We're finally heading home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who knew three boys would be such a handful??? ;^)

UK Immigration is keeping us from visiting our friends and family...who knew they needed to wait another 15 days just to visit Mama's country for a few days? That woulda been good info to have before we spent thousands of dollars on flight changes and setting up baby showers, etc. and visits to see grandparents, and great-grandparents (possibly their last chance to meet Emma's grandparents??).

Oh well - we're off. Hopefully Vanya won't change his mind at the last minute, like he did for our final Embassy visit yesterday. A few hours of panic and chaos as it looked like nobody was going home!

But all is well...we are ready to come home - probably a good thing to just head straight home...hopefully, if the creek don't rise, we'll be in Vegas by Saturday night at 8pm.


 

First night in America - Halloween in Vegas!!!

 

Welcome to America boys!!!


 

Bye bye Lesya and Irina - THANK YOU!!!!!

Monday October 25, 2010 - Back to Kiev!!



Today we pick up the boys for good! Victor is driving in from Kiev this morning in his big luxury mini-van and he will be here about 10am to take all of us back to Kiev. We pack our suitcases and say goodbye to our comfy Kirovograd home of 13 days. Gregori arrives before Victor and we have a moment of confusion - is Gregori taking all of us to Kiev in his tiny taxi with luggage and three kids? Luckily, Victor arrives before the panic sets in, and order is restored. We say goodbye to Gregori and give him a bottle of cognac, thanking him for all he has done for us. Quite the character!

 

We load up the mini-van and head to the orphanage to meet Katya and Andrew. This is it - we say goodbye to the boy's teachers and nurses, thanking them for taking care of our little guys until we could get there. We are escorted into the Director's office for our final farewell and signing of the "guest book". We promise to keep in touch and send pictures of the boys as they become "little Yanks". Then it's off to greet the boys and prepare them for their new life. As they walk in with their nurse for the last time, we wonder if they have any idea what is about to happen to them. They have been here for over half their lives and probably aren't quite ready for what's about to happen to them. This becomes quite evident as we start the process of dressing them in the clothes we bought for them. They must leave every stitch of clothing with the orphanage, and leave in the clothes we brought them - which of course is all UofMichigan attire! DJ has a minor panic attack as we start taking his clothes off...not real happy about having two strangers strip him naked. Max, on the other hand, loves the idea!

 

At 12:00pm we walk out of the orphanage for the last time, with our two boys released from prison, escorted by their brother and new parents. Victor takes us to pick up their new Ukrainian passports with their new names and pictures and we start the long drive back to Kiev! Five hours later we arrive in the big city and watch as the boys take in this amazing city with all the traffic and noise, unlike anything they have ever seen. They drop us off at the flat we stayed in the first time, over by the President's house, and we all get settled in for our first night together.

 

Unfortuantely, they are quite scared of their new surroundings, and probably of us! So we spend the next four hours trying to get them comfortable in their bed. This requires both of us to lie in bed with them until they stop crying. Every time we try to get up to go to our bed, one of them wakes up and they start crying all over again. Poor little guys...quite a shock to their system! By 2am they are sound asleep and we are exhausted. Good Nite little guys - welcome to our world!

Sat/Sun October 23/24 - Quiet Weekend in Kirovograd

 

Quiet weekend filled with fun visits to see the boys prior to getting the boys on Monday. Vanya asks to see Natasha every day (the boy is relentless - a harbinger of things to come?). Vanya cooks breakfast (he makes a good fried egg!) and builds a fire in the fireplace while Mama and Papa relax. We go to visit the boys in the morning and just relax in the evening. Vanya is a joy to be around and is quite eager to help with the chores. You can tell he knows how to take care of himself, altho he comes across as being quite baby-like in some of his development (i.e. Natasha).

 

On Sunday afternoon I take Vanya for a long walk into the town center to buy jackets, shoes and hats for his brothers. Vanya gets a new football jersey for his efforts, as well as some quality time with Papa. Its a beautiful fall day, the leaves are changing and the air is crisp. Winter will be here soon! Hopefully we will escape before it gets here.
Tomorrow we get the boys and we all head to Kiev to start the process of getting the boys their physicals and US Embassy visits. Yes, visits...its a two day process with the initial visit to submit paperwork, followed by the second visit to interview the boys before getting their US visas.

 

But first we have the pleasure of one final visit from our friends Goldie and Al, who stop by for dinner and to say good-bye. Somehow we make a feast out of nothing and finish off the remaining wine and vodka. It was nice to share the experience with these guys, but its tough to know that we will most likely never see them again. They invite us to Israel and we invite them to Vegas, as we say goodbye one more time. Good Night Friends!!!

Friday October 22, 2010 - Paperwork Day!

Slightly hungover, we stumble out of bed about 8:30 to get ready for our long day of driving from town to town to get the boys revised birth certificates. But first, its time to reunite Vanya with his two brothers. Today he will come with us to the baby orphanage for our morning visit. After a quick breakfast (and a few aspirin), we pile into the taxi to see Max and DJ.

