Thursday August 26 - 30, 2010 - Bank Holiday weekend in London

So now the waiting begins...we catch our flight to London where we will hang out and visit friends and family prior to our flight to Vegas on Sunday August 29th. What a wild and crazy 2-1/2 weeks! But the hardest part will be going back to work, missing our boys, wondering what they are doing, wondering what they might be thinking. Will they even think about us? Will they remember us after we've been gone for two/three weeks? We will be gone over six weeks - that's a lifetime to a 3 or 4 year old boy! Oh well - rules are rules, and everything will be fine. We are looking forward to our weekly phone call with Vanya starting next Saturday!

We've got a lot of work to do to get ready for these guys, so September will be our last month of peace and quiet - we better enjoy it!

 

But first, we enjoy the weekend in cloudy, cold England. It's a Bank Holiday weekend of course! Emma's brother Russ comes out to Gatwick to pick us up. We spend the day catching up with him and his wife Krzysia, as well as getting a dose of what it's like to have three young children running around the house. Very nice to see them all - wow, Zack has really grown up since we saw him at Christmas. He's pretty excited about having an 11 year old cousin who likes 'proper' football.

Emma's Dad Eric comes out to Russell’s house to take us to their house where we will land our luggage for the weekend. We plan on running into London tomorrow and then head out to Surrey to visit an old college buddy tomorrow night. So we settle in for a nice quiet evening with Eric and Janice, who feed us a lovely English meal while we catch up on all the events and talk about what our life will be looking like in a few months. Of course, whenever anybody asks me a question I just tell them to “read the blog”…Eric offers us the house when we come through in October with the boys. “You guys stay here and we’ll crash somewhere else…” Very nice offer – I think we’ll take him up on that! After a very tiring day, which began at 6am in Kiev, we crash for the night, thinking about what Vanya, Dave and Max are up to…

 

Friday morning we wake up refreshed and ready to hit the city. We make plans to have lunch with an old work colleague Joe Collins (lucky he’s in town!), so we head to the Bechtel offices in Pilgrim Street to meet up with Joe (as well as Mike Fox on his last day in London) for a little Thai food. It's great to be back in the city - this is where the Emma and Dave saga started - so after lunch (thanks Joe!) we walk along the river and take in the atmosphere and enjoy a pint or two at one of the many riverside pubs between Pilgrim Street and Waterloo. It’s your typical London afternoon with overcast skies and cold wind, but it feels like home and you can feel the energy of this vibrant city. We continue our walk to Waterloo Station to catch our train to Weybridge – our home for tonight – to catch up with my old college buddy, and fellow UofM Friar Doug and Terri Sheperdigian. We beat the late afternoon commute and arrive just in time for pre-dinner cocktails as Shep is waiting for us at his train station. Doug and Terri have just joined the ‘empty nest’ situation as both of their boys are living away from home attending college or working on their internship, so dinner conversation turns to stories of what it’s like to raise two boys, let alone three! Just try and scare us or tell us we’re crazy – we can handle it…we can, right? Excellent dinner Terri – thanks for everything guys!

 

We awake on Saturday morning in another strange bed – can’t wait to get home tomorrow – and wait for Emma’s friend Sara to come and get us to return back to Russell’s house for another day of hanging out with Emma’s niece and nephews. We could get used to having kids around – piece of cake, right? Russ and Krzysia are fabulous parents and their house always seems so kid-friendly and happy. We take notes and listen to their words of wisdom and enjoy the afternoon playing and talking. Eric and Janice stop by to take us home for our last night in the UK before we head home early tomorrow morning. It was a nice visit, but we had hoped to have our kids with us when we planned this – so we’ll try to do this again in October!

 

Early Sunday morning Eric takes us out to Gatwick where we catch our long flight to Atlanta (three hour layover) and then our final leg back home to Vegas. One more lesson learned – we need to book direct flights from London to Vegas when we have the boys! Finally, we arrive home after a long day of travel and crash into our welcoming bed. Tomorrow we return to work and start the wait until October 8th.

Good night Las Vegas – good night boys…don’t forget about us!!

Wednesday August 25, 2010

 

Our last full day in Ukraine - at least until we return in October! Lesya calls us to tell us to be ready for an 11:45 pickup to take us to a Notary to sign some papers. Vadim and Irene (all dressed in orange from head to toe) pick us up to take us across town where we meet up with Lesya at the Notary's office. As we are waiting to sign the formal agreement to adopt all three, Lesya asks me when our flight leaves tomorrow. I tell her it's a 9am flight to London which produces a look of panic on her face, followed by a rapid Ukrainian discussion with Irene who also suddenly begins to look concerned. I offer to delay it if needed, but she replies "no problem - I will work it out...". And we know she will - she always does! Lesya has been absolutely wonderful through this entire process. She is very energetic, positive and loves her job - and she is the master when it comes to knocking down bureaucratic barriers. We tell her she has been our little 'match-maker' and we feel very lucky to have her working for us. We know she had these three cute boys in mind for us from day one, and she was determined to make it happen, for all five of us! I can't say enough about how great she's been, and I would recommend a Ukrainian adoption to anybody who is interested in adopting a child (or three).

