We are home!

We made it home Christmas day about 2:00 pm. Uncle Mel met us at the airport and brought us home. It was nice to have someone drive us home because after being awake for 32 hours I am not sure how safe it would have been for us to drive. Mom had the house all decorated and had gone shopping for treats for us all and had been cooking the family favorites for the holidays. It was great coming home. We are very grateful to everyone that has been there to help and support us through this past month (and much longer in some cases).

The trip was long and there were a few issues, like there being no tickets for us in Kiev and having to wait in long lines to try to find someone who spoke enough English to help us so we did not end up staying in Kiev for the night. We rode in the car for 1 ½ hours to get from Kerch to Simferopol, got on a plane and rode for 2 hours to get to Kiev, waited for 2 hours for the ticket booth to open and check in at the airport to open. We tried to check in to the flight and found out we did not have tickets, waited in line to get tickets, found out they did not take US dollars, waited in the line to exchange money, waited in line again to get tickets and then checked in for the flight to Amsterdam. This flight was 2 ½ hours or so and then we had a 12 hour layover. The airport was amazing! It had a mall, many stores, museum, play house for children, hotels, sitting areas for TV. We arrived about 15 mins before it all closed. So we walked around, tried to find a place to sleep which was impossible because of the overhead announcements, bright light and people cleaning and talking. We wanted to stay in one of the hotels but they we all booked. It seemed like forever but we were finally on our way home. This flight was about 8 hours and we dozed off and on throughout this flight. We were so happy to be home! It was great seeing a familiar face, hear English being spoken and to see Mountain Dew for sale.

We hope to return to bring the children home the end of January to the middle of February. We have no idea on how long we may have to wait. The paperwork to send to Russia to request the birth certificate will not even be ready until January 5^th. George is going to stay in contact with the children and send them letters and pictures while we are gone. Vitaly has a cell phone that he shares with Pavel so George will be able to call and give them updates. As I get more information I will post to keep everyone updated.

Stay tuned!!

It's two boys and a girl!

We feel much lighter as we have "given birth" to 3 new McClurg/ Fountain children today!!
Pavel Raymond McClurg
Maxim Allen McClurg
Alexandra Marie McClurg

It has been a great day! Court went well, our judge was very compassionate as well as everyone else involved in this decesion. She had many questions but all were about our ability to care for these children. Pavel and Maxim got to attend court and tell the judge how they feel about us and the adoption. They were very excited when it was announced that the adoption was approved. George took many pictures of everyone. There were hugs and congratulations from everyone in the court. We will be on our way home tomorrow and be home on Christmas day. We will post pictures on Sunday after we are home.

It is an odd feeling. We are happy to get home but not very happy about not bringing the children.

Love and miss you all, have a great holiday, and we will be in touch soon.

We have lost track of time!! What day is it?

We finally had the time to go shopping for the kids. We wanted to find some books to help us with language but we walked the whole shopping district and so no book store. The office supply store has a few children’s books but not much of a selection. I have to get a Russian to English dictionary that I can look us words both way, in Russian and in English. I bought one for Ukrainian but too many words are different. The toys stores here are very small with mostly baby toys. There are a few books, dolls and Lego type stuff. We found an activity book, some 3-D wooden puzzles that you could paint, (a Santa and a Christmas tree) and a Snow White sticker book. They really like stickers! We stopped at the newspaper stand and got Maxim a marvel comic book that had Spiderman cards attached. He really likes Spiderman. His favorite colors to wear are red and black.

We are sitting quietly eating lunch and posting on our blog when we look at the table beside us to see what they are doing because they are just sounding like they are having too much fun. They are all having shots with lunch, my guess would be Vodka. Must be that you can bring anything that you want to drink in with you. They were all doing well but one tall skinny guy, he was pretty buzzed. The waitress was keeping sharp eye on them. She is the grandma type. She always tells me I am not dressed properly, “where is your hat, no sleeves on your shirt, put on your coat…”

George called today. He said that Pavel and Vitaly were both in the medical building at the orphanage. I asked him if we would still be able to see Maxim and Sasha if we went to visit them. He told me to call from the medical building and he would ask to make sure. He said he was at the airport and then he would be in a car for quite awhile. I take it he was not on the way here from the train station. I hope he is here soon. Court in on Thursday and we leave to come home after that. I really would like to take the children out in public once before we leave to see how we all do before we come home.

We got to see Pavel and Vitaly. She said we could stay for 5 to 10 mins. We ended up staying for about a ½ hour. Vitaly looked and sounded good. We are not so sure he even needs to be in there. I guess better safe than sorry. Pavel still has a bad cough. It is very harsh and deep in his lungs. He was very happy to see us, he gave us both big hugs and grabbed Shawn’s arm, pulled him down beside him on a bench and put Shawn’s arm around his neck. Vitaly was a little shy. He offered Shawn his hand to shake which he did but then Shawn gave him a hug. Vitaly just turned to hug me. He had a smile on his face so I think that helped him relax. It was nice getting to spend some time with the older boys together. We could see how they interact with each other. I pulled out my book to find the words for “how are you feeling” and Vitaly was looking at the book over my shoulder so I gave it to him. He pointed to “where does it hurt” and looked to me and then to Pavel and pointed to his heart. They exchanged words and Pavel bowed his head. Both boys gave me the thumbs up to my question and then we tried to move on to something else. We attempted some Russian which always gets a laugh and then I remembered that I had down loaded some pictures of his namesake and opened them on the computer. Pavel and Vitaly both laughed and said that Ray Mysterio (from WWE) looks like superman but that we had the right person. We have to download the translator on this computer so he can read the article. Pavel showed Vitaly all of the pictures from home. He had them all memorized after only seeing them the one time. He explained them all.

