Back online again

Hello!

Sorry for the quick absence over the past few days. We were so excited to find an internet cafe, we thought surely there would be no reason we couldn't post a quick update everyday. Well, it is actually a funny story.

Tuesday afternoon we came downtown, while the kids were napping and we couldn't visit with them anyway, and all the windows and doors of the internet cafe were closed tight. It looked like the business had completely shut their doors! Hmmm...interesting. We had other errands to do with our paperwork, and then decided to look around for another internet cafe. We finally found out that every internet cafe that day would be closed because the tax police were in town!!! They were supposedly "in repair" during the time the tax police were here.

So, Wednesday, we went downtown, hopefully also to get into the internet cafe, unsure of how long the tax police would be here. Well, the taxi driver told our translator that they were still here, and he wasn't sure how much would be open at the market. Sure enough, only about 10% of the stalls were open for business. A few that were open, were quickly being packed up for the day when we walked by! And, of course, the internet cafe was still closed for repairs.

Today, Thursday, apparently the tax police have left the town. Everything is back up and running again, so here I am! I won't make any promises about my frequency coming back, as I have no idea how often the tax police check on things in town!

Let's see, where to start. First of all - more delays. As I mentioned in my last post, our paperwork had gone to Kiev to the National Adoption Center with Kostya. We were a little concerned because the lawyer that we are working with here in town warned us that the previous 2 American couples had waited 5 and 10 days for their paperwork to be processed at the NAC instead of the 3 days they are supposed to do things in. We heard from Kostya last night that the NAC was back-logged, and were predicting that our paperwork wouldn't be available until Friday or Monday. We are still praying for a miracle, that it will be done today still, but it isn't looking good. Not having that paperwork means we can't go to court tomorrow, as we had planned. And, so once again, we wait. Right now, not exactly knowing when we'll get the paperwork from the NAC, we can't predict our timeline. If we get the paperwork Friday, we'll be in court Monday. If we get it Monday, we'll be in court Tuesday. The problem, however, is that the Embassy only processes visas Monday-Thursday in Kiev. So, with a court date early in the week, and birth certificates to get (in two different towns, two different oblasts (states)) we have a lot of work to do before the embassy appointment. We are currently predicting we'll be flying home around the 25th, but that is simply a guess at this point.

The kids have been asking us everyday when they can leave with us, and when we're going home. They are getting quite excited I think. One of the American couples that has been here had their court appointment yesterday, and left with the kids yesterday afternoon. Our kids were really interested and excited to see their friends go, because they knew that very soon it would be their turns!

So, this post will simply be a bunch of details and information about our last few days here....(with of course some pictures!)

As some of you know, we are members of FRUA (Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption). They sent $75 with us to purchase requested supplies for the orphanage where our kids are from. The director of the orphanage requested toilet paper, soap and shampoo, so the other day we went shopping. It is amazing how much $75 can buy here - we ended up with 150 rolls of toilet paper, 200 bars of soap, 2 bags of laundry detergent, 10 bottles of regular shampoo and 47 bottles of kids' no tears shampoo! It was quite the heavy load to bring into the orphanage. We hope it blesses the kids still waiting for their forever families! Thank you FRUA!


Thank you FRUA! Here we are with our huge pile of donations we were able to present to the orphanage director.

Over the past few days we have found out a little more about our children's biological parents. They are both from Moldova (Moldavia). There are also 2 additional siblings, both of which are not available for adoption. Jakov is 18 and actually getting married soon. Anna is 14 and lives with her aunt in a nearby town. We had to travel to that town to pick up some paperwork that verified that they were not only not involved with our kids, but also weren't available for adoption themselves. The NAC is very careful not to split apart siblings, which we are happy to hear. Anyways, our trip to this town in Ukraine meant we actually had to drive through Moldova! So, we've been to Moldova! It was interesting at the border crossings - the police just looked in the car to see how many of us there were, gave us a piece of paper that had that number written on it, and then flagged us through. However, several cars were stopped and thoroughly searched. As we were driving through Moldova, there were armed soldiers in the fields along the road. I'm not sure if we were allowed to get out of the car, but we didn't!

Two days ago we went to the Medieval Fortress here in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. Belgorod-Dnestrovsky is 2500 years old! It was founded by people from the Middle Eastern town of Milet. They built the city on the mouth of the Tiras river (now called the Dniester) and called it Tira. At the fortress grounds you can see the excavations from ancient Tira dating from the 6th century BC! In the 13th and 14th centuries a fortress was erected under the Princes of the Moldovan Principality. There was originally a Turkish mosque on the grounds. Since then, the town has been occupied by Romans, Crimean Khan and Soviets. The fortress was an amazing thing to see - we were there probably 2 hours and could have spent more time. The fortress is built on the mouth of the river, and on the other 3 sides, is surrounded by a moat 20m deep and 13.5m wide! The total length of the defense walls is 2.5 km. The height of the walls and towers is up to 15m and the walls are up to 5m thick! The walls of the fortress were strengthened by 34 towers - probably about 6-7 of those towers still surive.


The main entrance of the fortress. The entrance fee for the fortress was 1 grivna - about 20 cents!


One of the many towers of the fortress.


Looking through one of the doorways of the fortress out onto the huge field.

The previous two days we have had fun at the local market buying items for the children. When we finally get to pick them up from the orphanage for good, they can't take anything with them. We are buying each of them backpacks, shoes, underwear, hats and clothing. It has been like Christmas, I am sure, for the kids the past two days when we arrive with our purchases. They have been so excited, and it is a little bit of a struggle to convince them that they can't keep the items right now. They do understand, however, they can have them very soon, and are quite anxious to come home!


This afternoon, our two oldest kids are on an orphanage outing for older children - they are riding dirt bikes at some mountain nearby. Needless to say, their mother isn't overly thrilled with this idea, and thinking it will take some time to get used to all these big kid things! John also keep reminding me that I need to get used to having boys around - boys that will collect grimy, creepy, crawly things - boys that will run, jump, climb anything!!! Whew - I think I'll need to start watching for gray hairs!

Mariyana and Oleysa


My almost-teenager! (pictures taken by Oleysa!)




Oleysa playing ball with Mama. She is wearing her new backpack that we bought for her - it was quite the negotiation to get it off when it was time to go!


The kids enjoying bananas and juice boxes we brought for snack.


Vanya "flying" with Papa.


Vanya playing with a balloon we brought for each of the kids.


Sasha can be pretty shy, and likes to play by himself at times. He will often draw and write while we are there with the kids.


Sasha is also a little climber. The other day, while we were playing ball, it ended on the roof of the shelter. He shimmied his way up the pole, climbed on the roof and got it down without a second thought. Needless to say, his mother's heart was pounding a little!


Well, - that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed it! We'll see you again soon! Thanks for signing our guestbook - we love reading the entries from you all!

Love, Kristen, John, Mariyana, Sasha, Vanya and Oleysa