 

After signing the document, we leave the Notary and Lesya tells us she must rush over to the SDA office and she will call us later. She needs to get these documents over there asap to set up our appointment to formally visit Vanya and get the process started before we leave. It's always a bit of a drama, and I know she will need to pull a full strings to get this done today, but we know she will handle it. She is formidable!!!

Vadim drops us back at the flat and we decide to walk down the street to try a new restaurant we'd seen before. But first, I need to buy a Ukrainian Football jersey (did I mention the yellow and blue thing?). The restaurant is a cool Ukrainian buffet style restaurant (huge!) with every type of food you can imagine. We load up our trays with various types of delicacies and sit down to enjoy a late lunch. Two minutes into it, Lesya calls and tells us to come outside our flat as we need to get to the SDA office asap! She worked her magic and we've been given our formal appointment to come back in October, just like we knew she would. But we need to get down there before they close for the day. We grab whatever food we can carry and stuff the rest of it into our cheeks (just like Max would), and quickly make the steep climb back to our flat where Vadim and Irene are patiently waiting for us. They whisk us over to the SDA office to meet Lesya and sign a few more documents pertaining to Vanya and they give us our official appointment allowing us to return in October to complete the process. Lesya and Irene are so happy for us, as we show them pictures of the boys and tell stories about our visits. Lesya points out a Canadian couple that had the exact same initial date as us and they still haven't found anybody to adopt yet. We feel blessed to have all of this work out so perfectly - it couldn't have gone any better for us.

So, Lesya and her husband take us back to our flat and we say goodbye to Lesya with hugs and kisses and many many "thank-you's" and "see you soon's". A very successful outcome and a perfect visit to the Ukraine.

 

So - Monday October 11, 2010 at 2pm is our appointment to officially start the process to adopt Vanya and his brothers. We will need to get a few more documents updated and notify the US Immigration folks that we are bringing back three instead of two, but that's just details - and we have a great team back home to help us through this. Ruth, Ally, Alla, Pamela and of course our dear friend Auntie Val!

Looks like I will be spending my birthday in Kiev - what a great birthday present. Tomorrow we leave for London to spend the weekend visiting friends and family - Vadim will pick us up at 6:30am to take us to the airport, so we pack up, drink a few Vodka Martinis to toast the new Dannemillers and get ready for bed. Good night Ukraine...

It's been a fantastic visit - can't wait to come back!

Tuesday August 24, 2010

 

Happy Independence Day Ukraine!!! Nineteen years ago they declared their independence from the USSR and elected their new President and Prime Minister. I don't know what this country was like under the USSR, but I sure do love it now. What a wonderful country - reminds me of the mid-western part of the USA where I grew up, with all the lush farmland and rolling hills. The city of Kiev is vibrant and cosmopolitan, with outdoor cafes and high end shops. People are walking around everywhere you look, or just enjoying the summer day sitting in parks or walking with their kids. Emma has arranged to meet up with her friend Katja again to show us some more sites and to enjoy the holiday with each other.

 

So at 10am we meet at the same McDonald's near Independence Square to soak up the energy and excitement that is all around us. The main street is closed down and a large stage is set up with live music planned for the entire day. It feels like a Michigan football Saturday as Maize and Blue is everywhere! Just one more reason for me to love this country - my Alma mater's colors hanging from every window, people dressed in yellow and blue, with every man woman and child waving yellow and blue flags, including me of course!

The three of us find a nice outdoor cafe near the German pub we were at last week. It's bustling with locals and tourists from all over the world. We enjoy a nice breakfast consisting of omelets, pastries and coffee while we discuss our past week and all of the adventures we've experienced since we left Kiev to meet the boys.

 

Katja is very excited for us and offers to continue helping Emma with her Ukrainian, as well as English for the boys. We discuss everything about this country, as we want to absorb everything we can while we're here so that we can stay tuned in with the country where our boys were born. She talks about the history and the people and the current state of affairs. She is quite proud of her country, although she is sad about the corruption that is still prevalent in the politics when it comes to spending policies and infrastructure improvements. Our company considered bidding on the Kiev airport improvement program last year, but decided against it for those reasons. But the new government is still young and I believe they will sort things out and become an even greater country in the years to come. Katja is quite smart and has a lot of information in that head of hers!

 

After a walk through Independence Square, listening to the live music (including an acapella group from the Crimean Peninsula which blew me away), she mentions to us that she must leave at 2pm for her lessons (working on a holiday!?). So she takes us on a quick tour of a different part of the city, including a great view of the river, a children's park with pony rides, puppet shows and water games. Such a family oriented city - we really have enjoyed visiting this historic city with its fascinating culture and lovely people! I have never once felt unsafe or threatened - next visit we bring our bling! ;^)

 

We say goodbye to sweet Katja and she wishes us well - suggesting that we all go to the Opera or the Symphony when we return in October (before we have the kids of course...). As we watch her walk to her Metro station, we continue to walk down the main street which is filled with various exhibitions and competitions. Tae Kwon Do, Tug of War, football, street hockey, weight lifting - you name it, they got it goin on! It's quite hot in the city so we head back to the flat to rest up for the big celebration tonight; complete with a 6pm concert and 10pm fireworks.

