40 days in Ukraine

Friday, June 29 was 40st day in Ukraine for Sergey.

38 Tuesday he received passports, and dropped off all the paperwork at US embassy.

Last notes from Sergey:

39-Wednesday

Today is a day, when we hopefully will get all paperwork done and will get visa’s, because on Thursday and Friday is day off due to holiday. So I woke up at 5:30 am got in the shower, had coffee and at 6 am woke boys up. Funny that Danik woke up without any problem but Stasik I couldn’t wake him up. He is sure is a good sleeper. :) As soon I put Stasik on his feet he falls right back to bed, and I would repeat that again and again and he was back in his bed in few seconds. So it took me a while to wake him but I got that done.

Then we left Petrovsky and headed to embassy. At 9 am we got some paperwork and went straight to hospital for medical exam. There were so many people waiting that would took us a whole day to do that, but thanks God they have policy and they process adoptions - without any line. Took us about hour and half, after that we ran to orphanage to finish process and officially move kids from Father’s house, and at 2 pm came back to embassy. So after 3 pm we got Visa’s thanks God, and started big process of packing. Airline tickets for 5:30 am so I have to be at airport on 3 am and it is 1 hour to get there. So I started packing as soon I got to orphanage, than I took some pictures with boys and their friends. At 9:30 pm boys went to sleep and at 10 pm I did too.

40-Thursday

Today I was supposed to get home… but didn’t work the way I expected. Well let’s start from the beginning. At 1 am I woke up and at 1:30 I woke up kids, and again I couldn’t get Stasik to wake up that easy but by 2 am we got that done. So as soon I happily entered airport and started to look at the monitor in order to find out which window I needs to go to.. I saw red writing next to my flight number which said Cancelled. My flight was canceled and here I am standing with kids at the airport not knowing what to do. Later I went to Lufantha window. There were huge line of people, but I passed all of them and was one of first ones. They change my flight number to different rout that was only 1 hour difference. So I waited and as soon as window to Amsterdam opened I went there, but my tickets were on waiting list, and if they would have any available seats they would let me know. After waiting 3 hours they didn't do anything for us. Sadly I have to go back to window and ask them if they give us different flight. After some waiting they got us next day flight at 6:40 am to Munich and from Munich to San Francisco. I was happy about that. Yes, I would prefer to be home with my wife, and kids, but I am happy that I did get another flight. Company also gave us room in expensive hotel, paid for all food and taxi. I was happy and my kids got some rest. This flight looks like even better because I have only on stop instead of 2. Maybe that is God’s way to give us better flight.

Also today Danik started to have a high fever.  I had to run to pharmacy few times, and tried to control it. Thank you everyone who prayed, his fever went down before we boarded our flight, and never came back. He never had strep throat like Stasik did, and Danik did have all the same symptoms as Stasik.

Day 34,35,36,37 Friday-Monday

It was not much going on back in Ukraine, so I will post everything in one post. 

Friday

  Thanks God Stasik’s temperate is got lower. Now it is only 99.5 ºF.  He feels much better and his body fighting but he needs to stay home. I am praying for him and his health. Today we finally accomplished something. We got all paperwork done and passports will be ready on Tuesday, so on Wednesday I will take boys to embassy, Please pray to God for that appointment, so visa will be done in one day. Tomorrow is my birthday. It is first time I will celebrate without all family. But that is ok, when I will come home we will do that. I miss my family but I have to be strong  and do everything possible.

Saturday

I had some plants for today like take kids to Zoo, Theater, and other interesting places but Stasik’s temperature is still high so we decided to stay home, because every hour he needs to take  medicine.  So I spend all day in the orphanage with kids, this how I celebrated my birthday. We played mini pool, did some drawing, watched a movie, played few video games, and many more things. Every hour I monitored Stasik temperature, gave him some medicine, and feed them. His temperature is rising and dropping. We prayed for his health and thanks God he started feel better toward the evening.  At night I woke up a couple of times to check on him. His temperature went down… finally. Praise the Lord. It was fun and nice day, and we did have a lot of quality time together. 