 

What a great reunion!! DJ immediately remembers his brother Vanya, and before long Max joins in as they hug each other and talk on and on about who-knows-what. Vanya gives them the toys he brought last time and they begin to crawl on the floor, acting like dogs and just having a good time playing with their long lost brother. The morning turns pretty chaotic as they kick balls and throw toys all over the room - you know...playing like boys do! Its great to see how Vanya plays with them and you can sense a change in group dynamics as Max assumes the role of "baby" and DJ just seems a bit more grown up with his big brother in the room.

 

At 11:45 we head out to grab one more lunch at Camellia's before we start the four hours of driving to get the birth certificates. One of the towns we need to go to is the little town where Vanya's school is, so I agree to take him back to see his friends one last time while we wait for the certificates. He is mostly interested in saying goodbye to Natasha. He finds her and starts the process of saying good-bye and tries to convince her to run to the market real quick. But she has to be somewhere, plus we are running out of time with one more town to visit before it closes at 4pm. Poor Vanya - I don't think he realizes that he may never see her again. As she is a bit older, I think she knows...

 

They spend every last minute saying goodbye while Emma and our driver start to get frantic about the time. We need to get going, but Vanya just doesn't want to leave. For the rest of the afternoon, they spend every chance they can talking to each other on my cell phone. Very sweet...

We barely make it to the second town before they close to pick up Max's birth certificate and so we head back to Kirovograd. By 5pm we arrive home, tired and road weary from four hours of bouncing around on those terrible roads. Mission accomplished as we get one step closer to getting out of here and returning home to the States. Emma makes dinner - plimini for Vanya and leftover kebabs for us while Vanya makes the fire and we spend a quiet (and probably boring) evening hanging out reading and watching TV.
Good Night Vanya, DJ and Max Dannemiller!!

Thursday October 21, 2010 - Happy Birthday Papa!!!

I get up about 6am feeling another year older but quite excited about our big day ahead! I go downstairs to make coffee and notice that Natasha has indeed arrived while we slept and is sleeping soundly in her room - poor girl is always on the road somewhere, helping Lesya handle the field work while she pulls her miracles in Kiev. And yes, once again Lesya has pulled another rabbit out of her hat and worked out the Interpol issue with the UK. Everything is set for our 2pm hearing with the Kirovograd judge, and Vanya will be coming into town with Alexei and Irina as well.
But first things first - coffee for my lovely bride and a big hug to thank her for giving me three sons on my birthday! My parents gave birth to four boys and a girl and up until today, all grandchildren are girls. Today the Dannemiller name will carry on!

We get ready and Emma makes breakfast, while Natasha comes out from her sleep to give me a birthday hug and to congratulate the new parents. She gives us a Ukrainian childrens story book for a present, and then heads back to bed to catch up on her sleep. Nikolai picks us up at 9:45 to go to the orphanage for our morning visit with Max and DJ. If all goes well today, Vanya will be with us tomorrow when we visit the boys and will never have to sleep in his school orphanage again! On our way, I smile and think about how these two young boys have no idea how their life is about to change today. I think Vanya understands, but I know the youngsters are clueless...

 

It's too cold to go outside this morning so we head up to the gymnasium to await the boys. Once again, that Groundhog Day feeling comes back as it seems like we've been doing this same thing day after day. Funny thing is - not unlike the movie, this repetitive routine will also end with acts of love and caring...;^)
Max and DJ arrive with huge grins and we begin the morning session with balls, toys, and musical instruments - interspersed with mass consumption of bananas, oranges, and yes, grapes. After all, it's my birthday!!! They are in a great mood today, so I wonder if they know about the court date or the fact that it's my birthday.


 

Today we share the gym with a family from Kansas who are adopting a slightly disabled 20 month old son whose hip will need to be operated on when they get him home. He is quite large for his age and his Papa is also a very huge man (probably weighs in at about 300 lbs soaking wet), so once again they've done a great job of match-making!
At 11:45, their teacher comes to take the boys back and we say good-bye to Joe and Michelle from Wichita and invite them to my birthday party tonight. On our way out, we see Goldie and Al and they are very excited about our court date as well as my party. Goldie says she will bring the cake and an Israeli salad to go with Emma's chicken kebab with rice.


 

We head home to grab a quick lunch and get ready for court. At about 1pm, Vanya arrives with Nikolai and Alexei so we all pile into the taxi to head downtown for the hearing. Not sure where we're going, but Natasha, Emma and I are crammed in the back with Vanya on my knee - and "we're off to see the Wizard!" We cross to the other side of town and pull up to an old official looking building where all of the various social workers and teachers are waiting for us outside the entrance. Actually there are lots of people waiting outside, as the doors don't open for the afternoon session until 2pm So we pile out of the taxi and greet everybody ("Dobre Den"), and wait for the doors to open.