 

After a quick power nap and a few hours on my blog, we head back to the big celebration at Independence Square to join into the madness. It reminds us of Times Square or Trafalgar Square at New Years Eve! Yellow and Blue is everywhere - I love it! We wander through the crowd, listening to the live music, taking in the local atmosphere, with many people dressed up in their traditional embroidered clothing (or nothing much at all in some cases), dancing to the music or playing with their kids in the fountain.

 

Hunger calls, so we walk across the square and walk down one of the side streets to explore the various options for dinner. We stumble on a really cool Crimean restaurant with low tables and long cushions to lay down on. Very Turkish feel to it as the Crimean's still maintain a large cultural influence from their neighbors across the Black Sea. We nibble on a few salads, some chicken and beef kababs with tea and a few local beers. We follow it all up with a little bit of the 'Hubbly-Bubbly' - apple tobacco in a hookah pipe and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. Isn't it great that smoking these pipes doesn't give you cancer...;^)

 

 

 

At 9:30 we head back to the main square where things have become considerably more chaotic. The moon is full and the buildings are all lit up in yellow and blue (have I mentioned how cool that is for me?), with a full orchestra on stage playing traditional Ukrainian music. At 10pm sharp, the fireworks start (about 8-10 of them) with the traditional dancers taking the stage. It all ends in one glorious climax and everybody cheers. Quite the celebration actually!

 

As the evening comes to an end we head back to our flat - such a convenient location for us, except for that huge climb up the hill! Good exercise for us though...I turn on the television to see if I made it on the local news, 'cuz I was standing right behind somebody famous as they were getting interviewed. You know the guy who stands there waving as he tries to get on TV - that was me...

As we get ready for bed, we talk about how lucky we are to have found these three boys and how ironic it is to be celebrating this nation's independence while we work towards giving these little guys a sort of new independence from their orphanages.

Good night future Americans...

Monday August 23, 2010 - Goodbye to Max and David

Today we say goodbye to Max and David ;^(
I doubt Max will even understand what's going on, but it will be difficult for David and even harder on their parents. We bought a couple cute stuffed puppies to give to them when we leave - hopefully something they can hold on to and remember.

We pack our suitcases, gather our stuff (we won't be bringing this much when we come back!), and prepare for our last visit to see the boys before we head to Kiev this afternoon. Emma cuts up the remaining ham and cheese for the boys and runs down to the shop for some fresh jammy donuts (the Nutella is all gone).

 

Katya will be joining us this morning so she can translate to the kids, as well as the orphanage folks, about our departure - altho I'm sure the orphanage director already knows, as everybody in this town knows about everybody's business. I'm sure Natasha has already been in contact with the director, but we want to make sure. Plus, we have some additional forms to fill out, including our contract with Natasha.

So at 9:45, Gregori and Katya are waiting for us downstairs for our daily pilgrimage to see the boys. Our bags are all packed and the plan is to hand over the keys to our flat at 1pm and head to Kiev.

 

The three of us wait in the office and soon we can hear the sounds of two Dannemillers walking down the hall. The boys spot us and come running to us as usual -  just another typical day for them, and we head out to the playground. Its another beautiful cool morning. The boys love the slices of ham and cheese - altho Max thinks the cheese is for sticking on the side of the slide, not for eating.

 

Our visit is a bit subdued today as we are interrupted by a couple dogs and the parade of other kids passing by on their way to their play area. Adding to these distractions, the boys spend a large amount of time communicating with Katya, as she speaks their language! All in all, not a great visit, but I was kind of expecting that.

We head back to the office a bit early, so that we have time to give them their puppies, a picture of all four of us, and to tell them that we will be leaving for a while. This time, as we leave, I pick up Max and put him on my shoulders and he laughs all the way back to the office with no temper tantrum! Why didn't I think of that before?

 

Back at the office, Katya translates our words, explaining that we must go back to America to get their rooms ready, and to buy clothes and toys, etc. We tell them that we love them very much and we will be back soon to pick them up, along with their brother Vanya. She asks David "do you understand?", he says "Da", she says "do you want to go to America with them?", he says "Da", she says "will you be good boys when they are gone?", he says "Da".

Of course Max is oblivious to all this, so we give them their puppy dogs (which they love), and give their nurse our picture to show them every day, and then we start the goodbyes. They aren't nearly as emotional about it as we are, but all is well in their little world as they walk away, waving goodbye, and hopefully somehow, somewhere in their little subconscious minds, are looking forward to our return and the start of their new life in America. We stand there watching them walk down the hall until the very last possible moment before they disappear from our sight. So long Max and David. See you soon!

 

Wow - the next time we will see our three sons will be sometime in October. But its all good and everything is happening just like it should. We can take these six weeks to better prepare ourselves for life with three boys, including checking on schools, 'de-Maxing' the house and fixing up their rooms.

