Finally - some pictures!

Immediately after court in Ukraine










On the train from Donetsk to Kiev




























Our first family picture...











Rebecca modeling some new "koshka" (cat) pj's & slippers

Settled in and starting school

Sorry, blog friends... I wrote an update last week, but apparently never posted it. I'll combine it with the one we wrote last night.

January 4, 2010
We are settled in at home! Hooray! Here are the answers to our FAQ's:

Jet lag: Thankfully, we have not had a problem. I think sleeping for four hours a day for 2 days in a row and then being awake for almost 22 consecutive hours on the third day of travel eliminated any sleep patterns. Our bodies were so happy to find beds that third night we didn’t even hear our neighbors’ fireworks. (Those of you who know our neighbors know that is significant!)

Rebecca and Timothy were both very happy to finally meet each other on New Year’s Day. She is enjoying having her own room and bed and exploring all the new things in our home… like water from the front of the fridge, ceiling fans, and showers more often than just on Monday and Friday. Tim is enjoying watching Rebecca play with Carey. (Some of Rebecca’s first English words have been, “Carey, sit!” and “Come here.”) Carey, however, isn’t used to a little person who has seemingly endless energy and is missing out on her morning and afternoon naps. All in all, everyone seems to be adjusting pretty well. Rebecca met our pediatrician for her first visit on Saturday and did very well. She drew extensively for the doctor when asked and accepted her two immunizations like a champ. She’ll need to follow up with a pediatric ophthalmologist (we have one Tim’s seen before), but we are not overly concerned.

A few people have asked about Rebecca’s size… she is pretty tiny. Some of my generous friends stocked her closet before we arrived. Her face was priceless when she saw she had choices of things to wear. The clothes that fit right now are typically size 7, but even a few of those are big and proper fitting shoes are size 3. (There was some confusion about the shoes because we were originally basing our estimates on shoes she wore at the orphanage. Their definition of “fits” seemed to be if your foot fit inside the shoe. We believe that shoes CAN be too big.) Based on reports from others who have adopted, we are expecting to see a growth spurt in the next few months, so we’re trying to shop and plan accordingly. Besides, this week’s weather is NOT normal for Orlando!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Honestly, I didn’t really think I’d still be writing now that we're home, but apparently Rebecca is quite a popular girl and has developed a following. She spent last week “home” with me and did not go to school. We ran errands, went to doctor’s appointments, visited the downtown public library and just generally got her more used to living here. She is doing very well and seems to be enjoying her new life. We celebrated Christmas on Saturday and exchanged gifts with both sets of grandparents. (Side note: Thanks for all your prayers for my dad. He got a “day pass” from the rehab center to come to Orlando for our celebration on Saturday and is going to be discharged this Thursday. PTL!) It took Rebecca a minute to catch on to the process of everyone opening gifts, but once she did she loved it. She even practiced her budding English skills by reading the gift tags and distributing them accordingly. Once all the presents had been opened, she quickly took her new things to her room and organized them thoroughly. Later in the day she got to meet her only local aunt and uncle – my brother, Bobby, and his wife, Angie, as well as Angie’s daughter, Melissa. We all enjoyed visiting and, of course, played a few rounds of Uno.

Monday was a big day at our house. Rebecca started school in the morning and received her new eyeglasses in the afternoon. (Yup, glasses. Thankfully, all the ophthalmologist found last week is that one eye is very, very nearsighted. She was nervous about wearing the glasses at school, but does like being able to see. She wore them today and I don’t think there were any issues.) I took her to Durrance Elementary yesterday (Monday) expecting that we would do all the registration paperwork and then start school today (Tuesday). When her teacher came to the office to meet her, she asked if Rebecca was ready to start. I asked Rebecca what her preference was and she said today. (Actually, she said “sivodnya.”) We got a quick tour of the classroom and then it was “bye bye” to Mama and hello to her new classmates. (I have got to say she is a brave, brave girl. I don’t know that I would have made the same choice knowing that NO ONE spoke a word of my language.) Rebecca’s teacher is Mrs. Schad and she seems wonderful. She paired Rebecca up with two girls in the class as buddies and has already downloaded an app for herself that she is using to learn a bit of Russian and Rebecca can use it in class as a translator. We’re settling in to a routine here at home… Each afternoon, when we get home from school, she has a snack and we work on her homework activities together. (Tim thinks that’s fine. He likes to have some time to himself to stretch out and listen to music after a long day at school and time in his wheelchair.) We also check the school menu and decide if she wants to buy or pack her lunch for the next day, then pick out her clothes so they’re all ready to go in the morning. So far, so good. It’s only been two days, but I’m trying to start good habits instead of changing bad ones later. :0)

Weather note – it’s been at or below freezing almost every night since we came home from Ukraine. This does NOT happen in Orlando. This has never happened in the over 30 years I have lived in Orlando. If it came on the plane with us, I am truly sorry. If anyone would like to take it back, feel free, I can give you the name of a great translator. I, however, am planning to do my very best to avoid airplanes for a while – especially to places that might have snow. Rebecca is actually enjoying the weather. She thinks this is warm and asks every other day if she can go swimming. Just wait until Saturday when it’s supposed to be in the 70’s… she may not believe our answers of “it’s too cold.”

