Recent photos of the kids

Here are some photos taken of the kids in the last week. You can see how happy they are. They really enjoyed their first July 4th holiday (America's Happy Birthday - is how we explained it), doing sparklers and little fireworks in the neighborhood, then joining friends in Grand Lake, Colorado for boating and fireworks over the lake. Today was their first day for the new school year. Logan is now in 4th grade, and Daria in 2nd.

3 months and counting

I don't know if anyone is still checking this out occassionally, but for those of you in the midst of the adoption process, I want to post to let you know how things are going after 3 months with the kids home.

It's actually been an amazing experience and has gone much better than Scott & I could've imagined over a year ago when we started the paperwork. To recap for those of you new to our blog, we originally had applied to adopt a sibling group up to 6 yo. We ended up accepting a referral of a brother and sister, ages 9.5 and 8 yo. I was hesitant when we first received the referral to see kids this old, thinking they'd have so many more issues. But, we fell in love with them immediately when we met them, and knew instantly that they were our kids. Really, it was the best decision we've ever made.

I really cannot say enough good things about Logan and Daria. They are amazing, in every way. When we brought them home, they started school a week and a half later. They knew about 10 words of English, and did not even know the alphabet. 3 months later, they are reading and talking in complete sentences (not the best grammar however, but it beats the hand signals we had to use when they came home!). It is truly amazing to see how their language skills are developing every day. They are really bright, smart and very eager to learn. They are fun, laugh a lot, and are really genuinely happy.

They are in a year-round school, so after 2 weeks off they start back next week for the new school year. Logan will be in 4th grade, and Daria in 2nd. They have made many new friends in the neighborhood (we have the most wonderful neighbors who have welcomed the kids with open arms) and at school. They are really opening up and gaining lots of confidence. Logan is very athletic, and picks up on everything immediately. He has transformed from a reserved little boy who always took care of his younger sister into a funny, silly, happy little boy who totally enjoys life (except for broccoli and the occassional chore).

Daria was very shy with others when she came home, but now goes and knocks on the neighbors' doors, looking for her friends to play with. She struggles a bit with school work, but she is smart and determined and completely cute and charming, loving and giving.

Not only have they had to adjust to a new country, language, school, friends, and home, but also our crazy work schedules. I was only able to take 1.5 weeks off when the kids came home, and Scott had to go back to work immediately. After a week in school, they "off-tracked" for 3 weeks and went to day care. Then they were back in school for the last 6 weeks of school. They didn't blink an eye and took it all in stride. We both work long hours which we've adjusted to maximize our time with them.

Honestly, I struggled for the first couple of months figuring out how to juggle everything, and feeling guilty when I was at work and not with them, and feeling guilty when I was with them and not at work. I struggled with depression for about a month, but I've had tremendous support from my boss, co-workers and friends, and am finally feeling like we have a good groove, and that I'm able to be a good mom and still do a good job at work.

Other than typical kid stuff, we haven't had any issues with the kids at all. We have a translator that we use every month or so, but we've never really been dependent on her to communicate with the kids. We read varying views about when to put the kids in school, introduce them to friends, get them involved in team sports, etc. We decided what would work best for us - and hopefully for them- would be to just throw them into the deep end of the pool and be there to support them. It's worked tremendously well. We immediately set expectations of proper behavior, what we expect in school, etc, and 95% of the time, they meet our expectations.

The kids still speak Russian to each other, which we're happy about. We want them to remain bi-lingual, but for now we're focusing their studies on English. In a couple of years,we'll get them back into Russian studies.

For those of you looking into the process, or right in the midst of it, know that it is a big leap of faith and trust that it will all work out. We love and treat the kids as though they've been with us forever. And, it works for us. We realize we are extremely lucky with our situation, and are so lucky to have gotten such awesome kids.

The dentist wasn't so bad...

At least not for Logan. Actually, both kids did very well sitting for the dentist, having their teeth cleaned, etc. The hygenists demo'd everything on me first so the kids knew what to expect. They especially liked the cleaning instrument - she put it on their fingers so they could feel it vibrate and they both laughed at that.

We knew Daria's mouth was a wreck, and it is. The dentist took one look in a referred us to a pediatric dentist would could help us evaluate and determine which of the issues should be tackled first. Logan has a bunch of cavities in his permanent molars, but other than that, his mouth is looking pretty good. Phew! We were expecting to have to shell out big bucks for both kids, but right now, it's looking like it won't be quite as much.

And, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what the causes are. If it's poor nutrition, lack of fluoride, improper brushing, no toothpaste, etc. Scott actually had to show the kids how to properly brush their teeth when he took custody of them in Ukraine. I suppose the orphanages don't have enough manpower to pay attention to everything. At least we're catching it now. I feel bad for Daria because I have a feeling that the work that will need to be done in her mouth will be quite painful for her. And, she definitely does not need to lose any more weight by not being able to eat solid foods for a few days.

The kids are still enjoying school, and have done well on their homework so far. We have to push Daria much harder than Logan with school work, but hopefully by the time the next school year starts in July she'll have the hang of things and be a bit more interested in learning. She seems to do well with a lot of encouragement and positive reinforcement about the work she's done, so we're doing a lot of that. Logan still has a tendency to jump in and answer things for her, so we're working on stopping that as well.

First Day of School

The kids braved their first day of school today. They've been so excited, everyday asking how many more "zafthras" (sp?? tomorrows) until school. Last week we bought lunch boxes (Spiderman and Princesses) and school supplies, which they kept looking at every day. I think reality kicked in a bit this morning when they finally realized they really were going - it wasn't a theoretical thing. You'll notice in their "deer caught in headlights" photo, very top :)

But, when I came back to school this afternoon to pick them up, they both had huge smiles on their faces. They really enjoyed themselves. Logan's 3rd grade teacher even found a computer site (http://www.translation2.paralink.com/ - for those interested) in which she could type an English phrase, it would convert it to Russian, then actually say the phrase out loud. We'll start using that at home! She had asked the class last week who wanted to be Logan's buddies, and sit by his desk. Apparently there were lots of volunteers. Our neighbor's son Zane is in Daria's class, and he is looking out for her.

We have actually found a translator, who has been super, and we spent half an hour on the phone with her this evening asking the kids how things went today. They really did have a great day and said that school is much better here.

We had a fun weekend with the kids. My office mates threw them a wonderful party on Friday, and they enjoyed pizza and cupcakes, as well as many wonderful gifts. We took advantage of one of the gifts, and took the kids to the Denver Zoo on Saturday. We had taken them swimming for the first time at the local rec center in the morning, and between the two (swimming and zoo), they were (very happily!) worn out.

