased by the five dollar bill. Most everyone here likes American money so I knew she'd like it. It's worth a bit more than gryvnas also. So whoever she is and wherever she is, she will have our gratitude and she has given us a better view of Ukranians as well.

The reason we hopped the metro in the first place was so we could go see the WWII museum here, to see their perspective on it, etc. Needless to say, it was all written in Ukranian so the pictures you see here and some others are all we know about the museum as well. Again, we had to walk and walk and walk to even get to the museum. It sits about 3/4 mile off a side road. The fog was so dense today that there was noway to tell if we were even headed in the right direction; that's why some of the outside pictures seem so cloudy. But we did end up in the right place after all. John's more a history buff than am I, but it was interesting at least to see the war from their perspective. We rode the bus from the museum back to the metro where we'd gotten off to get to the museum and yes, with just a little bit of help, even managed to find our way back to the stop nearest our apartment. I just know you all are very proud of us being such adventurers!

The photo of me and the bunny is one John wanted to take--until afterward when he realized he had to pay the bunny. Why he was surprised I don't know since you have to pay for everything over here; granted, most of the time it's not very much compared to American prices, but it gets annoying at times too. Yesterday, Ukraine celebrated Chinese New Year; they are also still celebrating Christmas we assume since Christmas trees and decorations are still up all over the place. They also celebrate regular New Year and Old New Year--we are beginning to think that they just like to celebrate!

Tomorrow we will call the Embassy to see if John's new passport is ready; if it is, Alla said she will go with us to get it. We offered for us just to give us bus directions and we'd go to it ourselves, but she said the passport is important and she'd go with us. And so we are very thankful for Alla as well. She is a real treasure. For those of you still to come, make friends with your translator. She or he is your lifeline while here, no doubt about it.

The weather here is remarkably warm for here, not that it feels all that warm when you're out walking in it so frequently as I still need my jacket, long wool coat, hat, hood, gloves, and scarf as well as layers; John gets hot, though, so barely throws on a coat, usually unzipped, over a short sleeved shirt. It's around 35 to 40 today. Last year at this time, according to Alla, it was well below zero, so I guess we can also be thankful that the weather this year is much warmer.

I doubt we'll have any more posts until we figure out what's going on with the third appointment, but you never know.

Weekend Woes

Well, here it is another weekend with no news to report, not much going on, and not much to do. On top of all that, I am feeling rather poorly, very fatigued. I guess it's to be expected with all the bad news that's been going on about ever since we arrived in Kiev. Let's hope that's all it is so I don't have a bug to fight off while trying to figure everything else out at the same time. John is making me put more pictures of me on this posting and so the one on the bench is right in front of the SDA, trying to look happy even though they wouldn't let us see other files that day when we had to return the too old one. We wait for Tuesday to see what time is our appointment. There is no real waiting room for appointments there. There is one small couch in a wide hall; other than that you stand and stand and stand either inside where it's really crowded or outside where it's really freezing. I don't wear all those scarves and hats for nothing!

By Tuesday we should know when our next appointment is. That will be our last shot at adopting a child. Prayers are definitely requested that all goes well at that appointment and that a successful appointment follows. We'll try to update and let you know if we get a referral or not. That is truly about all that is on our minds right now, but to write on and on about it ad nauseum well would make you nauseous and so I will try not to mention it again until the end.

Meantime, back here at home, or at the apartment that's becoming familiar to us, we've fallen kind of into a routine. We're lucky enough to have been able to remain in the same apartment while here so far; other than the two nights we slept on those narrow benches on the train, we have been here the entire time. We like this apartment because it has two rooms and they are separated by a hallway so there is a door to the bedroom/tv room that can be shut if one of us wants to rest while the other can blog on the laptop at the kitchen table or on the little couch in there or if one of us (John namely) wants to watch a dvd on the laptop.

There's also a small, very small capacity, washer provided in the kitchen. You don't want to put much detergent in it for sure! First day we put maybe a third of the lid full of Tide in it and it sudsed up so much we had to run the rinse cycle an extra three times! They must have really soft water here because even a tablespoon of detergent is too much. There is no dryer in most apartments here so we are getting used to scattering our we clothes on chair backs and throughout the apartment.