Tim and Carey are still enjoying their new playmate and Dan and I are adjusting as well. We’re taking a bit of time off from our official Saturday date nights for more family time, but celebrated the first day of school together yesterday with lunch at our favorite restaurant. I’m pleased to say that they haven’t closed in our six week absence and the food was still excellent.

We hope you are enjoying the new year and I have started posting some of our pictures from the trip on Facebook. If we’re not already connected on Facebook, please feel free to friend me. I’ll also try to send a link to everyone when I finish the upload process… I’ve gotten to Christmas Eve.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support!

Finally Home

First things first – we are home! Our final flight landed just after 9PM last night and we finally got home just after 10:00. (That was equivalent to 5AM today “body time.”) We know our luggage made it to Chicago, but did not make it on our flight home. I’m not at all concerned… I haven’t seen it since Tuesday, anyway. Why start now? Rebecca and Dan both slept all the way to Orlando from Chicago and probably would have stayed that way had our landing not woken them up. She was excited to finally see “Rebecca’s big bed” and once tucked in went right to sleep. Dan and I, after being tackled a few times by Carey, our son’s dog, were able to go in and say hello to Timothy. He was already in bed, but trying to stay awake holding out for us. After his big smiles and good night kisses, we headed to our room. Before turning in for the night, we both showered (HELLO big shower with consistent hot water!) and brushed our teeth with our Sonicare toothbrush. (I know those probably sound like trivial details, but you’ll appreciate them more after hearing the story of our flights.)

I will not go into all the details of our flights home, but did journal our trip for myself in a notebook (just starting at the airport Tuesday morning through taking off from Chicago last night I was on page 15.) Trust me, you don’t want to relive this part of the journey with us. Okay, here we go…

 Tuesday - The longest day ever… our longest day began with Victor and the taxi driver arriving at our apartment at 4AM Tuesday. (That was 9PM EST Monday night if you want to keep track of how long it took us to get home.) It was snowing pretty heartily in Kiev, but didn’t sound like the airport would be affected. We arrived at the airport at 5AM for our 7AM flight and found an already huge crowd of people. Kiev is different from every other airport in the world. You cannot check in (like you would at the first counter in other airports) until the departure board lists a check in gate for your flight. That means that EVERYONE in the airport was waiting in an area the size of one of Orlando’s baggage claim areas. Same size, NOT same amenities. There are NO chairs. Around 8AM, we were told our flight would be delayed until 2:10PM and our check in time would be noon. Okay, that’s not so bad. We only have four hours to wait until check in time. It didn’t really seem to make sense to try to leave the airport and come back, so we went upstairs to the only restaurant to find breakfast. Good in theory, bad in practice. One restaurant, thousands of people waiting and the restaurant is the ONLY place in the airport you can smoke. A nice man from Russia who also spoke a bit of English and a bit of Spanish offered to share his table with us. Knowing there was nowhere else to sit in the airport, we stretched that meal out for hours ordering one thing at a time and eventually leaving around noon. (There were many people who’d been there longer than us who were still sitting (or sleeping) at their tables when we left. The airport did truly open at 2:00 and for the rest of the day, we watched our scheduled departure time be pushed back in two hour increments. The last posted time we saw for it was 8:20 PM and at 6:15PM we got the long-awaited “check in at counter 7” message. What’d we do for the 6+ hours in between? Sorry, this is the short version… mostly sat on the floor in a hallway or on a cold marble staircase. Dan waited in a line, I mean an unruly mob, at the ticket counter a few times for 90 minutes at a time, but was never able to make any progress. I’m going to spare you the dysfunctional check-in process sections. (I’ll tell you later if you really want to know.) We finally boarded the plane around 9:30. BTW, no jetway for that. You go down a flight of stairs and take a standing room only bus to the plane’s location on the tarmac. The bus almost got stuck in snow a few times on the way there and it was SO icy from the bus to the stairs of the plane with frigid wind gusts that Dan fell twice. (He says he’s okay… ugly bruise on his knee.) We were so excited to sit down on that plane. It was clean, had seats for each of us, friendly staff… my list could go on for pages. The pilot was quite informative and told us about delay after delay and how he would solve each issue. They even fed us a hot meal while we waited it was taking so long! The final problem that would prevent our departure was when a landing aircraft slid off the end of the runway and the airport declared all runways closed till 7AM. So, at 1AM our friendly pilot announced we would have to get off the plane and go back inside the airport. Getting out of the airport was almost worse than getting in. Same icy stairs off plane, same bus back to terminal and an almost riotous mob trying to get out of the airport. (Passport officials had to undo all the departure stamps.)