But not too worn out to go pick out their first bikes in the afternoon! They were so excited to get them. Sunday morning we took them out for their first lesson. It was a good reminder of how difficult it is to learn to ride. It was really hard to explain to them. I've been biking forever, but I've never had to explain it to anyone. They did good for their first outing (balance is the trickiest piece), and before we know it, they will be wheeling around on their own without our help.

The kids really seem settled in and very well adjusted. They told the translator that they're very happy here. Tomorrow when I take them to the dentist they may change their minds :)

Trip to Copper Mountain

Yesterday morning I made the call to postpone our tubing trip until today, because of the winter storm warnings for the ski resort areas. Thank goodness I did. There was a 60-car pileup on I-70 that had the interstate closed for most of the day. I'm really glad we didn't have to sit in that, or worse yet, be one of the cars involved in the collision. As you can see from the photos, the storm cleared out and we had a perfect day at Copper Mountain - sunny and 40 degrees. Unfortunately, I forgot to put sunblock on the kids and forgot sunglasses. I did remember to pack their lunch though :) I guess I'll eventually remember everything that I'm supposed to do for them.

The kids had a great time tubing, though I had a hard time explaining to them beforehand that we were going tubing. I think they thought we were going to ski. The 5 tube chutes ran from easy to steep and fast. They liked doing them all, especially the one in the middle with the big bump that put them airborne for a couple of seconds. There was lots of giggling today. The good news (for me, as I'm an avid skier) is that they were really excited to see the skiers and boarders as well. Logan wanted to know if we could go tomorrow. I couldn't figure out how to tell him "next season", so I had to tell him "180 zahfstra (sp??) - which to him means in 180 days (tomorrows).

We stopped at school on the way home for their ESL testing. We will hear from the school later this week, but we discussed - and the ESL teacher said she's going to recommend - that Logan go into 3rd grade, instead of being in 2nd grade, which he was in at the orphange. He is super-smart and catches on to things really quickly. Hopefully within another year or so, we can bump him up one more grade level so he'll be with kids his age. Daria will probably remain in 1st grade, which is fine. We think that is appropriate for now, and hopefully in a couple of years we can bump her up as well. We think they'll be starting school on Monday, as they already have most of their vaccinations, which was surprising to us, but in a nice way.

Some photos from the first few days

Here are a couple of photos from the kids' first few days home.

A few whirlwind days!

So far so good with the kids! Though they've only been home since Wednesday, it actually feels like they've always been with us. The kids are really settling in well and enjoying things, though they have been jetlagged. The first couple of days, they woke up pretty early - 4 and 5 am. Today was the first day they've been in bed until 7 am - a semi-normal time (we'd prefer 9 am on Sundays!! :) We have noticed that they get tired easily. I'm not sure if it's the altitude (we're at 6000+ feet here) or if they just don't have the energy because they're so thin. We've been getting them outside everyday to do a little something - a walk, playing soccer, etc - to build up their energy.

Their appetite has been great, they want to eat often, but they don't eat alot at a particular setting. They mostly want fruits and veggies, so we're having to force protein and carbs into them. Though, they do love eggs, so breakfast time is easy. Knock on wood, but we are having a really great experience so far. They are really well-behaved kids. Scott set the line early while he had them in Odessa for appropriate behavior, and they really do listen well. I'm amazed at the communication that we're able to do with them, without us able to understand each other's language. They may not understand what we're saying, but they "get" what we're saying. Whether we're telling them to make their beds or brush their teeth, to asking them if they're cold or hungry or want to play, somehow it's all been working out. There has been only a few times that they weren't able to tell us something or vice versa.

We had a busy day yesterday. Scott's family came over yesterday to meet them, and I think that was a bit overwhelming for them. Later, they met a few of the kids in the neighborhood, who have all been very excited to meet their new friends. I think yesterday was a bit overwhelming for them, but they handled it very well. We've had no blowups or tantrums, or really even any fights. Every now and then they'll squabble over something (usually over choice of movie to watch), but otherwise, they're great together, and we think, really good for each other. They will chatter on and on to each other in Russian, and I really wish we knew what they're saying. I'm half tempted to tape them and take the tapes to an interpreter. Right now, I'd love to be inside their heads to understand how they're viewing everything so far.

They do only like to go out for a bit at a time - one or two stores, then they ask to go home. We think they just want to make sure that home is still really there for them. Tomorrow I'm going to take them for their first day trip (to go tubing at one of the ski resorts), but so far we've just kept them around the house or neighborhood, except to go to a few stores. We think it's helping them with their comfort level - this is "our house", "our bedrooms", "our clothes". Neither one is particularly clingy, though Daria gives me lots of hugs and kisses and keeps saying "my mama" in Russian.

This week, I'll take them to school for testing and enrollment. They've actually had a lot of their vaccinations done at the orphange, so I think we'll be able to start them in school in a week from tomorrow. Logan is really looking forward to going, Daria not as much. Once she's made some friends though, that will change.

I will admit to being a little overwhelmed (mostly because I haven't had as much sleep as usual) with the suddenness of everything. But I know we'll get into our family groove here very soon. The good news is that the kids are completely comfortable with us, and seem to trust us. That will really help.

I still haven't had time to pull photos off my camera, but promise to do so very soon!

They're Home!!

It feels so great to finally be able to write that! Scott, Logan and Daria arrived in Denver at 1pm this afternoon. I'm so happy to have everyone together! Scott said all last night they kept saying "America" - they couldn't wait to come. On the flight home, they kept asking him how many more hours to go.

I got tons of hugs and Daria held my hand almost the whole way home (I was NOT driving :). I'm sure not having mama around while Logan had papa was hard for her. It was fun seeing their reactions to our house and their rooms - their very own rooms! They kept saying "wow!". Not that our house is very big or anything, but I think they just can't believe they actually have their own rooms. Especially after sharing a bed for so long after getting out of the orphanage and waiting for the passports.

I think our dogs were a bit overwhelming for Daria, but I kind of expected that. They're both young - 2 and 1 - and are very "enthusiastic" (as one friend graciously put it). Meaning, they jump and lick A LOT. Logan really liked it, but not so much Daria. In a few days, they'll all be best of buds, and I predict that Dozer will be sleeping with Daria and Tasi with Logan.

Most importantly, we can finally relax from this roller coaster of a trip and settle in to being a family. We'll take some pix tomorrow of the kids in their new home and post them.

Passports Finally Arrive!

