LAST WEEKEND

We're enjoying our last full weekend in Artemovsk, and all of Ukraine for that matter.

The champagne factory tour didn't work out yesterday. When we got there, we found out that we needed to have reservations. No matter how much money we offered, the wouldn't let us in, even for a little while. So, when you come here, call at least 4 or 5 days in advance for the tour.

But we are going to the salt mine today. Yesterday, Stephen went with Vika and our cab driver to Soledar (the city in which the salt mine is located) and prepaid our entries for today. We'll definitely post photos of that tour tomorrow. Supposedly, the salt mine is so large that a soccer game was once played inside.

Not much else to report. Consistent with our "project plan," we've got a pile of dirty clothes building up in the corner of the hotel room. (Those clothes will not make the return trip.) Tomorrow (Sunday) will be our packing day in preparation for a long travel day Monday that will include getting new birth certificates and passports for the childrens and traveling on to Kiev.

TGIF

Another day has passed and that puts us one day closer to being home.

Yesterday (Thursday) was an interesting and informative day. We were able to connect with Vika, a nice young lady here in Artemovsk who speaks English very well. (She gives private English lessons to children.) Vika helped us arrange for the champagne factory tour, which we will take this afternoon.

Most importantly, she joined us at the orphanage for 20 minutes of Q&A regarding the lifestyles and habits of the children. Pam and Sherry (recall that Sherry and Justin from south of San Antonio are here adopting Kyle), with Vika translating, quizzed the orphanage workers regarding sleep habits, meals, food allergies... just about everything you can think of. The highlights for Katrina: she goes to bed at 8pm and awakens at 6am; she naps daily from 1 to 3pm; snack times are 10am and 4pm; bathroom times are structured and frequent; she eats everything except potato chips and sweets.

For bathroom times, all the children in her room have their own pot (not potty). They take the pot down from a small shelf, set it on the floor, and then sit on the pot and do their business. (We have not yet witnessed the disposal of the contents of the pots afterward and frankly don't care to.) They can go to the bathroom any time they need to but there are certain times of the day when all children go grab their pot and have a seat (so to speak). We've arrived several times at the orphanage to find all children sitting on their pots in the bathroom.

Regarding eating everything, we were quite surprised to find that the orphanage said "no sweets." We've seen the children on numerous ocassions being fed candy and sweet breads by the orphanage workers. Who knows. Katrina definitely has a healthy appetite, as she is the largest child in her room.

And a sad little story... We arrived yesterday morning at the orphanage and swept Katrina into our arms for a couple of hours of quality time. Then the workers started telling us something that we couldn't decipher. After several minutes of talking very loudly (what all people seem to do when wanting to communicate in a language that is foreign to the other person), we finally called an interpreter who communicated to us that the children were having medical physicals today and we would not be able to spend time with them until the evening. So, we said good-bye to Katrina, and oh how she cried. We had only been there a few minutes and we were already leaving. Of course, it broke our hearts; at the same time, it warmed us inside to know that she wanted so much to be with us.


Katrina sends her love. (First photo: Katrina loves to brush people's hair. Fortunately, Pam has long hair and Stephen has often been referred to as a "long-haired, hippy redneck.")

34 HOURS AND COUNTING

It's about 7am here on Thursday. Tomorrow at 5pm the court decree becomes official and we have a new daughter. That also gives us some more tax deductions, but Stephen is 100% sure that our new president will see to it that we pay more taxes, not less, no matter how many children we have. Oh well, nothing can dampen our spirits, not even more taxes.

We've made arrangements for a tour of the champagne factory tomorrow and will hopefully get to see the salt mine on Saturday. Sunday will be a day of travel preparation, and then Monday the fun begins.

No big news really. We continue to enjoy our time with Katrina. She understands quite a bit of Russian, although she doesn't speak much. Stephen has been working with her on her English and she has attempted to articulate such words as blue, star, and banana. Not to worry... she'll be an English-speaking little chatter box by the time kindergarten starts in 18 months.

Speaking of language, Stephen entertained the grocery store clerks yesterday. Here, they always ask you first how many bags you want and what size. (You get charged for grocery bags.) So, Stephen learned to say "Two big ones" in Russian. Yesterday, they threw him a curve and asked first, "How would you like to pay?" And Stephen responded in his broken Russian and with a very proud grin, "With two big ones." The clerk was a little embarrassed at his response and several of the clerks couldn't help but laugh. She then explained that she wanted to know if he was paying with a card or cash. Well, that embarrassed Stephen when he realized the inappropriateness of his response. He got so flustered that he didn't what to say when he was finally asked how many bags he wanted and what size. What can you say, he's a computer nerd and a professor.

