We went to court!

We had our court hearing today at noon! It went very smoothly. The judge asked us a lot of questions that we were prepared for and then declared the court approval for our adoption of Lauren Valerie and Donald Joseph (their new names)!

Wow, hard to believe after the mandatory 10 day wait, they are legally ours!! Even the judge asked "do you know what you are getting in to?". We said we know it will be challenging; but we are prepared! (LOL)

The kids continue to do very well with us. We have even seen them without the 15 layers of clothing they have on to play outside. They look much smaller without all that stuff on them. They are 102 cm tall and weigh about 35 pounds each (medical from october). Lauren is a little taller than Donnie. George says maybe an inch. I'm guessing she had a little growth spurt; he'll catch up, I'm sure.

It feels great to know that there is an end date to all of this! George is going to make his flight home on the 20th. It is sketchy whether I will make mine with the kids on the 29th.

The 10 days is over on the 25th. That is a Monday and they don't issue birth certificates on Mondays here in Odessa. I need to get the kids new birth certificates and passports here in Odessa. That generally will take 1-2 days. Then I need to travel by bus to Kiev (7 hours). I have to go to the US Embassy and get their medicals and visas issued (this is usually 1/2 day process). If all goes OK we might just make it out on the 29th (that is if I can get tickets for the kids). The flights are packed full leaving Kiev. The Ukranian holidays officially start on the 29th and last until mid January. So everyone wants to get "out of dodge" including us!

I also need to check the US Embassy hours here in Kiev. I do know they are closed for Christmas Day; I'm just hoping it is not the entire week.

Sorry I haven't updated more; we don't have a good connection at the apartment. We brought the laptop to court today because we knew we were half way to downtown Odessa. That is where we are now.

Downtown Odessa is really a very beautiful city. It is right on the Black Sea. It has a lot of history we are just learning about.

The pictures are from this morning as we were waiting for the cab to go to court. We also have a picture with the judge and then the legal staff from the orphanage. Also I'm posting a couple of miscellaneous pictures.

We need to start heading back, I'll post more as I can!
Thank you all for your emails and comments!!!

We've been Busy!

Sorry it has taken us so long to post! We get a very week signal in our apartment and can barely get email open. Not enough signal to get onto blog or yahoo.

We met the kids on Thursday and since then we get to go to the orphanage and see them twice a day. Between 10 and 12 and then 4 to 6. The only room available to play in is under renovation so we have to visit and play outside. Let me tell you, 2 hours outside in this weather is really cold! As a matter of fact with it getting darker sooner they are calling the kids in at 5 so we aren't even staying til 6.

They are great kids! Lauren Valerie and Donnie Joseph. They are 3.5 years old and will turn 4 on May 20th. They are fraternal twins. She is very shy and takes a little coaxing; he on the other hand just dives right into anything.

From the first meeting they fell in love with George. Donnie climbed right into George's lap and Lauren checked it out for a few minutes then she decided we were all right.

Both kids are very independent. They love bananas and that is how we are bonding with them. We bring them bananas and a toy when we come. We have our little brown bag of "tricks". Since we do not speak the language this is how we are starting the bonding process (as recommended by the pros). You should see them peel and scarf the banana ~ seconds flat (LOL)!

We have discovered an internet/wireless source. We are downtown Odessa and it is about 45 minutes hard bus ride from where we are staying. Don't know if I will get a chance to lug this laptop down everyday; but will try every other.

We are planning on about 20 more days here. We may have trouble with one document but hopefully not ~ we will learn about that tomorrow. Not a big deal legalwise; just a big deal because I do not even want to add 1 day on to this trip! George will come back to the US after court. So he will most likely return around the 20th.

I'll post a few pictures and update again soon.

PS We have a wonderful facilitator helping us here in Odessa ~ he is part of Alex's team and we couldn't have come this far without his help. Thank you Roma!!

We're off to Odessa

This was around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening. We went to pick up our "Official Referral Letter" from the SDA. This is the document that gives us permission to meet the kids. Inside these doors is total mayhem! There are other families from the US, Italy, Spain, etc. along with their translators and facilitators and lots of Ukranian Government Officials. It really went pretty smoothly, although we waited for about an hour for our letter.