 

At precisely 2pm the doors open and everybody files into the building, through a metal detector that probably hasn't worked for years, and we climb one flight of stairs to wait outside the Judge's chambers. Natasha our lawyer is waiting for us, looking all lawyer'ish and slightly worried as if to say we should all be lucky to have such excellent counsel to handle our case (I've been reading a lot of Michael Connelly lately...). She pulls us aside and explains to Vanya what the Judge will probably ask and how he should answer it - one slip by Vanya saying he didn't want to go and it's all over! She does the same to us (through Natasha of course), as if she's preparing an expert witness on how to handle a difficult cross-examination. It's all a bit nerve-wracking, but deep down we know it's going to be okay. We're all pacing back and forth in the hallway with very limited conversation due to the language barrier; Vanya's two representatives, the boy's teacher and social worker, our lawyer and our translator.

 

Finally at about 2:15 we are called in to a fairly small room with tables and chairs lined up on the right side next to the windows with the Judge sitting behind his desk on the left side, flanked by two legal assistants and two microphones. We take our seats in the front row with the two Natasha's on either side of me, Emma and Vanya. Behind us are the four social workers/teachers that will testify on our behalf that we are good parents and that they have all agreed that this adoption is good for all parties. The Judge has a huge stack of papers in front of him, representing six inches of blood, sweat and tears that we have been working on for over a year. He kicks off the hearing and Natasha introduces all of us to the Judge and confirms that we are all here to get a quick ruling on this adoption. After a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, he asks Emma to stand up and give her details and to explain why we decided to adopt three Ukrainian boys, and then he does the same to me. This goes on for over 90 minutes as each and every person is asked to present their reasons for allowing this to proceed - with follow up questions for each of us, one at a time. He then walks through each page of the file and reads it out loud for the record, while we patiently wait and respond to his comments and an occasional joke to lighten the mood of the room. By 4pm he seems satisfied that we know what we're getting ourselves into and that we can handle it financially and that we will make good parents for these three boys (represented by Vanya). The Judge asks Vanya if he knows what's going on and does he want to move to America with these two people? Vanya shyly responds over and over, "Da...Da"...the Judge comments about how lucky Vanya is and how he will be an excellent footballer over there in America.

 

He asks us to leave his office while he deliberates and confers with his assistants, and we all file back out to the hallway to wait. Five minutes later he calls us back in and tells us "Congratulations - you are now a family!" We thank him and I ask if I can take a picture of the event and he just smiles at me and shakes his head...crazy Americanitz.

Yeah - it's official!! We all head outside and hug each other and congratulate the new parents and pose for a group photo.

 

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I guess when you look at all the people involved in these three boys, I guess I would have to agree - now it's up to us to raise these little guys!! I think I will need all the help I can get when Emma goes back to work and I take on the role of stay-at-home Dad for the next couple months! Piece of cake, right???

Okay - we have a birthday party to get ready for, so we stop at the Supermarket on the way home to pick up party supplies and champagne. The celebration starts at 6:30pm so we've got some work to do before our guests arrive! This is going to be the best birthday I could ever ask for!

 

Natasha (our lawyer and landlord) shows up about 6pm with the official documents signed by the Judge, along with some candy and cognac for the birthday boy. She tells us that tomorrow we must travel to the towns where each boy was born, along with her assistant Andrew, to pick up the new birth certificates showing their new names and new parents. On Monday we should have their new passports and then we can head to Kiev to deal with the next step at the American Embassy!!

 

At 6:30 Goldie and Al arrive, along with the cake, a lovely homemade salad and a bottle of nice champagne - and so the party begins!! Vanya gets the fire started and I pour the champagne while Emma starts making the kebabs. Al and Goldie take over in the kitchen so Emma and I can celebrate. What a feast, what a party, what a day! And what a great birthday present - three Dannemiller boys. Vanya spends most of the night talking to his gal Natasha back at the orphanage and I think the stress of the day finally got to him, as well as the realization that he probably won't see her again, cuz he spends the rest of the night crying on the couch while we try to cheer him up. Oh well - he's entitled to a bit of crying. Its been quite a ride for him!



 

The party goes on well into the night until the food, cake and booze are gone and we just can't celebrate anymore. Thanks everybody for a great birthday and for making our dreams come true!!

Soon we will have all three boys and our lives will never be the same. Good night everybody - thanks for all your support!!!

Tuesday/Wednesday October 19/20, 2010 - Waiting...

The weather has turned cold and rainy. I wake up to a strange dream at about 4am and can't get back to sleep - the dream was something about an old friend I just hooked up with on Facebook...he was being attacked by Orca, the killer whale. Very strange - sorry K-Man...

But it allowed me to listen to the baseball playoffs - lovin the fact that the 'Skankies' are getting beat by Texas...

I think we are both having trouble sleeping lately as we are over-come by impatience and boredom. What is going on with our court date??? No news is bad news, and we just can't help but think that somethings wrong. I try to stay positive as Emma is already on edge, but it's getting hard for me as well.