Katrina sends her love. Maeve, congratulations. Gary, thanks for all the emails. LA staff, we truly appreciate all your comments. Nana and Popeye, hang in there and thanks for watching Darian, Trevor, and Alexis.

3 ANGELS AT HOME

One of our mutual attractons so many years ago was that neither of us ever wanted children. We were both dedicated, career-oriented people. Hmmm... how things change.

On August 1, 1999 Darian came into our world and we knew we had made the right decision to forgo our DINK status (Dual-Income, No Kids) and join the parenthood club. Exactly 13 months later to the day, Trevor became a part of our family and confirmed that our decision was right.

Two beautiful boys, no worries in the world... what else could we want? Well, we wanted two girls. Both of us were aging, however, and we were acutely aware of the many children in this world who needed a warm, loving family. So, we decided to go the adoption route.

We started the whole process about 4 years ago and finally got Alexis from Ukraine in the summer of 2007. And now, we're just a few days away from bringing home Katrina and starting a new chapter in all our lives.

Darian will turn 9 and a half this Sunday (super bowl Sunday). Trevor will be 8 and a half on March 1. Little Alexis will have her third birthday in between the two.

Darian, Trevor, and Alexis - we cannot imagine life without you. You bring us so much joy and happiness. So, Big D (Darian), Sweet Pickles (Trevor), and Poodle-Doodle (Alexis) - get ready. Mommy and Daddy are coming home and we may never stop hugging you!!






P.S. Thanks to Uncle Mark for daily reading our blog to Al and Fern.

TUESDAY AND ALL IS WELL

Again today, no big news to report.

Our newest "intellectual" challenge is to determine in what order to wear our clothes so that we can minimize what we take back. When we leave here next Monday, we'll still have 4 or 5 days in Kiev. So, we want to leave as much here in Artemovsk as possible while still having enough to get us through our time in Kiev. Then, we'll leave more stuff in Kiev, making the trip home very light.

The same is true for our other belongings (baggies, toiletries, etc); we want to leave most of it here and carry back to Kiev only what we need for our days there.

Now, you may thinking, "These people have gone absolutely nuts over there!" But we assure you, when you're in the middle of some surreal, esoteric version of Groundhog Day, creating a project plan of the clothes you wear (with an accompanying PowerPoint slide presentation with photos of the clothes) is a welcome and exciting task.


More photos of Katrina.

OUR LAST MONDAY AT THE ORPHANAGE

Today, we start our week-long celebration of "last days." Today is the last Monday at the orphanage, tomorrow is the last Tuesday at the orphanage, and so on. Our time with Katrina is great, but we're all ready to go home and start a new chapter in our collective lives. Of course, we still have a handfull of days in Kiev after we leave here, but it won't be groundhog day anymore. (Perhaps it will be ground squirrel day, then.)

We are making plans for a tour of some of Artemovsk. We're very excited about getting to sightsee a champagne factory and a salt mine. Both should be fun and educational.

We're also determining how best to return to Kiev with a child in tow. Bt train, it's 12 hours overnight, so at least Katrina will sleep most of the way. By car, it's 10 hours or so which has the advantage of a personal driver who will stop at any time for any reason. By plane, it's an hour and 20 minute flight, which has the huge advantage of time savnigs even when you factor in time at both airports. Of course, they all have their disadavantages as well. However, we do realize how fortunate we are to have so many options.

Alexis, our little peanut and daughter, we miss you so dearly. It was about 18 months ago that we were here in Ukranie going through a similar process to adopt you. It was summer then, and we got spend all our time with you outdoors. It broke our hearts sometimes to see you sweat and wilt underneath the 100-degree sun. You persevered better than we did, and our memories of those times always make us smile. We love you, Alexis, and we'll be home soon.

MORE "NO NEWS"

We have nothing new or really interesting report today.

Like we said, a whole lot of Groundhog Day deja vu all over again. (Wow, Bill Murray and Yogi Berra in the same reference!!)

