Our dossier was successfully submitted yesterday, March 12. Only 7 were accepted by the SDA yesterday as Americans are already above the new "quota" for the quarter. In the new law it mentioned these quotas, but no one knew what the quotas would be or how they would work. So, it seems that Americans can submit only 140 per quarter - 560 per year. So far this year, 183 have already been accepted - so they are 43 over quota and therefore shutting the doors until April.
The SDA now has 20 days to review our dossier in detail and decide if it meets their standards. They already looked it over for 40 minutes yesterday (usually they only look at it for 15 minutes!) so hopefully that means they are ahead of the game in checking ours over! Once its approved (please continue to pray for this), they will assign us an appointment/travel date. We think it will be late May for this, based on other people's appointments who have submitted in late February. That means we will be home with Cinderella and Belle hopefully in mid-June.
We are also still working on bringing SnowWhite here for hosting - Heart 2 Heart with Ukraine has agreed to bring SnowWhite and 4 other girls from her orphanage for only $1700 each and the program will last from June 25 through August 25. Much cheaper and longer than the Frontier Horizons program! If we are not back from Ukraine by June 25, my friends in New York who are hosting the other girls will host SnowWhite until we get back.
This is the first time I'm using email to update my blog, so I hope it works. I can't access the blogger website due to wacky problems with our new server at work.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Bad News
Our dossier did NOT get in on Monday. The line was just too long, and I guess our facilitator and her friend were not close enough to the front of the line. She is going to try again next week, and she said she will keep on trying until it gets in, but our documents will start to be disqualified (according to the 6 month rule) in a few months. I think the first document to expire is our INS approval. Three months before it expires, we will have to file a whole new application with a whole new application fee of $500. The INS doesn't do updates or extensions.
Its very touch and go - we have no clue when our dossier will get submitted, when and if it will be approved, and when we would be traveling. We have estimates and guesses, but no facts. Normally we would be used to that given that we have been at this for almost 2 years now, but now we are juggling having to move ahead of when we had scheduled, and with the timing of SnowWhite coming for hosting this summer.
Its very touch and go - we have no clue when our dossier will get submitted, when and if it will be approved, and when we would be traveling. We have estimates and guesses, but no facts. Normally we would be used to that given that we have been at this for almost 2 years now, but now we are juggling having to move ahead of when we had scheduled, and with the timing of SnowWhite coming for hosting this summer.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
No news yet
We still have not heard news from our facilitator in Ukraine about our dossier. We hope that it was submitted and that there were no problems. If it was submitted yesterday, we should receive our registration number and travel date within the next 20 days (assuming that all of our documents pass their inspection).
Based on other families in this process, the current average time between dossier submission and SDA appointment is 10-12 weeks. That would put us in Ukraine in mid-May. No appointment lists have been posted, but there have been a handful of people posting that they have been given March and April appointments - with December and January submissions going in for March appointments, and February submissions going in for April appointments....so we can hope and pray that we go in early May.
According to rumors, and based on the above posts from other families, it is being said that the SDA is issuing appoinments in exact order that the dossiers are submitted - submitted, not registered. Which means that: they are not making any exceptions for "special" cases like older or known kids, and that depending on how many dossiers are "rejected" during their 20 day review, our travel date could fluctuate as our number moves up the list. Basically when the dossier is submitted you are assigned a registration number right away, the SDA has 20 days to review your dossier completely, at the end of that 20 days you dossier is either accepted and registered (you keep your reg number) or it is rejected and returned to you (and you lose that reg number), and for those accepted the appointment for travel is set. I don't know how much flexability families have in requesting a travel date - ie. if they have some big event or something on such and such date, can they have a later appointment? We know of a fellow adoptive family in this situation due to one of their biological kid's graduation....so let's all hope that there is some flexability for them.
No other news on any of the girls. My Russian speaking friend here in ATL is out of town, but I hope we can get together with her when she gets back so we can call SnowWhite and Belle - Cinderella's director will not let us call her, so I am trying to arrange a friend in Kyiv to visit her and her friends.
Based on other families in this process, the current average time between dossier submission and SDA appointment is 10-12 weeks. That would put us in Ukraine in mid-May. No appointment lists have been posted, but there have been a handful of people posting that they have been given March and April appointments - with December and January submissions going in for March appointments, and February submissions going in for April appointments....so we can hope and pray that we go in early May.
According to rumors, and based on the above posts from other families, it is being said that the SDA is issuing appoinments in exact order that the dossiers are submitted - submitted, not registered. Which means that: they are not making any exceptions for "special" cases like older or known kids, and that depending on how many dossiers are "rejected" during their 20 day review, our travel date could fluctuate as our number moves up the list. Basically when the dossier is submitted you are assigned a registration number right away, the SDA has 20 days to review your dossier completely, at the end of that 20 days you dossier is either accepted and registered (you keep your reg number) or it is rejected and returned to you (and you lose that reg number), and for those accepted the appointment for travel is set. I don't know how much flexability families have in requesting a travel date - ie. if they have some big event or something on such and such date, can they have a later appointment? We know of a fellow adoptive family in this situation due to one of their biological kid's graduation....so let's all hope that there is some flexability for them.
No other news on any of the girls. My Russian speaking friend here in ATL is out of town, but I hope we can get together with her when she gets back so we can call SnowWhite and Belle - Cinderella's director will not let us call her, so I am trying to arrange a friend in Kyiv to visit her and her friends.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Dossier news and possible moving
So the SDA never really "announced" their new dossier acceptance system, but thankfully someone found the notice buried on the Ministry of Justice's website - in Ukrainian only of course. So, between a group of us we translated most of it and it seemed reasonable.
Our facilitator was already working on going to Kyiv to submit our dossier under the new system, when she found out a friend of hers already had a "place" in line for this coming Monday. So we did a quick power of attorney to allow him to submit the dossier for our facilitator, had it notarized and apostilled and sent via DHL within 3 hours of getting the email from our facilitator! :) We have got this system down! I got notice that the documents arrived at our facilitator's home today. So please pray and hope that our dossier gets in the door without incident on Monday. The SDA then has 20 days to review the dossier and either accept or reject it....please also pray that they accept it and we receive a registration number and travel appointment date.
It is looking more and more like we will be traveling in May. Airline fares are almost double their normal price during the summer months...not good for those of us on a budget. But at least the weather in Ukraine will be nice. And since the region we are adopting the older sisters from is known to be a "fast" region, we hope to have everything done in less than 4 weeks. That would put us back home around my birthday and the oldest girl's birthday (hers is a few days after mine). We had hope to have then home in time to take them to the Renaissance festival here, but it closes down in early June.
This will also interfere with our hosting of the youngest girl - we had hoped to have her for the entire summer, but now we will be down to only 2 weeks in August due to the way the program dates run.