Sunday

Today my plan was to take boys to their church and have a lot of pictures made, but unfortunately Stasik temperature is still bouncing, so we decided to stay home again… After nice breakfast together I let them play on computer, because I do understand it is very hard for boys to stay inside all day long. Also today was 5 years anniversary of care givers Natasha and Nazar so later today we did barbecue for all family... Boys were very excited to celebrate… We barbecued cat fish and it did taste so good. About 10 kids came and we sit in the kitchen like one big family. Also foster parents of Danik and Stasik, are finishing their contract in this orphanage in 2 weeks, so they were busy to move their stuff out and ask me to be in charge since I am staying all day here anyway. It was interesting, everybody came to me ask what to do, I felt like big Papa for all kids. Later in the evening I let Stasik go out, because he needs to get fresh air, Danik was jumping on the trampoline, and Stasik sat on the grass and played on the  phone. That was all for today.

Monday.

That was  it for relaxed days. Now starting Monday I have to work hard to get everything done on time. Today I got medical history for kids, took them to make new pictures for visa. It was done in 10 min. then we went to fun place and I let them drive little cars… since it is last time they spend there. 

I had another discipline moment with boys, Stasik likes to bother his brother and Danik likes to take care of the problem himself like to hit him or call him names… Do to Natasha's words, boys started to do this just recently. They use to not fight at all, but I guess they just growing and having their own points and view of certain things. :) I addressed this issue with them and let them know that next time if this happened I won’t tolerate this behavior and put them both in timeout.  Looks like they got my massage. Today I printed bunch of forms for embassy and tonight I went through all of them. Tomorrow is going to be very busy day. I need to get passport for boys,  stop by embassy and drop some paperwork, also finish with  shopping and e-mail copies of passports to embassy.. than will come back to orphanage and help boys to pack… so please pray for us, so visa will be done in one day…

Day 33 in Ukraine

Thursday

I never had day like this. In the morning at 6:35 am Danik woke me up and said that Stasik did  throw up and asked me go to their room. Stasik also night didn’t sleep well, and was up several times at night, but Danik handled everything on his own, and didn't tell  anyone.  So I came to the room and discover that Stasik's temperature was very high, he was burning. I was cleaning all the mess after my son, and then Natasha (foster mom) woke up and gave him some medicine. Danik was staying next to Stasik all night, and when Stasik  woke him up again in the morning he came to me. It was so nice to see that boys already recognize me as their father and beginning to trust me. Natasha's room is next to boys room, and my room  is two rooms down the hallway, but Danik still came to me when he and his brother needed help. It's wonderful! 

After the medicine, Danik once again checked Stasik, and went back to sleep. That was so amazing how older brother takes care of younger. 

I had to run to do more paperwork in the early morning, but was on the phone all day with foster mom, to see how my son was doing. Later his temperature did go up (104F), and ambulance was called.  Ambulance came an hour later, and by that time regular medicine didn't help to bring Stasik's fever down. 

When ambulance came, they gave him shot of strong medicine, and seems like it did helped little bit. It did go down to102 F but still very high. Looks like he has strep throat( I really hope this is correct spelling, and name). 

In the evening I was running around Kyiv and was looking for all kind of medicine for Stasik that doctor prescribed him. When I arrived to orphanage it was around 11:30 pm.  I brought all kind of stuff. We gave him a lot of them … I monitored Stasik till 3:30 am, and praise the Lord his temperature did go down to 99F.…Also every 30 to 40 minutes I had to clean his throat, with this little procedure that doctor prescribed. I was so happy and felt so relived when he started to feel a little better. 

Tired but very happy I when to sleep because in the morning I had to wake up at 7 am.

After all day running around with paperwork, and trying to accomplish and be few steps ahead, we didn't even moved a little bit. But that is ok, I do understand this is part of process. 