Hi everyone (if anyone is still following this). I'm sorry it's been so long since the last posting. Scott applied for the passports on March 13th, and it has taken this long to get them. They finally arrived this morning, but apparently it took about twice as long as most people's. Needless to say, by Friday of this past week, Scott was really worn down mentally and panicking because his time off comes to an end this week. We thought that I might have to go back over so that he could come home and go back to work. Fortunately, everything worked out just in the nick of time!

Scott has been keeping the kids busy and entertained as best he can. He's my hero - staying over there by himself and taking care of our kids. It sounds like they've figured out how to communicate back and forth pretty well, and he says they are just awesome and very well behaved. They even make their beds in the morning without being asked!

We had purchased a Leap Frog system for each of them before we embarked on this journey. We were going to save it for the plane ride home, but Scott finally had to break down and give it to them this weekend. He says they absolutely love it (hint hint to those of you adopting kids old enough to understand them). He said they caught on and figured things out pretty quickly, and there are plenty of learning games that come with the base system in addition to the add-on games. We got a good deal on ours at Costco in the fall, but maybe they still have some.

Scott has been taking the kids with him every day for the last week to check to see if the passports arrived. The kids know what the passports mean - they can finally come home to America. On Friday when they went, the lady told him the passports had arrived. He got so excited, but apparently they were for some other kids. Today when they got there, the lady told him the passports had come, but he didn't want to get too excited in case they weren't his again. Finally she had the kids come back around and Scott said they went crazy when they saw them. They are so excited to finally be coming home!

I have to be honest - I've been worried that they'd forget me after I left. After all, I was only with them for 2 weeks before I came home, and it's already been over 3 weeks since I've been back. Scott said our translator today had a long conversation with Daria, and that she really misses me. She was able to describe what I look like: "mama has red hair and a nice smile", which made me very happy. I cannot wait to see my kids again. I've really been missing them since coming home.

We're hoping that they can finish up everything that they need to do at the Embassy tomorrow, and then fly home on Wednesday. It's sometimes possible, and easier with one child than two. But, I know the Embassy people will do they're very best to get everything finished tomorrow. If not, the worst case is that they will be home on Thursday. I will know in the morning when I wake up. Finally, something worth getting up at 5am for!!

Meanwhile, our friends Peter and Charlene have finished their 10-day wait. They adopted 2 children from the same orphanage that we did, and their daughter and Daria are friends from the same class. We are looking forward to keeping the kids in touch when we're all back home and settled in.

Picked up Cout Decree

Today we completed our ten day wait period and was able to pick up the court decree, which was big step in finalizing the adoption. We were hoping to get the children's birth certificates changed today as well; however, the orphanage director was not in town and we will have to spend one more night in Balta and hopefully pick them up tomorrow.

From there, we are off to Odessa to apply for their new passports. We still have not made up our minds if we are going to stay in Odessa while the passports are developed. It could take up to ten days and the hotels are much more expensive their than in Balta. We should know tomorrow exactly how long the passports will take and will make the decision then.

Either way, the children will need to travel to Odessa to get their photos taken for the passports. They (Odessa Region) have re-organized how they give out passports and the children from the Odessa Region now have to be in Odessa to have their pictures taken, rather than have their photos brought into the agency. The good news is that if all goes well tomorrow morning, the children should be able to leave the orphanage for the last time tomorrow. Which will make tonight their last night.

Even though we were not as productive today as we wanted to be, we still feel very fortunate to be in the position we are in and have high hopes that we will be back home within two weeks.

Several lessons learned over the past week have been;
If only one spouse is going to remain in country to finalize the adoption after the court hearing, ensure that a Power of Attorney is left with the remaining spouse.

Confirm with orphanage officials that the paper work (birth certs, etc...) needed to complete the adoption process is available on the day after the ten day wait and that an official will be able to access and give you that paper work on that day.

Bring plenty of medicine. If you thought you brought enough, take some more. I ran out and it made for a very uncomfortable week unnecessarily. The majority of the children and people we have come in contact with have colds, respiratory infections, etc... and the chance of catching multiple colds, etc.. is high. If at all possible get with your doctors and see if they can prescribe some antibiotics in case you need them.

Fingers crossed, tomorrow will be a productive day and we will be one step closer to coming home.

Photos of the kids

Random thoughts

For those of you getting ready to travel over, I wanted to share a few things we've experienced on our journey. It is much warmer than we expected, and apparently warmer than usual. Generally, the weather has been sunny and between 40 -60 degrees during the day. Until we got settled in to our apartment in Balta, we survived on peanut butter, oatmeal, fruit and bars. You may or may not have an apartment in which you can cook, so prepare accordingly. Once we were settled in to an apartment with a kitchen, we were fine with food. Lots of fresh fruits, some fresh veggies, lots of frozen veggies, and lots of lunch meats, eggs, and perogies.

We bought bottled water to drink, but I brushed my teeth with the tap water and have not gotten sick. Neither has Scott. Knock on wood. Also, I have been making tea, coffee and hot chocolate with the tap water, and we've been fine. Our water has not been brown and dirty though. Every place we've been has had a hot pot for boiling water, which has been great.

Bring more books and magazines than you think, because it won't be enough (unless you're traveling with your child). We ran out - I have one book left for the plane. It's really difficult to find anything in English. Scott has a video iPod, and burned lots of DVDs to it before we left, so we had 30 or so movies and tv shows to watch. He brought an AV connection and was able to run the movies through the televisions. We have not had any English tv since we've been here, and in Balta, there were only 3 local channels. Regular Kyiv television is better. We brought cards, and I brought an electronic crossword game as well as electronic soduku. Life savers, let me tell you.

The apartment building that we were in did have a washing machine, but charged $10 to do one load. We ended up washing most of our clothes in the apartment. You can buy laundry detergent anywhere. We bought a cell phone in country that was internet capable, but the charges for phone usage were outrageous. Don't do this if you think you'll be anywhere with an Internet cafe. It's only about $1- $2 U.S. dollars an hour at the cafes. The phone charges were also more than we thought, but we think there is some sort of glitch that we can't figure out with the phone and it's sucking down money. There are no cell phone charges for incoming calls, so provide your number to people so they can call you. Calling after 8pm also minimizes phone charges.

Hope some of these things help!

Back in Kyiv

Well, this will be, sadly, my last post from Ukraine. We arrived 3 weeks ago today, and the time has just blown by, despite all the downtime we've had. I hate leaving Scott and the kids here (I missed them yesterday when I left!), but hopefully the next couple of weeks will blow by just as quickly.

Thursday night after court, we celebrated with our new Balta neighbors, Peter and Charlene. They're a lovely Canadian couple who are also adopting a sibling group, sister and brother, from the same orphanage. Our kids know their kids, and in fact Daria is in the same groupa as Peter and Charlene's girl. The boys are in 2 different groups, but know each other.