In other stressful news, we went to renew our lease yesterday only to find out they plan to make our building into condos sometime in the near future and are only going to allow tenants to renew for 3 month increments at a time. At this time they have no idea when they will actually be converting them into condos, but I'm praying that it is at least 6 months out from now - the last thing we or the girls need is to be packing up to move the same week we get home.
We had planned on moving into a house or townhome in the near future - but probably not until 2009 when the Emory University staff village opened up. They are going to be complete with that construction in 2009 and we were going to purchase one of their single family homes there - Emory employees get first choice and probably a lower price, then it opens up to the general public. So its not "campus housing" - we would own the house. Its obviousely very close to Emory, where Andrew works, and is very close to where I work. Its also a very good school district. We just had planned on staying at our loft until those opened to minimize the amount of moving we would need to do. I hate moving. At least we'd be able to afford a mover this time.
So we are looking at many options - transfering to another loft in one of the non-condo buildings, moving into an apartment closer to Emory, or renting a house near Emory.
Our facilitator was already working on going to Kyiv to submit our dossier under the new system, when she found out a friend of hers already had a "place" in line for this coming Monday. So we did a quick power of attorney to allow him to submit the dossier for our facilitator, had it notarized and apostilled and sent via DHL within 3 hours of getting the email from our facilitator! :) We have got this system down! I got notice that the documents arrived at our facilitator's home today. So please pray and hope that our dossier gets in the door without incident on Monday. The SDA then has 20 days to review the dossier and either accept or reject it....please also pray that they accept it and we receive a registration number and travel appointment date.
It is looking more and more like we will be traveling in May. Airline fares are almost double their normal price during the summer months...not good for those of us on a budget. But at least the weather in Ukraine will be nice. And since the region we are adopting the older sisters from is known to be a "fast" region, we hope to have everything done in less than 4 weeks. That would put us back home around my birthday and the oldest girl's birthday (hers is a few days after mine). We had hope to have then home in time to take them to the Renaissance festival here, but it closes down in early June.
This will also interfere with our hosting of the youngest girl - we had hoped to have her for the entire summer, but now we will be down to only 2 weeks in August due to the way the program dates run.
In other stressful news, we went to renew our lease yesterday only to find out they plan to make our building into condos sometime in the near future and are only going to allow tenants to renew for 3 month increments at a time. At this time they have no idea when they will actually be converting them into condos, but I'm praying that it is at least 6 months out from now - the last thing we or the girls need is to be packing up to move the same week we get home.
We had planned on moving into a house or townhome in the near future - but probably not until 2009 when the Emory University staff village opened up. They are going to be complete with that construction in 2009 and we were going to purchase one of their single family homes there - Emory employees get first choice and probably a lower price, then it opens up to the general public. So its not "campus housing" - we would own the house. Its obviousely very close to Emory, where Andrew works, and is very close to where I work. Its also a very good school district. We just had planned on staying at our loft until those opened to minimize the amount of moving we would need to do. I hate moving. At least we'd be able to afford a mover this time.
So we are looking at many options - transfering to another loft in one of the non-condo buildings, moving into an apartment closer to Emory, or renting a house near Emory.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Dossier news
So, a friend of mine in the adoption world sent me a link to the new dossier submission policy that the Ukrainian government (SDA) submitted. We had been hearing rumors of this, but there was no confirmation until now.
Seems that they basically formalized many of the policies they put into action in December, but they dropped the telephone hotline appointment system and expanded their hours to accept more dossiers. This was drafted on February 2, signed off by the Ministry of Justice on the 14th and goes into effect on February 25. So we may be able to submit our dossier as soon as next week.
Other notable changes or clarifications included:
Seems that they basically formalized many of the policies they put into action in December, but they dropped the telephone hotline appointment system and expanded their hours to accept more dossiers. This was drafted on February 2, signed off by the Ministry of Justice on the 14th and goes into effect on February 25. So we may be able to submit our dossier as soon as next week.
Other notable changes or clarifications included:
- Quota for maximum number of dossiers to be accepted per year, based on previous years adoptions
- Mention of restrictions if a country is not in compliance with post placements reports (this was policy last year, but never supported by law- now it is)
- Limits the number of dossiers per person, per visit, to one. ( I don't see how this is feasible to enforce since a facilitator will just keep coming back again and again, one dossier at a time....)
- Reinforces the new policy about documents being valid for at least 6 months from the date of submission
- Outlines the procedure for accepting, reviewing and registering dossiers (involves a acceptance log, time and date stamps, etc)
- Outlines the referral process and second referral appointments
- I think it added a layer of approval for meeting the referral child...but I'm not sure
The link is only in Ukrainian, and the translation software most of us use is sometimes hard to interpret the exact meaning since it translates literally word for word and the resulting text is jumbled and hard to read.
But at least it seems like good news. Hopefully we will get the dossier submitted, get it registered quickly, and have a travel date. We really, really hoped to travel before the end of April as airfare costs skyrocket in summer and don't drop back off until late September...I looked at airfares and they double from late April to early June. We plan on buying one-way tickets to Ukraine and then purchasing one way tickets for all of us in Kyiv for the return trip. Its cheaper to buy tickets in Ukraine, and since we really have no clue how slow or fast the adoption itself will take, we won't know an exact return date anyways.
In SnowWhite news, there is a family from New York at her orphanage right now - actually two families - one family is completing their adoption for an older girl and the second family is just visiting their hosted children. I feel bad for the second family - they are in the same boat that we are in with SnowWhite. The two girls they wanted to adopt were never released and registered for adoption. We've been at this a year already and SnowWhite is still no closer to being registered ( we have made progress, but the actual paperwork is officially in the same place as before) . This family tried to go and visit a different child, but that child did not want to be adopted, so they just decided not to pursue an adoption at this point until the two girls are registered. Hopefully between these two families, SnowWhite will get some love and attention on our behalf in the next few days. And we will get more "candid" photos of her, drawings and information than we normally get via the charity group.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Fundraising
Our adoption agency has set up a tax deductible donation account for us to help us raise some money for our adoption. We are very busy and don't really have the time, money or contacts to do the regular types of fundraisers - selling cookies, gift wrap, car washes etc.
The only problem now is to figure out how to advertise our new donation account....the more people we can email the information to, the more people who will contribute.
I think if people realize that $25 goes a long way when combined with other people's donations, more people will contribute. In the past when we sent out fundraising letters, people thought we were asking for hundreds of dollars. This system gives people options for donating - $25, $50, $100 and so on. It also generates a tax receipt for them.
For anyone reading my blog that could help with a few dollars, please check back here for the link. It should be up and running in 2 days or so. My agency is called Options 4 Adoption and their website is www.options4adoption.com
We are hoping to raise about $2000, but anything will help.