Day 32

Wednesday

Today I took boys with me to Kiev, because the office we were in today had to   verify kids, take picture, in order to finish our paperwork. So I reminded Danik and  Stasik how to behave, and they did promise to listen.

 First we went to ZHEK so boys can be taken from records as resident of Kyiv. We had to wait about 2 hours.  Thanks God that every where we went there always were play areas near, so Danik and Stasik was able to stay busy and burn their energy, because I understand it is very hard for kids just sit next to office door for at least 1 hour. After ZHEK we went straight to institution where they do passports,  but we were very late so our facilitator's wife (she was a driver) had to drive very fast. Everyone who been to Kiev, and saw the way they drive, it's scary, crazy with no rules followed. 

Our  driver was trying to drive fast through all the traffic, and was going faster then usual. Me and boys were sitting on back seats. Boys asked me why there is seatbelt, and why they have to use it ,if they feel safe, and I explained them that accidents happened very fast and seatbelt can save your life. I tried explain, and did tell them to put seat belts on. I wasn't very firm with this, but I did try. I know that in Ukraine nobody drive with seat belt on, and it's ok. Police usually doesn't even give tickets. Boys didn't seem to understand why they have to put seat belts on, until one car almost hit us and our driver had to use emergency brakes.Boys  almost kissed a seat upfront of them.  After that I told them “: see.. in these cases seatbelt will keep you in your seat and nothing will happen. You will not hurt yourself ! ” In second boys looked at each other , with no words said, they  very quickly put seat belts on and till we arrived 40 min later to destination, boys didn't even try to take them off or complain about seat belts. I am thanking God for that nice lesson He gave them, I know it was scary, and it could be even worst, but God did keep us safe, and there was no accident. We are thankful to our God for being with us, and saving our life's. 

And know I know that boys will get this lesson and remember for long time. We came home latte, tired but full of emotions.

Day 31 Tuesday

Tuesday.

Today was very very “fun” and long day. It all started at 7 am. I left orphanage and went to Kiev to meet with Valentine. 

Now , when I live in the orphanage property, I dont' have to walk to catch marshrootka. You can see from a window, if marshrootka had pass, and it's 10 steps from orphanage gate. This makes so much easier and takes less time to get to Kiev. 

After I met with Valentin, we went straight to ZAGS to get new birth certificates, they opened in 9 am.. after waiting another 1 hour we been told that birth certificates can’t be made because boys belongs to different ZAGS – we need to go there to start process and sign boys out(or something like this). At 10 am we headed the other way, and good thing it was not that far, it's kind of different county, but almost same area. Around 10:30 we arrived and after waiting in line another 30 min, they decided that they need to have 2 copies of our paperwork notarize, not one. 

 It took another 2 hours to do that.

 Then we went back to finish process. We waited another 2 hours and got that done. So at 2 pm we went back to ZAGS that we visited in the morning to try get new birth certificates. 

Thanks God they told us good news: “New Birth certificates will be ready today in 2 hours “At 4pm we got them. Now we have birth certificate where we are parents of our boys. It does feel so good :)

Then we went to Tax service to start process with changing boys names for passports. At 6:30pm we were done. It was a lot of running and waiting, and just stress.After I finished with Valentin,  I went to Downtown to find internet and talk to my wife. In the downtown everything was closed and treets full of people and fun...  many subway stations were closed and I couldn’t get home very easy. So I finally got home at 10:30pm.  

Day 30 Monday 10 day waiting period is over

At 7:30 am I arrived to Kyiv, where our facilitator picked me up around 9 am and we went straight to pick up our papers from court since 10 days waiting period passed. When we got to the court at 10 am nobody was there. Our judge is on vacation, and her staff decided to take a little vacation also :)  

 I went to orphanage to drop off my staff and wait to hear any news from Valentin- our facilitator. Valentin went back to the court to wait and try to pick up our decree. 

 I was tired from train (got only few hours of sleep) so I  went to sleep in boys bedroom(boys were not there when I came). 