While we've enjoyed being immersed in the Ukrainian culture, it's been great to actually be able to speak to people again :) Peter and Charlene started their process over 2 years ago, while the NEC was still around prior to its dissolution and before the SDA came into being. Canada also has traditionally had a much, much smaller quota from the Ukrainian government for adoptions (like 24 dossiers vs. 1400 for the U.S.), so that has also had an impact on timing (the SDA in early 2008 got rid of the country quotas).

To us, it's always interesting to hear other people's stories about what led them to Ukraine and how long it's taken them to get to this point. For those of you who haven't or aren't adopting, let me tell you, it's not simple, it's not easy, and it's a real emotional committment to see this process through. There is very little predicting what can happen in this environment, and it's really a testament to those who see it through over all of the ups and downs that people actually make it to the end and leave with their children. We know of a few who, even while we're here, are having a very difficult time getting an appropriate referral.

Scott and I feel very lucky that we had the flexibility to take children who are a bit older than what we wanted, because those wanting younger children are finding it quite difficult in many cases. I can't remember if I posted about this already, but after we had our appointment and got our referral for a 9 and 8 yo, I was quite apprehensive, and not very happy. I really wanted younger children (4-6 yo), thinking that would be easier and they'd have less emotional baggage. It also occurred to us that with older kids, we'd have them for much less time before it was time for them to go to college. Scott was comfortable with their ages, but I will admit that I was very torn. But, we were not shown any sibling group with a child younger than 6 (who had a 12 yo brother) during our meeting with SDA. Of course, as soon as we met Logan and Daria, I knew they were ours. There wasn't any doubt about it. But, for those families who already have kids and are trying to find another to fit into their family, it can be a tough process.

Sorry for the side bar there. Anyway, so we celebrated with Peter and Charlene on Thursday night, and we wish them the best of luck on bringing their children back to Canada with them. We were hoping to have some time with the kids after court, but court took longer than we thought, so they had to go directly back to the orphanage. Olga told them that I'd be leaving to get their bedrooms ready at home, and that papa would be staying with them to bring them to America. I think they both wanted to leave right then and there. Daria wasn't thrilled that mama was leaving - she wanted papa to leave to get the rooms ready and mama to stay.

BTW, another sidebar about court for those of you who are getting ready to come here. Our court hearing was pretty typical, and nothing that really deviates from what you read about. In addition to the judge, there was a prosecutor, 2 "jurors"/"witnesses" from the town, the Inspector, the Orphanage Director, us, our translator and the kids. The first part of the hearing was a lot of legalese - reading our petition to adopt the kids, reading the laws governing adoption, etc. Scott and I were both asked questions, nothing unusual at all (why do you want to adopt from Ukraine, how did you learn about these children, why do you want to adopt these children, are you capable of taking care of two children, etc). The Inspector and Director were both asked to say some words. The kids were also asked if they want to be adopted by us.

I will say one of the things that we weren't happy with was that the kids histories were read while the kids were present in the room. Some of it was pretty sad, and I hate that the kids had to hear all that again. But, it's part of the process. We just weren't prepared for it.

The judge called a recess to then consider the case, and the prosecutor and jurors left. About 10 minutes later, everyone was back with the final paperwork. The judge then read the decree that the court accepts our petition to adopt the children, change their names, and be listed as their parents on their birth certificates. Then, court was over. The judge was very nice, and everyone - including the judge - commented on how much the kids look like us :)

I processed out of the Embassy yesterday afternoon, that was quite easy, and am now waiting for my flight out early tomorrow morning. I'm not in a great part of Kyiv, and there's not much to see here. I've tried to get some photos to upload, but that's still not happening. I'll post photos of the kids when I'm home. In the meantime, Scott has promised to blog when he is able, and I'm really going to miss them until they get home. It can't be soon enough!

It's a boy...and a girl!

I just have time for a quick post, but will be able to blog more when I'm back in Kyiv tomorrow.

We had court today and we are now officially the parents of Logan Dmitri and Daria Antonina Casey. I'm back on the computer that won't allow me to upload photos, so I'll do so when I'm back in Kyiv. Logan is 9.5 yo and Daria is 8 yo, and we are just thrilled and honored to be their parents.

More tomorrow!

Sunny and 60 in Balta

I'm sorry that the first set of photos yesterday didn't show up like they did on my end when I posted. I'll try to fix that the next time I'm here at the Internet cafe with our thumb drive.

Yesterday it was close to 60 degrees and sunny here, so we took the kids outside to play soccer and tag. They had a blast and we had lots of other kids from the orphanage join in. We're not allowed to take the kids off the property without their care worker, who has been sick for the last week. The room we were in for the first week with the kids was pretty small and narrow, with enough room for a desk, table and a few chairs. It was pretty difficult to play in there very much. Then, we were moved to a larger, classroom size room downstairs, which is much more conducive to doing things with the kids. It was filled with tables and chairs, which was good for doing puzzles, playing with play-doh, etc. But, it's great to be able to take the kids outside.

The orphanage has a big field with goal posts at either end of it for soccer, but the field is just dirt, so it's still muddy from the snow and ground thawing in many places. D really likes soccer. A plays for a little while then wants to do something else. She actually just prefers picking up the ball and running with it, but then, that's not really soccer, is it? :) When she does that, D yells at her a little bit, but he doesn't get too upset with her.

The other kids who joined us seemed to have a lot of fun playing as well. They all seem like good kids, and it's sad to realize that when our kids leave in a couple of weeks, all of the other kids will be staying, without families of their own.

So far, their interactions together seem pretty typical of kids their age, and we haven't seen either one get really upset with the other. We hope that's the case going forward! They do well playing together, well playing alone, and well playing with others. They also do a good job of sharing all of their treats that we bring for them.

On another subject, my sister-in-law ordered furniture for A's room yesterday. I'm so excited to finally be getting to some of the fun home stuff. We hadn't done anything before we left, as we didn't know what we were getting. I'm so glad we didn't either, as we were expecting much younger kids. We're going to put Scott's old bed back up for D, as he's big enough for it. Then I'll find some cool ways (I hope he thinks it's cool) to decorate his room as well.

One of our neighbors has been great about talking to the local school about what we'll need to have to enroll them when we get home. We hope to put them into school the week after they return. We'll give them a week to get adjusted to their new environment, and to doctors, dentists, etc. School's going to be tough for them for awhile, but ultimately, it's what's going to get them speaking English the fastest. Fortunately, we are in a great neighborhood with lots of kids, so they'll start picking things up pretty quickly. I can't believe all of this stuff is finally happening!

