Here Comes The Sun

Wow, an absolutely beautiful day here in Ukraine, clear blue sunny skies and temperatures in the 80's, so after a quiet morning we met up with Alex (the apartment guy) and took a walk in town and down to the park and river.  We took a ton of photos of the kids, park, bungee jumping off the bridge that spans river that runs through town, karate pictures for Dylan and I, and just had a generally nice day outdoors.  The kids are all getting along well in general and with each other and had a great day.  Afterwards we found a good pizza place and ate lots of pizza, fries and cola, then back to the flat to settle in for the evening.  Alex found a fan for us to use so we're comfortable with the windows closed as the recent rains have brought out the mosquitos!  Seems like the days ahead are filling up as our adoption adventure nears an end.  Thank you for your continued prayers for the days to pass quickly and positively as our family prepares to return home.

Lost In Translation

OK, today ended a lot better than yesterday, we are truly thankful for so many people who prayed and encouraged.  More concerns throughout the day but we ended up connecting for dinner with the lady who had accompanied the hosting trip last summer and were able to have a long conversation with Kayleigh and Michael.  We are still keeping an eye open and staying alert (Dylan and I being martial artists, we have eyes on all sides of our head and use The Force :) but were able to get a (hopefully) clearer picture of the recent going ons and where things stand, which gave us a lot of piece of mind.  We were also able to continue to communicate to them how happy we are that they are now our children, and part of our family, and how much we really care about and love them.  I believe we are an answer to prayer both ways!  It continues to surprise us at how these two orphans from the other side of the world are actually like us!  I am watching Kayleigh and Alyssa listening to music on the Kindle as I type, it's like two sisters that have been sisters forever.  Which in this case is crazy silly weirdo sisters ;)

I think it was a great talk for the kids , knowing that our concerns were for their well being, that we do care that much for them, and that they're not being singled out at all, we would do the same for our other three kids as well.  I think it was a huge blessing to be able to have them talk with someone they've known for awhile and trust so we could be open in our concerns and they in turn could be open in answer, knowing that we just want what's best for them and our family, and that we love them very much.  It's amazing to give a great big hug to two kids that haven't gotten them for a long time, and for it to feel as natural as hugging our three biological kids.  That is an awesome feeling.   We will be glad once the holidays (government offices closed through Wednesday) here are over to finish up paperwork and get in the plane.  I don't think I'll truly relax at all until we're sitting in that 737 watching Kyiv shrink below us.

The Thief Comes To Steal...

Today's blog is a hard one to write as today wasn't a good day.  I won't go into great deal as this is a public forum (you are welcome to inquire individually) but please pray for Kayleigh and Michael and our family.  Our adoption is finalized and this is awesome, and we have had nothing but good times with our kids, but today wasn't a good day for them due to some other factors.  It was a rather somber evening for awhile, but the heavenly provision of Coca Cola and Snickers and a lot of hugs seems to have brought some restoration to their spirits.  Please pray that the bruises of today are healed with a good nights sleep, a family that loves them very much, and for peace of mind and safety as we finish up and fly home.  And, that tomorrow will be a better day.  They deserve it.

The End Of The Beginning

Back in March right before our departure for Ukraine, Dylan and I tested for our black belts in Tae Kwon Do.  Of the many wise things we learned in our 4 year journey from white to black belt, is that black belt is not a destination, but the true beginning of our martial arts journey.  Or, as I have dubbed it, the end of the beginning.  We are now at the end of the beginning in our adoption journey.  Today was the final day of our 10 day waiting period so our adoption should be finalized and a done deal.  Due to tomorrow being a weekend and holidays next week, we won't be able to get the piece of paper from the court until Thursday to go get Kayleigh and Michael's new birth certificates and officially check them out from the orphanage, but no one has called saying there's any problem and we're trusting that God will deliver these kids to us as we have always felt He intended to do.  The orphanage is allowing us to spend as much time with them as we desire in the meantime so tomorrow really marks the end of the "we are going to adopt you" phase of our journey, and the beginning of the "YOU ARE OURS!" phase of life.  We are so excited as a family to welcome Kayleigh and Michael to our family and to truly make them ours.  We spent a few hours with them at the orphanage today and get the distinct feeling they are ready to join our family for real as well.  We can tell it has been hard for them to wait since our arrival in Ukraine for us to be able to take them home and we can see many different emotions in them as they come to a truly huge change of their entire life.  Kayleigh once again (half jokingly) got in the car when we were leaving tonight, it will be so very nice to have her climb in, and be able to just close the door with her IN the car, surrounded by her and Michael's new forever family!