The only problem now is to figure out how to advertise our new donation account....the more people we can email the information to, the more people who will contribute.
I think if people realize that $25 goes a long way when combined with other people's donations, more people will contribute. In the past when we sent out fundraising letters, people thought we were asking for hundreds of dollars. This system gives people options for donating - $25, $50, $100 and so on. It also generates a tax receipt for them.
For anyone reading my blog that could help with a few dollars, please check back here for the link. It should be up and running in 2 days or so. My agency is called Options 4 Adoption and their website is www.options4adoption.com
We are hoping to raise about $2000, but anything will help.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Road Block
So, I was waiting until I cooled down and had a reasonable grasp on the situaton before I posted. Sadly, our facilitator's appointment to submit our dossier in January was not honored - she kept calling for the specific date and time, but kept getting the run around until January was over and they told her "check back in February." Now the SDA is saying her name isn't even on the master list at all....and with no written proof of the appointment, there is no way to fight it. Its her word against the word of the SDA.
We are looking into other avenues to submit our dossier; some I am not so comfortable with, and some that will require lots of waiting and patience. Really no good options at this point. There is rumor that the SDA is going to annouce some new procedures for dossier submission this week, so hopefully it will be an improvement. The US Embassy representatives are also meeting with the SDA this week - I'm not sure of the official agenda for that meeting, but I'm sure they will bring up the complaints from American PAPs trying to submit dossiers. Hopefully something will be worked out.
So this is sad and frustrating to say the least. We had hoped to get Cinderella and Belle home before summer - #1 so we'd have time to teach them English and get them acclimated to their new family and home, and #2 so we could get better airfares rates! Prices jump so much in the summer- they almost double.
In SnowWhite news, the detsky dom director has still NOT gone to the regional police office to pick up this report. 8 months later and she still has not found a few hours in her schedule to drive there and pick the report up. The director of the boarding school cannot do anything until they have this police report, and supposedly, the detsky dom director is the only one authorized to pick it up as she is the one who made the original request.
I still get to write letters to SnowWhite and get photos of her every month. She lost her two front teeth this past month! I wish I was there to tell her about the tooth fairy and put quarters under her pillow....or has the toothfairy's rates gone up? LOL It was $0.25 when I was a kid.....20 odd years ago. I'm finally getting her a new matress for her bed and a sled for the snow. I hate that I can't do this type of thing for Belle and Cinderella - I just don't have the contacts in their region to make deliveries for me. The assistant director of Cinderella's boarding home did give her a nice birthday party on my behalf a few weeks ago. Bought her cake and things, and gave her money I sent to spend on her own. I also sent her some books and birthday cards in the mail.
Finally, we are still working on getting the girls room ready. For now they will all share the upstairs loft - its huge. We put together the IKEA bunkbeds, but still need another 2 mattresses and one more twin bedframe. Since SnowWhite is probably coming for hosting this summer, we hope to have all three girls staying with us this summer....we will definately be scheduling a sitting with JC Penney for family photos! :) I am also trying to re-invent the room a bit to fit the new teenager we're getting. The room was pink princess flowers themed....a little babyish for a 13 yr old. So, we are moving to the surfer/beach/hawaiian theme. I've got a wall stencil and some various tropical paints, and I'm working on a quilt with surfer themed fabrics. I also bought some funky photo frames and I'm getting some nice stock photos of beach and surf scenes to print and frame. I've put in a boom box, some CD's (Hilary Duff, Green Day, YellowCard, Madonna, U2), and I'm working on refinishing a vanity with make up and hair stuff in it. So now the My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, Barbies, and play kitchen will have friends :)
We are looking into other avenues to submit our dossier; some I am not so comfortable with, and some that will require lots of waiting and patience. Really no good options at this point. There is rumor that the SDA is going to annouce some new procedures for dossier submission this week, so hopefully it will be an improvement. The US Embassy representatives are also meeting with the SDA this week - I'm not sure of the official agenda for that meeting, but I'm sure they will bring up the complaints from American PAPs trying to submit dossiers. Hopefully something will be worked out.
So this is sad and frustrating to say the least. We had hoped to get Cinderella and Belle home before summer - #1 so we'd have time to teach them English and get them acclimated to their new family and home, and #2 so we could get better airfares rates! Prices jump so much in the summer- they almost double.
In SnowWhite news, the detsky dom director has still NOT gone to the regional police office to pick up this report. 8 months later and she still has not found a few hours in her schedule to drive there and pick the report up. The director of the boarding school cannot do anything until they have this police report, and supposedly, the detsky dom director is the only one authorized to pick it up as she is the one who made the original request.
I still get to write letters to SnowWhite and get photos of her every month. She lost her two front teeth this past month! I wish I was there to tell her about the tooth fairy and put quarters under her pillow....or has the toothfairy's rates gone up? LOL It was $0.25 when I was a kid.....20 odd years ago. I'm finally getting her a new matress for her bed and a sled for the snow. I hate that I can't do this type of thing for Belle and Cinderella - I just don't have the contacts in their region to make deliveries for me. The assistant director of Cinderella's boarding home did give her a nice birthday party on my behalf a few weeks ago. Bought her cake and things, and gave her money I sent to spend on her own. I also sent her some books and birthday cards in the mail.
Finally, we are still working on getting the girls room ready. For now they will all share the upstairs loft - its huge. We put together the IKEA bunkbeds, but still need another 2 mattresses and one more twin bedframe. Since SnowWhite is probably coming for hosting this summer, we hope to have all three girls staying with us this summer....we will definately be scheduling a sitting with JC Penney for family photos! :) I am also trying to re-invent the room a bit to fit the new teenager we're getting. The room was pink princess flowers themed....a little babyish for a 13 yr old. So, we are moving to the surfer/beach/hawaiian theme. I've got a wall stencil and some various tropical paints, and I'm working on a quilt with surfer themed fabrics. I also bought some funky photo frames and I'm getting some nice stock photos of beach and surf scenes to print and frame. I've put in a boom box, some CD's (Hilary Duff, Green Day, YellowCard, Madonna, U2), and I'm working on refinishing a vanity with make up and hair stuff in it. So now the My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, Barbies, and play kitchen will have friends :)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Good adoption photos
Here is a website of a family who adopted from Ukraine recently - they took tons of photos of things I totally forgot about.
And now with my camera missing in action, I am panicked and considering just buying a new one. Though I know that as soon as I get a new one, I will find the old one.
Here is their photos page -
http://www.sff.net/people/spiziks/adoption/pictures.html
And now with my camera missing in action, I am panicked and considering just buying a new one. Though I know that as soon as I get a new one, I will find the old one.