I'm actually going to be flying out this Sunday, March 2nd, to get things ready at home. I'm happy to be going home, but will miss seeing the kids during the 2 weeks until they arrive. Scott is under strict orders to take lots of photos in my absence :) Our dogs, though, will be very happy to see me again. Fortunately, they've had great care through another friend staying at our house.

Scott and the kids will definitely be home for Easter though, which will be awesome. I had totally written off Easter this year, but now we'll be able to do some things, although they are a bit old for an Easter egg hunt. I'll have to figure out how they celebrate it here, and try to incorporate some things.

More photos from Balta

Here are a few more photos of Balta. The first is the beautiful orthodox church, which is next to the orphanage. You can't see them as well, but the back of the church has the traditional onion domes. The second photo is the orphanage itself. It resembles a boarding school, and is in much better shape than we anticipated. According to our translator, it also doesn't have the awful smell that most orphanages have.

The third photo is self-explanatory. The roosters and chickens that are EVERYWHERE. Literally, they're everywhere. People are self-sufficient here, so most grow their own vegetables and the roosters and chickens provide meat and eggs. These guys co-exist (peacefully it seems) with dogs and cats in their owners yards. Many times, they're not even in yards, just out on the streets. And they crow all the time.

The last shot is of the gas lines, which we only find interesting because they're all above ground. We've just kind of gotten used to seeing them anywhere, so we don't really pay attention to them anymore, but it was pretty weird to see the first few days.

Balta photos

Finally! I think the computer that I've been trying to post on didn't have ActiveX or something installed. Anyway, here are some photos from Balta. From top, the Administration building where we go to meet with the Inspector. The statue is Lenin.

The second is a typical street in Balta. Other than a couple of the main streets, most are unpaved. The third photo are some typical soviet-style apartment buildings near where we're staying. There are many of these buildings around our part of town.

The fourth photo is a shot of downtown Balta's main street. This street is always bustling with activity, people shopping, working, doing business, etc. The last photo is a shot of the Saturday open air market. There are many vendors who sell a variety of products, from fishes, meat, cheeses and vegetables, to clothes, shoes, housewares, and toys. There are regular stores in town, but this market has the most variety of anything you'd want.

Another day in Balta

It's Saturday afternoon here, and the weather the past few days has been pretty decent. I actually went out for a run on Thursday, which must be quite unusual because I got lots of stares. It was sunny and around 50 degrees, which felt really good after the last week of things being so cold.

The kids are both still recovering from colds, so we decided to give them a break today and not visit them. Their care giver, Victor, is also sick, so we haven't even had him around the past couple of days. Victor speaks very broken English, a few words here and there, but is sometimes able to translate a few things for us that the kids say.

That's been the only frustrating thing really, that we can't even ask the kids how their day was or how school was that day. The kids say lots of stuff to us, especially A (she's very talkative), and all we can do is nod our heads at them. We hope they don't think we're total morons :) If everyone is feeling better tomorrow, Victor said we could take them for most of the day, and take them off the orphanage property. We bought a soccer ball and there is a park nearby, so that would be fun to do with them, especially now that the weather is a little nicer.

Last night we just had to laugh, we have gotten SO bored! I mean, it's great to be here, but there is literally nothing to do here. I say that but there actually appear to be at least 3 "casinos" or places where we could gamble. Except that we don't. There are only 3 local stations on tv, we don't even get sports or the fun music video station we had in Kyiv. Last night we went grocery shopping and played cards. Whoohoo! Rocking Friday night in Balta :) We have a 500 piece puzzle that we bought for the kids that we might do tonight. Do we sound desperate for entertainment????? I feel bad for Scott though, because when I leave he won't have anyone to speak to for those 10 days. All in all though, we're just focused on getting the kids out of here and back to Colorado, so this kind of feels like a big camping trip.

We were going to try to go down to Odessa today for the day, but none of the taxi drivers speak English, and the buses look miserable and claustrophobic. No train station here. Scott will get down there after court to get the kids passports, but I won't get to see it.

I have taken a lot of pictures of the town, but for some reason, the blogger isn't letting me attach photos anymore. I don't know if we only had a certain file size limit or if the functionality just hasn't been working the past few days. We'll try to figure it out. I have some good shots that I think you'll be interested in seeing from our little town here.

Court Date!

We have a court date of February 28th, at 2pm. This is the formal hearing in which we'll all go in front of a judge who will make the final determination on our adoption of the kids. The orphanage director, Inspector, the kids themselves, and us will all testify at the hearing. The judge has the final say, and can say no for any reason. We don't really think we have anything to worry about but, we will be a bit nervous on this day, for sure. The other American family that was just here said it took about an hour, and they even had a couple of "jurors", some local townspeople who sat in on the case as witnesses.

The date of 2/28 is all determinant though on the SDA getting their final paperwork done by 2/27. They should've received ours yesterday morning, so they have a week. This should not be a problem, but you never know with the SDA. If they don't have their paperwork done on 2/27, then the next earliest court date we can expect to have is Monday, March 3rd (I think it's the 3rd). Fingers crossed that all goes well with the paperwork.

This is actually about 1 week faster than we anticipated, so if everything stays on schedule, we'll both have to change our tickets home, which is a very good thing! With an appointment date of 2/28, I hope to be back home by 3/3 at the latest.

We're now kind of hitting the point where we're getting a bit bored here. We still have some books and movies, but there isn't much to do other than that. At least the weather has warmed up, so I went for a long walk yesterday. There really isn't much to see, but it's just good to get out.

Official Petition to Adopt

Yesterday (Monday) we had to give our official answer as to whether or not we want to adopt D & A. Of course, we said yes. We had a meeting with the Inspector, the Orphanage Director, Olga (our translator) and Victor (one of the social workers/care givers at the orphanage). D & A were also present and had to also give their consent to be adopted by us.

The kids were quizzed by the Director, and of course, we couldn't understand anything. Olga told us after the questions that they were being asked. A said "my mama!" immediately and gave me a huge hug. D though looked very nervous and a bit upset when the Director was asking him questions. Olga told us later the the Director was messing with him a bit, telling him we'll take A, but not him. Asking him "why do you want to go, things are so good here at the orphanage", and "you can stay another 5 years here, then go". D was sitting next to Scott, and Scott said his legs and hands were just shaking, he was scared. I guess the Director finally asked D directly if he wants to be adopted by us, because he finally said "dah" instead of "nyet". We were not happy that this happened to him, but of course, we didn't understand what was going on at the time, and our translator must also let some things take their course.