Gregori picks us up at 11:45 and we invite he and Katya for lunch, knowing they will decline. We stop by the curb to drop Katya off near her office and begin to say our goodbyes to her. But apparently we spend too much time saying goodbye, and as she walks away the local policeman comes up to give Gregori a bunch of shit about stopping where we did (like it's some busy street). The Kirovograd 'filth' start yelling at Gregori and invites him to join them in their police car, leaving us to sit in the back of the taxi wondering why these guys are giving Gregori such a hard time (have I mentioned how much I hate pigs?). Its all just a stupid power trip as they call in their superiors to make their final judgement on the severity of the crime. They finally decide to pardon him and let him keep his taxi license without a fine or jail time...

 

He gets back in the car and grumbles something about police and takes us to Camellia's for lunch. We enjoy our final meal here in Kirovograd, walk back to the flat and hand the keys to the owner. We load up Gregori's taxi with all our stuff and by 1pm, we are on the road back to Kiev.

 

Four and a half hours later we arrive in the outskirts of Kiev, and we start that ol' Ukrainian past-time of getting lost. Lesya calls wondering where we are so I hand the phone to Gregori to sort it all out. We finally get to the familiar downtown area near where we live, but we still need Vadim and Irene to escort us up to our flat near the President's offices. A bit tricky to navigate around the restricted traffic patterns for this taxi driver from Kirovograd. We say our goodbyes to Gregori, as he has been a great guy to take us everywhere, and we thank him and hug him goodbye - in that manly Ukrainian manner...

We settle back into our familiar Kiev flat, pick up a few needed supplies and settle in for a nice quiet evening. Tomorrow is Ukraine's Independence Day and you can see the national pride beginning to swell up wherever you look. I walk down to Independence Square to exchange some cash and pick up some local Vodka. The holiday buzz is everywhere! Should be a huge day in Kiev tomorrow - good timing eh? I especially like all the Yellow and Blue everywhere!!!

We snack on cheese and salami, drinking Vodka Martinis toasting the holiday, as well as our successful two weeks here in the Ukraine. Good night Kiev...

Sunday August 22, 2010 - 2nd visit with Vanya!

Today we get to visit Vanya one more time before we leave. He is back from Odessa and settling into his school orphanage, getting ready for the new school year. At 10am, Gregori and Katya pick us up for the 90 minute drive out to the country, but first we stop at a huge market to buy Vanya some fruit, a dried fish and a football uniform from Team Spain.
Emma and I are so excited to see Vanya again! The drive takes its toll on us, as it's about the bumpiest 100km I have ever driven on; with horrible roads, terrible suspension on his ancient taxi, and well - Gregori's basic driving skills! Once again, we pass thru miles and miles of sunflower plants and corn fields, with a beautiful blue sky as a back drop to the lush scenery! This really is a nice country - to visit and to adopt from.

 

A little after 12:00 we arrive at Vanya's school in a tiny little village and meet up with his counsellor Alexei. All of a sudden you can see Vanya running across the field with his arms raised and a huge smile on his face. Emma starts to run towards him like one of those beach movie scenes where they come together in a wonderful embrace - almost like they've known each other forever! Very sweet indeed. I run over to join them and we stand there in a three-way hug, happy to see each other, while the others stand by the taxi and watch.

He has such a cute smile on his face with those big blue eyes, and he is so happy to see us. He pulls us towards the center of campus to show us around. We sit under a shady tree and tell stories (translated by Katya of course), just talking about nothing at all. We give him the fruit and his cool Spanish football uniform, and he grabs my camera to look at all of the pictures we've taken of his brothers. He can't wait to be united with them - you can tell he loves them very much. He tells us how much he wants to live in America with us.

 

The school director drives up to say hello and meet us (unofficially of course, as Vanya isn't available for adoption yet), and she asks us if we intend to adopt all three boys and asks questions about where we are from and what we do for a living. She is a nice older Russian woman, very short and stocky, and seems very pleased that we will be adopting all three. We ask her if there is any way to communicate with Vanya over the next six weeks and she immediately calls her IT teacher to come out and take us to their computer classroom where we exchange Skype addresses and set up a regular Saturday evening call every week until October. They have about ten computers set up in the classroom and the teacher proudly shows us a video about his country (in English) and talks about how these boys are taught to be engineers and make a good salary.

I talk to Alexei about paying for extra English classes for Vanya and he tells me they have a tutor that we can hire for 20 UAH/lesson, so I give him 360 UAH (about $50), enough for 3 lessons/week for the next six weeks. We would like to make his transition to America as easy as possible for him, so Vanya agrees to work hard on his conversational English - don't worry too much about reading and writing, altho he should work on the different alphabet, etc.

 

Vanya takes control of my camera (just like his brother) and starts taking dozens of pictures of his school, his friends, his new parents and just about anything else that comes into view, including a few more of Katya (that's my boy!). He changes into his Spanish football uniform (it fits perfectly), and proudly runs around to show his friends. It's not often these kids get new clothes, as everything they wear is either shared or a hand-me-downs. He poses with his buddies and takes plenty of pictures with his girl friends Natasha, Natasha and Kristina.

 

After about three hours of hanging out, he needs to rejoin his classmates and eat lunch, so we say our goodbyes and promise to stay in touch until we come back and get him in October. Emma tears up as we hug goodbye over and over again, three or four times. Nobody wants to part ways as its just too sad...one more picture with the three of us and Vanya's face gets smashed between Emma's breast and my massive pecs - poor boy, but he seems to enjoy it. Practice your English young sire and we'll see you soon!