Two hours later I heard noises  and open my eyes. That was Danik and Stasik jumping around  me so happy. We spend some time together sharing thing we did during those days, when  I got call from Valentin that he did pick up our  papers from court and I need to get boys ready and take them to do a picture for passports. 

So later that day we went to downtown and got pictures done.  Boys saw little play area with inflated jumping houses on our way there and asked me if they can play there. So my answer was simple: “If you behave, I will let you”. They tried so hard and were well behaved boys , and so we did go there after we were done with pictures. 

Playground has rules like you can’t climb up the slides only on stairs.. Of course boys where so excited to play and  tried everything they could. The owner gave them warning not to do that.. and I remind them if they won’t listen they couldn't be there any longer.  So after jumping house we went to little play house with a lot of sleds, climbing walls and balls. Rules are same and I reminded all rule to them again just in case :) After a couple of minutes I noticed that Stasik disobeying and playing the way he wanted, braking the main rule, not climb the slide. So I told him to leave play area and sit next to me.. He was disappointed and asked  sorry many times, I told him that I forgive you but I can’t let him play there again because I warn him many times.  Also I tried to make a point that there is rule for everyone to follow, and it's not safe to climb on the slide and not following certain rules.

 I think he got a lesson because next time he said he will do everything to behave and be better, and play longer. After that we got some ice cream and went back. At night we had dinner together and tea.. I played with them little bit and it was time for bad. I prayed with them, kissed them,  and said good night.  This is it for  very exciting  day.   

Day 25 Wednesday

I moved to orphanage with boys. They are so happy. Danik and Stasik were next to me all the time didn’t leave me even for one second. They wanted to do everything together. I am still feeling tired and didn’t get enough sleep last night so I went and lay on their bed for about one hour. Boys came in the room and were next to me. Stasik with me in the bad- Danik next to bad, we were just talking about everything like what they like to do, what they loved the most about USA… Danik couldn’t wait for me to wake up, so we can go and play some more soccer. I went with boys outside and behind the building they have little shed was all broken bikes are. Danik was asking me to try to put one bike for him. This shed is for everyone to use and if you want you can put one bike together and it is going to be yours. So after some looking in the shed I might help them to put one together. But that is going to be on Monday when I will come back after my visit with my father.  

Danik and Stasik didn’t want me to leave them till Monday they even asked if I can take them with me… … I kissed them, asked to be nice and behave and wait for me to come back and after that I will be there and soon I will take them home.   So at 12 pm I left and went to train station, because my father leaves in different city – 7 hours away. I am not going to do blog while I am there.  So as soon as I will be back I will start again. By the way, on this train is so hot, I am wet and it is only 3 hours of riding on it. Well hope it will cool down later.

Please pray for safety, and after I come back to Kiev, for speedy process, and our return to US.

God Bless you

Day 24-Tuesday

From Sergey

I tried to come to orphanage early this time so I can spend more time together with boys. This time we also played soccer but on different field next to Danik’s school. The team was same:  me and Stasik on one side, Danik and 2 his friends on other. After first part we lost again. I tried to play soft with them because they are kids, but I really wanted to win. Well, after 40 min of playing on huge soccer field we lost 4 to 8. I got really really tired of running back and forth.

Stasik has so much energy and was running without stopping. We took our break at school: went to bathroom got some water and Danik showed me his classroom.

After 15-20 min break we switched to smaller field, there was different story: we won… yeee we WON … 2 to 1. That was fun. So I noticed that boys started listen to me more than before. That is good thing because it is means they starting to trust me more. After 2 hours playing we came back tired to orphanage. Boys were supposed to have some kind of visit from director of orphanage so boys started to clean their room. They couldn’t wait for me to move in to orphanage tomorrow.

Here is a picture of boys: 

 I really enjoyed time that I spend with boys. 