Maxim and Sasha were happy to get gifts again. They sat for about an hour putting their puzzles together and painting them. Sasha just happily worked away talking the whole time. Maxim is a little perfectionist and is very independent, he wants no help. He gets very pouty if he cannot do something. He ended up breaking on of his pieces and was almost the end of his project. I cannot get him to understand that it is OK. I fixed it for him as best I could, glue would have helped. He perked right back up and finished his Santa and proudly put it on his teachers desk as a gift. They really need to get outside and burn off some energy. The last hour of the night turned into a giant wrestling match with not only our children but with others from Maxims’ groupa. I wish you could have seen Shawn. He was throwing kids up in the air, had them climbing on his back, throwing balloons and hitting each other with balloons. It was total chaos! The pictures do not do it justice. Maybe we can get them paired up with Bella and they all can burn off some energy.

Fri:  Today “grandma” from the café asked us if we were here for a baby. I guess I should say first that she knows no English and I know very little Russian. This whole conversation was held through pantomime, funny noises, and an odd game of charades. She asked about the children and was surprised at the number of children as well as their ages. She was happy to know that our daughter’s name is Sasha because that is also her name. She looked at pictures of the children, picked on Sasha’s ears, pictures of our home and asked about the weather at home. She asked about school and that no one spoke the language of the other. We talked about our older children and the animals. It seems that we have made a new friend. She wants us to bring them in so she can meet them. I hope we get to take the children out once before we have to leave to come home.

We did a little shopping for gifts for the last caregiver. We ran out of the ones we brought. We decided on perfume and chocolate. Everyone here seems to like perfume and it was a hit in the other gifts and every woman loves chocolate. Shopping is always and experience here. The people are usually tolerant of our lack of language but some really try to “talk” to us and it becomes a very fun time. The lady at the perfume counter was definitely one that was fun. We walked out laughing and with me smelling of perfume.

Pavel (Ray) was waiting for us with Maxim and Sasha tonight. It was a great surprise. He looked good and sounded much better. They played with the computer mostly, it seems the be a real hit with all the kids in the orphanage. After dinner Pavel came to see us a little late but he had Vitaly with him so it was another nice surprise. We got hugs all around and then they walked us out to the gates. Vitaly seems like a good boy. We gave him our address and e mail address so hopefully we can keep in touch. We want to invite him to visit the US sometime so the kids can see him again.

I called George tonight to find out when he would be coming back to Kerch. He said that he will have all the translated documents on Monday and then will be on the train putting him here on Tuesday. He said that he has all the paperwork translated that he needed for Russia and is just waiting on the court decision so that can be translated and sent for the birth certificate to be issued. This is good and bad news. Good because now we know it can be done, bad because it has taken too long to figure out and get the process moving so the children will not be coming home with us. We will have to return after Russia issues the birth certificate and it arrives at the Kerch City Building. Court is on the 23^rd and we hope to fly from Simferopol on the 24^th direct to Kiev. We have tickets to fly out of Kiev on the 24^th and we should be home for Christmas dinner. We want McDonalds and a Mountain Dew, maybe a Hinkley’s doughnut and people who can understand and speak English. Merry Christmas!!

Sat:  We have officially lost track of time. We thought today was Sunday and was pleasantly surprised when talking to Cheryl that it is actually Saturday! That is good in that we get to spend and extra day with the children, bad because it just feeds into the whole theory of us not knowing what is going on. We get to do the day all over again… Groundhog’s day?

We are really getting frustrated with not having a translator. It is one thing when we cannot communicate in a store or a restaurant but not being able to talk to a caregiver or our children is getting old. Sasha’s caregiver is trying to tell me something about Christmas, I know they are working on a play and I think she is telling me Sasha is going to be the Snow Princess. This is a big deal here (bigger than Santa Clause). The problem is she is describing a crown and a flowing blue dress and I am not sure if she is just getting me to understand who she is talking about or if she is describing a dress for me to buy. We cannot seem to get the other to understand the main question. Or like on the day that Maxim runs into our room and is crying, grabs his coat and leaves. No one knows what happened or where he went. He had still not returned when it was getting close to time for us to leave so I started asking if a caregiver could help me find him. He was in his room crying in his bed. Vitaly, Pavel, Nicholas (a friend of Vitaly) were all in the room with him trying to get Maxim to talk to them. We were not able to talk to him and no one in the room could understand that we wanted to know what happened to make him so upset. We could not get him to even let us hold him like we did the last time he was upset. We had to leave with him still laying in bed crying. When we left we still not have a clue what happened and he had been in his bed crying for about ½ hour. We are very unsure of his personality and we are trying to figure him out. “will the real Maxim please stand up” He has a fine line between having fun and anger with few warning signs. He starts getting angry fast. If the anger is interrupted by anything the anger turns to tears. I know he is going through a lot and has come from a troubled past, but this is a personality that is going to take a lot of patience and work to help him see his “warning signs”.

While playing around in the room we keep calling Pavel… well, Pavel. At some point he stands straight up, puffs out his chest and points to himself and with a huge smile on his face says, “Ray”. I guess that finally answers that question! It was really funny but you probably had to be there.

Sunday we got to go to a Christmas play that the children put on for the Orphanage Director (maybe it was him). He made a big speech at the beginning but as we all know I did not understand and we had no translator. The play was awesome!! I wish we would have know where we were being taken because it was the best show of customs, native dance, and the odd blend of pagan and Christian celebration that we have seen since we were here. We did not have our camera!! Some of these children are very talented and I can not believe the show they put on. I am so glad we were able to get a hold of our driver and stay late and go. They are such beautiful children and they all have been through so much but they still all shine.

Sunday night Vitaly and Nicholas visited with the children. They had a blast and we got some pictures of Vitaly. Vitaly was watching the children deep in thought as Nicholas played with them. Vitaly mostly held them and had them set on his lap. He was very quiet tonight. I think he thinks we are taking them with us when we leave this trip and he is trying to say good bye and spend some time with them. He also keeps sending them to us to do things like hug us or tickle us, I think he wants to see how we interact. We had a good night, playing football (soccer) with a stuffed soccer ball, picture searches on the computer, wrestling around and such. It is a very small room for 4 adults, 1 teen and 2 children to play. I wish there was something we could do to help Vitaly. We are going to have George talk to him when he returns on Tuesday and try to tell Vitaly that if he wants to come to the US we will look into a visa for education and what it takes to get him to the US after he is released from the orphanage. We gave him our email address and home address so we can stay in contact. We have been told he does not want to come to the US but maybe for a visit to see all is well with his brothers and sister and to see America.