The kids then had to write a statement saying that they want to be adopted by us, which will be part of the court file. They will also come to the court hearing with us, and will be asked more questions there. From a process perspective then, yesterday went very well and was a big step forward. Olga and the Inspector worked until about 8 pm last night to get his report ready for final signature by his boss. His report will also be part of the court documents.

Later in the afternoon when we were playing with the kids though, we could tell that D understood that we are adopting them both. He called Scott papa and me mama for the first time. We got lots of big hugs today :)

Today, Olga will formally petition the court for our hearing. Additionally, tonight she will take all of the new documents, plus our original packet of documents, back up to Kyiv for review by the SDA. The SDA must provide the final sign-off on the adoption before the court hearing. The SDA only accepts such paperwork on Mon/Wed/Fri morning, and only returns the final paperwork on the same days. Their review takes about a week. If Olga can file everything with SDA tomorrow morning, then we're hopeful that we'll have something back next Wednesday (2/27) evening, and we can have court on 2/28. So, that is the date that today Olga will petition for. This is actually about a week sooner than we expected.

All in all, Olga is happy with the way things are progressing here. The time frames are good and moving at a pretty good clip (of course, not fast enough for us!). It helps that Balta is a small enough -but big enough - town to get things done in. Everything can be done here, and within a few blocks of each other. There have only been a few other American families that have adopted from the orphanage our kids are at, but at least they're familiar with everything that needs to get done to make an adoption happen.

We moved into our new apartment last night. It's in the same building as where we were staying, but this one has a kitchen. It was so nice to make eggs this morning, instead of more oatmeal and fruit. So far, the little bit of grocery shopping that we've done has gone pretty well. We can't read anything that we're buying (except Coke products), but the pictures are pretty self explanatory. Our greatest grocery shopping skill here is pointing at items and putting up the number of fingers for the amount of the item that we want. Communication is almost non-existent (we have learned to say thank you and dog), but pointing works amazingly well.

The funniest thing so far is that we tried to buy sugar last night (everyone puts sugar in their tea here, and that is how Olga likes it and she's now staying with us for a couple of days). Except that when we showed her what we bought, apparently we bought a bag of salt instead of sugar. The sugar is just kept in ziplock type bags, not formal packaging. Oh well. This morning, I hit the market to buy eggs and a few other items. It's kind of fun to walk around and see all the fresh produce brought in for the day. Most of it is potatoes, cabbage and onions, but there are the occassional tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Tons of meats and chickens, though we haven't purchased any yet since we just got a refrigerator.

We tried the ATM for the first time today, and it worked out okay. I've used ATMs in other countries successfully before, but wasn't sure if my bank would approve a transaction coming in from Eastern Europe. They did though. The exchange rate is 5 to 1 (hryvna to US dollar) and it looks like big monopoly money. Our money does go pretty far here, with regards to groceries and the few meals out that we've eaten.

It's actually pretty warm today - at least 30 degrees, maybe 40. It's hard to tell since it was below zero for so long. It could be 20 degrees out, but I almost feel like I should be wearing shorts. While we were in Kyiv, I didn't need the heavy boots and ski gloves that I brought. But, I am definitely appreciating them here when we're outside. Inside our apartment, it's warm enough for tank tops and flip flops.

I forgot to transfer the pictures of the town to a thumb drive, so I'll have to post the pictures I've taken of the town tomorrow (or the next post).

More photos

The top picture is of St. Andrew's church, which is now solely a museum. The picture doesn't do the color on the domes justice. They were the most amazing teal color. The bottom photo is Independence Square, which is one of the main areas in Kyiv for events, political rallies, etc. There is a mall that sits below the entire square area, and many restaurants, etc skirt the perimeter. This is kind of the "Times Square" or "Picadilly Circus" of Kyiv. Our apartment was situated about 2 blocks from here, about half way to St. Sophia's.

Playing tourist

Dima (short for Dmitri) was our tour guide to get us over to the Pechesky Lavra and walk us around Kyiv a bit. Without him, I don't believe we would have made it! The second picture is just one of the streets where many of the souvenir vendors set up shop. This street is actually near the SDA, where we had our official appointment to choose the kids. Scott ended up buying one of the traditional hats, but not the one in the picture. :)

At Pechersky Lavra compound

These three photos were taken at/around the Pechersky Lavra compound in Kiev. The Lavra is a group of churches (and now museums) on the upper level with a series of underground caves/monasteries below the ground. We were able to tour part of the caves, which was really cool. There are bodies of saints in glass caskets in various parts of the caves. You buy a wax candle to use to light the way. Rumor has it that none of the bodies are embalmed in anything, but all are petrified. Some of the hands were sticking out of the cloaks, so we could see them. The Lavra sits along the Dnepr river. The bottom picture is of the one of the main churches on top, the Church of the Assumption.

Miche with Olga and Valentina

Olga, in the middle, is our translator, and Valentina is our facilitator. They have been great to work with and Olga has been amazing!

A day in the life...

We just came from the orphanage, where we got to spend some time with D today. A is sick, so we only got to see her for a couple of minutes on the way out. We went to the open air market (a big flea market) this morning and bought a puzzle and a lego-like kit that can do a shuttle/plane/robot. Yesterday when we were there, D was very inquisitive about Scott's watch, pushing all the buttons, wondering how things worked and what things did. So, we thought that a lego set might be fun for him.

We were right. He is really bright, and knew exactly how some of the more complicated pieces should go together. Even more so than the 3 adults in the room :) We spent a couple hours working on building the airplane, and he had a great time. He has really opened up and is all about Scott :) A, on the other hand, is all about me. Jumping up into my arms to give me hugs. She likes Scott too, of course, I think the girls just like the women more and the boys like the men more.

So, we wanted to give you a bit of an idea of our little life here. Balta is a town of 25,000 people, but is very poor compared to U.S. standards. There are many buildings that are definitely left over from communist times, and the social agency's building has a big bust of Lenin in front. We haven't taken a picture of it yet, but will post one when we do. Back in the day, this was a thriving agricultural community. Post-Russian split, the only industry left here is a milk factory.

The streets and roads are in horrible shape, potholes, crumbling asphalt and cement, etc. Many of the buildings are completely dilapidated and uninhabitable. Everyone that we have interacted with, though, is very friendly, and eager to assist us. Communication is quite a challenge. Our translator left us Thursday night to spend the weekend at home with her daughter. Fortunately, the little hotel (more like an apartment building) has another adopting American couple staying here. The woman is actually Russian by birth, so we went out to dinner last evening and she ordered for us. The menus don't have pictures, and it's impossible for us to know where to even point our fingers.