Uha Pachinya! (ear cookie!)

For those who know me, I have a way with getting small children wound up.  I'll be the first one to admit that I frequently instigate trouble by sticking out my tongue, winking, or making a silly face.  However, I am quite convinced I give off some sort of invisible signal of sorts that just makes kids go crazy, kind of like catnip.  We go to the orphanage and there are a bunch of kids outside, since the weather has turned nice for spring (finally!).  Bam, 15 small kids all run up, big smiles, hugs, you name it.  The frenzy has begun!  In fairness to me, I did nothing to get them all fired up, I guess just being the novelty and paying any attention will do the trick!  So, naturally, my response is to start up the ear cookie game.  I'm the ear cooky (uha pachinya) monster looking for ear cooky snacks.  Bam, non-stop chasing around the playground.  And on... and on... and on....  So much fun.  Ended up with two, Sasha and Yaha, glued to me until they had to go to class.  Then to the soccer field for more fun.  My thumb, arm and back have been bum for a couple months now but I can't help myself.  I'll heal up when I get home!  Tomorrow is the final day of our 10 day waiting period, barring the unexpected, they'll be ours for good!  With the weekend and holidays next week we're not sure what day we'll get the official decree from the court and take them from the orphanage for good, but we'll be able to at least know it's a done deal :)  Shopping plane tickets for our flights home, looks like May 9th will be the day.  We can tell that Kayleigh and Michael are more than ready to get out of there.  We are more than ready to make that reality.

I'm The Ice Cream Man...

It was an absolutely georgeous day here in Zhytomr today, probably around 70 degrees farenheit and sunny, first day with no coat or even a fleece!  Good night sleep, took care of some administrivia.  We went to one of our faves for lunch, had some stuffed chicken thingy with rice which was good (as always).  Went out to the orphanage to hang out with the kids, with the weather being much better now we usually are outside for the whole visit at the soccer pitch and playground.  We are seeing a lot more other kids coming outside nowadays with the weather improving, so have been able to meet a lot more kids.  Being "the Americans" we draw a lot of interest, and the kids are eager to try out their english.  LOL, me too, as I'm getting used to just using Ukranian (at least what I've got to use....).  Some kids just run up and give us hugs now, it's so sweet.  Others we recognize from other days we've come, they love it when we remember their names, and laugh at our efforts to speak in Ukranian (if you spoke Ukranian, you'd understand, we're pretty funny....).  Letting my back rest so skipped soccer which is good, some of the older boys were out today and when they shoot on goal, it's like the ball is being fired from a cannon.  Amazing.  Walked over to the small market nearby the orphanage for ice cream, they have these cones with awesome toppings, fruit filling and chocolate at the bottom of the cone that are just fantastic.  8 of 10 days down on the waiting period so we're just about done with the adoption.  It may not be until next Thursday to get the official docs from the court as next week is a holiday here in Ukraine, so we're checking flights back on May 9th to give us the time we need to get all their papers in order to travel.  In the meantime we'll just keep chugging along and spending time with Kayleigh and Michael until we can make the final trip to the orphanage and take them for forever :)

Coming Down The Mountain

Today was pretty routine (in a good way).  Got up, had some coffee, connecting via the magic that is the internet.  It's still strange to catch people as they're going to bed, when we're just getting up!  Ate lunch at the flat, went out to the orphanage to spend time with Kayleigh and Michael at the orphanage.  Got the soccer balls out and kicked them around for awhile.  Came home and had dinner.  Pretty routine for now until the adoption finalizes and we bring them "home" with us as they have school until 2pm at the orphanage and still have to go to class.  Today feels different though.  Each day we've been working to get them adopted and to get situated and settled here in Zhytomr while we go through the adoption process.  Now it feels like we're shifting to talk of taking them home with us, preparing to get their new paperwork, and to fly home to Texas.  We did all the stuff we had to when we got here, all the paperwork to complete the dossier for court, had our court date.  Now we're 7 days into the 10 day waiting period to finalize, then it's new birth certificates, passports and visas!  While we have truly enjoyed the adventure that has been our adoption trip, I can tell that we're starting to look forward to wrapping this up and going home with our new extended family!  And for those who have inquired, I fixed the PayPal button on our blog page so that's back up and working, thanks :)