 

At about 8am I bring coffee up to Emma to get her morning started. And at 9:45, Nikolai arrives to take us to the orphanage for our morning visit with the boys. Today we stay inside and play in the gymnasium. The boys are a lot calmer today and we have a nice playful morning, reading books, singing songs and eating fruit. Halfway through the session, their teacher comes in to the room to get her jacket and boots, as her morning shift is over. But instead of heading out, she takes the time to sit down with DJ and gives him a little lesson in English vocabulary, using picture books and patience. It's really nice of her to do this - she tells us that she really likes these two boys and she is so happy that we are doing what we are doing for them. I guess it's her way of helping them adjust to their new world and she's doing it on her own time.



 

After she leaves, their nurse comes in to take them back to their little world and we say our goodbyes. I love how DJ takes care of his little brother and they never fight with each other. We couldn't have asked for two sweeter boys, and then when you throw in Vanya - we did pretty good!

Okay - after all the cancellations, we are finally going to meeting up with Goldie and Al from Tel Aviv. We agree to meet at Camellia's for lunch, as they know it as well - in fact I think it's their favorite restaurant too, and they've only been in town a week! We enjoy a nice couple hours with them talking about how we all got here, and what our lives are like back home. We like them - she reminds us both of somebody, but we can't put our finger on it. She is an emergency nurse and he works for an American company dealing with packaging and shipping. They mention that Natasha told them last night that both of our cases would probably go to court next Monday, which immediately puts us in a funk as we were expecting it to happen this week. But I don't put much credence in it as Natasha probably doesn't want them to think we are getting preferential treatment - even though we've been working on this a lot longer than they have. Anyways - we enjoy our time together and we make plans to have them over to the house on Thursday to celebrate my birthday. Let's have a party!!! Goldie agrees and offers to bake a cake and make a salad. Sounds like a plan!

Okay - still no word from Kiev. I was really expecting to hear from Lesya or Natasha by now...and then on our way home, I get a call from Natasha and we get all excited. She asks me when it would be okay for the maid to come over and clean...bloody hell - she can come over anytime she wants, we don't care. What's going on with the court date? She says she hasn't heard anything from Lesya yet but she knows she's working hard on it. Patience my boy, patience.

Nikolai drops us off back at the house and we spend the rainy day indoors reading, sitting by the fire and wondering about poor Vanya. I tell Emma that I'm sure he's fine and to just let the process run its course. She decides to take a nap and while she's asleep I try to call Lesya to ask her what's going on but she doesn't answer. Five minutes later I get a call from Natasha and she tells me that Lesya can't talk right now - apparently they are having a problem finding Emma's Interpol clearance from the UK. They have mine but they just realized at the last minute that they didn't have Emma's. We had heard many horror stories about other couples having this very problem before, so I made sure to ask them about this weeks ago - are you sure we have Interpol clearance??? Yes, yes. no problem. Well, guess what...Houston, we have a problem. She tells me they are working on it and not to worry. Okay - there is no way I am going to tell Emma about this...lets just see what happens.

She wakes up and makes a fantastic dinner and we talk about how horrible this must be for Vanya. If the court date really does get pushed out to next week we need to make plans to visit him this weekend. I agree and sit her down to look at pictures of the boys and talk about how wonderful everything will be when we get them all home...

Good night - keep working hard for us Lesya, we know you are doing everything in your power to make this happen as fast as possible. Good night boys!!! We'll see you tomorrow and hopefully we'll get this done!!!! Just as we are getting ready for bed, my cell phone rings without a caller ID, so I consider not answering it - nobody knows my Ukrainian number except the people we are working with. I decide to answer it and it's Alla calling from the US with good news. She says they have located Emma's Interpol clearance at the UK Embassy! They just need to work on getting it over to the SDA tomorrow. She tells me that things still look good for a court date this week!!! Excellent news - strange that the call didn't come from Kiev, but I'm glad Alla called us...Good night Alla!!! ;^)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - My last day being the age I am...;^)

It's still raining this morning and this time I'm awoken to a dream where I am falling down Niagara Falls in a car. This is really strange (not the content, however that's pretty strange), but because I never remember my dreams! For some reason, the past few nights I have been having very vivid ones that stick in my mind long into the day. Anyways, it's a new day - one filled with new optimism about our progress, so I bring Emma her morning coffee (cuz that's what I do!), and we get ready to visit the boys. It's another indoor play day and they are charming and lovable as usual. They are brought into the gymnasium where we're waiting for them and their faces just light up when they see us! I hope that never goes away...



 

Four bananas and two oranges are consumed while we throw balls to each other and ride tricycles and build towers and read stories. Once again, the woman that came in yesterday stops by to get her coat and boots, but sits down with both boys for about 20 minutes and works on their English. She sticks around for a while after they come and take the boys away and she tells us about her sister that lives in Atlanta and that she went to the University in Moscow. She teaches here in the mornings as well as the public school in town as a speech therapist. Her English is pretty good but she apologizes that it isn't better. I tell her that her English is a lot better than my Russian!

 

We check out at the front office and see Goldie and Al as we head back to our house. We confirm the party tomorrow and say goodbye to our new friends.

Nikolai is there to take us home and as we turn onto the main road, we see the teacher from Moscow standing in the cold rain waiting for her bus. We tell him to pull over and we give her a ride to her next job downtown, to which she is most grateful. We thank her for helping us with Max and DJ and then she's on her way!