Here is their photos page -
http://www.sff.net/people/spiziks/adoption/pictures.html
Monday, January 22, 2007
Extended Family
Must to my joy and surprise this morning, I opened my inbox to find an email from Cinderella's German host family! I had sent them a letter and a CD with all of the photos of Cinderella we had and I tracked it and knew it was delivered.....and I was hoping for a letter in return. But I was expecting a letter in the postal mail, and here I get something even better - email!
It was in German, but thankfully I know of many translation websites, and I was able to translate their letter. I was crying the whole time I was fervently cutting and pasting each block of text.
It seems that they found our old blog on LiveJournal, and found my email address there....not to be an age-ist, but from what I was told, they were an older couple, so I did not think they would be active on the internet. My parents can check their email and my grandmother can do basic computer functions, but they would never have been able to scour the internet for someone's contact information!
They read our blog, and our letter and said that we had been misinformed or misunderstood some information concerning them. They said they were always upfront with Cinderella and her director about their inability to adopt the girls. They never made any concrete plans about the girls post-orphanage life. I was led to believe by the information I was given that this couple was "competition" to us adopting the girls....how relieved and thankful I was to finally get the facts directly from the German family themselves! It appears that we will have a good ongoing relationship with them and they will easily become part of our extended global family :)
They also are putting together a CD of all the photos of Cinderella they have from her 4 summer visits to Germany and their 5 visits to Ukraine and I am hoping they may have more information concerning Cinderella's health and history.
It was in German, but thankfully I know of many translation websites, and I was able to translate their letter. I was crying the whole time I was fervently cutting and pasting each block of text.
It seems that they found our old blog on LiveJournal, and found my email address there....not to be an age-ist, but from what I was told, they were an older couple, so I did not think they would be active on the internet. My parents can check their email and my grandmother can do basic computer functions, but they would never have been able to scour the internet for someone's contact information!
They read our blog, and our letter and said that we had been misinformed or misunderstood some information concerning them. They said they were always upfront with Cinderella and her director about their inability to adopt the girls. They never made any concrete plans about the girls post-orphanage life. I was led to believe by the information I was given that this couple was "competition" to us adopting the girls....how relieved and thankful I was to finally get the facts directly from the German family themselves! It appears that we will have a good ongoing relationship with them and they will easily become part of our extended global family :)
They also are putting together a CD of all the photos of Cinderella they have from her 4 summer visits to Germany and their 5 visits to Ukraine and I am hoping they may have more information concerning Cinderella's health and history.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Dossier Appointment
I'm not going to give specifics for security reasons, but our appointment to have our dossier for Cinderella and Belle submitted is in a week or two, towards the end of January. We are SOOO excited! I have not heard of anyone else whose facilitator has gotten an appointment - at least if they did they aren't talking.
I have heard that the facilitators who have already submitted dossiers in December 2006 (they started accepting new dossiers on December 19) already have appointments at the SDA for March. With the rumors that the SDA will finish up the final backlogged dossiers and single adoptive parents in February, March makes sense for the new appointments.
So, assuming that not many people got their dossiers in between the 19th and the New Years holiday break, there may still be March appointment slots available. Also, since we are adopting older, known siblings with medical problems, they may put us towards the top of the list for appointments.....we can at least hope.
I have heard that the facilitators who have already submitted dossiers in December 2006 (they started accepting new dossiers on December 19) already have appointments at the SDA for March. With the rumors that the SDA will finish up the final backlogged dossiers and single adoptive parents in February, March makes sense for the new appointments.
So, assuming that not many people got their dossiers in between the 19th and the New Years holiday break, there may still be March appointment slots available. Also, since we are adopting older, known siblings with medical problems, they may put us towards the top of the list for appointments.....we can at least hope.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Twins!
Here are a few photos of us hanging out with the Nolte clan (JebNolte on FRUA) - they got back just before Halloween with the two older siblings of their previousely adopted little Ukrainian princess. Don't Chris Nolte and my husband Andrew look like they could be twins! Its scary!
Dossier updated and in Ukraine
The SDA posted a notice, which was later confirmed by the US Embassy in Kyiv that they were indeed accepting new dossiers. The problem was that there were a bunch of new rules...most of us in the adoption community expected something like this since there was no conceivable way for the SDA to handle the impending deluge of dossiers January 1. The problem was, no one was sure WHAT the new rules were going to be.
The new rules included:
1. facilitators now had to hand deliver dossiers
2. facilitators had to call a specific hotline to make an appointment to deliver the dossier
3. facilitators could only submit two dossiers per month
4. all dossier documents must be valid for at least 6 months AFTER submission
5. a copy of housing proof is recommended to be included (read: required)
So, after a few days of frantic phone calls to our homestudy agency, an entire day of paperchasing and visits to the apostille office and post office, the dossier was completed and mailed as quick as the holidays would allow to our facilitator in Donestk oblast. I checked the tracking number this morning, and it left Kyiv yesterday morning for its final destination. So, it is ahead of schedule according to the post office estimates. Our facilitator has a early/mid January appointment to register our dossier - she was one of the few lucky facilitators to get through on this "hotline" and get an appointment. Many facilitators are not able to get through, and those that have gotten through are being told there are no more dossier appointments until March. Go us!If everything gets to our facilitator in time and the SDA accepts our dossier with no issues, we should have a March or April appointment to bring Belle and Cinderella home!In SnowWhite news, we got to talk to her on the phone for a few minutes thanks to our Ukrainian doctor friend! When we asked what her favorite subject in school was her response was "I want a bicycle." LOL Then she said drawing/art was her favorite subject, but only after making clear that she wanted a bike! She is definately my girl hahaAs to her paperwork - I have every person I know in Ukraine working on it. According to the actual family code of Ukraine, the police report is NOT necessary for SnowWhite to be released for adoption. Since the bio family has made no attend to remove her from the orphanage system for more than 6 months, that is enough for the judge to terminate parental rights. Our facilitator is going to talk to the director of her internat at the end of January about this. The Ukrainian doctor is also going to call the regional police about the police report. Our friend G is also pressing on the detsky dom director to check on the police report again. LOL so they are getting seriously pestered by "my" people. the squeaky wheel and all.