Shawn’s family called tonight. They all were together to celebrate Christmas. It was nice to hear from everyone. They just passed the phone around so that Shawn could say hi to everyone and catch up a little in their lives. It made us feel like we were there as best as we could be from 5,000 miles away. They invited my Mom and little Shawn for dinner which was very nice. It made my Mom feel like she had family to celebrate with even though she was away from home. Thanks guys!! We took a picture of us right after we got off the phone so we could write our memory of the night in our journal and add the picture.

King of the mountain!

Today was a nice sunny day so we decided to walk to stairs to the Russian monument for the fallen soldiers of a battle. The site that this monument was put on is the ancient ruins of a Greek city and there has been excavation so you can seen most of the foundation and some walls. This city dates 5,000 years before Christ. This is the place we have been wanting to visit but the weather and the number of stairs has kept us waiting. Today is a great picture day and the view has to be awesome so we had no choice but to try it. The rise on the steps are not very high so you can take a million baby steps or take two at a time (our choice). We walked up 3 flights at a time and would rest at the platforms and take pictures. We forgot to time the actual walk up but with all of our stopping to rest and taking pictures it took about 30 mins. It was definitely worth the view. We got a nice view of the black sea and two ports. In the distance we could see Russia but the sky was hazy in the distance so the picture is not clear. The monument was surrounded by a patio with walls of black marble. On different sections of the wall there were stars placed with what I believe to be the names of towns the soldiers were from. The only one I could read and knew the town was Odessa. I could be wrong, it is just a guess. We stood at the top of the hill and took pictures all the way around to capture all that we saw. Our favorite part was the ruins. It was amazing to think that something has stood that length of time. We walked around as much as we could to see what was left. We could see an old pillar, part of an entrance way, but mostly the foundation. There were others walking up to see the monument and take pictures. They were not even winded when they got to the top. We are so out of shape! The walk down was much easier.

We ate at the café’, posted, and read our emails. We wanted to stop and look at things to do with the children so we needed to find a place to exchange money. We had tried twice at the place we usually go but they were not working. After the third try we went looking for a place George showed us earlier in our stay. Everything worked out but it just adds to our walk and we are always a little worried about getting lost. We were running out of time to make it to the market and home in time to meet Andre’ (our driver) to go and visit the children so we decided to shop for the children tomorrow.

The visit today brought up many questions of what we are going to do when we get home. They like to fight and wrestle which is fine, but both have tempers and want to win so they can get a little rough. We try to get them to understand we want them to be easy but still can play but they seem to think we want them to stop. When we look up words Maxim is the only one who can read but at times he does not seem to understand what he is reading. Maybe it just doesn’t make sense to him. I do not know what the definitions say in Russian so I am at a loss. The other issue is Sasha’s pouting. She wanted a piece of gum and knows where I usually keep it. She was looking for it and of course it was gone. When I told her “nyet” she wanted me to look and I did. Of course we were still out. She climbed up in my lap and curled up like a baby and refused to move. OK, that is her choice. We continued the day as normal. So then our camera’s memory card was full and we needed to delete some pictures that we had already downloaded. She recognized the noise and ran over to see what Papa was doing and started saying “nyet” over and over. Shawn stopped but again she went to my lap and continued to stay and not interact. We just continued the day as normal. Maxim finally tried to talk to her and that was no good, so he tried to show her a toy he had. She just reached out and grabbed it, and went back into her pout. Maxim finally got her to let him show her, and then she was mad because she could not do it. She took it into the other room with the other family that is adopting and you could hear her giving them grief in there so I went to get her and bring her back to our room. She was this way most of the night. We are in so much trouble. Normally I would just let the child sit where they are until they are ready to be an active part of the family but we do not have the language to tell Sasha or Maxim what we want and his nature is to help her so she does not cry or pout. This is going to be fun when we get home!
　

Waiting.....

No new news. Just a waiting game. We are hoping George will return soon with some good news but we still have not heard what day he will be back. Tomorrow is one week until our court date and we are starting to try to figure out our adoption story for the court. They want to hear from both parents. It sounds like there will be quite a few people in the court and I do not do public speaking. Hopefully our translator will make what we say sound better than we can.

The children are getting a little more relaxed every day. Tonight they started hiding behind a big chalk board and tickling each other and then playing keep away with little dolls. I started tickling both of them and they quickly caught on to the fact that I like to wrestle. They can get a little too wound up and get a little rough with each other but it was really fun. I bet they slept well last night. It is nice to see that they are just normal children.

It is still a little rainy today,, maybe tomorrow will be better. We want to walk up top the top of the hill with the war memorial (442 or so steps) so that we can get a picture of the port and Russia. Russia is very close with a ferry between here and there. Maxim’s town of birth is supposed to be just over the border of Russia. I think it would be a nice picture for his life book to see how close Russia is to where he grew up.

Notes to family at home

Mom, I was jsut thinking about something you could do and thought that you could call Mimi, Na, and the rest of the family. The numbers are in the black book on the top shelf by the window in the computer room. Na's number is floating in there somewhere on a scrap piece of paper. They always ask about you when they see me.

Alison, Happy B-day! Sorry I missed it. Love and miss you!!

Mikie, please go and visit your grandma, she misses you. Love and miss you.

Holly P., Happy b-day and last day of school. I sent you an e mail. Miss you and the boys.

Angels are with us!

As you can see from the picture, Shawn's angel is with us. There is no possible way that the light is from the outside, no streets, no people, and not from the flash (we did not use one) because you can see the light goes behind his head. This picture was just timed perfectly as our angel was showing!

Catching up after bad weather!

7^th day:

Today I have been missing home. I miss my son, friends and family . I know he is in good hands but I miss  being able to talk to him and pick on him. (Hi Shawnie!! I love ya). We miss the food, ice cream, MOUNTAIN DEW, having water pressure in the shower, washing machines and many simple things we take for granted everyday. The only thing we don’t miss is the cold weather, it has been in the high 40’s here with some sun.