After leaving orphanage, I went to Kyiv, because Danik lost screw on his glasses and I am looking for new on. In Kiev is crazy because of EURO 2012. I don’t really like to watch soccer but when Ukrainian team played against Sweden I was following that. Ukrainian team won 2 to 1… In center of Kyiv they created Fun zone, were everybody can get it pass security check and watch life soccer from huge screens. It was interesting because Ukraine very excited to have Euro 2012 and there were a lot of fans.

took few pictures:

Tomorrow around 8 am I will move to orphanage, and around 3 pm I will leave Kyiv and visit my father in different city, maybe it is last time I will see him, who knows.  I am along here and really miss my wife beside me. It is harder to do it all along, but I have to do what I have to do. So please pray for me and my family that God will be always with us through every our step in this life. 

Day 23 Monday-cleaning, fixing

My Monday was interesting, I was still tired, and had many things to do. Our house was a mess when I came, and I had many “surprises” waiting for me. First two weeks my mom watched our kids, and last two weeks my 18 year old cousin came to stay with them. We are appreciated to everyone who tried to help us out and watched our kids. During last week, while my cousin was watching boys, Danilka started to test her and broke many rules that we have in the house, now I know what other areas we have to keep working with Danilka. We never left our boys with anyone else, and it was huge, especially for Danilka. I am so proud of Danilka and Denny for trying act, and be good boys.

Our Denny still doesn’t talk; he does try to talk, but not a lot. His vocabulary is very limited, and he is shy about his talking, and prefers not to talk at all. Sunday evening before I put Denny to sleep, he was keep asking me:” Please don’t’ leave, no more airplane, please stay home”. It brought tears to my eyes, and I do realize that it was very hard especially for Denny to not have me there for him this long. He will be fine, but I think he will not agree to let mommy go to any planes for long long time.

I have two weeks to fix a lot before Sergey come home with Danik and Stasik.

From Sergey-Day 23:

 I woke up and had a breakfast.  Finished some organizing and preparing before our apartment and move to the orphanage. Later I went to spend some time together with boys. 

As always they were so happy to see me couldn’t wait for me to move.  We went to play soccer me and Stasik on one side and Danik and his two friends on other side of the field. We had so much fun, but I got tired very fast. We did lost 4 to 1 but I loved it. But Stasis however didn’t, he was so disappointed that we lost so he stopped play with us at all and was sitting in the corner depressed. I explained to him that it is ok to lose, not always you will win you have to learn to lose, but it was too much for him. I will spend some more time and be working with Stasik.  After that I helped Danik to glue his airplane, that we put it together a while back, so it will be sturdy  and stay together, and Danik can color it the way he want it.  That was all for that day.

In the morning I have to go to Kyiv’s pharmacy, try find and buys some parts for Danik’s glasses. He broke it and hopefully I can find all parts. I miss my wife so much, but I have to be strong for her and my family.

Day 22- Sunday traveling home

Sunday was very stressful day. Few days before I had to leave my husband tried to find someone to pick me up at the San Francisco International Airport and drive me home, and we live 1,5-2 hours, 90 miles away from airport.

Long story short, Sunday morning we had no one available to come and pick me up. I left Ukraine not knowing if there will be anyone at airport, or I will have to walk 90 miles to get home J with baby and suitcases.

Customs were easy and quick 15 minutes max, I did have to wait for a baggage for about 40 minutes, and I was out of airport.

When I landed in San Francisco, I did call my sister, and found out that I do have a car waiting for me at airport(my brother and my brother in law did drop off a car for me), with a key taped to the back bump. Yes, after traveling almost 15 hours, and not sleeping for more than 20, I had to drive another almost 2 hours to get home. Baby was screaming almost all the way home, and only felt to sleep for 15 minutes. She was very tired, and forgot what is car seat is about and she couldn’t fall to sleep. But we are thankful for everything, and feel really blessed. It’s all memories, and we will have something to remember and talked about. J

I am thankful to God, and I know that many people were praying for our safe travel back home, by the time I got home, I were not sleepy, and didn’t feel being overly tired.