The drive home is a bit sad (not to mention bumpy as hell), as we come to the realization that we won't see him for six weeks! Tomorrow we get to go through it all over again as we have to say goodbye to his brothers. Why can't we just bring them all home with us now!!?? Stupid red tape...

We arrive back in Kirovograd about 5pm, starving from the absence of lunch, so we invite Gregori and Katya to join us at Camellia's but they politely decline (don't these people eat?), and drop us off at our favorite restaurant. Katya suggests that we meet up later for drinks if we want her to show us around her home town. We agree to call her later, after we've eaten and taken a power nap. We gorge ourselves at Camellia's and walk back to the flat. Emma crashes at about 6pm and doesn't wake up again until 7am the next morning. After calling Katya to tell her we're done for the day, I spend the evening watching Ukrainian TV (a Clint Eastwood movie dubbed in Russian with Ukrainian subtitles) and work on my blog.
The blog is getting very difficult to manage as it won't let me post pictures anymore. The help line is no help at all (as usual), and in fact there are hundreds of complaints from other users about the same problem I am having. You'd think Google would try to fix the problem with all of the complaints - crap system! Now I am hearing from friends that they are having trouble posting comments on my blog - but I appreciate all the comments still coming in via Facebook! My friend and fellow Chaperone, Ken suggests a few ways to get around the Picasso picture fiasco which is causing the problem, so maybe I'll try that later. Thanks Ken!
p.s. as you can see - Ken's idea worked as I was able to post pictures after all! ;^)

Tomorrow we leave Kirovograd to spend the next three nights in our original apartment in Kiev. Tuesday is Ukraine's Independence Day from the USSR in 1991. Should be an exciting time to be in Kiev! Good night all you Google employees...

Saturday August 21, 2010

It's a new day! The sun is shining and it feels like it's about 20 degrees cooler - long sleeves and blue jeans weather. After coffee and Nutella sandwiches, I run to the store to get a few more of those fresh English jammy donuts - one for me and one for Gregori (no more of these for the kids!), but they don't make 'em on Saturdays. Gregori will be disappointed...no worries.
At 9:45 we go down to meet him, but he has sent his backup driver (must be his day off). Sergei is there waiting for us patiently - they really are quite efficient with the timing. Might be the big American dollars that cause this behaviour. Sergei is a young buck with zero English, but his driving is considerably saner.

The boys meet us with open arms and hugs, as the morning session begins in it's typical manner. This is really going to be hard when we have to leave them on Monday ;^(

 

It appears that they have been told off by the nurses regarding yesterday's little event, as they are much calmer today and very well behaved. Noticeably different in fact. We stay in our 'assigned' play area as they immediately attack the grapes and bananas, but in a much more controlled manner. It's a lovely morning; the boys cuddle up to us and let us hold them as we read from the book and sing songs to them. David does his 'funky' dance while Max runs around the play area stuffing apricots into his chubby little cheeks. David takes the camera and takes dozens of pictures (thank God for digital!), most of them pointing to the ground or with his finger in front of the lens. Hasn't quite mastered the point and shoot concept. I'm pretty much okay with him using the camera (his brother Vanya loves it too), until he starts using it to smash conkers lying on the ground under the tree! I grab it back from him and say "Nee!" and take his camera privileges away from him. He completely understands and gives me this sorry look on his face. Slightly different to what his brother Max would do!

 

We have a wonderful morning and the boys are very well behaved. I hope they didn't do shock therapy on them last night...(just kidding ladies - if you're reading this!). As time approaches to leave, I coyly start the process by kicking the ball in the direction of the office. David follows along, but Max isn't playing this game - not at all! He immediately starts his tantrum as Emma drags him along, kicking and screaming all the way back to the office. We need to find out the 'secret of Max' before we leave, because the minute he is surrounded by 'the white coats', their attitude changes and they are brought to attention and polite. Maybe I need to get one of those white coats! We say goodbye, as they walk away all charming and docile - taken down the hall to their 'other life'.

Time for lunch - you guessed it. Sergei drops us off at our favorite restaurant, Camellia's and we order our usual fare. I know, we tend to be creatures of habit - but when the menus are in English and the food is great and cheap - why go anywhere else? After lunch we walk back to the flat to take a power nap and get ready for one of our final visits with the boys. Only two remain - this afternoon and then the big goodbye on Monday morning. Sergei is waiting for us at 3:30 and he calmly drives us to the orphanage. On the drive thru town, you can tell the townsfolk are gearing up for Saturday night. All of the woman are dressed to the max, with high heels and flowing hair. Emma points out that all the women here are beautiful and skinny, but all the men are big and ugly. Hmmm - can't say that I really noticed...

 

Our afternoon visit with the boys is very relaxing and quite pleasant. Once again the boys are on their best behaviour, so we just hang out and enjoy each other's company. It seems like we are finally getting used to each other and now we have to leave them! It really feels like we are becoming a family unit - I can see it! We sit in the cool breeze watching them play, pushing them on the swings; our minds wander to visions of how this will all play out back home in Henderson and it just makes sense!