The new rules included:
1. facilitators now had to hand deliver dossiers
2. facilitators had to call a specific hotline to make an appointment to deliver the dossier
3. facilitators could only submit two dossiers per month
4. all dossier documents must be valid for at least 6 months AFTER submission
5. a copy of housing proof is recommended to be included (read: required)
So, after a few days of frantic phone calls to our homestudy agency, an entire day of paperchasing and visits to the apostille office and post office, the dossier was completed and mailed as quick as the holidays would allow to our facilitator in Donestk oblast. I checked the tracking number this morning, and it left Kyiv yesterday morning for its final destination. So, it is ahead of schedule according to the post office estimates. Our facilitator has a early/mid January appointment to register our dossier - she was one of the few lucky facilitators to get through on this "hotline" and get an appointment. Many facilitators are not able to get through, and those that have gotten through are being told there are no more dossier appointments until March. Go us!If everything gets to our facilitator in time and the SDA accepts our dossier with no issues, we should have a March or April appointment to bring Belle and Cinderella home!In SnowWhite news, we got to talk to her on the phone for a few minutes thanks to our Ukrainian doctor friend! When we asked what her favorite subject in school was her response was "I want a bicycle." LOL Then she said drawing/art was her favorite subject, but only after making clear that she wanted a bike! She is definately my girl hahaAs to her paperwork - I have every person I know in Ukraine working on it. According to the actual family code of Ukraine, the police report is NOT necessary for SnowWhite to be released for adoption. Since the bio family has made no attend to remove her from the orphanage system for more than 6 months, that is enough for the judge to terminate parental rights. Our facilitator is going to talk to the director of her internat at the end of January about this. The Ukrainian doctor is also going to call the regional police about the police report. Our friend G is also pressing on the detsky dom director to check on the police report again. LOL so they are getting seriously pestered by "my" people. the squeaky wheel and all.
Monday, December 4, 2006
New Facilitator, updated dossier, and visiting Ukrainian doctor
So, I never got around to finishing our trip story...I will eventually :) It has been SOOO busy around here. We have decided to switch to a new facilitator for our adoption - we liked Sasha, but he was not very pro-active and didn't keep us "in the loop" very much. Our new facilitator- Masha - is VERY pro-active and emails us almost daily! She is working on getting our two oldest moved to the same orphanage so that the adoption will be faster and easier. She also caught some problems in our dossier that we need to fix - better now than when we are in court in Ukraine! In summary, she is AWSOME. We have been updating all of our dossier documents as they start to expire in January. Some of the documents are "good" until June, so we are going to submit the "old" documents while we wait for the updates to come in. When the updated documents eventually arrive, we will send them in to Ukraine. But, for registration purposes, many of our documents are still good. I'm going to the Secretary of State's office today to get all the notary stamps "apostilled" as that is a required level of authentication required by the Hague convention and Ukraine. It just verifies that the notaries are indeed REAL notaries. I also need 
to get our GBI state police clearance renewed. This is one of the first documents to expire in January, but it is a tedious process to update - I have to go to the GBI office, pick up the fingerprinting cards, take them to the Atlanta police department to actually have the fingerprints done, then take the completed cards back to GBI and pay them $30 to run the prints through the state system...then wait 10-15 days for the results/document. A lot of driving ugh.We have also been busy preparing for a Ukrainian visitor! A pediatrician from a special needs baby house in Kharkiv Ukraine is staying in our home for a week and receiving training with Andrew at Emory hospital in pediatric neurology. I know of this doctor and his orphanage through two different charity groups - Life2Orphans and a smaller group called OrphanBaby. I've arranged for training for him at Emory, CHOA, the Marcus Institutes IA medicine clinic, and a trip to MedShare to get some free medical equipment and supplies
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Article about Kyiv
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=526728
Kiev filled with beauty, Orthodox history
By WAYNE SNOW
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Nov. 4, 2006
Kiev - There is something invigorating, a little edgy about going behind the old Iron Curtain to visit Kiev, ancient home of the first great Slavic civilization and birthplace of the Russian Orthodox faith.It is not easy for Westerners. The language barrier is daunting and services considered normal on the more well-worn tourist circuit are non-existent or still in their adolescence.Still, with a rich and often painful history that predates Moscow by hundreds of years and its cautiously hopeful future, Kiev is worth the effort.Depressing Communist-era high-rises compete for a spot on the skyline with multitudes of graceful golden-domed churches. Old Russian cars share tree-lined streets with shiny new imports from the West. Beautiful parks are seemingly at every turn a scant 60 miles from Chernobyl, the worldwide symbol of environmental disaster.Spring and summer here are beautiful, belying the
fact that this is a city of the far north - farther north than Quebec - with extremely harsh winters.Humankind has been harsher. Over the centuries, Ukraine has been overrun by the Mongol Golden Horde and absorbed variously by Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Josef Stalin engineered famines that killed millions in the 1930s. World War II took an additional 8 million to 9 million lives.Today Ukraine is struggling to find its way as an independent nation in the new world that emerged with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its political life is torn between those who favor traditional ties with Russia and those who covet membership in NATO and the European Union.In two visits to Kiev in the past year, I did not hear people talking politics, except for one small communist gathering on a side street near the Parliament building and a larger gathering of nostalgic communists getting ready for the May Day parade. In both cases, the gatherings seemed anachronistic.Instead it seemed much of Kiev was in love. It was spring, the weather was mild and people - many of them as couples - flocked to the parks and the vibrant heart of downtown around Khreschatyk St. and Independence Square. The city was festive for no particular reason.On both trips, I stayed at Sherborne Guest House, a 24-hour staffed apartment building near the Dnipro River within easy walking distance of most of the must-see sites. The apartment was a 10-minute stroll from the city's top tourist site - the Kiev Pechersk Lavra 
monastery. It is one of two medieval religious landmarks in the city on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.The Lavra traces its origin to the arrival of St. Anthony, who moved into a cave on a hill overlooking modern Kiev around 1051. Although most of the original buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, it remains one of the most sacred sites in Orthodoxy.I was there for the Orthodox Easter service in April. The combination of the elaborate iconography and the beauty and emotional power of the Old Slavonic liturgy was an unforgettably moving experience. Although I would strongly recommend that any visitor to Kiev go to an Orthodox service, be forewarned that it is physically demanding. Liturgies are long and 
church-goers stand during the service.Caves where monks livedThe 70-acre Lavra complex includes more than 20 churches, a sprinkling of national museums and an iconic 300-foot-tall bell tower that is closed for renovation. But its most famous feature may be the Far and Near Caves.The caves are where the monks first lived and were later laid to rest. Tours are available in Russian, Ukrainian and English for a small fee. The dim light, incense, iconography and the preserved remains of the saints create an experience that is solemn and even mystical.Claustrophobic tourists should think twice before going in, however. I am just under 6 feet tall and in some places had only an inch or so of clearance. There are many tight squeezes. With a line of people front and back, there is no easy way out should panic set in.St. Sophia, located in the heart of the old city, is also on the UNESCO list. Like the Lavra, it has endured centuries of damage and destruction. The current incarnation dates mainly to the early 1700s.It is most famous for intricate mosaics and frescoes by 11th-century Byzantine artists.On both of my visits, there was a special treat. An old man with wild white hair and an angelic voice sat on a bench near the church singing folk songs and playing the bandura, a harp-like Ukrainian instrument believed to date to the 14th or 15th century.A short walk from St. Sophia is the blue-