Another good day with Katrina. She's really talking up a storm now (not in English, of course) and she's much more engaged and interactive than she was the first few days we were with her. That's to be expected though, and we're patient with the bonding process. (Remember, we've been through this with Alexis.) She's also testing us - as parents - to see how far she can push things, and sometimes we can't help but laugh to see the her little mind working her way through sneaky scenarios and parent-subversive plots. That's also good... she understands our true feelings toward her and now she's just being a little child, comfortable with her parents while trying to learn her limits.

Meanwhile, our boys at home (Darian and Trevor) are negotiating with each other to determine how Stephen is going to paint their new room once we get home. Right now, it seems to be some sort of mix of colors for the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Nuggets. Anyway, Darian and Trevor, Daddy cannot wait to get home and grab a paint brush, so br ready with your colors and design.

More photos of Katrina.

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

No big or exciting news today. Nico had his 4th birthday party, which was really fun to attend. The orphanage certainly allows birthday parties, but you are usually limited to giving the kids just a few cookies... no cake and ice cream, dancing bears, Disney on Ice, etc. We got to sing happy birthday to Nico in both Spanish and English and wear party hats and blow party horns.

The longer we stay here the more contact we have with people who have also been to Artemovsk and adopted. Through all of those communications, we learn more about the city like eating places, etc. So, Stephen's new "mission" is to diagram the city in the orphanage area and mark and photo important locations... hotels, restaurants with English menus, the Internet cafe, post office, etc. If you've been here before and are aware of a place future travelers to Artemovsk should know about, please send Stephen an email at techbookwriter@yahoo.com. Include a description and approximate location. Stephen will photograph and map it. Also, let Stephen know if you want to receive the map and photos. Hopefully, people who use it in the future will update it and pass it on to others.

Katrina sends her love!!

MORE FRIENDS, ANOTHER GROUNDHOG DAY

Same routine, same wonderful new daughter.

Thursday here had only a few surprises and deviations from any other day.

We moved hotel rooms again for the 4th time. (If we stay in a different room every night until we leave, we will have stayed in every room in the hotel.) The first room was huge but had no shower curtain so you had to keep your back to the wall while using a handheld spray nozzle. The second room was too cold (for Pam, not Stephen). The third room was okay but we noticed that a must larger and nicer room had become available. In this hotel, you can tell that the a room is empty because the key is in the door. So, you can walk into any room to determine if you want it.

Stephen spent almost an hour on the phone with Delta and got our tickets changed and bought a ticket for Katrina. We'll be flying home on Saturday, February 7th. We leave Kiev at noon, have an approximate 3 hour layover in JFK, and then finally arrive in Denver at 10pm on the same day. It's 19 hours of travel time. There is a chance we could fly standby on Thursday, February 5th, if we can get through the medical and embassy stuff without a hitch. Stephen wishes we could get home even a few more days early as his Cub Scout Pack's Blue and Gold banquet is Wednesday the 4th. He would love to see Darian get his Bear badge and Trevor get his Wolf badge. And, he also wants to be there to see all the other boys get their badges of rank, as Stephen is Cubmaster for the pack.

Our nice surprise was the joining of a new family. Maria and Fernando, from Guatemala, have joined us at the orphanage. They have 2 daughters by birth (9 and 13 years old) and are adopting three boys: Santiago (3), Nico (4), and Fernando (5). Maria and Fernando are staying in Kramators'k, as they alternate days between orphanages. Santiago and Nico are here in the orphanage in Artemosk (1-hour drive from Kramators'k) and Fernando is in another orphanage about a 2-hour drive in the opposite direction. When they are here, we have 3 boys (Santiago, Nico, and Kyle), 1 girl (Katrina), and 6 adults (Maria and Fernando, Sherry and Justin, and the two of us) in the same room. Talk about wild and crazy!! It seems the adults spend most of their time trying to make sure their child/children aren't eating the food of the other children. But it's a lot of fun, and all the adults enjoy having grown-up conversations.

More photos of Katrina for you to enjoy.

Darian and Trevor, Daddy is rooting for the Cardinals to win the super bowl. Alexis, both Mommy and Daddy can't wait to give some lovin' to their little "girdlfriend." We love and miss all of you.

SUCCESS AND SCARE!!

Katrina is all ours, barring, of course, any wild happening in the next 10 days!!

We had our court appointment yesterday at 3:30pm and it went very smoothly. We answered only a few questions, the usual ones regarding our home and the like. The judge did ask Stephen about his profession. His response of being a professor of computer technology at a university always gets a lot of positive nods. Anyway, the whole process took 13 minutes. Now, we wait the mandatory 10 days, which will be a week from this Friday. The following Monday we will take care of passports and birth certificates and then be off to Kiev. If all goes according to plan, we will be on a plane on February 7th.