Wednesday – early morning: Our saving grace that night and into the wee hours of the morning, truly an angel sent by God, was a woman named Natalia. She let us use her phone to call our translator and even before he called back to tell us he wasn’t able to find a hotel room, she had gotten us a choice of two rooms in the hotel 500m from the airport that was telling everyone else it was fully booked. She also spoke Russian as well as English and explained everything to Rebecca for us. So, after a full 24 hours awake, we landed in our beds at the Borispol airport hotel (think 1970’s Holiday Inn for $150 a night) at 3AM. We were told we’d need to be back at the airport at 7AM the next morning and Dan got up and showered and was ready to go there with Natalia (I would stay at the hotel with sleeping Rebecca). He stopped, though, because Natalia called as he was ready to walk out the door and said, “Go back to bed. The airport is closed till 11AM.” Around 9:30AM I was finally able to get a somewhat competent human on the phone at Lufthansa’s Kiev office. (Don’t get us started… Lufthansa as a whole is great. The way they and their staff function in Kiev is… let’s just say not.) She told us we were scheduled for the same flight as the day before. It was a 2:10 flight, but would not take off until 6:00PM. We would then have to spend Wednesday night in Frankfurt and Thursday morning fly to Chicago and subsequently Orlando landing around 5PM. If we had had to spend another day in the airport, we might have… I don’t even have the words to express it. Because the hotel is so close to the airport, it shows the departure board on your in room TV. We were able to sit in our hotel room Wednesday and watch our scheduled departure time change all day, just like it had the day before, until 4:25PM when it changed to announce a check in counter. We grabbed our things (really not much because they kept our checked bags and we were trying to fly light… that means same clothes – day 2) and rushed out the front of the hotel. We hurried back down the icy sidewalk to the airport and got in line to start all over again. Natalia was not there Wednesday night, she’d managed to get on the earlier flight, but God sent us a new friend. Kat (really Kateryna) was born in Ukraine and is now a medical student in Texas. She was also fabulous with Rebecca and I enjoyed chatting with her. You have no idea what it is like to have no one to have a real conversation with for almost a month. I’m an ISTJ, but it was hard for even me! Imagine Dan’s plight… Okay, back to the story, Kat was seated across the aisle from us and this plane did actually finally take off around 8:30PM and we made it safely to Frankfurt. No more flights out of there for the night, but we were given a great ticket agent. He not only offered to put us up in a hotel, but persuaded the German border police to issue Rebecca a temporary visa (we could have left the airport with our US passports, but because hers was Ukrainian she could not), paid the charges related to her visa, and fixed our airline tickets for Thursday. Yes, fixed our tickets. One of the agents in Kiev had invalidated them! UGH! He even called the luggage department and persuaded THEM to keep our bags overnight so we wouldn’t have to check them again. Remember the terrorist attempt on Christmas? The guy started in Germany, so their security was reported to be quite heightened. We took the shuttle to the hotel and were finally in bed around midnight local time… had to be up and on the 4:45 shuttle in the morning. (Yup, same clothes, day 3.)

Thursday - Other than waiting in line for quite a while at the United ticket counter to check in, our Frankfurt check in went pretty smoothly. The heightened security measures weren’t really an issue for us. Our only glitch was we had seats 23A & 23B and one in row 33. Since it was going to be such a long flight (10hours 45minutes), I tried to negotiate a closer seat at the gate, but was told that “row 33 was the closest seat available to row 23.” Interestingly, Kat was in line behind me and had no seat assigned. In an effort to be closet to us, she asked to be “near row 23” and they gave her seat 23C. The aisle seat directly across from our other 2 seats! Another angel sent to us from God. She traded seats with us. There is no way we could have sat together or convinced anyone else to trade an aisle seat in economy plus for a center, smaller seat in economy. (Sorry, I’m supposed to be writing the short version….) We had an uneventful takeoff and flight for about 2 hours when the pilot said we had a mechanical issue and were going to London. Dan and I looked at each other and almost cried. Thankfully, it WAS fixable, and after about 2½ hours on the ground in a plane with minimal power and no AC, we were taking off again. USA here we come! We finally landed in Chicago just after 3PM (their time)… 14 hours on the same plane. Customs, passport control and immigration were uneventful and Rebecca is now a US citizen, but we couldn’t stop to celebrate because we still needed flights home. (Our connection left over 2 hours ago.) They booked us on a 5:30PM flight out of Chicago, we picked up our checked bags and rechecked them, went through security again (the most stringent since leaving home on 12/6), a nice lady kindly traded seats so we could sit together, and we all made it home safely.

Follow up – while I was writing our luggage was delivered. Rebecca was sitting with Dan and Tim watching Superman on TV. Ahh, the world as it should be. There’s still tons to do, but we are all finally home. Thanks for all the love, support and prayers. I WILL get some pictures posted for you, but it just might take a little while.

Happy New Year!
Kathi, Dan, Timothy, Rebecca,and Carey… the happy, happy dog because we finally came home!

Have visa, will travel!