Our little apartment is simple, but comfortable. It has 3 rooms: bedroom, living room, and bathroom. It has a hot water pot, so we're able to make oatmeal, tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Since we've been in Ukraine, we've been mostly existing on sandwiches - ham and cheese in Kiev and peanut butter here. Lots of fruit, oatmeal and yogurt as well. Tomorrow, Bob and Lana - the other couple here from Mississippi - will be heading back to Kiev to process out of the U.S. Embassy with their new daughter. We'll be moving into their apartment, which also has a kitchen. I will say that this apartment is much nicer than the one in Kiev - it is larger (the apt in Kiev only had a twin bed), and has many more windows so is much lighter. Like all buildings, it's on central heat, so while it's freezing outside (definitely below zero), it's hot enough inside for tank tops. We've been sleeping with a window open to keep it cool enough.

Once we move into the new apartment with a kitchen, we'll be able to buy plenty of groceries. There are markets/grocery stores about every 10 steps it seems. More grocery stores per capita than NYC. Additionally, the open air market sells meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, etc. There is a better variety in the grocery stores than I anticipated, although definitely not a lot of veggies. They do have frozen veggies, though, so that is fine. We'll make another attempt tonight in a restaurant to order food, which will be interesting.

Before she left, Olga, our translator, wrote down the Russian form of chicken, pork, vegetables, etc, for us to at least point to. We really can't say the words very well. We would definitely be starving if we didn't have the help we've had so far. The restaurant food has been simple and plain, but filling. The food prices are very inexpensive, and we're paying less than $30 per night for our apartment.

There are dogs roaming the streets everywhere here, some pathetically thin. There is a group of roosters nearby that crow at all hours of the day. Apparently, they don't understand that they're only supposed to announce the sunrise. Our apartment is a couple of blocks away from the orphange, and a couple to the main street with all of the stores. The orphanage (there are 3 here) that D and A are in looks a lot like a boarding school - a very poor boarding school. But it's in pretty good shape, and the kids are well cared for. We're fortunate that they're in the same school - it's making things much easier.

The kids were born in this town, which will also make the paperwork infinitely easier on our translator. She'll be able to get their original birth certificates here, petition for our court hearing here, the court hearing will actually be here (which, according to Bob & Lana who just went through it, is a pretty big deal in this town). All in all, we're hoping to be able to shave some time off the trip because we're able to do most everything except apply for the passports here.

The internet cafe where we're at now is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It's terribly cold in here, very different from the one we used in Kiev. It's full of teenage boys, just gaming away the afternoons. But, all the kids are very polite, and make room for us to use a computer as soon as we enter. BTW, it is true what they say about the women here - they wear high heel boots and relatively short skirts even on the coldest days. Jeans are extremely popular, even for the professional workers here. Honestly, though, I don't know how some of these women stay warm. Most of the boots and coats we've seen are fur-lined, but very few people even wear gloves. And it's been at least 10 below with the wind chill for the past couple of days.

Our apartment doesn't have cable, so there are only a couple channels we get, and of course, we can't understand them. In Kiev, we had many channels and were able to watch rugby matches, and the Ukrainian versions of American Idol. They also had a good music video channel which was great to work out with. There is a little gym in our apartment building - very 70's style with the weight machines. However, when we went to use it yesterday, there must have been at least 10 kids in it using all the equipment (10 kids makes the room completely packed). But, it's nice to have it. I have been able to work out about every other day doing some cardio, pliometrics and bands since we've gotten here.

We've been spending time reading and playing games, when we're not at the orphanage or traveling. I brought an electronic New York Times crossword puzzle game and electronic Soduku. Scott has a playstation and he is now addicted to Madden football. At night we watch one of the movies or TV shows that Scott burned to his iPod. All in all though, the days fly by pretty quickly. We still haven't quite adjusted to the time change, I think mostly b/c the sleeping accommodations in Kiev were awful and it was tough to sleep at all. It will be much better here, and I'm hoping by Monday we'll have a pretty good pattern for everything down.

We have finally figured out how to post pictures, so we'll post some now and we'll be taking more this week of Balta so that you have some idea of life here. Overall, I think we're really fortunate to be in Balta, and (except for the cold) are enjoying it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi everyone, we're sorry we've been off the grid for awhile, but things have been a bit crazy. We arrived safely in Kiev this past Saturday, and met with our new facilitator and translator. Our appointment with the SDA to choose children was on 2/12, so we had a couple of days to get adjusted and play tourist.

We both really enjoyed what we saw of Kiev. The city is still obviously in transition, but it is very pretty, and at least where we were, very clean. The people dress fashionably, despite the cold. We hired a tour guide one day to take us over to the Lavra - a compound of multiple churches, museums and caves. The caves originally were built by monks for monks and pilgrims. There are many saints buried in the caves, and people still come for pilgrimages there. Tourists are only able to go into certain parts of the caves, but what we saw was very cool. We also went and saw St. Sophia, St. Michael's and St. Andrews. The churches here are gorgeous, the traditional onion dome that you see in pictures. We did end up getting completely lost one day, trying to find our way by ourselves. Unfortunately, this isn't the best city to get lost in, considering the different alphabet. It took a few hours, but we eventually found our way back.

Our meeting with the SDA went pretty much as expected. We were shown profiles of 4 sibling groups, all of which were older than what we initially wanted. We were also shown two single boys with some health issues. We chose a brother-sister sibling group to meet. About the SDA (for those of you who are about to go through this process): the psychologist we had was very nice. We were actually allowed to bring our translator in as they were short a translator that day. I think it helped us (at least me) to have our own person there. The one hour we had went by quickly. We narrowed it down to 2 groups pretty quickly - a sister group of 2 and the brother-sister we chose. The atmosphere over all was more relaxed than I anticipated.

The kids are in the Odessa region, south of Kiev. Our paperwork to meet them was completed on Wednesday, late afternoon, and this morning we left Kiev very early to travel to meet the kids. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about choosing these two, only because of their ages. Scott has always been open to any children of elementary school age; I wanted to stay between 4-7 yo. The boy is 9.5 yo (10 in August) and the girl just turned 8. They are in 2nd and 1st grade here.

We got to their town and first met with the Inspector - basically, the social worker who is in charge of the orphanages in this town. We spent some time with him, then he took us over to the orphange. We went to the orphanage director's office (she is actually growing lemon trees in there! of all things) and the group of us, including our translator, sat down to talk. Her questions to us were basic: who are we? where are we from? what do we do? do we have other kids? why did we choose these children? etc.

They then went to get the kids. For now, I'm going to refer to the boy as D and the girl as A, until everything is settled. A & D walked into the room, a little shy and nervous, as to be expected. Our translator told us that at their ages, they know why foreigners are there. The director had them introduce themselves and say a few things. For instance, D's favorite class is math, and A likes to learn Ukrainian.