Jack, Yes the kids like dogs. They seem to be very interested in Bella because they have never seen a white German Sheppard. Pavel wants a cat. Jack and Noah be prepared Maxim is very good at legos and loves the build new ones that he has never seem before.

We got up at 7:00 am to go to see Vera (Executive of the Department of Children) so we could pick up some documents she made for us. Last night we got a call from Sedgwick FMLA about our claim. They want documents we cannot give them until the end of the adoption as proof of what we are doing, they also want papers on placement date of the children. We do not know any of these things. Like we need any more stress! We explained to George our situation, that without these papers Shawn could loose his job because none of the time he has had off will be excused. He called Vera at home and asked if maybe she could help. She started working on the document from home and we agreed to meet in the morning to review and hope that she could find someone to sign the document. George left about 8:00, we left at 8:30 to meet him in Vera’s office. When we arrived they were still reviewing the document and trying to word it properly, there are words in the Ukraine that do not translate to English and vise versa so if a document needs to be translated it can take some work to make it work out. When the letter finally was done Vera had to see if she could find someone to sign. When she returned we had to wait because she had left the letter with a favorite and trusted employee of her  Chief so we could guarantee that the letter would get signed. When she received the letter we found that there were mistakes and the letter had to be rewritten and signed again. This process took 2 hours and that was very fast for them. They have no fax, e mail, and things are walked from building to building for signatures and approvals. Things can take a lot of time. Now we needed to find a place to fax the letter. In the city square there was a “store” that was set up with booths that had phones, wifi and a fax. George explained what we needed and the letter was faxed to Sedgwick as well as Shawn’s HR department. Thank you Mike Andrews for getting us the fax numbers we needed!  Next we were off to court to drop off some more documents and then home. George has to catch a bus at 11:15 to make it to his train so he can go to Kiev and finish paperwork at the SDA for court for us. He also has to help finish up another adoption he has in process. He hope to only be gone for 4 days but as you can see nothing has any definite time line. We will visit the children as scheduled with the driver and see some sights until George gets back to Kerch. George dropped us off at the apartment left for the train about 11:00. We decided to walk to the internet café so we could e mail Mike Andrews and Kim DeForest about the fax they should be receiving and that a copy was sent to Sedgwick. We also explained what has been happening and asked if maybe they could help us. Back to the apartment to get a snack and take a nap. We had until 4:00 before the driver (Andre’)  would  be here to pick us up to go see the children. When we woke up and was getting ready to go for lunch  Kim DeForest called and said that she received the fax and was going to fax it to Sedgwick and talk to our caseworker’s boss about the situation. She said not to worry she would take care of the problem. Thanks Kim! Now we can relax again, it is hard to think about bringing home 3 children and having one more at home and not having a job. Went to lunch and used their wifi to post.

Just to let everyone know, the pictures are all from different days but the children always wear the same clothes. I think they bath and change clothes on the weekends. We bought legos for Maxim and a small doll dressed as a bunny for Sasha. We also found a book for Russian children to learn English. They are always very happy to get gifts. They are so surprised and happy it is amazing to see their faces. Maxim is very interested in the electronics. They go to the library with their class rom time to time and do know how to use computers. He spent most of the night playing mine sweeper and solitaire. He is very good. English #’s and Ukrainian #’s are the same but with different names 1 is adeen 2 is dva… They look the same, add, subtract etc. the same, just different names. Sasha spent a lot of time taking pictures, at the end of the night she worked in the English book we bought. She was tracing the letters of the alphabet very well and saying the names of the pictures in Russian and then in English. Shawn and Sasha spent quite a while on this project. They also worked out of a book on colors we bought. After the computer ran out of battery Maxim put together his lego fighter plane. He was so interested in this that he refused to go to dinner with his friends. They looked very sad but left without him. It was a really big project and very confusing (to me) and he had it finished before we left. We were very surprised because in the beginning we thought it would be too hard for him. One of the caregivers came in to tell us thank you (in English) for the gift we bought for Sasha’s groupa. It was very nice because she does not speak English. When we left Pavel was waiting to tell us good bye. We are assuming that he is not able to come into Sasha’s groupa because he is sick and we hope he can return to us soon. We are happy to see that he is out of the hospital, but we do not know about Vitaly. Pavel was very happy to see us and seemed to want to tell us something, this language barrier is so hard sometimes. We said good night and left for home.

On the way home we got a call from Sedgwick FMLA stating that our claim had been approved, the paperwork was sufficient. They gave us until the 26 of December to return to work. They stated that they did not get the fax from us but did get the information form Kim for the approval. Thanks again Kim! Now we can sleep.

8^th day:

We woke up to rain, rain and more rain. We can only shop for a day or so at a time because the shopkeepers sell the food until it is bad. If you buy enough for several days it can be spoiled. So it is pouring rain, we have very little food and we have to walk to get every where and we have no umbrella. What a great start of the day. We waited for a break in the rain and walked to the internet café to send out some e mails. It is not possible to post unless we have wifi and they do not. It is too far to walk in the rain to get to that café. We stopped at a small market on the way home and picked up a few things. The lady at the counter was laughing because we were trying to order and she was trying to talk and it was not going so well. Usually they just wave us on. We were supposed to go see a castle and ancient ruins that are dated 5,000 years BC but it was raining, so we stayed home and waited to go see the children. We spent some time trying (the key word) to learn more Russian, just so basics for the ride home and to help with the visits. Some  words you may want to know:

                Da/ Tak                 yes                                                                          da-dush-ka           grandpa

                Nyet                       no                                                                           ba-bush-ka           grandma

                Po-zhaowl-sta      please/ my pleasure (after spa-sea-ba)           uncle                      da-da

                Spa-sea-ba            thank you                                                             aunt                        toe-tya

                Po-ka                     see ya                                                                     friend                     droog

                Zos-twitch-ya       hello                                                                       brother                   brat

                Men-ya  za-voot    my name is…                                                     sister                       ses-tra

Good luck and have fun!