At 5pm sharp, their nurse comes out to meet us to come and take the boys so that they can join the rest of their group playing nearby. It must be some special Saturday evening outdoor event - either that our they just can't stand to watch us drag Max back to the office again. Either way, it's a nice and pleasant goodbye. We try to tell them we won't see them tomorrow, as we are going to visit their brother Vanya, but nobody understands. Why can't we all just speak the same language!!!???

 

Back to the flat - tonight we plan on painting the town red (no pun intended), and 'pushing the boat out'!! We get changed into our Saturday night Kirovograd outfits and stroll down to the main center of town to a large beer garden to enjoy the atmosphere and chat about our little adventure. It's a pretty calm crowd, filled with men and women of all ages - I believe they are mostly locals as I doubt this is much of a tourist town. We enjoy a few beers and watch the girls strut their stuff while the boys appear not to notice. All partied out and ready to go home, we stroll through the park and come up to the big scary Russian hotel we've seen every day. They tell us not to go there to eat, but we decide to venture in for a look. We take the lift up to the second floor and walk into an empty bar with a scary looking Russian woman behind the bar. We order a beer and she invites us to the nice terrace where there are a few people enjoying the evening speaking very quietly - probably some KGB spy activity going on. It's an interesting vibe and we make jokes about it and sing Simon and Garfunkel songs;"...careful his bow tie is really a camera...". Actually it's a bit sad that they don't get many people here as it's a very nice bar and a huge hotel! One more for the road and then we stumble home, admiring the architecture, taking silly pictures of me with the statue of the original mayor (he has a chair right next to him for that purpose!) and Emma with her Opera house marble. Up the four flights of stairs, we fall into bed for a good night's rest.

 

Tomorrow we get to see Vanya!!! Good night "My Three Sons"...

 

 

Friday August 20, 2010

GOOD MORNING KIROVOGRAD!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Groundhog Day. Another beautiful day in paradise as we wake up to the sound of chirping birds with deer running around outside the flat. Not! 
For a moment I thought we were in a Disney movie. Must've been one crazy dream...anyways, the morning ritual takes place as usual - coffee, toasted Nutella sandwiches and we're ready to start the day. Since the fruit went over so well yesterday, we decide to bring more oranges, some dried apricots and fresh jelly donuts from the bakery next door. As we're getting ready, Katya our translator calls and tells me the papers are ready to sign so we need to be at Natasha's office at 2pm today. Yeah - a break from the normal day here in Punxsutawney, Ukraine! Don't get me wrong, we love seeing the kids - but wouldn't it be nice to get them home so that we can all get our lives back (like our lives are ever going to be the same...).

 

9:45am, like clockwork, Gregori is waiting outside to take us to the orphanage. He really is a great guy, even if he drives like a mad-man. You can tell he cares about us and thinks we are doing a great thing for these boys. I just wish I could communicate with him!

 

The boys greet us with their usual excited faces and we head out to the usual play area. The dried apricots and the donuts are a big hit; in fact Max has lost all interest in the oranges as he shoves apricots into his little mouth, two by two, while clutching four or five spares in his hand, marching around the playground.

He's like Jekyll and Hyde from when the visit starts to when it has to end. David is much more stable in his emotions, but we just chalk that up to the fact that he's a year older - or maybe because he's David, Jr!

 

Our morning session ends relatively nicely and we ask Gregori to take us back to Camellia's for lunch. Another fabulous meal - I order the French chicken with fries and a Tuborg, while Emma orders a couple salady-type appetizers, a mushroom omelet and a Tuborg - all for less than $12! After lunch we walk back to the flat, stopping to buy some more bananas, oranges and a special treat for the boys - grapes!

Ar 2pm we walk across the street for our appointment with Natasha and Katya. She has the 'request for adoption' forms ready for us to sign, so we drive down the road to get them notarized. These are the documents for the local government and orphanage officials stating our intentions to adopt Max and David, and then next Wednesday we will return to the SDA office in Kiev to sign and notarize the formal request for all three boys. At that time we will set up our return date in October to finalize the adoption and bring them all home. Natasha has arranged for us to visit Vanya on Sunday, so we make plans to drive the hour or so to his school so that we can see him one more time before we leave.

 

Gregori is waiting at the flat to take us back to see the boys at 3:30, so we rush back to the flat, run upstairs to grab all the fruit, etc. and head back to the orphanage. The weather is a bit chilly today so the boys come out dressed in warmer clothes, without their cute little caps. But David comes out in the most bizarre pair of multi-colored shorts that you might see a clown wearing at the circus. Pretty funny outfit...we wonder if it's their little joke to see how we react.