We then spent about an hour or so with the kids, the translator, their main care worker, and the inspector. We asked some general questions of the kids, and they were very polite and engaging. We joked around a little bit with them, and they have actually been to America before, on a hosting trip. Scott & I told our translator that we would like to come back and spend more time with them in the afternoon.

So, we went back after lunch with a few toys and some treats. We played cars and colored with them, and they opened up some more. A is very outgoing and talkative (though she needs some speach therapy), and she is very cute. D is more reserved, and more serious - you can tell he has been taking care of her for awhile. D had a lot of fun playing with the cars though, and I think will relax with us in a couple of days. Both kids are overall in very good health, though they did not have any schooling before coming to the orphanage.

We definitely felt a connection with these two, and though we have until Monday to make our final decision, we are planning to move forward with adopting them. We will be able to spend a couple of hours an afternoon with them, and more time on the weekends. We are looking forward to bonding with them while we're here, to make the transition home easier.

So, I guess what we got for Valentine's Day are our (very hopefully) new kids! :)

Now that we're settled in to the town here, we will be updating this blog regularly. We will post pictures when we are able. Right now, we've only been able to use the internet cafes, so it's a bit difficult with the photos. We're trying to get wireless in our apartment. Next time, we'll also write more about life in this little village, which is definitely more Soviet-style than Kiev was.

happy valentine's day everyone!

Uh Oh - They Got it Wrong!

We received a call last evening from our adoption agency. Apparently the SDA gave them the wrong appointment date for us. Instead of it being Feb. 15th, it is Feb 12th! We are really excited that we're going to be able to get in sooner. I was worried though that re-booking our tickets at this late date would cost us a fortune. However, our travel agency (Golden Rule Travel - I highly recommend them if you're adopting internationally) was able to re-book the tickets for a minimum price. HUGE relief!

Now we're leaving for Ukraine on February 8th - next Friday!! I'm going to have to adjust the countdown clock :) Now the scramble to finalize everything - and Scott is out of town for work this week, and I've got a conference part of next week. We were looking forward to that extra weekend to get everything done and relax a bit (i.e. - sleep a lot!) before we go. Oh well - I guess our kids need us to come sooner.

I've got a total adrenaline rush going on right now. It's terribly hard to concentrate, knowing that we're leaving next week. Seriously, I cannot wait to get on that plane! 2 weeks from today is our actual appointment and hopefully we'll be posting some really positive news!

Travel Details

Our countdown clock today says 21 days to go - 3 weeks! Now we're down to the nitty gritty, but we've had more than enough time to prepare. I've never done this for any major trip/vacation before, but we actually purchased travel medical & evacuation insurance for this trip. It really wasn't that expensive, but most of all it provides peace of mind.

Scott's insurance is fairly good about what they'll cover for him when he's out of the country. Mine, on the other hand, would treat any medical visit overseas as "out of network" with a $2500 deductible and only 65% coverage beyond that. Of course, if something major were to happen and we'd need to get a higher quality of medical care than can be provided in Ukraine, we'd rack up a ton of expenses trying to get out. I think since we'll be gone so long, it's better for us to play it safe.

We also registered with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv today - check another box off. We're working on getting some meds to take with us - again, just in case - and need to pull together all of the documentation that we need to take with us. Our agency will send our dossiers over, but there are still a few things that we need to take (tax returns, employment verification letters, etc). Seriously, the list of documents is neverending. I understand the need for some of it, but the process (in any country) is just so complicated. I hope that someday it becomes much easier - and cheaper - to give kids in orphanages a good home.

I haven't seen anyone else discuss this, but I wonder if any of the adoptive parents try to stick to their workout schedule while they're overseas? You know how I am about that... My trainer is giving me some exercises I can do indoors without needing much equipment, and I am taking bands with me. If it was warm, it would be alot easier, but I don't want to pack all of the clothes that I'd need to run outside, and I have a feeling that the streets won't be plowed very well anyway outside of Kyiv. I don't imagine that we'll have a lot of downtime, but I gotta believe that with the stress of the situation, it will be helpful to be able to burn off some energy, as I'm known for my patience :)

5 Weeks and Counting!

We are at just under 5 weeks and starting to get pretty antsy. We really just want to be on the airplane at this point. I'd rather have had only 3 weeks to get ready instead of 3 months!

We've purchased most everything we think we're going to need for the trip. I've never taken so much non-clothing items in my life. In doing research on what other families do to pack for 4-6 weeks (esp. in the winter with the bulky clothes), it seems like most couples don't actually take many clothes for themselves, since there's so much other stuff to take for a trip that long. Just some of the random items we've purchased are: a sink stopper (to wash clothes in case there's no washer in our apartment - there are no laundromats); a clothesline to dry the clothes; toilet paper (it's supposed to be really rough over there, and not in most public restrooms); travel converters; money belts; lots of ziplock bags (don't ask - everyone just recommends them); hand disinfectent (lots of it); reading lights (some regions have regular brown-outs); our gifts for the orphanage workers and our facilitator; disposable cameras (so if the kids are old enough, they can take their own pictures of their friends and care workers to have); toys, games, and leapsters for the kids to keep them occupied and provide Scott some bit of sanity on the long plane ride home; etc, etc. Scott's also been burning lots of DVDs to his iPod, and we're taking a bunch of books, soduku, travel scrabble, etc.

We purchased a webcam for the computer we're taking and have set up a Skype account. If anyone has this capability and wants to Skype us, let me know and I'll email you our Skype account information. As long as we have an internet connection, this will be a really good option for us to communicate with people back home. We're also going to try to get on email daily if possible. No guarantees though. We'll also be blogging and posting photos as often as we're able.
But, until after the court hearing and the kids are officially ours, we're not going to post any pix of them - don't want to jinx it!

We had to re-do a bunch of our paperwork back in Oct so that it would not be close to expiring by the time we get there (most of the dossier paperwork is only good for 12 months). We think there are one or two more things that we'll have to get re-done before we go; we'll see. We have a doctor lined up in the International Adoption Clinic at Children's Hospital in Denver who can help us understand any medical conditions the kids may have (treatable or non-treatable; long-term or short-term illness).

My biggest hope, as I have way too much time to think about this whole thing, is that our choice is clear for us when we're looking at the pictures of the children. I hope we can get this done on the first trip, and not have to decline any of the kids we see because they're too ill or too old. A lot of couples have to go back for a second or third appointment (up to 90 days later) because the kids were sicker than they were willing to take on. Fingers crossed that it happens for us the first time.