I am going to put a picture on here of a "squatty potty" that I've referenced many times before. Usually, they are cleaner than this one looks, but I had my camera with me that day and paid my two grivna just so I could take a picture of it for those of you who've asked. I should also say that not all potties are ones in the floor. In our apartment we have normal facilities. The commode is in a separate tiny room; the tub and sink in another. Also, in some restaurants and in some of the shopping centers, there are normal commodes as well. McDonald's has normal ones and does not charge a fee to enter the bathroom. Toilet paper is included usually in the fee you pay to use the bathrooms; that means there's a roll on the wall by the lady who sells you the ticket to go into the bathroom so you obviously couldn't take a whole bunch of it. John told me that even in the guys bathroom, a lady sits at the table to take their money as well and then the urinals are in an open area from her. Still, I think it's unfair that they get normal height urinals when we are stuck with the squat pots. They have those inside a stall in their bathrooms as well. By the way, don't ask where a bathroom is when you're in Ukraine. Rather, you must ask for the "toilet." They understand that word.

While I'm on the topic of differences between here and home, be careful how you order water. I know I've referenced before that you should either buy your water or boil your water. You wouldn't believe how much you can spend on water here. But my point was going to be that most people here drink water with gas or with bubbles in it. So we have to always say, "No bubbles." If you are buying water at the grocery store, be sure you purchase the light blue colored lidded ones because those are the ones that have no bubbles. Being able to go to a restaurant and order a glass of ice water for free is something I'm really looking forward to back in America. Ice is not doled out here at all. Speaking of drinks, Coca-Cola is sold here. They do not know what you mean if you say Coke though. And you don't ask for Diet Coke; instead, you ask for Coca-Cola Light.

Our apartment building has a code you have to punch in before you can enter the building and then our apartment itself has double locks, so we have never felt unsafe here. We don't even feel unsafe carrying cash with us wherever we go. Of course we, or especially I, are so bundled up in the winter weather no one could get to my belt bag or hidden money belt anyway. My long coat provides a good cover up for it. Many places don't take credit cards so we had to bring some money in cash. We are careful not to exchange much for grivnas though because Ukranian money is worth nothing in the United States.

Don't believe the guidebooks or internet sites that say movies are offered in English here at some cinemas. We've gone to two different ones which supposedly either played a movie in English or subtitled it only to have wasted our time.

There are a lot of stores here in Kiev. They line all the streets and underneath as well as I've written about before. We thought we'd explored them all, but today we found one rather nearby that we hadn't explored yet. Though not very many speak English here or are willing to let us know that, you can bet your bottom dollar if you want to buy something, they manage to magically speak English enough to tell us the prices. Though much of the Ukranian alphabet is different here than ours, the numerals themselves are the same. We just have to remember that around eight grivna equals $1.00 when it come to figuring out how much things are really costing us.

People here are always in a hurry. You don't make eye contact with them, and unless you know them, you don't say good morning or anything. They bump you just to get on with their day, not really to be annoying, or at least that's the way I'm choosing to look at it. There is never an "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" uttered--not that we could understand the words anyway but no word is spoken when they run into us.

John loves the coffee here. It is very strong. The waitress always asks when he orders coffee if he wants it "American." No, he does not; they make it about the way he does.

Just about everyone smokes here. Thank God our translator doesn't; our facilitator does but we're not around her very much at all.

We have yet to really figure out the metro and bus system. We know that if we get on Bus 16 or 18 that we will eventually get back to where we got on, which is the stop near the McDonald's, about a long, long block from us. Kind of convenient sometimes it is. The Metro we braved last weekend but don't know if we'll be up to that tomorrow or not. We need to figure out something to do though because moping around in this apartment isn't healthy for any of us.