Once I got home it was a different story, I was really tired, even I had very easy flight and baby did really well in airplanes.

I was so happy to see boys, and boys were very excited. I am so happy to be home and start ruling again in my “Castle” J I do miss Sergey a lot, and miss my boys back in Ukraine. Can’t wait to have them home, and have a complete family.

We went to bed around 8:30 pm and woke up at 7:30 am. Baby woke up only once at night, and this was it. We were switched to US local time from first night. I am thankful to God for that, because I was worried a lot about time changing.

From Sergey:

We woke up at 2 am and after quick coffee my wife and baby were ready to leave to airport. There was guy from orphanage who offered to give us ride that was so much blessing for us, and we didn’t have to pay taxi.

Around 3:30 am we came to the Borispil airport, after checking baggage my wife headed to the security check. It was so sad to let here go, and do rest of the process without her besides me, but it was best decision for our family. I kissed here, sad her good bye and return to the house. In the morning I realize, now it is all me, whatever is going to take to finish adoption; I have to be strong and have to be here.

 At 3 pm I went to see boys, there were so happy to see me. Everything went smooth except there is no light in whole city due to the stormy weather.  We spend so much time taking and playing. I love them so much and can’t wait to get them home. Danik and Stasik keep asking how long is going to take to adopt them, and fly home, they can’t wait to leave the orphanage. So I told them news that on Wednesday I will move in to the orphanage and will leave with them- orphanage director and foster parents did offered me a room in the orphanage for free. Boys were so happy. Around 8 pm I came home so tired because didn’t get enough sleep. So I went to bad right away. At 1am my wife called and did let me know that she landed safe in the San Francisco, and heading home to Sacrament, I felt even more relived.

Day 21 Saturday-Go away party

On Saturday morning our 3 people family had last breakfast together, and a lot of packing before our trip to USA. After we were done with packing and last minute preparations we went to orphanage around 3 pm.

While I helped with dishes and preparing food for party, my husband went to the different room to check in to airfare and print boarding passes. Boys were excited and all around kitchen, asking if we need any help. They are so sweet!

Party was scheduled for 7 pm.

Around 6 pm grandpa Viktor came with his sister, “grandma” Tatyana could not make it, do to being very sick.

Grandpas Viktor story is heart breaking. He had only 1 daughter, her name was Valya, and she is a mother of our boys, Danik and Stasik. He lost his wife when she was only 28 years of age, and pregnant with their baby boy, do to cancer. Grandpa Victor, was left with little 2,5 year old Valya(mother of our boys) all alone, and few years later he met another woman Tatyana, and married her. (they had no kids). Grandpa Victor still lives with his second wife Tatyana, and our boys do call her grandma, even she is not real grandma to them. Grandpa’s Viktor, only daughter Valya, mother of our boys, died last month at age 28 from drug poisoning. Foster parents of our boys did take Danik and Stasik to funeral, to say good bye.

Grandpa Viktor was crying that boys finally going to have normal Christian Ukrainian family and future life. We spend hours of taking about boys past, present and future. On the party dedicated to boys leaving orphanage we prayed for their future and Sergey prayed about all orphans in the house and world, so they will find parents. After that boys got some presents from people who took care of them for time that they spend in the orphanage. There were a lot of good food and communication. We exchanged addresses with grandpa and left home because in the morning I will leave to the USA. It is sad to leave Sergey, I will miss him and boys so much but I have to come back to be with our kids at home. It was hard to say goodbyes to foster parents, grandpa. Boys do understand that we will be together soon, so were sad but ok. 

Now it is time for Sergey’s part of blog. He promised that will try to blog, and record every day while he is in Ukraine. J

Day 19 Thursday -Court day

 *****I have all the notes from days I missed blogging. And now I will try to post them to the blog, for everyone

It was a miracle that our papers did get sign on June 6 and we did receive our papers the same day. Also, our judge was on vacation starting Friday. Ukrainian court has a law, if judge is gone up to 10 days, judge can’t give his hearings to other judge. We would have to wait for 10 days for our judge to come back, and schedule a court.