 

We head over to our usual stomping grounds and pull out the grapes - OMG, what a treat! They love grapes and cram them into their mouths by the dozen (don't they feed these kids here?). Mmmm, grapes - pure sugar!! We'll pay for this later...but for the moment, the kids are happy eating grapes, bananas and an occasional apricot. But then Max spots my bottle of Coke in my backpack and starts to open it. No more sugar for you young man - especially Coke with caffeine! I take the bottle from him and all hell breaks loose and he goes into one of his temper tantrums. We try to calm him down by changing the scenery - let's go to the swings! But on our way, they stop at one of the baby play areas and start happily playing with chalk and a bowl of washing water used to clean the playpens, etc. Max starts to drink the dirty water and we tell him "Nee Nee", take it away from him and he goes off again - just as the nurse responsible for that area comes strolling along with her band of waifs. She takes one look at the mess we made and starts to scold us (in Ukrainian of course), telling us to stay in our own playground, shakes her head at the little mess we made and passes judgement on the way we are handling Mad Max during his latest episode. You can just see her little Commie mind thinking, "crazy people - we have ways to control that behaviour..."

Emma feels horrible about the whole episode, but who really cares what they think??!! We finally get things under control and retreat to our original play area, feeling like we've broken some unwritten rules about where to go and how to play with the children. Note to self - too much fruit and sugar is not a good thing...

 

5pm comes and we take the boys back to the office, with Max in Emma's arms, fighting all the way, and we leave the orphanage feeling like we've done something wrong and that we are terrible parents. Gregori watched the whole scene and senses our pain as we climb back into his taxi. He tries to cheer us up while I explain to Emma that we shouldn't feel bad. We are not going to treat our kids like they do in the orphanage, and life will be a lot easier (at least a bit easier?), when we have more control of our environment. We climb up the stairs to our flat, feeling a bit sad. Nothing a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and some red wine can't fix! We climb into bed and look forward to our visit with them tomorrow, as well as our trip to see Vanya on Sunday.

Good night all you Western Capitalists!

Thursday August 19, 2010

It's Groundhog Day! We wake up rested as usual (the bed is quite comfortable!), make our breakfast of toasted Nutella sandwiches while the maid comes in to clean the flat, do the dishes and our laundry! And off we go! It's a beautiful cool summer day, as the rain's have passed through and the breeze adds to the freshness of the morning.

 

The usual process takes place at the office as they bring our little Dannemillers to play outside in the two playgrounds. They are dressed in cute new play clothes with their little caps on and their huge little smiles. We head to the usual playground to start the running around and playing process, while they stop to eat cookies and drink crystal flavored water. Unlike the other days, we are surrounded by all the other kids in the orphanage, all with their own designated play areas and nurses. Max and David see their play group and make a point to 'show off' and wave to their buddies as if to say "nee ner nee ner nee ner...we have parents...".

One particular group of toddlers come out with their two nurses handling about eight little kids, dressed in nothing but diapers and bonnets - walking in an organized manner, two sitting in each stroller while the other four hold on side by side in perfect formation, as they slowly walk to their playpen area. With their white little faces and their shaved heads, they look at us from their little 'baby prisons' with blank stares, and it reminds us of a bunch of tiny little 'waifs' from Oliver Twist. Totally quiet, totally emotionless - almost as if they've been drugged.
Max and David are in the oldest age group here, as they would normally move up to a school orphanage when they turn five or six (similar to the one Vanya is in), so they are kind of like the BMOC's of this place. It probably doesn't help that we tend to let them run around, while all the other kids appear to be under some communist behavior control program. Actually - it's nice to see that these future Dannemillers haven't been here long enough to be brain-washed and subjected to some form of strict mind control. I realize it's easier for the staff (and probably quite necessary), but we have got to get these boys out of here soon! ;^)

 

At 11:45 we say our goodbyes and ask Gregori if he knows a good place for lunch. He knows just the place, and it's walking distance from our flat. So he drops us off at a really nice restaurant called Camellia's. We order a fairly substantial lunch, with a few beers, and the total is less than $15! Excellent food, great service with a nice porch-like dining area. Great choice - we'll be back tomorrow (creature of habits that we are)! On our way back to the flat, we decide to treat the boys with some fruit, so we stop at a small market to buy some bananas and oranges. Apparently fruit is a luxury item for these orphaned kids, which we will find out first hand in about an hour...

 

After a quick rest at the flat, we are picked up at 3:30 to see the boys for our afternoon session. We pull out the bananas and oranges and watch as they devour five bananas and three oranges in about 10 minutes flat. They were so happy; they were dancing around holding slices of orange in one hand while cramming banana into their chubby little cheeks with the other hand; like little chipmunks. Then he sugar buzz kicked in. We took them to the swings and the big-boy slide where they chanted names and repeated Ukrainian phrases with every push on the swing. If only we knew what they were saying...

 

Once again, the 5pm temper tantrum starts when Mad Max figures out its time to stop playing in his little play world that he gets himself into. David and I kick the ball back and forth, heading back to the office, while Emma carries the ranting three-year old back to his controlled environment. We know he is just testing us, and that he's at that age, etc. - but it sure makes it difficult. Gregori is waiting just outside the gate and has a bit of a chuckle as he watches Emma deal with her youngest son.