George called and let us know that things are moving a long with our documents. He said Vera has documents that he needs and that it is good news but he didn’t have time to talk. He was waiting in line at the SDA and will talk to us later. George needed us to pay Andre’ (the driver) to travel to Vera’s office, pick up the documents, take them to the train station to give to the courier so the documents will be on the train tonight and get to George in Kiev. Sounds kind of like the pony express?  Any way George says good news so we will keep you updated as we know.

I am not quite sure how it happened, Sasha may be the only case in the world but some how she has ended up very spoiled while living in the orphanage. She will actually curl up in a ball against a wall and tuck her head down and pout until her brother gives in to her. As soon as he does she is all smiles and off she goes. We were trying to play cards and she was off doing what ever and when she came in and saw we were playing without her she sat in my lap and tried to put her feet where the cards were. She would laugh and mix them all up. If I gave her my card to play she was OK but when she was not paying attention and noticed the game was going on without her she would start again. She is very strong willed and too cute, that is a bad mixture!! HA HA! Be prepared for some trouble when we get her home. Maxim played games on the computer and when it was time for dinner I think he may have been gone for 10 minuets. He must have ran there, eat as fast as possible and ran back. His sister leaves 15 minuets before him and she was still not back. The dude eats fast. Maxim is really trying to talk to us, he is trying to learn new words and he seems to remember them well. He is getting really good at hand gestures and helping us figure out what he is trying to say. Luckily I usually know one of the words he is trying to get us to understand and we build from there. He also uses the books we brought to find words or pictures that help us. He is a very smart boy. Tonight they acted like they did not want us to leave. Usually we will get up and put on our shoes and they will start picking up their toys. Tonight they started getting out more toys and not wanting to get ready to go. Maxim was just dragging his feet but Sasha was not wanting me to put her down, she was whispering in my ear (I have no idea what) and kept giving us more hugs. Tonight we even got kisses! We have never gotten kisses before.

When we left it was snowing and raining. The streets are all flooded. It was a very interesting ride home. Winter has finally found us. It is getting very cold. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

The kids cloths so far as we can tell are Sasha size 6 pants and tops and size 3 shoe, maxim size 10-12 pants and tops no know size shoe and Pavel is still not able to join us. We will let you know.

We got our new plane tickets. We should arrive in Detroit on December 25^th unless things change and we get to bring home the children. Then it would be the next week.

4^th day with the children:

George was off to “Leena” (I am not sure of spelling and do not have a map) for more paperwork. He had to discuss the division of the children and what paperwork is needed to be completed for Kerch City Court for adoption of the children. He left early in the mourning before we woke and returned about 3:00. He went to apply for a court date but the judge told him we needed more information on the possibility of getting a birth certificate for Maxim before he would set a court date. We are hoping to know more soon, but there are still no connections that can help and we have to go through the system. It seems like everyone here is sick or on holiday so we are waiting again. George is hoping for court on next Friday but we are not sure of anything right now.
We got to visit the children alone tonight. George brought us in and explained that he had meetings with the Kerch officials and could not stay. It was a little hard at first because we usually have George to translate but we started playing and everything picked up. We were playing catch with the football but Sasha was making a card for a friend. Maxim accidentally hit her and said “is-va-nechi” which is “I am sorry” or “excuse me” so I told Shawn what he said and he reaches over and pokes Sasha and says “is-va-nechi” and the children all start laughing. It became the joke for the whole night. Every time something went wrong one of us said it. We went to visit Maxim’s teachers and groupa tonight. His groupa only has 8 children so they have more room. Their bedroom was pretty big, his bed was by the window closest to the heater. Of course he was off again taking pictures and videos of everyone in his group. When we were ready to leave we had to stand in the hall and call his name, Pavel had to search for him and then he wanted to wait to leave so we could see his video. Things are going very well and we are excited to see how interested the children are in us and the thought of coming home with us. We worked on language some more, reading out of a Russian alphabet book for children. They said the letters and I copied and then we went through the pictures and they said the name in Russian and I repeated, then English and they repeated. They are very fast learners, and excited to get the words right without us telling them.
When we arrived today there was a group of children on their way to class. The teacher stopped to talk to George and as we waited we looked at the children. Among them was the girl that was Shawn’s favorite when we were looking at children on the SDA website. We wanted a sibling group and she had no brothers or sisters so we decided to look at others. He was very excited to see her but sad that we could not take her home. Maybe we will travel again to come and get her. We hope to see her again so we can say hi and hopefully if we do come back she will remember seeing us.

5^th day:

We walked to the café that George wanted to take us to the first day that we arrived in Kerch. It was very nice. We are learning not to judge a book by it’s cover. The outside of a lot of the buildings look like they are in bad shape. Everyone we have gone in to is actually nice. They seem to spend money on nice things in the home but not on the upkeep of the homes, apartments or buildings. George spent most of the day running around trying to get help with paperwork, probably 12 hours. The birth certificate is really causing a lot of trouble. We need documents translated into Russian. See they speak Russian here but use the Ukrainian alphabet to spell the words. A translator has to have a certificate in the language for it to be used in the court or for Russia to accept it for new birth certificates.
We got to spend a few hours alone with Sasha today. Maxim and Pavel went on a class trip to the library. Maxim was very quiet when he arrived. Pavel said he spent his time setting up a network page he hopes he will be able to access from America so he can stay in touch with his friends. While we were alone with Sasha we spent our time working in a Russian alphabet book with stickers. She is very independent and does not ask for help. She will say the Russian sound of the letter and the Russian name of the picture but will not repeat it in English. Our bag of tricks has run out so maybe tomorrow we can get to the toy store and see what they have. Maxim loves legos and Sasha wants to be a princess and model for pictures one minuet and play ball and wrestle to next. What do you buy for her?? Pavel likes music but he is more focused on getting out and doing things, which the orphanage is not ready to let us do. Maybe soon.