God is good – ALL THE TIME! God has truly blessed us beyond what we could ask or imagine. Rebecca had her medical exam this morning and everything went just fine. They discovered a vision issue with her right eye that had never been documented before, but it did not stop or delay our travel. We will get in touch with Tim’s pediatric optometrist and/or ophthalmologist when we get home. Our next stop was the US Embassy. We had to leave our backpack outside with Victor, our phones and camera with security and were “wanded,” but they let us in. ;-) The building was nothing at all like we expected. We were expecting some big, fancy, UN looking building and it was more like a series of portables with gargantuan steel doors. There was a short wait, but once we got to a clerk she was very friendly and helpful. She took all our papers and told us we could pay for processing down the hall – come back at 2:00 tomorrow for our interview and hopefully they would print the visa at that time. Going with our theory of “Ye have not because ye ask not,” I asked if we could come back at 2:00 today. She said she’d have to check with a supervisor and document a good reason (5AM flight on Wednesday was sufficient), but she thought so. We waited a few minutes to pay our fee and when we brought back the receipt to the first clerk she told us we were all set for the appointment at 2:00 today and could probably get the visa tomorrow morning. That was at about 11AM, so we headed out. Victor was waiting for us outside (I think you have to be a US citizen to go in) and we headed out to find lunch. It was another day for MickeyD’s. Beautiful quality about McDonald’s here, they have free wi-fi. I’m not sure if the ones at home do… I’ve never looked and rarely go anyway. We still had some extra time before we needed to be back at the Embassy and the snow flurries were starting to fall, so we wandered a mall and then walked back to the Embassy. We arrived there at 1:30. They took our passports around 1:45 and started processing our paperwork just after 2:00. The “big interview” lasted about 2 minutes. The officer asked if Dan and I swore that all the documents we turned in were true and witnessed us signing 5 or 6 forms. Okay, go sit back down we’ll work on printing her visa. While waiting, we met two really nice families from the US. One from Salt Lake City and the other from Minneapolis… we exchanged e-mail addresses and stories while we all waited. A little while later a clerk called us up to the window and asked to see the papers (Rebecca’s new birth certificate and court decree) because there was a problem. Oh no!!! He looked at them and obviously didn’t find what he wanted, so I asked what he needed. It seems the cover page of one of our immigration forms (current name, previous name, address, etc.) had been misplaced. Phew! No big deal – I have an extra blank one and will fill it out again! There was also another short form missing, but both took no more than 5 minutes to redo both for him. A little while later he called us back up to the window and said we were all set. Here’s your official immigration envelope (Don’t open it!!! Give it to customs in the US.), a form to send to Washington, DC once you’re home, and Rebecca’s visa and passport. That’s it! No more forms, no more government offices, no more hurdles! Now, I wonder if we can get home sooner?? When we bought her ticket, our 12/29 flights were sold out and we thought the visa wouldn’t come till Tuesday, which is why we had Wednesday flights. I am pleased to tell you that my wonderful husband found a wonderful Lufthansa employee who found us wonderful flights and we are leaving in the morning! Woohooo!!!! We are coming home!!!! Not only are we leaving a day earlier, but the first flight leaves 1 hour later (almost 7AM) and our total travel time is reduced from 24 hours to 20 hours.

Don’t stop praying just yet… the snow is still falling and they are predicting more overnight. We’ll be leaving our apartment mighty early in the morning, you’ll still be awake from today, so we will try to go to bed early tonight.

A quiet day and a new favorite restaurant

Today was a much quieter day. We stayed in all morning together playing Uno, looking at books and magazines together, and covertly giving English lessons. You can really incorporate quite a bit of language (and math if you keep score) into an Uno game and we have also introduced Rebecca to “Living Books.” They are animated story-books on the computer (like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s” etc.) that were designed with the principal of helping kids learn to read. Tim has quite a collection that I’m sure he and Rebecca will spend many hours exploring together once we get home. Victor stopped by very briefly to bring us a new pair of boots for Rebecca. The orphanage was kind enough to let her keep the ones she wore while there, but last night they became completely unusable. Victor told us we could not shop near here (less than Kmart quality at Millenia boutique prices) and wanted to bring his wife and son into town today, so they picked up a pair near their house and we reimbursed them the almost $30. They are actually kinda’ cute – purple with sparkly glitter built in.
     Since Rebecca had shoes again and we were getting hungry, we decided to do some exploring by ourselves and try a nearby Italian restaurant. We had previously received a paper copy of their menu that I’d been able to read some of (lasagna is still lasagna, you just have to sound out the Cyrillic letters) and Victor helped with some of the other descriptors I couldn’t make out. Knowing we’d know what to order, we felt brave and set out to find Il Patio. Ah, Il Patio, my new favorite restaurant – at least for the next two days. Here’s what I posted on Facebook while there: Italian restaurant, English menu, non-smoking section, 1 block to apartment, great food & free WiFi!!! We can eat for 3 more days!!!And my follow-up comment: AND, the bathroom was clean with a "real" toilet... including paper. I think that says it all about lunch. We sat for a while even after we finished eating… our little iphones were just soo happy we couldn’t leave right away. Since the weather is better today, clear and about 34, and our bellies were full and happy, we decided to continue the adventure and walk a bit. We found a mall (I know, Mom, you’ve been waiting for that line) and wandered for a while. Interesting thing about the mall… it was five stories tall and had escalators, but they only went up. When you wanted to go down you had to take the stairs. There was a good size toy store and we bought two books for Rebecca. One is a chapter book of poems and stories about Christmas (I think) and the other is an activity book with mazes, pictures to color, etc. We are trying to prepare for the three flights we trust we’ll be taking on Wednesday…
     That’s about it for today. We bought some more water and juice at the corner grocery and are tucked back in for the night. Victor will be here at 8AM tomorrow to start our last set of official tasks. First is the medical exam and then the US Embassy. Please continue to pray for all the details and people we will encounter. It feels like the homestretch, but each puzzle piece must fit perfectly into place before we can come home. Ah yes, please include our weather in your prayers. Snow is beautiful on Christmas cards and when you can sit inside and have “no place to go,” but we have places to go and things to do. Tomorrow’s forecast is not bad, 1-3”, but Tuesday is saying over 12”. We will probably have to go back to the US Embassy on Tuesday to pick up Rebecca’s visa and our first flight leaves Kiev around 5:30AM on Wednesday.
     Thanks for all the Christmas wishes. We are trusting God to take care of the details of the next few days (okay, really of all of life, but especially the next few days) and get us home safely for the New Year.