We leave on the 11 p.m. bus to Odessa. We arrive their at 6 a.m. One of the facilitation team (Roman) is already there with 2 other families. 1 American and 1 Swiss. He will pick us up and take us to our apt. We then have to go to the local version of the SDA (State Department for Adoption) and then hopefully right to the orphanage.

We look forward to meeting the kiddos!!

The Big News!

We arrived in Kiev late Sunday evening. Computer access has been a limited. 2 bags didn't arrive with us; but 1 came yesterday and the other is scheduled today.

I will fill in on the details leading up to this later . . .

The big NEWS!

We had our appointment at the SDA today and we accepted a referral for a beautiful boy and girl. They are twins! Almost 4 years old. Healthy and in the town of Odessa.
We leave on the midnight train (or bus) tomorrow evening.

Let's just say we are still shaking in our boots. We excpected the worst and couldn't be more pleased. George is dying for a beer (and so am I)!! We will meet the children the day after tomorrow ~ so we will of course fill you in with more as we know.

We are excited to get there and meet the children in person. Will post when we can. Also cannot wait to be able to use the laptop at an internet cafe so we can post pics. With Odessa being a rather large city, we hope that everything will continue to run smoothly.

Our cell phone number in Kiev is 011 38 067 2799283 We are unable to call out on that phone but can receive calls at no charge.

Signing off for now!

We are in Route! We are in Paris

We made it this far! French keyboard and Mac computer so pardon the typoùs!

I will try another entry as I must have done something wrong because the blogger is in French here. We have a long layover and decided to just hang in the lounge to get some rest and needed zzzz`s.

When we arrive in Kiev; I`ll use my laptop to connect and post more:

Special thanks to Von for taking care of our feline children and Lauri thanks for pqcking our bags!

1 week until departure!

We leave on Saturday, December 2nd on a bit of a convoluted route. But hey, we were able to upgrade to business class using miles! Our route is Altanta, Washington-Dulles, Paris and then Kiev. We will arrive Kiev on Sunday the 3rd approximately 7 p.m. local time.

We do have a 9 hour layover in Paris ~ if it is possible maybe we'll get a bit of sightseeing in? Last time we were there, poor George had Pneumonia and doesn't remember much of the trip.

It's odd that we've been anticipating to travel for over 12 months and now that the time is here it seems that we've got soooo much to get done. I know it will all fall in place!

I will keep you all posted as our adventure continues . . . .

WE HAVE A DATE! DECEMBER 5TH

It is hard to believe that finally after almost 4 years in this process we will be winging our way to Kiev!

In February of 2003 we start the adoption process in Belarus. When that country shut down adoptions we had to start again we chose Ukraine. We started from scratch in January 2005.

We've had a long and bumpy road with Ukraine. After the Orange revolution, President Yuschenko implemented many positive changes to the government. Part of those changes included revamping the Adoption process and creating a new Ministry of Adoption (SDA). As these changes came about in Ukraine and with the appointment of new Ministers, we've had our share of starts and stops! Well in September 2005 they finally re-opened and things have been running smoothly ~ they are getting through the backlog of Dossiers ~ Yeah!


Ukraine does not allow preselection of children. We are approved to adopt 2 children up to 5 yrs. old. Our request is at least 1 boy. So we are what is referred to "traveling blind". The process works something like this:

1) Arrive at scheduled appointment at the SDA and have interview with officials.

2) They will show you several files of children, both sibling groups and singletons that they feel meet/match your Dossier and your request.

3) The files contain old pictures, some family background and limited medicals.

4) Make your selection, then travel to meet those children at the orphanage. These orphanges are in various remote sections ot the country. Travel may take 1 or 2 days.

5) Meet the child(ren) - take them for medical and tests by private Dr. Also fax info to Dr. on standy in the US.

6) Make the Decision of a Lifetime!! Once this is done the legal process begins. Court is scheduled, you must be approved the the orphange director, then by the region director, then by about a million other people and then finally the judge during court!

7) Ukraine has a mandatory 10 day wait after court. On the 10th day, you are whisked off to Kiev and the US Embassy for more legals stuff, approvals and Visas. Then on that big old plane back to the USA!

This is the nuts and bolts of it.

We will have a facilitator in Ukraine (Alex and his team) that will help us with the entire process. Lodging, travel, appointments and all that is taken care of through them. They work for our agency here in the states.

As we get more information I will post again! Thanks to all of you for your support over these months/years that have lead us to this life changing experience!