Day 6:

Today was a very bad day for George. He is having so much trouble with our paper work. He was up early again and left before we were up. He called about 10:00 am and asked if we were home to sign paper work. When he got here the names were spelled wrong to the application to the court so we had to pack up again and go to see Vera so the documents could be redone. She could not understand hoe to spell our last name, the computers do not have the same letters. It took several tries but finally we got it! Vera is the best help here (other than George). Without her we would be DOA. She really loves the children and wants to do whatever she can to get them home. We did some shopping for gifts for Maxim’s groupa, went to exchange some more money, put more minuets on the cell phone, and then off to court. We were hoping that we could get a court date with the information George has gathered in the past couple of days. He had an appointment and we still waited over an hour to be seen. We did get a court date!! December 23, 9:00 am. Uncle Mel be prepared for possible pick up on Christmas day. Should be home for Christmas, just barely. On the way home we stopped at a translator to see if he could help with our problem and he was not able to translate because he only had certificates for German and English. He said he would draw up a power of attorney and help us with a notary so George can work in Russia for us. So we started home and decided to stop at the internet café so we could change our flight home. While we did this George went to talk to another translator. When he gets there the translator is out of the building but a guard points and says that is her in the yard. He waits while she talks to a friend. He decides that he will just go home and come back tomorrow because he is tired. While George is getting ready to walk away he is “told” to go back. He is a very religious man and he feels that it was by God, so he stays. He hears her friend tell her she thinks she has a customer and she will talk to her later. This lady seems to be a true blessing because she knows how to do the paperwork needed and offers to do this without pay and send documents by courier. This is the only fee she is asking for. She has adopted a child and understands what we are going through. FINALLY GOOD NEWS!!
We were a little late going to see the children because George was talking to angels but we made it by 5:00. Sasha was playing and was happy to see us, Maxim was still in class. We were told that now Pavel is sick and in isolation. We played with Sasha until Maxim came. It is hard to hold their attention because they are used to all of the toys, there are only so many photos Maxim can take, and it is a very small room. Now we competition. There is a family from Italy here to adopt a 5 year old boy. They have much cooler toys and the children sneak off to play with them and some back for a visit. Maxim saw that we brought gifts for his groupa so he was excited to give them and wanted us to visit with his friends. The children were all gathered in the play room watching DVDs and playing on the floor. When we came in we noticed right away several children that were on the SDA website, one of which is the favorite of Shawn. The children are all excited to have new people to see. They are learning English in school and each new a verse and wanted to share with us. It was very good to see them all so proud. Some can ask a few questions, but most have just memorized their poems for the new year celebration. The bracelets that we sent the children and have been sharing have caught on. The children are coming up to us and telling how many of what kind they have.
On the way home we thought we would stop to check on Pavel and say hi through the window. When we asked the doctor he said to go to the window, but the children said he was taken to the hospital. We were told that this is to stop a total contamination to all children. That is two children in this family in the hospital. Vitaly and Pavel. We hope to hear more soon, hopefully the rest of us will not get sick.

We got up at 7:00 am. I guess this is going to be our “natural” wake up time here. The alarm was set for 8:00 am. After breakfast we walked to the internet café to post a new page on the blog. Our driver met us here around 9:00 am with the social worker, Galina, to bring paperwork so we could have the document notarized. She came to the orphanage with us. To make sure all was correct. We only got to visit the children long enough to explain why we had to leave. The notary was only willing to stay open until 1:00 and it is a 2 ½ hour drive to Simferopol. We made it on time but she did not seem willing, she was very busy. George basically pushed his way in (in a very positive sort of way) but we got the documents notarized and off we were again. On the way home we stopped at a Tartar restaurant for some native food, it was very good. A soup that was a broth with carrots, potatoes, parsley and ram. The meat was very tender and tasted like the seasoned broth. We were also served a pastry filled with a mix of meat and onion and maybe potato. This is my favorite food here so far. We did not get back to Kerch until late and before we got to see the children we had to pick up an official from the orphanage department to witness Vitaly’s letter for permission to separate. When we arrived Sasha and her groupa were on their way to dinner so we got quick hugs and walked with them to the dinning hall. Then we were off to find Maxium and Pavel so we all could meet with Vitaly. Maxium had left for dinner and Pavel was not in his room but as we turned around to leave there he was standing and quickly behind him came running up to us was Maxium all out of breath. We all shared hugs and hellos and then we were taken to a private room to talk to Vitaly about what was going to happen and what the thought about the adoption. This was the second time we had this discussion and he was still in agreement. He was asked to write a letter to the court giving permission to divide the children so the younger ones can be adopted. As her wrote the letter he just sat without emotion and looked as if he was just doing a school assignment. This was one of the hardest things for me. I cannot imagine what he must have been feeling, or if he was not feeling anything what he must have been through to get to that point. Pavel and Maxium left to eat their dinner and we stayed and talked for awhile about how we would communicate and when we would see him again. We went to say good bye to the children but it was very late. Sasha was already in bed, Maxium was in the bath house so we waited to see if we could run into him, which we did. We stayed to visit for a little while. He ran off a couple of times to get things from his room to show us. His photo album that we sent he had decorated with pictures he had drew. Dragons and swords and such. He also showed us how to plat thumb war, he wins a lot! While we were visiting Pavel came in for his bath so we got to say good bye to him. We left soon after that. When we were dropped off at the apartment we walked to the market for something for dinner and breakfast tomorrow.

We are supposed to visit children tomorrow from 9:00 am until 1:00 and then we will go shopping. We will return in the early evening and stay until we get kicked out. It is very hard to post right now because there is no internet connection for my laptop. I have to use their computer and it will not let me change my blog. I have to cut and paste everything so I hope I can attach a picture to this posting. We have to pay per minuet used so we will not post as often.

Missing our friends and family and love to all.

3^rd day with the children:

Maxim had called at 4:45 because we told him we would be there to visit at 4:30. He wanted to be sure we were still coming. It was grate to hear that they wanted to see us! George said we were in the car and would be there in 10 mins. He was waiting for us at the gate.