Today is a court day. We should have our court at 3pm.  We are excited and nervous at the same time. Sergey and I couldn’t sleep well this night; our minds were working, thinking.

Since I will be going back to US, and I do need to sign few papers at notary office and embassy before I leave.

We left our house around 11 am, Our facilitator and his wife came to take us to notary office, and while waiting for notary to prepare all required paperwork, we went to eat to “Pirizhkova Hata” again (we had only coffee this time).

At 1:30 pm we caught a taxi and headed to the orphanage to pick up boys and a person who will represent orphanage in the court, and by 2 pm were on our way to court.

Court didn’t start on time and we had to wait. Boys and Elliana were very tired, but during court everyone did well. By 5 pm we were home, hungry, tired but a bigger family! We are so blessed to be parents to two wonderful boys! We know that not everything will be easy, and parenting them will be challenging sometimes, but are great boys and they are our sons. We love them and so thankful to our got for them!

Sergey feelings about court: I was stressing about court all day and all night, even at night I woke up a lot of times. In the morning in my head was going on so many thinking like: “what if judge will leave for vacation, what if she will reschedule court, what if she will not accept us and act…” I trust God, but couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t eat, drink, walk, talk, I couldn’t do anything normal. At the court I tried to respond clearly and loud but it was scary even to say something in front for judge, but thanks God she decided to let us to adopt kids. After that decision I felt some relive, but stress didn’t leave me that easy, on next day I still could fill some stress and worry. I am thanking God that everything went good and we are parents to Danik and Stasik.

Two less orphans in this world!

Praise our Lord! Everything went smooth and we are parents of our two little boys! Two less orphans in this world! Officially family of 7!

Our court lasted about 30 minutes, it did started an our later than scheduled, but everything is great! Today's day was very stressful, and emotional, but we survived!

I have tickets to go back home this Sunday with ElliAna, and Sergey will stay in Ukraine to finish up with the process.

Tomorrow I will go to embassy to sign few papers.

We are in Kiev

I was able to post few posts today, and upload pictures. We stopped at Coffee Life coffee shop, and they do have a great internet.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and comments, we do love comments.

And we do have a court tomorrow. Praise our God, papers got sign today, and judge is going on vacation this Friday, so she did schedule our court for tomorrow, which is a blessing!!! We have an amazing God!

Now we have to go back to our village Petrivske, so I will try to post when we have internet. At least I am up to date now with blogging :))))
Hopefully by this Sunday I will be home, and Sergey will stay here in Ukraine and come back with boys.

Thank you everyone for your support!!!

Day 17-Raining

We woke up to a biggest rain we ever had in Ukraine. Sky was dark, and it was raining hard, it would stop for a few minutes and would start raining again. At the moment when it stopped raining we went outside, and tried to catch marshrootka (they do have a marshrootka stop by our house), every time before today, we had no luck of catching one. We would be waiting, and waiting and it never showed up, and we had to walk for 1,5 miles to catch one. But today, it did show up, and it was a blessing because of the rain.

We went to see  boys, and decided to spend a day at Father’s House. They have no policy when to come, or what time to visit. We have a choice, and we can spend as much time as we want with boys. We can take boys everywhere up to 3 days. It’s a blessing! Unfortunately we have small place, and boys being very active, it’s hard to keep them on one place. Also with ElliAna, we have to pick good time, do to nap time, feedings(she eats every 2-3 hours). Anyway, we spend almost all day with boys and foster parents. Sergey does have a lot in common with foster dad, and I enjoy talking/spending time with foster mom of our boys.

Here are few pictures:

We are walking to the Father's House, and this is their property, between their two buildings.

 I love how they did it, it's beautiful, and they are doing great job of keeping it clean with so many kids around.