Wheels On The Bus

We continue to get to know our home away from home while we wait for the adoption process to complete.  Nothing more left for us to do until it finalizes and then we run around getting papers.  So today we adventured again and took the bus for the first time.  We connected with Alex, our musician landlord (and incredibly cool guy) who showed us first where the post office is (we've been walking by it...) and then our first bus ride.  Buses here aren't like ones in America, they're usually glorified vans or short buses like churches have.  We're just going down the main drag to Global UA (the mall with the McDonalds and the ice rink).  The trick is to find one that isn't too crowded and hop on!  The trip worked out well, and I was duly rewarded with a Big Mac meal :)  Yummy.  We picked up some soccer balls for our trips to the orphanage.  I sat out today's trip as my back has been giving me trouble, but I hear, as good as the kids there can play with the half inflated dead ball or worn out volleyball they've been using, they're scary good with an actual soccer ball!  More and more kids each trip come over and hang out or talk with us, or play soccer or tag.  It's been fun to meet more and more kids, yet sad that when we leave with our two, as awesome as that will be, it will also mean leaving the rest behind.

A Day Of Rest

OK, I have to say we really didn't do anything today, just enjoyed a day of rest which was nice.  This coming week will (hopefully) probably be pretty routine, visiting Kayleigh and Michael while we wait for the final 5 days to count off to finalization of our adoption.  It's always fun to see them and hard to leave them at the orphanage each day, but very exciting that those days are quickly coming to an end, and the day quickly arriving when we'll load them in a van and they will leave the orphanage for good, not as two orphans, but as Kayleigh and Michael Tansey, two of the five precious and loved children of Chris & Jodi Tansey :)

Please join us in praying the coming week goes good and fast, for the finalization of our adoption, for airfares to not be too high for our return flights (we're already staying probably two weeks longer than planned), and for my back (it misses good chairs and beds and is being a pain (literally). 

5 Of A Kind?

We spent the day with the kids and kept it close to home.  We're in that quiet time where we've been to court and our legal adoption approved, and are now just waiting for the adoption to finalize.  However our current reality isn't really much like reality.  We've adopted them but are still here in their homeland.  After the adoption finalizes we'll run around to get their new birth certificates, passports and visas, and undoubtedly the reality of leaving Ukraine will set in as we go to Kyiv to finalize paperwork and fly to America.  So we're focusing on spending time with them just being a family and trying to allow them to get comfortable with us.  So far it just about borders on unreal (in a good way!).  We slept in, ate breakfast, played some games, then went and played outside for awhile.  Out for pizza dinner, then home, where we settled in for a family card game night.  The apex was playing card games and murder wink for a long time.  Five kids who have just been joined together as a family hysterically laughing and playing together as if they'd been brothers and sisters their whole life.  I had to lose first a bunch just so I could watch :)  One of our concerns was that Michael (Andriy) had always seemed quiet, never smiling in the photos we saw prior to coming to Ukraine.  We had accepted in advance that he would probably take a lot longer to break through with than Kayleigh (Masha) had when she came to America on her hosting trip last summer.  The reality has been quite the opposite.  He is a very sweet young man who smiles and laughs easily, is already teaming up with Dylan to make quite the brotherly duo, and has this giggly laugh that cracks us all up.  It has been so great to see him open up and jump right on in to our family.  God is seriously at work here!