 

Time for lunch, and as we somehow have four frozen pizzas in the freezer, it must be time for pizza! Just as we are finishing lunch Natasha calls us and asks "Are you ready to have a party??? Do you want to celebrate your birthday in a huge way??? Would it be even better if I told you that your court date has been scheduled for tomorrow - on your birthday???". Emma and I are screaming and shouting about how excited we are - what a great birthday present!! We ask her when she's getting back to Kirovograd and she says she's on her way after she stops at home and she'll probably get here about 2am tonight. We can't believe it - Lesya did it again!!! Natasha tells me she needs to call our lawyer Natasha to find out what time tomorrow and she'll call later. Plus we need to arrange for Vanya to come up from his school as he needs to be in court with us. Woo-Hoo!!! Happy birthday to Papa!!!

We are so excited about the news, we can't think of anything else but this wonderful bit of news! We pull out the suitcase with all the boys clothes and start to look at all the cute stuff we brought from the States, including assorted UofMichigan sweatshirts and t-shirts.


 

Feeling much more at ease now, Emma decides to take a nap as she feels like her cold has started to come back. While she sleeps, I take a walk into town (about 30 minutes) to check out the local scene and to find some kids sunglasses that fit the boys - Max's pair broke today and I don't want to go to the orphanage tomorrow without sunglasses! It's a beautiful fall day as the sky has started to clear. The wind is still pretty strong and as I walk across through the park, the leaves come flying down from the trees as they shed their summer growth. The market is alive with vendors - old ladies sitting on stools selling their fruit, surrounded by hundreds of booths with locals selling everything you can think of.

 

I find a booth selling sunglasses and pick out a couple pairs for the boys and then head back to the house. As I walk along the old streets of Kirovograd, I try taking pictures like Vanya would - shots of people, fences and dogs barking at me from the tombstone maker's yard.

"You don't see stuff like this in Michigan!"

 

Emma is still sleeping when I get home - her cold has definitely returned and she feels 'bloody awful...'. She heats up leftovers of my favorite peala dish and we spend the evening thinking about our big day tomorrow. Natasha calls and confirms that our court time has been set for 2pm on October 21st (did I mention it was my birthday!), and Vanya will be coming in and spending the night with us after the judge rules on the adoption! We celebrate with a couple vodka and ruby red grapefruits (delicious!) and we call it a night. Poor Natasha will be on a bus to Kirovograd all night and won't arrive until almost 3am so we leave the doors open and the lights on for her. Good night Natasha, Natasha and Lesya - thanks for getting this done for us!!!

Monday October18, 2010 - Hopefully this will be the week of our court date!

After a relaxing weekend, its time to get this party going. We are excited about making some progress this week, unfortunately it is the kind of progress that is completely out of our hands. All we can really do is wait - and spend time with Max and DJ!
It's a beautiful but cool sunny Monday morning, with the fall colors changing the view every day. We are grateful to our lawyer Natasha for letting us stay in her house - it is very comfortable and helps us deal with the boredom of the wait. If only she had the satellite dish we had last week in Kiev...;^)
We aren't sure if Gregori understood to show up this morning, so we call Natasha the translator and ask her to make sure he's coming. We plan on visiting the boys in the mornings this week, and let them keep with their afternoon routines of classwork and naps. We feel like we have definitely bonded with them, and I believe we can honestly say that we love these kids!! Hard to believe that you can say that so soon, but after spending three weeks with them back in August, and then missing them the entire month of August - we truly feel like they are our babies and we can feel that they sense that as well. I wasn't sure how that was going to work, cuz - well, I've never done this before! It's hard to explain and some would challenge the idea, but we are so happy to be able to call these boys our own and we feel very lucky to have them in our lives!!! Knock on wood...


 

Sure enough, at 9:45 we climb into Gregori's taxi and he takes us to the orphanage. They ask us (via sign language and Emma's Ukrainian) if we would like to play with them outside as everybody is feeling better and its a beautiful day for the playground. We say yes and she heads off to get them bundled up in winter clothes. What a sight as they come walking down the hall with their nurse, looking like Michelin Men in round balls of clothing with huge smiles as they spot us waiting for them. They look so cute with their winter coats and stocking caps, trundling along without a care in the world. We do our usual greeting, with hugs and kisses and requests of "my machina???", as in 'where is my car???'


 

We head out to the playground and immediately fall into the routine we had last summer with the slide and merry-go-round and see-saw. The light is perfect and I get some really cute pictures of the boys (like I don't already have thousands, right?), including some classic sunglasses photos. DJ climbs up to the little playhouse on top of the slide and takes it upon himself to start cleaning the floor of leaves and stuff. He is so sweet with the way he takes care of his little brother while taking care of the world around him - as if its his responsibility to make things right, no matter what it is. And Max is just Max - he is just hilarious...always cracking me up with his facial expressions and actions.