December 26th - tourists

Living in Orlando, we see a lot of tourists. Today, we were them.  As promised, Victor acted as our tour guide, showed us the sights of Kiev and we were the tourists to the utmost. It was warmer, about 40-45 degrees much of the day, and a slight drizzle all day. Fun sightseeing weather, huh? We followed Victor ALL day, most of it walking. Some areas reminded me of Boston (historic looking and cobblestone streets) and some were more like San Francisco (big hills). Dan's knees really started to bother him at the end of the day, but he was pleased it hadn’t happened until this point in the trip. We started our journey walking through the botanical gardens (like Boston Common, but older and not as well maintained) and then saw St. Vladimir’s Cathedral and St. Sophia’s Cathedral.

While at the first cathedral, Victor told us it was not very old – only built in the 1700’s. (Ummm, we're from Orlando - that's old!) St. Sophia’s is really a whole complex of cathedrals some of which date back to the 1100’s. Most has been rebuilt by a preservation society (that of course charges admission to help with ongoing efforts), but there are places where they have left the original stonework so you can see what it looked like in the 1100’s. Amazing. So much beauty and detail and impressively large buildings... there are detailed depictions of Biblical events on every bit of wall and ceiling. I can read the Cyrillic alphabet well enough to sound out some of the writings (like the apostles’ names) and a few had descriptive signs in English, but for most of the time we were simply in awe of the detail and magnitude. I wondered as we explored how many workers it took and how they built without cranes, etc. There are no photographs allowed inside, but I tried to take as many as possible outside without getting the camera wet. (I’ll work on sorting and posting those when we get home.)
     Up to this point, we have resisted buying ANY souvenirs knowing they would just add to our luggage. (We also thought it best to wait till the end of the trip since everything here is cash based. I’d hate to run out of money for food because I bought too many matruskas!) Those of you who know me well know that was very, very difficult. Victor once told me that our paperwork was among the best, most detailed he’d ever received. Today, I told him there are two things I do very, very well – organize paperwork and shop! The good news for him is that we had previously perused the outdoor market (the one we went to is only about a city block long) while waiting for our SDA appointment so we had a very detailed list of everyone we wanted to shop for and ideas of what to buy. I think we got everything on the list except for the Harley Davidson Kiev t-shirts. (Special apologies to our Harley fans – we couldn’t find them again.) Thinking about it now, a fly on the rainy wall of the market would have probably gotten a pretty good laugh watching us. Even with the detailed list, it took quite a while to select each item with the recipient in mind and negotiate with each vendor. The vendors all spoke enough English to get their jobs done, so negotiating was my job. Dan, Rebecca and Victor all followed along. Rebecca mostly just watched and Dan paid each vendor as I got my total. After shopping, it was time for something every adopting family seems to do while in Kiev – visit “The Fat House” for lunch. You can envision it as a Golden Corral of traditional Ukrainian foods in about 1/5 the space. You also get each item you select on its own plate and pay per piece. All considered, it was a lot of food for the money. All four of us ate for 126 grivna – about $16.