That was our success yesterday... now for the scare.

We were in our hotel room yesterday about 12:45 having a light lunch when our facilitator came knocking at the door. She said the orphanage had called and something was wrong with Katrina and that we needed to pick her up and take her to the hospital. On the ride over, our facilitator explained that something was wrong with Katrina's left leg. When we got to the orphanage she jumped up and ran into Stephen's arm. But, the workers there insisted that she had been limping around. So, we took her to the local hospital (the hospital is another story all by itself) where she was immediately seen by a doctor. (Orphanage children get priority at the hospital.) He just shrugged his shoulders after watching Katrina walk around.

As it turns out, the orphanage can get in very big trouble if something happens to a child so close to his/her adoption date. So, when the workers saw Katrina limping, they immediately wanted to send her to the doctor for care.

Needless to say, the whole thing gave us a scare. In then end, we laughed it off as a bit of an over-reaction.

Enjoy more photos for Katrina. She is a pistol!!

BIG DAY AND GREAT FRIENDS

Today is an important day. We have our court appointment at 3:30pm. This is when the judge will ask us a few questions (why we want to adopt in Ukraine, etc) and then grant us our request to adopt Katrina. But it's not over. Then we have a mandatory 10-day waiting period, which means one week from Friday she will officially be ours.

We are very fortunate to have another American couple with us, Sherry and Justin. They are from 50 miles south of San Antonio (in the general area where Jerry, Stephen's brother, used to live). Sherry and Justin are adopting Kyle, an absolutely beautiful 4-year-old boy. Sherry and Justin had their appointment in Kiev to select Kyle the day before ours. So, they have been one step ahead most of the trip. They arrived in Artemosk a day earlier, got to meet their new child a day earlier, etc.

We are staying in the same hotel and sharing rides to and from the orphanage. It's great to have lunch with them everyday, talk about home, and share the adoption experience. Sherry and Justing have a daughter by birth and also wanted a son. We can certainly say that Justin and Sherry are very lucky because Kyle is a wonderful little boy. Kyle is equally as lucky... Sherry and Justin are magnificient people.







We are only able to spend our morning time with Katrina today because of the afternoon court appointment. This morning was great as we had no temper-tantrums!! But we're sure we'll get a couple tomorrow as we continue to work with Katrina. She is truly wonderful and very happy, and we are lucky to have found her. She even pooped for us today. This is quite a breakthrough as she had yet to use the bathroom with us prior to today.

Enjoy some photos of Katrina and know that we'll be celebrating this evening after our court appointment.

CALORIE CONSUMPTION

We are staying in a hotel about 2 blocks from the main shopping mall (and also supermarket) for Artemosk. It's a very nice supermarket about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of Stephen's King Soopers back in Highlands Ranch. (And, yes, if you ask Stephen, he will tell you that the King Soopers is his.) The selection is always pretty good. And, as you can see from the photo below, the fish is fresh.



We tend to buy more than the average Ukrainian couple in the supermarket (DUH!!), so the security guards take turns kind of following us around. Theft in a supermarket is quite high, so all supermarkets employ security guards to watch for people stealing food.

The real food shopping (and every other kind of shopping) occurs right behind the supermarket. It is a very large open air market, with many small permanent shops (usually about 12x12) and plenty of room for people wanting to display their wares in the hopes of finding buyers. In the photo below, you can see the entrance to the open air market just to the right of the supermarket. The next photo below shows a closer view of the entrance to the open air market.





Once inside, you can find just about anything you want. We've been buying a bunch of clothes and toys for Katrina and many things for the hotel room... trash cans, extra bedding, pillows, etc. You can also find plenty of fresh meat there, as you'll see in a few of the photos below.











Of course, our primary focus is Katrina. She really loves to be held, although she's not particularly fond of sitting in your lap while she does something like draw. Today, we explored eating with a spoon (at which she is already really good) and having a plate full of food that she could eat whenever she wanted. It's very interesting to watch her. In our first few days, she literally inhaled her food and tried to have both hands full of cookies, Cheerios, etc. Now, she's beginning to understand that food is not in short supply when she's with us. She's even been willing to pick up Cheerios and give them to both of us, which is a positive step forward and away from alwys having a feeling of hunger.