Sunday we got to stay most of the day with the children. We were there from about 10:00 am until 1:00 because they had to leave for lunch. We left to buy a heater for Sasha’s groupa and to eat lunch ourselves. We are starting to be able to see each child’s personality show through. They are starting to relax and be their selves. Maxium is very laid back, loves to get praise and is very in tuned to his sister. He plays with her a lot. He was on the floor putting together legos while the rest of us were playing catch. All of this ball throwing, dropping and laughing and he was just attentive to his project. At one point and time a young boy came in to visit and took Maxim’s toy, he just raised his shoulders and waited. He face was a smile as if to say “it’s ok he will be done soon”. Pavel is eager to learn, he spends time on our visits reading English and trying out new words. He worked with Shawn and George for quite a while discussing and learning about English and the meanings of words. He is also very interested in seeing the sights around here and on the travels to home. He looked at every picture and video we brought in one sitting and wanted more. He was very excited about the pictures of Kiev. He has asked if we are able to get him out of the orphanage for visits and seems upset that it may not be possible. Sasha is full ef energy and is very spirited. She seems to be the child in control among them. Pavle and Maxium play with her and help her get what she wants. When playing if she gets irritated with them she can get pouty or stick her tongue out at them and then runs off laughing like she wants them to chase her. She is very playful and is not very interested in books. I have children’s music in Russian downloaded to my cell phone that she loves listening to.

We got to stay and play until it was time for Sasha to go to bed. We stayed so late the other children were already in bed. Most of the caregivers are happy to have us there and help with the children. We have a few curious children who come to visit and are loving the attention. The caregivers are trying to keep us separated form the groupa because we distract the other children but it is hard. We could come home with at least 50 children and not question it.

oday we are home until George returns from court. He has many errands to run before he can apply for a court date and then will come here after he applies to the court so we can visit the children. We may only get to visit for a very short time tonight. We will probably walk to the Black Sea and see if we can find a place to get some pictures. We will try to get more pictures posted tomorrow.

We all look at pictures on the computer of home and Kiev, Maxim continues to take pictures.

The children love to pose for pictures and are always setting up shots to be taken. They are little directors of the photograph.

Pavel getting ready to leave for dinner. When we asked him if he had an American name he would like to us as a middle name (Ukrainian children have their father’s name as middle and it gets dropped with adoption) he chose Ray because he likes Ray Boom Boom Manceni. He does not seem to want to be called Pavel he would prefer Ray. We explained that Americans often like their middle name better and use it as their first.

Maxim is the main photographer of these pictures. He has taken to it quite well with only a few lessons. He took 271 pictures yesterday, only sharing for a little while with Pavel. He zooms, sets up poses and sets up items to be photographed. He had the most fun trying to get a picture of a ball flying in the air. Now we must have 50 of them!

We will post again as soon as we can. We should have information on our court date tonight and have more of an idea of what will happen when and what date we will be home. Love to all and I miss you very much.

Last night we took the night train to Crimea just inside the island. The train station was beautiful on the inside. It had huge chandeliers, murals on the walls and ceiling. There was a huge escalator in the center of the building to take you to the platforms to catch your train. There are always herds of people everywhere you try to go. They push through to get ahead of everyone in the lines. On our way to the train this was the case and we lost sight of George. We knew the train was at platform 10 so we headed in that direction. There was a split at the end of the stairs so we just chose one direction. By this time we are very scared we lost him and very cold. It is -1 degrees with the wind chill. We get to the front of the train and of course we needed the back so we started walking again. After what felt like forever we decided to call George. He said to just walk to back of train. When we finally found him we were frozen and our hands and feet hurt but we made it so all was ok. The train was nice and clean. We rented a whole cabin with 4 beds. The cabin was very small with just enough room to turn around between the beds. The ride was nice, not too much rocking. As the night went on it got hotter and hotter and before we knew it we were so hot that we could not breathe! I bet it was 90 degrees in there. I guess that is what we get for complaining about being cold. Before the night was over Shawn was fanning us to cool off. Needless to say we did not get too much sleep. We arrived at the stop about 9:20 am. It was beautiful weather. Very warm, maybe 45. It was foggy but I can handle that. Our driver was waiting for us. After a quick stop at a market for water and food we were on the road. He was a good driver but the roads were very rough. There we no places to stop if you had to go to the bathroom. We were told they just stop on the side of the road to go!! We arrived in Kerch at about 12:30. We stopped at a pizzeria, it is not pizza like we eat but it was absolute delicious! 1:00 was our appointment with the orphanage social worker for approval to see children. She reviewed the SDA approval, asked a few questions and wrote us another permission slip. From there we went to the orphanage. We discussed their situation, separation of 4^th child, spoke with doctor about diagnosis and past experiences with children. Now we finally get to go and meet Pavel, Maxium, and Alexandra (who we found out likes to be called Sasha)! They decided to start youngest to oldest because the oldest children were still in school and had to be taken out of class. When we walked into her “groupa” there were several children in the process of getting dressed near the door but I noticed a little girl playing over by the toys who was already dressed. When she looked up and saw me she came running towards me. (I guess the picture book I sent paid off) As she got to her caregiver she changed her mind about running to me and ran to her, peeking at me the whole time. Her caregiver whispered to her and off she came running again and ran right up wanting a hug and to be picked up. She looked me in the eyes and says “mama”. She then went to Shawn and hugged him. About this time the other children arrive and we are escorted out after and round of quick hugs for mama and papa so that we could all be together alone. We walked to another building. Shawn walking holding hands with Maxium, me holding Sasha, and Pavel leading the way with the others who are with us. We spent time with the children looking at pictures on the computer, drawing pictures, making necklaces and bracelets, looking at books. They are very smart and what to have our attention. Maxium could not stop smiling. I pulled out my flash cards and was showing the children that they were “pa ruski” on the front and English on the back and we found out that they can read English. We were so shocked but very excited. It will not be so hard to communicate now that we know they have a head start. Pavel is defiantly the leader of the group. They all look to him for comfort and to ask questions. He basically fathers the younger children. He is kind and gentle with them and you can see his love for them in his eyes. Pavel says he like classical music and football (soccer). Maxium and Sasha are pretty quiet and have not shared too much. We looked at pictures on the walls of children in their groupa and shared their names. They both speak very quiet and fast. We are so excited.