 Building wood airplane with kids

 Foster dad building something with boys

 Surprise, Iron Man

 Stasik with ElliAna

 Danik playing on guitar

 Everyone is busy :)))

Day 16 Monday

Still no water and we have no idea why. Lady of the house, from who we are renting our house left to Kiev for 2 days, and hopefully tomorrow she will be back with her husband and they will fix our water.

In the morning we went to Kiev, to walk around, bought few things for baby and kids to keep them busy, and then headed to Fathers House.

It was funny when ElliAna after been told 1000 times "Don't touch the salt"! still did it. She is in the stage of exploring and not always listening. Here is the result...

She asked for some bread with Nuttela,  I was in the room, Sergey was doing something when we heard ahhhhhh..... and this what we saw. She decided to put some salt , ok maybe not some, on here sandwich with Nuttela :)))

Ukrainian Security Car, we saw by on of the stores while our trip to Kiev

Today is a holiday, and boys went to church, and we didn’t get a chance to talk to them, but we left them few things with their foster parents.

We were walking home very tired, and ready for bed. Even ElliAna who always has so much energy, was barely walking, and didn’t want to be carried. 

Day 13 Friday

We had breakfast and started to get ready to go to Kiev.  My uncle came to Kiev for personal business and we had a little gift from US (my parents) to give it to him.  We were in a hurry, and waited for marshrootka for about 30 minutes – never showed up, and we had to walk to main road to catch different one.

We met with uncle Vasya, my dad’s younger brother. We spend 2 hours together, before he had to go catch his marshrootka, and go back to his city. We had lunch together in Puzata Xata, and then headed to nearest subway station.

Khreshatik is getting ready for Euro 2012. They have many construction projects going on, and it would be nice to see if they will finish it on time for Euro.

*we are at Father's House spending time with kids. They have wi-fi here, and I will try to transfer as much as I can from Word to my blog, and will try to post pictures. 

Day 12 Thursday

In the morning we took marshrootka to a big store called “Ashan”. It’s 30 minutes of walking and then 20 minutes on marshrootka. This store is huge like Costco/Winco stores, and has everything from food to clothes and more. You do have a choice to buy in small quantities. We did buy some food and prices are much better than in other supermarkets.

 In this new apartment we have a nice kitchen and it has everything I need to be able to cook and make homemade food.  

Went to see boys, and like always, there is thousands of questions: “When is court?”  “How many days till court?” “ When will you adopt us?”  “When we will go to America?” and etc. And all this questions are repeating in 20-30 minutes again and again. J  

Day 10 - Tuesday

We went to pharmacies to buy few things for my parents and Sergey mom to take it back to US, and were preparing to move to little city Petrovske, where our boys live. Tomorrow by 12 pm, we have to be out of our current apartment #3.  I don’t think we will have internet there for a while, but I will try to keep track of everything what is going on.  

Later afternoon we went to a local market again, and bought more things for boys ( books, notebooks, etc.)

***We moved and we had no internet for almost 3 days. I made notes in Word, and now will transfer everything to a blog.

Day 9-with kids

We had a great morning with boys. By 5 pm we had to take them back to "Fathers House", and it take almost 2 hours to get there, so we had breakfast at home, Sergey went with boys out and got some food.

They were hungry  :)

 We made tea and stayed home for breakfast

Kids loved to stay on the balcony, there were some workers outside, kids watched them

Played with some toys

We went to eat lunch, o my, they have so much energy in the morning !

 Puzata Xata , kids room.

Kids had icecream

We took subway

then marshrootka

Daniel and Stasik foster parents are super nice people Nazar and Natasha. They are young but they are doing such a great job of taking care of the kids. All total they have 6 kids, that live with them in same apartment, and it's like family type. They make their own food, they have their own budget, and rules. I will take more pictures, and will post more about boys home(for now).

We did had a nice chat with foster parents, and had tea. We left their place and headed home, because it was late.

We had a wonderful day!!!