     The next stop of our rainy, tourist journey involved a subway ride. The subway itself was very similar to Boston, NYC or Atlanta, but the escalator down… wow! I commented on how long our escalator down was and Victor replied, “Just wait. The next one is twice as long because the station is at the top of a hill!) Yikes! We exited at the Arsenal station (old arsenal building nearby still showing mortar wounds) and took a bus to the Kievo-Pechersky Lavra. It is commonly known as the Caves Monastery. There is still an active monastery above ground and it is considered a religious shrine as well as the headquarters for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The history of the caves dates back to 1051 when a monk came to Kiev and started living in a cave. Eventually, it was expanded to include many caves and a series of tunnels. Some monks spent their entire lives in the caves writing and praying. Being that at many places the actual caves are only 2 feet wide and 6 feet tall, Dan chose to avoid the stairs and waited for us in the chapel above. After reading my travel book about the caves I was highly intrigued, but a little concerned I’d find it… creepy. After the monastery itself moved above ground, the caves became a place where monks and other saints’ bodies have been laid to rest… not in vaults, in glass cases. Understand my concern now? Victor assured me it would be okay and that I could not come to Kiev and not visit the caves. He was right. The bodies are almost perfectly preserved in glass cases. Some believe it is because of the moistureless climate and others believe it is the “miracle of saints.” Whichever you choose to believe, they are also shrouded in fine, embroidered linens/satins. The only “body” you can actually see is some of the hands. (A big relief to me – I had visions of Indiana Jones movies… didn’t really want to look in someone’s face that died in 1200.) If you arrived at the Caves Monastery early in the morning on a beautiful day, you could probably spend most of a day exploring all the churches, museums and caves, but that was not our case. It was the end of the day, getting dark, and many sections had closed already, so we called it a day and took a taxi home to our little studio apartment. It’s not home, but it felt good to be warm, dry and in a comfortable chair.
     I’m supposed to be sure to tell you that first thing this morning I suggested to Dan that he turn on the television. We actually have not watched ANY television since we’ve been here. Well, okay, we’ve watched about 15-20 episodes of “House” and a few movies on our laptop, but nothing ON the television. It is all in Russian, you know. Yesterday morning, however, I was not really ready to be awake (hadn’t slept well) and we had a very energetic, ready to go, 10 year old. I’m pleased to say that just like kids are kids wherever you go, there are Saturday morning cartoons, too. Rebecca and Papa watched some cartoons while I finished waking up, checked e-mail, and made breakfast for the three of us. Today, incidentally, Dan said he didn’t want to make a habit of always turning on the television. (Can someone please go pick Dale up off the floor? I’m sure he’s in shock at both statements.)

Merry Christmas!

The fabulous, wonderful, God is AMAZING news is that Rebecca Valentina Myers is with us in Kiev tonight! The the judge executed our adoption decree immediately AND we were able to get her new birth certificate and passport all yesterday. This is truly our Christmas miracle!!!

Thank you for your prayers and please continue to lift us up. We will go to the medical center and the US Embassy for Rebecca’s exam on Monday.

When I originally wrote this blog, there were a number of email updates we sent to our family and friends that were not included on the blog for privacy and safety reasons. The post above is actually what we sent via email on Christmas Eve as we left Donetsk. The post that follows gives the full story beginning with our Christmas Eve court visit and continues through our travel back to Kiev and Christmas Day.