Another day done and another day of bonding completed. We climb up to our flat, cook our toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, drink our Ukrainian wine, read and write...you get the drill. One of these nights we'll actually 'push the boat out' (as they say in England), and check out the night life of Kirovograd - altho I doubt there is much of a night life in this town. Besides, these kids are wearing us out! We drift off to sleep, knowing this is exactly what we wanted and that we are very lucky to find these three beautiful, healthy and vibrant children. If only Dad was still alive - he'd love their energy, laugh at their gregarious behavior, and he would absolutely love every one of them. Meet your first grandsons old man!

Good night Dad ('The Bad")...

Wednesday August 18, 2010

 

It's almost like the movie Groundhog Day now. We get up, make breakfast and wait for mad Gregori to take us to the orphanage, where we sit and wait until the kids are brought out to us. With every visit, the greetings get warmer and more familiar. I guess that's why we're here! I think they know that we are now going to be their Mama and Papa, probably because it's the story that all orphans are told - "someday your Mama and Papa will come and take you away from here". 

They come running up to us with excited hugs and Ukrainian phrases. Wouldn't it be great if we could understand what they're saying? Altho, I suspect it is some form of baby talk as Katya couldn't understand what they were saying either.

 

Today we try the calm approach and I think they can sense it as well. First stop is the original playground where we calmly play on the slide and see-saw. We open the storybook we brought to try a little English lesson, which they actually enjoy while sitting on my lap to describe the pictures, as well as the building blocks with numbers on them. Emma tries to get David to repeat the numbers in English, but he appears a bit shy to really try it - or it might be because his mouth is filled with cookies. Later, they sit calmly on the bench together eating cookies while we sit and watch in our stable parental manner.

 

David then suggests we go over to the other playground where the bigger merry-go-round and swings are, as well as the big-boys slide that hasn't been used in months, with branches hanging above the slide. They love the swings and attempt the big slide (after I break off the over-grown branches). It is a much cooler morning as you can tell the weather is changing with rain in the forecast. Soon they are quietly playing in the sandbox while we enjoy the cool breeze watching them build sand castles and quietly playing with each other. A very relaxing 30 minutes as we sit and watch these two lovely future Dannemillers at play.

At 11:45 the drama of taking them back starts all over again, but this time Max is starting to get it. They walk back to the office, kicking the ball back and forth to each other. This new idea of calm playing turned out to be quite nice. We say our good-byes, return to the flat for lunch and begin to make plans for what will happen in the next week or so.

As stated before, the original plan was to spend five weeks in country, take care of the legal paperwork, U.S. passports, etc. and return with our children in mid-September. But as it turns out, Vanya won't be available until early October and they won't split the kids up. So during our lunch break I check on what we can do to change our return flights from 9/18 to possibly sometime next week. KLM tells us that the earliest we can leave London to come back to Vegas is August 29th, unless we want to pay an additional $2k. So, August 29th it is! I make the change in the booking, but I can't pay for it over the phone - I need to come into their Kiev office and pay in person. Now the question remains as to when we should buy our flights from Kiev to London and when we should leave Kirovograd. After speaking to Lesya, she tells us that we have an appointment with Natasha the lawyer this Friday 8/20 at 2pm to sign the official notarized papers for the local authorities to adopt Max and David. We will then return to Kiev for a meeting with the SDA on Wednesday 8/25 to sign additional notarized papers for the SDA, formally requesting the adoption of all three boys and to set up our appointment in October. She also mentioned that we will get to see Vanya this weekend at his orphanage, which is about an hour from here. I asked if there was any way to bring him here to see his two brothers, but of course that isn't possible.
So I book our flights from Kiev to London for next Thursday the 26th, so that we can have some time visiting Emma's family and possibly Doug and Terri Sheperdigian - our friends in Weybridge. Then we will sort out our travel plans for coming back in October after we get confirmation from the SDA on our follow up appointment. Our coordinator and social worker back in the USA, Alla and Ruth, have been notified of our current situation and have already started the process of updating our home study to allow for three instead of two, and everything is being re-submitted to the US Immigration Service for visa and passport processing. It's all falling into place! Now all I need to do is figure out how and when we will get from here to Kiev next week. One small complication is that Tuesday is the Ukrainian Independance Day, so everything will be shut and travel will be difficult. We might need to leave here on Monday and spend three nights in Kiev, which might be nice to spend Independance Day in Kiev with Emma's friend Katya.

 

After all these plans are sorted out, we have our usual toasted ham and cheese sandwichs (I love those, but Emma's getting tired of 'em), and we get ready for our afternoon visit with the boys. The cold front has passed through and it starts to rain, so our afternoon session is spent indoors in a different playroom with all kinds of new toys, bicycles and balls of all shapes and sizes. We even have a couple basketball hoops like you would see at a carnival - you know the ones, where the hoop is too small for the ball to actually go through! Max finds a baby stroller with a doll about as tall as him. He is so cute as he takes on the role of nurse, pushing it all around the room while David and I play 'manly' games like ring toss, basketball and soccer. It's much cooler, but the humidity is quite high with the moisture in the air. Our afternoon session comes to an end with a very peaceful stroll downstairs to the office without a temper tantrum. Yeah!!!!

 

Another day of visits come to an end, so we head back to the flat, do our usual evening routine (why are we so exhausted?). Reading, writing and internet - but we skip dinner and call it an early night. Good night Kirovograd...