walled St. Michael's Monastery, rebuilt and dedicated six years ago after its destruction during the Stalinist terror of the 1930s. Its bell tower is a great place to pose for pictures with golden domes as a backdrop.Symbol in disputePerhaps the most striking of Kiev's cathedrals is St. Vladimir's, a 19th-century gem with a canary-yellow exterior topped by a series of blue domes and a single golden one. It is also an important symbol in the ongoing religious dispute between Ukraine and Russia.Unlike the Lavra, which is still under the control of Moscow, St. Vladimir's is part of the break-away Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The cathedral is on Taras Shevchenko Blvd. With lines of trees reaching to the horizon in a park-like median, Taras Shevchenko is a lovely example of one of Kiev's most memorable and surprising features - its wonderful trees - as well as a tribute to the nation's most revered poet.Unlike many American cities, Kiev is exceptionally oriented toward pedestrians. At many of the largest intersections, stairs lead down to underground passageways, lined with shops, flower stalls, food markets and arts and crafts vendors. It is a safe and leisurely way to get to the other side.The easy maneuverability is complemented by a very good and cheap public transportation system using buses and trains. I enjoyed the train stations, both for the mosaics and other art work and for long escalator rides down to the train platforms.Kiev's tree-lined streets always seem to lead to a park. The city has two large botanical gardens - one across Taras Shevchenko from St. Vladimir's and the other south of the Lavra on the right bank of the Dnipro. The latter, the Central Botanical Garden, is home to another pair of monasteries and forms the southern end of a long unbroken stretch of parks extending for about five miles northward along the river.The chain of parks takes in Kiev's impressive World War II museum and the giant Motherland Statue, skirts 
the back side of the Lavra, leads to Marinsky Palace and the adjacent Ukrainian Parliament and eventually reaches the Podil, Kiev's traditional merchant quarter. Marinsky Palace, built by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the 18th century for Empress Elizabeth, is a blue-and-cream gem used on ceremonial occasions. It is a vivid reminder of Kiev's tsarist past. Although the palace is closed to the public, the park is open to all and offers panoramic views of the river.At the northern end is Andrevsky Uzviz, an old cobblestoned street that connects the Upper City to the Podil. Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, a legend of the Soviet era, lived there and his home is now open as a museum.Billed as Kiev's Montmartre, Andrevsky is home to museums, artists, musicians, restaurants and souvenir stands. This is the place to buy nesting dolls, traditional painted Ukrainian eggs, T-shirts mocking Lenin, old Soviet military uniforms and other souvenirs. It also features the quirky, eclectic Museum of One Street, which traces Kiev's history in fascinating fashion.Andrevsky is a linguistic respite, much welcomed after the strain of struggling to understand Russian and Ukrainian phrases. Many of the vendors speak English, something not generally common in the city even at tourist sites. At the top of Andrevsky is St. Andrew's, another photogenic design built in the mid-1700s.Its teal domes make it one of the most photographed sites in Kiev. I watched on successive days as three different couples had wedding pictures made with it as a backdrop. According to legend, the apostle Andrew, the patron saint of Russia, put a cross on the site where the church now stands nearly 2,000 years ago and predicted that a great city would someday grow there.
Kiev filled with beauty, Orthodox historyBy WAYNE SNOW
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Nov. 4, 2006
Kiev - There is something invigorating, a little edgy about going behind the old Iron Curtain to visit Kiev, ancient home of the first great Slavic civilization and birthplace of the Russian Orthodox faith.It is not easy for Westerners. The language barrier is daunting and services considered normal on the more well-worn tourist circuit are non-existent or still in their adolescence.Still, with a rich and often painful history that predates Moscow by hundreds of years and its cautiously hopeful future, Kiev is worth the effort.Depressing Communist-era high-rises compete for a spot on the skyline with multitudes of graceful golden-domed churches. Old Russian cars share tree-lined streets with shiny new imports from the West. Beautiful parks are seemingly at every turn a scant 60 miles from Chernobyl, the worldwide symbol of environmental disaster.Spring and summer here are beautiful, belying the
fact that this is a city of the far north - farther north than Quebec - with extremely harsh winters.Humankind has been harsher. Over the centuries, Ukraine has been overrun by the Mongol Golden Horde and absorbed variously by Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Josef Stalin engineered famines that killed millions in the 1930s. World War II took an additional 8 million to 9 million lives.Today Ukraine is struggling to find its way as an independent nation in the new world that emerged with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its political life is torn between those who favor traditional ties with Russia and those who covet membership in NATO and the European Union.In two visits to Kiev in the past year, I did not hear people talking politics, except for one small communist gathering on a side street near the Parliament building and a larger gathering of nostalgic communists getting ready for the May Day parade. In both cases, the gatherings seemed anachronistic.Instead it seemed much of Kiev was in love. It was spring, the weather was mild and people - many of them as couples - flocked to the parks and the vibrant heart of downtown around Khreschatyk St. and Independence Square. The city was festive for no particular reason.On both trips, I stayed at Sherborne Guest House, a 24-hour staffed apartment building near the Dnipro River within easy walking distance of most of the must-see sites. The apartment was a 10-minute stroll from the city's top tourist site - the Kiev Pechersk Lavra 
monastery. It is one of two medieval religious landmarks in the city on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.The Lavra traces its origin to the arrival of St. Anthony, who moved into a cave on a hill overlooking modern Kiev around 1051. Although most of the original buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, it remains one of the most sacred sites in Orthodoxy.I was there for the Orthodox Easter service in April. The combination of the elaborate iconography and the beauty and emotional power of the Old Slavonic liturgy was an unforgettably moving experience. Although I would strongly recommend that any visitor to Kiev go to an Orthodox service, be forewarned that it is physically demanding. Liturgies are long and 
church-goers stand during the service.Caves where monks livedThe 70-acre Lavra complex includes more than 20 churches, a sprinkling of national museums and an iconic 300-foot-tall bell tower that is closed for renovation. But its most famous feature may be the Far and Near Caves.The caves are where the monks first lived and were later laid to rest. Tours are available in Russian, Ukrainian and English for a small fee. The dim light, incense, iconography and the preserved remains of the saints create an experience that is solemn and even mystical.Claustrophobic tourists should think twice before going in, however. I am just under 6 feet tall and in some places had only an inch or so of clearance. There are many tight squeezes. With a line of people front and back, there is no easy way out should panic set in.St. Sophia, located in the heart of the old city, is also on the UNESCO list. Like the Lavra, it has endured centuries of damage and destruction. The current incarnation dates mainly to the early 1700s.It is most famous for intricate mosaics and frescoes by 11th-century Byzantine artists.On both of my visits, there was a special treat. An old man with wild white hair and an angelic voice sat on a bench near the church singing folk songs and playing the bandura, a harp-like Ukrainian instrument believed to date to the 14th or 15th century.A short walk from St. Sophia is the blue-