 

We pull out the bananas and oranges, as well as their cool sunglasses and they just bounce around "happy as Larry" (an English expression of Emma's - no idea...not sure who this Larry dude is...), playing with each other and calling out to us to help with them whatever it is they want help with. "Mama - _______", fill in the Ukrainian phrase...or "Papa - _______". I think DJ's asking for me to help him look for fallen nuts from the tree. It doesn't really matter, it's just nice to hear them call for us, and its fun being around them, as exhausting as it can be sometimes.

 

I few minutes later, Goldie and Alon come out to the playground with their little girl and we introduce our two boys to their 18 month old baby girl. Max offers her some of his banana, speaking in Russian to her of course, and she responds to him with a smile. I wonder if they know each other back in the 'crib'. They don't hang around very long as they just want to spend quiet time with their little angel, and this ain't the place for quiet time. So they head over to the baby playground and we continue the madness that is us. We have a saying in the family..."its okay, I'm with the Dannemillers...".



 

Per the routine, the boys get bored of the slide and see-saw, so we head over to the swings and the bigger merry-go-round on the other side of the playground to enjoy the rest of our visit. We are trying to work on their English vocabulary (and by English, I mean American...:^), and DJ seems to be picking it up pretty good. Max is still in his Russian baby-talk phase, but I'm sure they'll both pick it up pretty quickly when we get home. After a very energetic morning at the playground, including hard work on DJ's part as he takes it upon himself to try and clean up all the fallen leaves, it time to start the process of bringing them back inside. Remember how much Max used to love this part last summer? I pick him up and put him on my shoulders and bounce him all the way back - it seems to work for the most part, altho he knows what's going on and isn't happy about it. But we get them in and say goodbye until tomorrow.

I get a call from Natasha in Kiev and I'm hoping she has good news about our court date, but all she wants to know is when we will be home. Natasha has a new couch and chair ready for delivery to the house for our living room in front of the fireplace. Okay - that's be nice, but what about the court date - has Lesya worked her magic with the SDA yet??? No news yet, but she will call when she hears something. Until then, we wait...

 

Back to the house for lunch and a quiet day of reading and resting. Natasha arrives with the new furniture and I help her get it all situated into the living room. I pay her for ten days of rent and thank her for the new furniture - this will certainly make it nice to enjoy the fireplace. She even has her men chop up some more firewood for us, and then she leaves us to it. Emma is invited by the older worker to take a tour of the building works going on above us. She is taken by the hand ("I felt like the Queen...") and escorted up the make-shift stairwell to the third floor construction site. I had gone up to see it over the weekend and I can tell you that the safety standards in this country would not hold up to an OSHA inspection. Regardless, it is an impressive project and will result in the nicest and highest house in the neighborhood!



 

At 3:45 Gregori arrives to take us to the Supermarket where we load up on supplies in preparation of possibly having Goldie and Alon over for dinner. It is quite the market actually - you can buy everything you could ever imagine, and it's very cheap (compared to the high cost of clothing!). Emma buys the ingredients she needs to make my favorite dish, sort of a paela caserole dish with shrimp, chicken and sausages mixed with rice, peppers and tomatoes. No grilled ham and cheese tonight baby!! While we're at the store I get a call from Goldie and they can't make it tonight as they are meeting with their lawyer (who happens to be our lawyer Natasha - the only game in town for adoptions), and so we decide we will meet for lunch tomorrow at Camellia's.

The rest of the day is spent enjoying our new furniture, reading by the fire and wondering if we will every hear from Lesya about our court date. We feel so bad that Vanya is back in that horrible place, wondering if he'll ever see us again. Was it all just another viscious joke like when his parents abandoned him??? Or was he really heading to America like we told him? Hang in there boys - we're doing everything we can, which in reality is not very much. Hopefully we'll hear some good news tomorrow.
Good night John-boy...

Sat/Sun October 16/17, 2010 - relaxing weekend of doing nothing!!!

Emma's still not feeling well, so when Gregori arrives at 9:45am to take us to the orphanage, we decide to cancel the visits this weekend to let the boys and Emma get over their colds. So I take the opportunity to have Gregori take me to the 'SuperMarket' instead. I climb into his taxi and tell him that Emma is sick, "no diti" (no kids), but that I want to go get groceries...you know "milk, bread, groceries...", showing him my list. He nods and we head off to town. But apparently he didn't really understand my sign language or grunts of Ukrainian, so he ends up taking me to the orphanage anyways. I sorta knew what was going on, but I kept hoping he was just taking a back road to the grocery store - but when he turned down the road to the orphanage I realized we had a problem. So who ya gonna call? I get Natasha on the phone and she explains to Gregori that we won't be visiting the boys this weekend and I just need to go to the 'SuperMarket' - which she explains is the proper universal word to use in the future...we have a chuckle and he takes me to the store to stock up on supplies and Ukrainian cash to pay the rent. I tell him we will be staying in the rest of the weekend so we don't need him until Monday morning. But did he understand?

A very quiet and boring day today - hardly seems worthy of a blog entry, but writing relaxes me. Emma rests upstairs while I re-arrange the living room by laying Natasha's mattress on the floor in front of the fireplace, with a few chairs, a table and lamp so that Emma can rest by the fire and read. So that's all we did today!