Ukraine update – Merry Christmas!
     This has indeed been a very unique Christmas. For those of you that are enjoying all our details, I will start with yesterday. Be forewarned – this is going to be a very, very long email. (Short version – we’re in an apartment in Kiev with Rebecca.)
     Dan and I started our day with the traditional Hotel Krystaal breakfast and then prayed together in our room before Sasha picked us up at 8:30 for the 9AM court hearing. In his car with him already were Victor, Rebecca and the representative from the orphanage. Sasha told Dan he should sit up front since he is the biggest which meant Victor sat in back with the orphanage representative, Rebecca and me. (Sasha’s car is about the size of a Honda Civic.) Luckily, the court house was only about 15 minutes away. Dan, Rebecca the rep and I went inside to wait while Victor and Sasha continued on to pick up the representative from the town inspector’s office. While we waited, in the almost totally dark hallway since the power was out, a man who looked like I thought a judge should look came out of an office and spoke briefly with the orphanage representative. The only words I understood were “nine” and “Victor,” so I guessed he was our judge. (I know, I know. After all my years working with attorneys, judges and mediators I shouldn’t have a stereotype of what a judge should look like, but I do… and he did! He was roughly 60 years old, 5’10” tall, had a rim of graying hair, and was dressed in a suit that was MUCH nicer than anything anyone else in the courthouse was wearing.) Victor arrived with the woman from the inspector’s office just before 9:00 and we were called to enter the courtroom around 9:10. They started by reading from our official paperwork (our names, her name, etc.) and then asked Dan to approach the podium. He confirmed his name, that we were aware of Rebecca’s history and that we wanted to adopt her. Next was my turn… same questions plus “have we maintained a relationship with the child?” The judge asked the two jurors and the woman from the inspector’s office if they had any questions and no one made a peep. That was my cue to step in with the big request. “Your honor, if it pleases the court and you are pleased with our petition, we respectfully request the immediate execution of the order. We would like to take Valya (her Ukrainian nickname to show we really did know the kid and have a good relationship with her) to the United States as soon as possible to begin her schooling and medical treatment.” The female juror nodded like any good mom would and the judge spoke briefly. That’s when Victor leaned over to us and said, “Your petitions have been granted.” We carefully resisted the urge to squeal, cheer and jump up and down, but did give Rebecca huge hugs and kisses. God is amazing! Court was over by 9:20.
     Sasha drove the three of us back to wait at our hotel while Victor obtained the official court decree and made copies. So what do you do in a hotel room with a 10 year old you can only moderately communicate with? Play Uno! We left the deck we’d been playing with at the orphanage for the children, but brought a spare for ourselves thinking we might have some blocks of extra time. Victor called about an hour later and asked us to be ready in 5 minutes. That was the beginning of our paperwork marathon. We have been staying in a little town called Enakieva, but Rebecca was actually born in Gorlovka. It’s about a 30 minute drive and a big enough town that you can probably find it on a map. There was even a page written about Gorlovka in the Ukraine travel book we brought along with us from home. We needed the vital records office to issue a new birth certificate that changed her name and listed us as parents. Oddly to us, the people at the vital records office are in the office on Thursday’s, but do not have any dealings with the public. This is the part where all Victor’s legwork and previous work in this region came in very handy. He had called ahead and asked a friend to do a favor for us. She unlocked the door of the building for us and gave Victor a form to fill out. He quickly did that and we waited. I should describe the vital records office to you so you can get a better idea of our 90 minutes there. The building appears to have been built in the 1950’s and has a very large entrance/reception area (we estimate 45’ x 80’) with age-appropriate tile floors and floor to ceiling windows on three sides. It had a unique little area in the center that looked like maybe it was supposed to be a fountain (sunken kiddie pool) but now had potted plants in it. We were supposed to stay near the back of the room where a wide staircase led to the actual office so passersby wouldn’t notice we were inside and, lest you get comfy in this picture, there was no heat in the building. There was a thermometer on a bench that read 3C… yup, 37F INSIDE the building. We would have preferred to wait in Sasha’s car, but needed to stand watch and look desperate (I was told to be ready to cry at any point during the day) to encourage them to make the certificate. Other than getting really cold, we all did pretty well waiting and were on to the next leg of our journey. Victor said our time was running tight to make the two hour drive to Donetsk and, as you can imagine, there was not room in Sasha’s car for all five of us and our luggage, so it was time to divide and conquer. Sasha called his friend Sergey who met us along the road and Dan switched cars. The plan was for him to go back to the hotel with Sergey, pick up the luggage and go to the train station in Donetsk to buy tickets for the overnight train. They did exactly that and arrived at the train station around 3:30 to find no 2nd class tickets. (Victor considers 3rd class unsafe for tourists and 1st class too expensive. At about $100 per ticket I agree.) Victor spoke (via Dan’s phone) to the ticket agent and instructed Dan to leave some money with her. At 5:30 they release the cancelled tickets and leaving our money with her would make us first in line. Since you know we made the train, you know the woman found us tickets all together – important because there are 4 beds in each compartment. Rebecca and I did not have as simple an afternoon, but it was wonderfully productive. Actually, now that I reflect on it, all she and I did was sit in the car… sometimes it was moving and sometimes we were waiting with Sasha for Victor, but all we had to do until we got to the train station was sit. I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version without all the waiting. Our first stop upon arriving in Donetsk (big city… made me think of Boston) was at a notary’s office for certified copies. We left there at 2:15 and didn’t arrive at the passport office until 3:30. I’m really not sure how far we traveled between the two, but am quite certain I have seen traffic in Manhattan move faster. We passed countless typical buildings and a few car dealerships as well as the new Donbass Arena. Apparently Donetsk has a world renowned soccer team and they have a shiny new arena. I really felt like we’d been driving all day when we got to the passport office, but will admit time was probably magnified by the length of time since I’d last seen a meal… or a bathroom. Rebecca was incredibly patient the whole ride and while we waited. She spent a while taking pictures out the car window and then asked for Dan’s iphone. She played not only Uno like he had showed her but also found 4 or 5 of his other games. She asked me for help and I had to tell her I didn’t know how to play most of them. As he does for every place we go, Victor had called ahead to the passport office and made sure they would be open when we arrived. He was inside for a while, close to an hour I think, and we waited in the car. (Neither Dan nor I had to go inside because we’d previously filled out paperwork with a Ukrainian notary that authorized Victor to request it on our behalf.) Rebecca was happily snoring in the backseat next to me by this point using my backpack for a pillow and sweet Sasha went to a nearby stand and bought some peanuts that he shared with me. He offered to get me a drink, too, but I didn’t dare drink anything. (In case you’re wondering, even though there wasn’t time for lunch, Rebecca and I did snack some along the way.) Once Victor emerged from the office with the coveted passport I quickly confirmed that Rebecca’s birth date and new name were correct and we were back out in traffic. (Poor Dan. He was at the train station with Sergey by this point and really had nothing to do. Thankfully, we have two Ukrainian cell phones and I could text him with updates, but he was painfully bored. They went to a restaurant together but realize that Sergey speaks no English and Dan knows only enough Russian to play Uno and say “thank you.” Even though I wasn’t really doing anything, I understood how helpless he felt.) Okay, back to me... and Rebecca. ;0) Victor went to one more government office (I really don’t know what it was for) and then we found the wonderful, blessed golden arches. I have never been so happy to see a McDonald’s in my entire life… not only do they serve food that I recognize, but they have complimentary bathrooms with toilets I recognize. Ahhh, McNuggets. You have to pay for BBQ sauce and ketchup, but I did not care. Sasha, Victor, Rebecca and I sat down to enjoy our meals and we took cheeseburgers to Dan at the train station. We waited for just a few minutes at the train station and boarded our train around 6:30 for a 7:20 departure. After all our “Groundhog Days” it was a very, very long day, but God blessed us more than we could have ever imagined. We have heard so many accounts of horrible delays for countless reasons and were more than ready to sing the Hallelujah Chorus multiple times throughout the day. There are so many people with seemingly small parts in this process and any one of them can bring it to a screeching halt. God is good… all the time!