walled St. Michael's Monastery, rebuilt and dedicated six years ago after its destruction during the Stalinist terror of the 1930s. Its bell tower is a great place to pose for pictures with golden domes as a backdrop.Symbol in disputePerhaps the most striking of Kiev's cathedrals is St. Vladimir's, a 19th-century gem with a canary-yellow exterior topped by a series of blue domes and a single golden one. It is also an important symbol in the ongoing religious dispute between Ukraine and Russia.Unlike the Lavra, which is still under the control of Moscow, St. Vladimir's is part of the break-away Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The cathedral is on Taras Shevchenko Blvd. With lines of trees reaching to the horizon in a park-like median, Taras Shevchenko is a lovely example of one of Kiev's most memorable and surprising features - its wonderful trees - as well as a tribute to the nation's most revered poet.Unlike many American cities, Kiev is exceptionally oriented toward pedestrians. At many of the largest intersections, stairs lead down to underground passageways, lined with shops, flower stalls, food markets and arts and crafts vendors. It is a safe and leisurely way to get to the other side.The easy maneuverability is complemented by a very good and cheap public transportation system using buses and trains. I enjoyed the train stations, both for the mosaics and other art work and for long escalator rides down to the train platforms.Kiev's tree-lined streets always seem to lead to a park. The city has two large botanical gardens - one across Taras Shevchenko from St. Vladimir's and the other south of the Lavra on the right bank of the Dnipro. The latter, the Central Botanical Garden, is home to another pair of monasteries and forms the southern end of a long unbroken stretch of parks extending for about five miles northward along the river.The chain of parks takes in Kiev's impressive World War II museum and the giant Motherland Statue, skirts 
the back side of the Lavra, leads to Marinsky Palace and the adjacent Ukrainian Parliament and eventually reaches the Podil, Kiev's traditional merchant quarter. Marinsky Palace, built by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in the 18th century for Empress Elizabeth, is a blue-and-cream gem used on ceremonial occasions. It is a vivid reminder of Kiev's tsarist past. Although the palace is closed to the public, the park is open to all and offers panoramic views of the river.At the northern end is Andrevsky Uzviz, an old cobblestoned street that connects the Upper City to the Podil. Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, a legend of the Soviet era, lived there and his home is now open as a museum.Billed as Kiev's Montmartre, Andrevsky is home to museums, artists, musicians, restaurants and souvenir stands. This is the place to buy nesting dolls, traditional painted Ukrainian eggs, T-shirts mocking Lenin, old Soviet military uniforms and other souvenirs. It also features the quirky, eclectic Museum of One Street, which traces Kiev's history in fascinating fashion.Andrevsky is a linguistic respite, much welcomed after the strain of struggling to understand Russian and Ukrainian phrases. Many of the vendors speak English, something not generally common in the city even at tourist sites. At the top of Andrevsky is St. Andrew's, another photogenic design built in the mid-1700s.Its teal domes make it one of the most photographed sites in Kiev. I watched on successive days as three different couples had wedding pictures made with it as a backdrop. According to legend, the apostle Andrew, the patron saint of Russia, put a cross on the site where the church now stands nearly 2,000 years ago and predicted that a great city would someday grow there.
Friday, November 3, 2006
Cinderella recovering from outbreak
Cinderella is thankfully now out of the hospital and has been moved to the orphanage medical wing. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts! I know that it made all the difference in her recovery. She still will not be able to come for the hosting program, as that is the decision of the local "sanitary committee" - not the orphanage director. For those of you who did not get my email or see my FRUA post, Cinderella's orphanage had an outbreak of Hepatitis A, which is a food/water-borne viral infection. It causes tummy problems, vomiting, nausea, fever, and liver inflammation. In kids it usually has no symptoms at all and clears the body in a week or two. But since Cinderella has Hepatitis C (not active), it made her quite ill. I see this as a sign/message that we need to focus on the adoption, and not bringing her here for a vacation. That money would be better spent getting her and Belle home sooner rather than later. Hopefully this will also send a message to their aunt and uncle that the girls need to come and live in the USA where they can get better medical care - and preventative care, like vaccines. Hep A has a vaccine, which these kids obviousely never got. That's like tempting fate - putting 300 unvaccinated kids in a crowded warehouse, there is going to be an outbreak or three. The director of the orphanage gave us a list of medicines they are going to give Cinderella during her quarentine and continued recovery in the orphanage medical ward - two are herbal supplements - total voodoo medicine with no real evidence to support it- and the third item is an immunoglobulin shot which is what we sometimes use in the USA so that's at least medically reasonable. I just worry about them not using a disposable needle....many many times they use the same needle for giving "vitamin" shots to kids without changing or even cleaning the needle in between kids - they literally walk from one bed to the next sticking the kids. No wonder they have a high Hep C rate!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Bio Family and Winter Hosting
So we tracked down Belle and Cinderella's biological aunt and uncle and our translator friend took a train down to meet them. The aunt is the sister of the girls biological father who died last winter. We learned the father, mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins names! What a great thing for the girls for us to have this info and photos for their life books. So many adopted kids never have any info on their bio family, so they end up feeling empty and disconnected. Aunt and Uncle by their car, coming home from the hospitalThe aunt is definately the leader of the family LOL (glad to see the girls come from such a strong line of women!)and she said that she wished to care for the girls, but due to her illness she is unable to. A German family that has hosted Cinderella 2-3 times also wished to adopt the girls, but they are too old to adopt according to German law. The German couple has met and befriended the aunt and they all worked together to come up with a plan to help the girls once they aged out of the orphanage....of course that plan was based on the assumption that no one would ever adopt the girls. Of course now that we have made contact and told the aunt our intentions, their plan is no longer reasonable. The aunt has not opposed the adoption, but says she must contact the German couple to discuss it since she is an honorable woman and had already made plans with them. Fine with me - I think they all want what is best for the girls, and what is best for the girls is to have a home sooner rather than later (8 years later if they waited until they aged out)We also hope to have Cinderella here in the states for a winter hosting program. We are still working on the details with the host group but we think it would help the aunt and the girls know we are good people and that the girls would have a good home here. We are also tracking the boxes we shipped to SnowWhite and Belle. I know they were put on the ship a week or so ago, and that they should make it to the girls before December. We are also still working on the paperwork for SnowWhite - it is so unfair to her to be stuck in that system for as long as she has and not be registered for adoption. I will finish the trip report hopefully today - we only have Cinderella's part and our last few days in Kyiv to finish.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Security
I added all of our photos to a password protected album, so our family can easily link to and view the photos. If anyone wants to view our photos of Ukraine, the orphanages etc, please email me at mhemmen621@hotmail.com and I will send you the password. Also, someone on the FRUA discussion boards had the idea of giving "our" kids nicknames in our journals instead of using their real names- at least until the adoptions are complete and the kids are legally ours. I thought that sounded fun so I've picked Disney Princess names for the girls! SnowWhite, Cinderella, and Belle.