 

Emma comes down and gets comfortable in the fireside bed, and we spend the day reading and writing - nothing much else to write about. Our friends from Tel Aviv call (she goes by 'Goldie' and her husbands name is Alon I think...), and they want to possibly meet up for dinner but I explain that Emma isn't feelin up to it - maybe tomorrow.

Our friend Linda Miller, who actually got us kick-started on this adoption thing a few years ago (she and her husband Brian adopted two cute Russian boys), sent us an email telling us about her plans to celebrate our new Dannemillers when we pass through London. She and a few friends from our Tube Lines days (the lovely Kerry Johnson and Stephanie Kennard) have planned a baby shower/Halloween party at chez-Miller/Nichols on the 31st of October. Sounds like a really fun party for the kids, as well as our family and friends in the London area. You guys are great for doing this!!! I hope we're out of here by then...;^)

 

After dinner, we settle in for the night, reading, writing, enjoying the fire, some wine, and a beautiful Kirovograd evening...Good night everybody!

Sunday, 17 October, 2010 - Day two of our relaxing weekend of doing nothing. I was actually awake this morning at 2am listening to my Michigan football team losing again to Iowa. Pretty cool that I can sit in Kirovograd and listen to my 'boys in blue' via Internet radio - altho the game didn't quite end up the way I wanted.

So I actually sleep in till about 8am and start to work on flights for the three boys. Now that we have their names finalized, I can actually get them on our flights from London to Vegas. None of us have flights booked from Kiev to London yet until we know for sure that everything is done and dusted. Getting one way flights to London on Ukrainian Airlines is cheap and easy, so I'm not worried about that. Hopefully we'll be able to leave Kiev by the 29th...

Emma sleeps until about noon - she really needed her rest to get rid of this cold. Again, nothing much happened today - Emma made a nice omelet for brunch and we just stayed in all day reading, writing, and listening to Euro-Pop on the local MTV channel...not much else to watch unless you speak Ukrainian or Russian. Our lazy afternoon is interspersed with comments and questions like "What do you think the boys are doing right now?", or "Who should we invite to the party", or "What do you think we should get the boys for Christmas?", or "When do you think we will get Vanya and then the younger boys?", or "What do you think the boys will eat?". I know - riveting dialogue, but as you can see - all we think about are the boys!

Emma starts feeling a bit better and tries to do some yoga (too hard core for this boy...), but it starts to make her feel sick again, so when Goldie calls, I tell her we're just going to stay in again tonight. We'll see them at the orphanage tomorrow, so we'll make plans to meet up for lunch or dinner. Emma makes her famous toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, and I open my wonderful bottle of Crimean Cabernet (by the way - for a $3 bottle of wine, you can't beat this stuff! Cousin Susan suggests we bring a bottle home for the memory. I might just bring a case!). I light the fire, and we just relax and read until it's time for bed. Good night all - big week starts tomorrow!!

Friday October 15, 2010 - Approval from Kirovograd City Board



Today is the day (at 11am) we go in front of the Kirovograd City Council and all of the social workers to get their approval to adopt all three boys. This approval will kick off the process of establishing our court date next week. I get up about 7am and quietly head downstairs to make coffee, eat some cereal and work on my blog. Emma is still feeling pretty bad, and in fact was up all night until she finally took a sleeping pill about 2am, so I plan on letting her sleep as late as possible. At about 10am, Natasha comes down with some great news. She just got a call from Vanya's counselor Alexei who has business in Kirovograd today and has decided to bring Vanya along so that we can all go see Max and DJ together! Vanya hasn't seen his brothers since February so I bet he's quite excited to see them. And this will be the first time that all five of us will be together in the same room - sounds like a great photo opportunity!

Natasha asks me how Emma is feeling. I tell her she had a pretty rough night and is finally getting some sleep. "But its time to go soon! Our appointment is at 11 and the driver is picking us up in 30 minutes!" Oh shit - I lost track of time...better get Emma up quick so we can both get ready. I bring her a huge mug of coffee (which eventually falls into the bathroom sink into a pile of broken glass - nice job Dave), and tell her the good news and the bad news. We get to see Vanya today and the driver will be here in 20 minutes!! We quickly get ready and at 10:40 we pile into the taxi and head to the city government building where we met the crabby social worker last August. We are told to go upstairs to wait for our little hearing. While we wait, we meet a couple from Tel Aviv who we saw at the baby orphanage yesterday. They are adopting an 18 month old baby girl and are pretty much at the same stage as we are, altho they are still awaiting final blood work on the baby. We start chatting with them about where we're from, etc. and exchange phone numbers to possibly meet up this weekend.