Our new friends over here, Gail and Craig, are fighting to make their second referral work for them. It was as sibling set, with the younger sister living in a different orphanage from the older one. The younger one turns out to be mentally retarded and will be institutionalized the rest of her life. The older one is okay, with just a little delay caused from living in an institution which is called "institutional delay." The problem is the orphanage director of the younger girl will change paperwork so that the two can be separated for adoption purposes, but the other girl's director won't. The director has such power it amazes me. Anyway, Gail and Craig are trying to fight this and figure out a way to make it work so that the older girl is not penalized by having to stay in an institution because the half sibling is too ill to ever be adopted. It's not like the girls ever see each other anyway. So I'm wishing them all the luck in the world that this can all be resolved so they have their little girl to take home.

If any of you do or can use skype.com, you can communicate with us. Since this is a public blog, I'll not put our skype name on here, but e-mail me if you're interested and perhaps we could have a live chat. It's totally free too as long as it's online chat and video and not a phone call through it. : ) Remember we're seven hours ahead of most of you.

The other pictures on this posting are of St. Sophia's Cathedral. Some shots are taken from a few flights up in the Bell Tower. After paying to be able to climb it, John and I as well as Craig fatigued out after a few flights, but Gail made it all the way to the top. At least we got to see a panoramic view of that part of this large city. These ancient cathedrals with extremely tall ceilings and enormous rooms do make me feel like I'm in a church; well, of course I am, but the feeling is hard to describe. Awe-struck might sort of get at it. The paintings inside, even on the tallest of ceilings, are also phenomenal. We just stare and stare with wide-eyed wonder at them. How in the world were they able to paint up that high. What kind of scaffolding must they have used back then? We were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, though I think John took some with his iphone with of course no flash so they didn't turn our very clearly, but you can get the idea of how every wall and ceiling is painted so I'm posting a couple here anyway. But you will at least see the outside of St. Sophia from many angles.

A good friend of mine lost her husband yesterday after almost a year long struggle with cancer. Please keep the Sallees in your prayers.

Today (1/24) would have been my mother's birthday, may God rest her soul. This child we hope(d) to have from this adoption was or is to be named after her. I had hoped we'd have had it all figured out by today, but maybe next week will allow us to still do so. Please pray so.

That's about it for now. We'd really appreciate some more comments from you folks out there reading this and/or some e-mails just about humdrum topics as well. As you can tell, we've had a rather trying week and it helps to know there of those of you out there following us on our journey and cheering us on every step of the way. Thanks. : )

Friday Frustrations 1/22-23

Frustrated doesn't begin to describe how we are feeling tonight. Friday we had planned on going to visit another young lady named Nadia who was smart and happy and kind, but her age was just a tad outside of our pre-approved age range. No problem to get that age limit upped we were told, but it did turn out to be a major one. It's more complicated than this sounds, but that's it in a nutshell. We won't be going for our second referral tomorrow and so will turn in paperwork tomorrow to request our third and last appointment at the SDA. We certainly hope we don't have to wait over a week to get it; time is flying by.

We hope we have the stamina to last through another appointment. Those of you who've never done this have no idea of all each appointment takes out of you, as you sort through and choose and reject files. They aren't files you're rejecting, though, but real children with hopes and dreams of better tomorrows. Sigh.

Before we found all this out we are in a fairly upbeat mood (though a bit nervous of course) so we met up with Gail and Craig again and tried to go explore another cathedral. There was some celebration or something going on in front of it, however, so we couldn't enter. Here are some pictures to show what we're talking about. We asked a vendor later on to explain what all that was about and we got quite an education about how regular people feel about their president, government and their so-called "freedom." His emphasis, not mine. It is so intersting to hear real people talk about the state of affairs in this country. This vendor told us what we had already heard, that in Kiev there are a rich people, some very rich, but that if you go outside of Kiev even twenty or thirty minutes, you find extreme poverty. He talked about his aged mother who lived on a "pensionary" but who lived dirt poor with so little help.

John also tried on one of those traditional Russian hats as seen in this picture. Wonder how many of those he'll decide he must bring home with him?

Sure hoping that the third time is the charm for us and that there will be a healthy and happy sevenish age child just waiting for us.

And so it goes here in Kiev.