Photos
Sadly to protect our adoption I have had to remove all photos of the girls. Its sad - there are enough issues with Ukrainian adoption from the Ukrainian authorities WITHOUT having to worry about being backstabbed by a fellow adoptive parent. I mean, there are close to 100,000 kids in Ukrainian orphanages alone (though not all are registered for adoption; maybe a third are) so why do we adoptive parents feel the need to compete with each other over a handful of kids?!?! In my opinion - the corrupt hosting programs are the problem. Some hosting programs use this same handful of kids (not all hosting programs, but a few) for multiple families. Also adoptive parents want to have a photo of a kid - the whole idea of traveling "blind" is bad, but unfortunately its Ukrainian law. A law they need to chance in my opinion. I think referrals need to be known BEFORE the family travels. Why waste all that time in country looking for the right kid? This is not the kind of decision that should be made under that kind of pressure or under those time constraints! Families should be shown the anketa's of kids prior to travling, have time to think about it, and then accept a referral BEFORE getting on a plane. This would make everyone happier and make this whole process easier on everyone.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Paranoia
ok, I'm a paranoid person by nature, but I was trying NOT to lock any of my posts or be too vague since my family checks this blog and they definately AREN'T registered users....So I "sanitized" a few of my posts, and locked a few. I pulled out all names of the girls, translators, details of locations...Someone on FRUA asked about the "dark haired girl" in my blog and did I have any info on her....she may have meant on of the many kids in the other photos - but me being paranoid was like "you mean MY daughter? of course I have info on her...." anyways...I just don't want to jeopardize our adoption of her. She's not registered anyways....and once she is, she's ours so PLLBBBTTTT!!!! We've been working on her paperwork for a year now. We have a dossier requesting her (and our other two girls)- they will be submitted once the SDA says we can submit them. I know this has been a BIG controversy on the FRUA boards - telling these known kids that you are adopting them - pros and cons etc. SW asked me if I was going to be her Mama. Since that day, I've worked on doing just that - becoming her Mama. I've made sure that all the girls know that this is not a black and white process, that things could happen to make it take a long time, and it may not happen at all. BUT, I did tell them that they have a choice in all this. If they want to be part of our family, then they can say so - they can refuse other families (though it is not likely that our girls will ever be picked by potential families as they are older, except SW who is still youngish), they can tell their director what they want etc. Its THEIR life!!! I know they are just kids, but most of these kids have seen more intheir little lives than most of us have seen in our long lives...and they should be allowed to have a say, FOR ONCE, about their fate - in an age appropriate manner of course. will post more news later :)
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Trip Report-Part 4
So we did some laundry - after figuring out the German controls - and hung the clothes out to dry on the porch. They were mostly dry by Saturday morning - there was also a cool "S" shaped pipe in the bathroom that had warm steam running through it - I guess to keep towels warm?- but it also worked for drying clothes. Saturday is a bit blurry, but I know we went shopping, found jackets for Andrew and I, went to dinner and then went back to repack all of our stuff. We were allowed to leave some of our stuff in the Kyiv flat since we were going to be back in 2 days, so we were only going to bring the necessities with us to XXX. We met up with G, took the metro to the train station in the center of the city, bought a Kyiv cake (there are tons of stands selling Kyiv cakes at the train station, so don't worry about getting one ahead of time) and went inside the train station. We were early, so we got some food from the little cafe inside the station, took some photos of the beautiful mosiacs on the ceiling of the station and waited. They called our train and we boarded it with no issues. We had tickets for the general sleeper section of the train - not our own compartment. It wasn't bad though. Very neat actually. They have little compartments without doors with benches and tables - the benches can be used as beds and there are also 2 beds above that fold down. There are rolled up futon-like mattresses on shelves above the beds. The train-lady comesaround with bed sheets, you pay her 6 grivnas and get your sheets, a towel, and a blanket. You put together your own bed and store any of your luggage in a compartment under the benches - so no one can get to your stuff while you are sleeping. The only bad thing was the LOUD announcements at every station they stop at - ALL night. Other than that we slept good and arrived in XXX at 6am Sunday morning. After we got off the train, I wanted to take a photo of the train station sign above the building- it was all lit up and really neat. I guess this was a problem as we got yelled at by some ex-KGB officer LOL. Our driver, Andreiy, was waiting out front for us - it was still dark and this sweet older man was sitting out here ready to go! His car was like many other Ukrainian cars - a solid metal, bright green, Russian made car. The inside was falling apart, but you could tell it was well cared for - mismatched seat covers, pillows etc. Andreiy was by far my favorite "character" from the whole trip. He reminded me SOO much of my Polish grandfather. He spoke NO English, but was really good at hand signals and getting concepts across.Andreiy's carAndreiy and Andrew!We drove 1.5 hours up to XXX village where Cinderella's sister, Belle, lived. We had never met her before, nor did we have any info on her other than the address of her internat. We waited outside the gates while G went in to get permission for us to visit. The director was not there, nor were any of the "decision makers", but eventually the caretakers agreed to let us meet Belle and give her the gifts we brought. We wait in the concrete-floored dirty "lobby" of the internat until they found Belle- it was amazing how much she looked like Cinderella! They brought us to a little room to visit - G explained who we were, about us hoping to adopt Cinderella and how we found her. We had G ask her if she wanted to be adopted too and she said yes and shyly smiled. We then got the WHOLE story about they family and how they ended up in the internats. I won't go into it here for their privacy, but their father died and he was a good man and his sister - their aunt- comes and visits the girls and had spoken about adopting them, but had never followed through on it - probably they want to but can't afford it and don't have room in their flat for two more people. So we left there after thanking the caregivers and hugging B goodbye and started the drive back to XXX. We stopped along the way in a city called Znam'yanka - this is the city where B said they were born and lived and that their aunt and uncle lived here. So we wanted to get some photos for C and for their lifebooks. Its a small city, "famous" for its train station. We also stopped a few times for Andreiy to show us the local agriculture...I guess he used to be a gardener in the Soviet times and worked at a nearby botanical garden that has since been abandoned. He also had a fervent hated of some weed he called "Ambrosia" that ruined the soil for the good plants. He definitly liked to tell stories haha. We also got some good photos of the rolling hills and little villages and the Ukrainian black soil.
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