Unfortunately we are not going to be able to bring the children home this trip. Maxium was born in Russia and we are going to have to apply for a birth certificate there to get his visa and passport to come home. We will have to make a second trip. This gives up time to prepare their rooms and buy what they will need when they come home.

Today were are off to Simperopol to get papers notarized. This is a 2 hour drive one way so it will take up most of our day. We hope to see the children around 3. Pavel has class until 1 and then lunch so I think it will work out good.

How to call us the right way!

To reach an outside country you must first dial 011 then the country code 38 and then 066-693-0631 Thank you Mike Andrews.

On the way to Kerch.

Today is our last definite day to post. We are not sure how often we will be able to post once we leave for Kerch.

Mikie- as far as I know it is supposed to be free to call into the Ukraine so try again. People are getting through to us. You need to add a 38 to the beginning of the phone # for the country code.

We met a family that is in the apartment below us that are also adopting from the Ukraine. They are very nice and are the reason that we can even post to you. They were nice enough to give us one of their adaptors for the electrical plugs here. Thank you Marti family!

Today we got to meet our interpreter, George. He is nice and very busy. He is very tall, 6’3’ or more and the “Russian look” that Americans think of. He stopped in about 12:00 and talked about our plans for the next couple of days. We are going to meet him at 4:30 to pick up the paperwork so we can visit the children. We will then come back to the apartment and get ready to leave. The taxi will be here at 7:00 to take us to the train station. The train leaves at 8:20 pm and will take us to Crimea. From there we will take a taxi to a village outside of Kerch to pick up the orphanage director, drive to the orphanage so we can visit the children. We hope to be with the children between 1:00 & 3:00 tomorrow.
It is snowing and very cold. The sidewalks are very slippery so we are staying in as much as possible today. We will take pictures of the square on the other side of town today on our way to the SDA.

Stay tuned, we will keep in touch as much as possible. You can always call if you miss us.

Catching up on our journey.

We are going to start at the beginning of the trip and catch everyone up to now. We left to go to Uncle Mel’s house for a ride to the airport. Mike Andrews was waiting to say good bye. We had a group prayer before we left. It was very nice riding to the airport in Melvin and Joyce’s hummer. We did not have to worry, just enjoy the company and relax. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early as they stated on the website, walked through security fairly quick, with no problems and had 2 hours to kill at the airport. We ate at McDonald’s, did some shopping, made some phone calls and such. The plane ride was not the best. It was very cramped, we had to sit next to strangers because there were no seats left for us to sit together. It was a very long flight, and very hard to sleep. We did get a little sleep but felt very tired when we arrived in Amsterdam. The airport was very small and had 2 toilets per rest room that had lines very long and moved very slow. We did not have much time before we had to board our next plane. The plane was very small itself but had more room for us. We got to sit together so that made it a lot better. When we arrived at Kiev there was no terminal for the plane so we were let out on the tarmac and had to be bused to the terminal. Everything we were told to do did not happen from this point on. The line we were supposed to check in to was closed, no card to fill out for customs, no customs check, no driver with our sign to be seen any where. We checked in through the Visa line and was free to get our luggage and was pointed to the exit. We walked out the door and there was an isle for us to walk through with people waiting on both sides. We walked 30 feet reading signs before we found our driver with a sign that read “McClarg”. We were very happy to see him. He helped with our bags and out we went for our first sights of Kiev. Our driver, Vitaly, was very nice but knew little English. He provided us with our cell phone in the parking lot of the airport and then we were on our way. They drive like you have never seen before. There seems to be no traffic laws or police. We drove 140 KM in a 90 KM limit, no one stays in their lane, they make up lanes where they do not exist, drive on and park on sidewalks, drive around people stopped at stop signs… You can not believe it. Cars are backed up as far as you can see and you bob and weave through town to get where you need to go. So as we start getting further away than we expected from the airport we started getting nervous and then the neighborhood started getting a little shaky we started to get a lot more nervous. When we finally pulled up to our apartment building we got really nervous!! This is the point we started praying hoping that are faith in God and our hopes that he was leading us to adoption were not wrong. At this point we were trusting our adoption facilitator had not led us astray. It was a locked gated alley way to an open court that had more locked doors and the building was very old like from the1900’s and had not been updated at any time since. After walking up 3 ½ flights of very old stairs we finally get to our apartment. When we opened the door it was with great relief that we realized it was actually very nice inside. We were glad to know we did not die in the courtyard and were not sold for body parts. Once we were inside we signed papers for the apartment and cell phone and off he went. All we had was the phone number for our facilitator, so we called to find out what we should do because we had no car, no food, none of thier money and did not know what to do. He assured us we were safe, told us to walk and get to see sights, find a restaurant, eat a good meal, and get a good nights sleep. We did and now love walking the streets (except for the bitter cold) and seeing the sights. The buildings are great, that is the best part for us. Most of the roads are brick and/or stone. Everything looks very old but is very cool. We will add pics to the blog.

Today was the SDA appointment. Our appointment was at 10:30 am. Konstatine met us here at 9:45 and we walked to the appointment. Everyone here walks very fast!! We waited in the hall for our name to be called. Our meeting was with Deanna, she was very nice and spoke no English so Konstatine translated for us. They asked us to tell a little about our family, reviewed the children’s files with us. They had only general basic kind of information but approved us for visitation to meet children. The paperwork will be ready Thursday before 5:00 pm our time and we will be leaving on the night train at 8:00 pm with our translator George to travel to Kerch. We take the train to Crimea and then will rent a car to drive the rest of the way to Kerch. Along the way we will pick up the orphanage director and bring her with us to the orphanage for our meeting. How do you think that sounds? We hope to see the children Friday at 1:00. We are not sure if we will have internet access in Kerch. We were told we may be able to find a business that has it. If you do not see us post and worry you can always call. It is free for you to call but we cannot call out. You have to dial the country code of 38 before our number so the number to dial would be 38(066)6930631. Sorry about the mix up on the number.

Miss you all, thank you for the prayers and support.