Christmas Day – we awoke today not to a Christmas tree, but to the gentle motion of the train. We all slept some, but were awake well before 6:30AM. Our train arrived right on time in Kiev and we were off on our next day’s journey. Our apartment is only about a half mile from the train station, so we saved a few grivna, skipped the taxis and walked. What’s better than walking through the streets of Kiev at dawn with your luggage? Walking through the still icy, but starting to melt slushy streets! It really wasn’t that bad… just couldn’t resist the descriptors. You can visualize the four of us trudging carefully along trying not to slip on ice, towing suitcases, and avoiding little streams of runoff as we crossed each street. We are on the second floor again, but have a different apartment than when we arrived. This one is a bit more per night, but has a functional kitchen, washing machine and fold out sofa for Rebecca to sleep on. (We thought she’d like that.) We stayed at the apartment just long enough to drop off our luggage, inventory the accommodations and Dan was able to take a shower. (No time for girls to shower, we’re too slow.) Victor called a taxi and we were at the medical center before their scheduled 9:00 opening. Hmmm, there’s no one else waiting. Victor finds that odd. He poked around a bit and found a doctor who told him they are closed today and could not do Rebecca’s medical exam. (I’m putting that in my “I don’t get it” category. If the office is closed, why are they there?!) The doctor was nice enough to review her paperwork, though, and told us we should have no problem if we come back on Monday morning. That’s our plan now. Monday morning will be the medical exam followed by the US Embassy. Typically, the Embassy will issue a visa the next day (Tuesday) and we will be able to all fly home together on Wednesday. We’ll have three flights instead of the two that were originally scheduled, but we were supposed to fly on Tuesday. Two problems with that: 1- we’re not likely to have her visa and 2 – there were no more seats on Tuesday’s flights. It will mean a full 24 hours traveling, but we’ll just keep praying and continue trusting God to go before us each and every step.

     Okay, so now what? What do you do on Christmas Day in a foreign country that doesn’t celebrate for two more weeks when it’s just barely above freezing? You go to the circus. Nope, never imagined I’d be writing that. After we left the medical center we wandered a bit and considered a mall, but it wasn’t open yet. Victor was pointing out significant buildings and we came upon the circus around 9:20. They had a performance at 10 and it was warm and dry, so for just over $10 each we went to the circus. It was a circus like you see in old movies complete with clowns, acrobats and a dancing bear – entertaining, but probably not PETA approved. Don’t worry, they didn’t do anything overtly cruel, some of the animals just didn’t look… happy. The dogs and the bear did, though. There were 3 big white dogs who took turns riding in a cart behind the bear’s motorcycle. Yes, after he danced, the bear drove a motorcycle! Rebecca has never been to a circus, or a city like Kiev for that matter, so she’s enjoyed the day quite a lot. After the circus, on our way to lunch, we stopped at a big park and saw Santa Claus (or maybe it was Papa Frost? He was wearing blue instead of red.) in a little log cabin. There were 10 or so other children and I think there must be a corporate sponsor because all the kids got to talk to him and have a photo taken for free. They also received a small cat shaped cake (dusted with sugar… tasted a little like gingerbread) in a box like a Happy Meal would have. I think our lunch today was Dan’s highlight meal of the trip – even better than the first time at the hotel’s restaurant. We ate at TGIFriday’s. The menu isn’t quite as extensive as ours, but they had all the basics including cheeseburgers and potato skins as well as an English menu and English-speaking server. All four of us were stuffed and happy when we left! On the way back to the apartment we stopped at two grocery stores and got to experience one of the much talked about, packed like sardines, Kiev buses. Victor will act as tour guide for us tomorrow and we’ll do a bit of sightseeing, but we’ll be on our own Sunday. He will need to translate all Rebecca’s paperwork and medical records both for the US Embassy and so we have copies we can understand to take home with us. I’m sure we’ll get out some, but just like at home it is often easier and almost always less expensive to eat at home.

     Wow, I’ve written a lot today, but I’ve stopped more than a few times to make snacks for dinner, help Rebecca take a shower, etc. (I didn’t really help, just made sure she knew where/what everything was. She seems very independent.) Tim is still excited to have a sister and even more so now that there is some sort of timetable to her arrival. He and Carey both heard and greeted me on the phone today. Ahhh, there’s no place like home and I can’t wait to get there.

           Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night.