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 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 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 11 We moved again

In the morning my husband bought some breakfast called “Kiev’s perepichka” , that was very good. After that we stared packing to move out.  We paid for apartment in advance, and if we will return keys to the office at 12 noon they agreed to reimburse money back.

 Around 10:30 very mean lady came to our apartment and without explaining anything rushed inside. My husband stopped her and asked: “Can I help you?” On what she replied: “You are leaving at 10:30!” He said: “no, not till 12 pm “After that she rudely slammed the door and left, without saying hi, or bye.

Then at 12 pm Sergey return keys back to office and start putting stuff in taxi cab. Same lady showed up again. She was not happy for any reason and start yelling on us to give her keys back. She started getting very angry because we didn’t give her keys back. My husband told her that keys in the office and you need to talk to them about rules not to us. We got yelled for what we been told to do.  Anyway that is how we checked out in Ukrainian way. J

  

At 1:30 pm we moved to new apartment. Its private house, owners live on second floor and we are renting first floor. House inside very nice, we have 2 rooms and it is very comfy. Owner is still remodeling upper part of house, and sometimes they come to use kitchen downstairs.

Unfortunately owner didn’t have time to make internet for us, but at least we close to the boys. We do have mobile internet now, but it’s not that great. We are thankful for what we have.   After unpacking our stuff we went to see boys, this is when we discovered that it is 30 minutes’ walk to the orphanage. At first our legs hurt but thank God we had some training walking in Kiev so it was no bad for us. Danik and Stasick were very happy to see us; we spend very good time together and went to the local store to buy Russian dumplings for breakfast.  Then we rushed back to apartment. 

Day 8-Boys are with us

In the morning we wanted to go to local market to buy few things for boys, and get their airplane bag(gotcha backpack) ready in case I will have to go back US earlier and Sergey will stay during waiting period. But we remembered that markets on Sunday and Monday are closed, and we decided to go there on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Around noon we called an orphanage to see if we can come and see boys. We asked if we can take boys to Kiev with us to spend a day together and a night, and bring them back to the orphanage next day. They did let us!!!
At 3 pm we got to the orphanage and boys were already ready with their backpacks packed. Sergey had to write a note, and put the time when we will bring them back, and sign, and this was it, we were off with our handsome little guys.

Daniel A and Stanislav N are great little boys, and we feel so blessed to hold them, kiss them, and have opportunity to become their parents. I will write different post about their personalities and other info.
Here is our day in pictures! I hope you will enjoy it  we really did!!!

Our princess eating borsh for breakfast.

 We had to take 3 different public transportation to get to boys.  Subway for 30 minutes, we dont have pictures from subway. Then a big bus for 10 minutes,

  and then a little bus for 40 minutes.

 This sigh says: Stops request loud and ahead of time and the red one says: There is no stops here and there :) This made me smile

 And then a 20 minutes walk  to get to the orphanage.

Back to Kiev we took a taxi, because we didn't know how boys will act,and if they will be a good boys :)  And actually we are so proud of them, they were great behaved boys all the time! We did enjoyed them a lot!

 We ate at Puzata Xata, and I think this is the cheapest place to eat. We try to eat at home, but at lease once a day we go for hot food to Puzata Xata. We don't have a frying pan, or any other things to cook with at our apartment.

 These two are so cute together. Daniel A love his little sister, he is huge help, and he is always watching after here.

 There were a lot of things going on Kreschatik Street, and it was closed for weekend, and 1530 years of Kiev City. 

 My little cuties :)))

 Cotton Candy

 Stasik

 Daniel A, ElliAna and Stasik and they called me mommy :))) I am so blessed

 Playing with this little thing, that you can throw high in the sky with rubber band. It was fun, everyone was waiting for their turn.

Boys wasnt' sure if a guys is alive! It was funny, Stasik made everyone laugh when he came running back, yelling," Mommy, mommy I saw his red eyes, and they moved, he is alive " :))))

 Helping daddy to get stroller up the stairs:) They love to help

Big brother reading to his sister :) He offered to read to her

Before bed, skyping with boys and gram-ma at home

 That night they had this huge live concert outside, it was on  stage that was build earlier that week

 It was thousands people everywhere

 This is the stage

We are so thankful for this opportunity and we did enjoyed our boys!  We got to know boys better, and we are happy to have this time. God is great God!

Day 7-Relaxed

We didn't do much today. In the morning we woke up and both Sergey and I felt some kind of weakness and other cold symptoms. We decided not to go to see boys. Sergey went to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine, and by the end of the day we were feeling much better.

We did a little walk around Kiev. Today and tomorrow Kiev is celebrating,  city Kiev is 1530 years old. There will be a huge concert tomorrow across from Independence square. Kreschatik Street is already closed for weekend, and many people is outside just walking.
Tomorrow we plan to visit boys.

Day 6-Picnic with boys

We had to leave our apartment at 7am to go meet with our facilitator sign some paperwork. Our #2 apartment is far from everything, even from subway station. We had to take taxi to get to closest subway station and then we headed to meet up with our facilitator and his wife on the other side of Kiev. After completing some paperwork we headed to the orphanage to see boys. When we got to the orphanage boys were not there, they were at school, it was Daniels last day of school. We headed to school to meet Daniel and Stasik at school. After school foster parents of Daniel and Stasik invited us to have barbecue together. We did stayed for a picnic, and really loved spending time with our kids, and other kids at the orphanage. 

Boys live in family type of home, and they freely can play outside, and we really like the way all orphanage staff treating us, and we do feel welcome. 

Boys playing soccer

Daniel and Stasik

                                                                 This is our Stasik

                                                                       Daniel

                                                       This is little picnic area

                                                                     Kids with daddy!

We had a great day, and headed to our apartment around 3 pm.

***Because of the conditions of our #2 apartment, we did move to a #3 apartment. We do apreciate all the help from our "friend", but spending 1 night at apartment #2 was hard. So now, we are in #3 apartment and do have internet, hot water, and close to stores, and to the boys.