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

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