 

A little after 11am we are called into this large room where ten women and one man are sitting at the end of the room in a large semi-circle table facing out towards us as if it was some sort of a criminal inquisition. We are invited to sit before them and the woman at the head of the bench says they only have one question. Through Natasha our translator, she asks what appears to be a simple question which spirals into a whirlwind of panic and confusion. Our response triggers a series of comments and arguments between the panel, and more follow-up questions are thrown our way that don't seem to settle them down very much. As the heated Ukrainian discussion continues to escalate, we are getting quite worried that things are going horribly wrong and we begin to wonder why our lawyer isn't here with us. Questions about why we have decided to have Emma adopt all three when I could be adopting Vanya...blah blah blah. I won't get into the details of Ukrainian law and how the age differences factor in to the process - suffice it to say that for a brief moment we saw everything unravelling and wondered if these crazy old ladies were going to force us to start our paperwork all over again. Then all of a sudden they called for a vote and every one of them raised their hand in favor of allowing our case to proceed to the court. Very bizarre series of events with all of these ladies making statements about Ukrainian vs. American citizenship, while grand-standing about their opinions of International adoptions, etc. Almost like they were campaigning for higher public office, speaking their mind about the looming moratorium and using this opportunity to state their opinions. I could be wrong - maybe they just like to hear the sound of their own voices...;^) But after the dust had settled, they really didn't have an issue about what we were doing - I think they just wanted us to sweat a bit, which we did!!!

We were excused from the inquisition and upon leaving the room we gave our Israeli friends the thumbs up and wished them good luck. Now we get to meet up with Vanya and his two brothers! We head off to the baby orphanage where Vanya and Alexei are patiently waiting outside for us. Vanya is so excited to see us - his smile brings tears to our eyes...and he still has his Michigan hat that I gave him on Wednesday!  We give Vanya a couple stuffed animals for him to give to his brothers, along with the toy cars he bought for them at the market near his school. You can see how happy he is to see his brothers, and we can't wait to have all of them together for a few hours this afternoon!


 

We enter the orphanage and check into the front office. Natasha tells them we are here to see Max and DJ, and we have a special surprise for them. She makes a few calls to the Director and the head nurse, but the response is heart-breaking. Due to the mini-quarantine, the nurse has decided that the boys will not be able to see us today as they don't want kids from different orphanages spending time together when they are sick. We plead to make an exception as Vanya has come a long way to see his brothers, but they say they can't allow it today. They are very sorry, but the head nurse has made her decision. Vanya starts to cry and lays his head on Emma's shoulder and quietly cries for about 15 minutes as Natasha and Emma try to console him. So sad to see him upset - the boy with the effervescent smile and sparkling blue eyes suddenly over-taken by tears. After a while, the men take over and try to get him to 'man-up' - no more of that crying son! Time to get some lunch - we'll all be together soon enough!

So we head to Camellia's to have lunch with our dear Vanya while Natasha and Alexei head to the lawyers office to take care of business. As we eat lunch, the three of us sit in relative silence while we show pictures of our house and his bedroom and try to speak about how wonderful everything will be, etc. It's nice to be alone with Vanya at our favorite restaurant, altho it makes me wonder how I will communicate with him when we get home to Vegas.  Natasha returns from the lawyers office after filing all of our documents from this morning and grabs a quick lunch with us before she heads back to Kiev. She has a 2pm bus to catch so that she can get all of our paperwork back to Lesya so she can do her magic and request our court date with the SDA office first thing Monday morning.

 

We say goodbye to her as she runs to catch her bus (how will we ever survive without her this weekend?), and we decide to take Vanya clothes shopping before he has to head back to his school. Our driver Nikolai knows a nice kids clothing shop in town so we head over there and are immediately swarmed by sales women dying to put Vanya in the latest fashions. He really is a chick magnet! They pick out two pairs of nice trousers, an adorable sweater and a really nice winter parka with a fur collar. Vanya is in heaven with all of this attention and he loves his new clothes. I call Natasha and have her explain to Alexei that we expect Vanya to hold onto these clothes and that nobody else takes them from him!

 

Time for Vanya to leave so we say goodbye and exchange hugs and kisses - we'll see you next week at court little guy!! Only five more days in the orphanage and then you are with us forever! Natasha told us that he couldn't wait to get out of there, which alleviated our concerns about whether or not he really wanted to leave his friends behind.

We head back home and Emma goes back to bed to rest while I watch Ukrainian television and write in my journal. Natasha the lawyer (our landlady) stops by for a visit and brings her housekeeper to do a bit of cleaning. She brought a big jar of home-made honey to help Emma feel better, and while the maid cleans up our mess (including the broken glass), Natasha gets her construction workers to chop some firewood for us. She has quite a large renovation project underway here at her son's house, expanding the house to a third floor with a loft above that! It will be quite a nice house when its done with a great view of downtown Kirovograd. We are getting very comfortable here - it kind of has a rustic ski lodge feel to it, with treacherous wooden stairs carved to fit each step and large wooden doors that you would expect to find in a western ranch house in Colorado. I suppose we are helping with the financing of this project so its fun to watch the progress, as slow as it is...

 

Emma comes down at dinner time and we feast on burned pizza and wine and call it a day. And what an emotional roller-coaster day it was! Time for a relaxing weekend with nothing to do but rest, read and think about our new family. Good night Vanya, DJ and Max. We can't wait until we get all of you together for good!