TGIF

We just had a nice day with the kids. Went to the orphanage to round them up and ran into a couple guys from Missionaries Without Borders (I think I got it right). The guy said hello as I was walking by, so naturally I responded with hello in Ukrainian. He then talked more in english which actually caught me by surprise. I've gone from feeling like hearing Ukrainian is weird to thinking hearing english is weird since we get very little of it here! They were very excited about our adoption. Spent some time hanging out with the kids then did lunch, more hanging out and actually took naps today. Michael slept for quite awhile which was nice, not sure how much he gets to do that. Played more tag and ninja (I do pretty good at tag but stink at ninja...) then the girls cooked pasta and mashed potatoes for dinner. Sounds simple except when you figure in the directions on potatoes box are in Ukrainian.... (ok, we got lucky, their instant so boiling water and stirring can be done in ANY language :) Now just relaxing for the evening. Seven days left for the adoption to finalize, then we'll get new birth certificates showing their new names (and parents!), passports, visas etc, and make our way home to Texas! We'll hit a couple weekends and holidays as we wrap up here which will slow down our departure, so ballparking a departure date of May 9th. That is a guess but where I am betting my lunch money ;) Thanks for all the prayers and nice notes, we appreciate hearing from people!

2 down, 8 to go...

Today was fun and nice and not too crazy. Slept in and hung out at the flat. Kayleigh and Michael still have school until 2pm (and probably a good dose of short timer syndrome...) so we went out to the orphanage in the afternoon. Went inside but right back outside as the weather had gotten pretty nice. Messed around a lot on the soccer field, some tag, took a walk around. A lot of other kids came out and played soccer and tag as well. We've gotten acquainted with a number of other kids as well so it's a lot of fun to talk with them (with our 20 Ukrainian words we know ;) and joke around, we can usually get the point across and have a great time! After visiting went back into town to our favorite pizza place and had dinner. Mistimed the oncoming thunderstorm and got soaked on the walk home (in fairness, we didn't know it was coming!). Now just relaxing before we go to bed for the night. Enjoying being the father of 5 now :)

1 down, 9 to go...

Now that our court appointment has been done and the petition for adoption granted (Yea!!), we're now in the 10 day waiting period for the adoption to finalize. Today is day 1 of that 10 day period. Airfare costs (not to mention the week it takes to adjust to the 8 hour time difference) make it more sensible for us to just hang out and wait. We can get some paperwork ready for when the adoption has finalized, and visit Kayleigh and Michael (now their legal names, we're still trying to get used to them...) each day until they climb into the car and leave the orphanage for the last time! Today was pretty bland comparatively, we slept in, lounged, ate a late breakfast, and went to the orphanage for awhile. Took a walk for ice cream, played soccer and card games, played tag, more tag (Michael is small but he can sure motor!), walked around to where there is a litter of puppies (Alyssa is ready to stash one in her carry on....), and back to the flat for dinner. Weather wasn't bad, but I tell you I am SO ready for warm Texas weather! And BBQ. Did I mention I miss BBQ?

Well, yeah, today was a good day :)

Today was a very big day as we went for court and it happened! Our court time was for 9:00am so we got there early, went through security and were the first case for the day. The judge and two witnesses, prosecutor (person who represents the government), our family, facilitator, and the social worker and attorney. And a big stack of our paperwork! The process went along well, we were very happy with very positive recommendations from all involved so the whole thing went smoothly, and shortly after 10am (ok, 10:16am to be exact) the court awarded us our two new kids!

There's a ten day waiting period for it to finalize so we'll keep on visiting the kids as we have before until that time runs it's course and they are forever ours. With the way the ten days runs its course with weekends, days that the government works (or doesn't) and Ukranian holidays, it'll be 3 weeks until wheels up for America. That's a bit longer than we were hoping for but at least it's not freezing like February, so we'll enjoy the ride and be home before we know it.

We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support given to our family in so many ways. It makes the journey a lot more fun and the challenges a lot smaller. Thank you!

Chris, Jodi, Bekah, Alyssa, Kayleigh, Dylan and Michael Tansey :)

10:16 AM April 17, 2012

At 10:16 AM UDT on April 17th, 2012, we became the legal parents of Kayleigh Mariya Tansey (Masha) and Michael Andrew Tansey (Andriy). It is a good day!

Both kids had requested new names and opted to have a new first name, their Ukranian first name as their middle name, and our last name. Court went well with strong approvals by all parties and no opposition to the adoption. Now we have the 10 day waiting period for the adoption to finalize, then more paperwork and then the journey home!

3rd Time is the charm (I hope...)

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 will be our 3rd attempt to have court for our adoption. The judge ended up being unavailable for the first two scheduled times last Thursday and Friday, so we are definitely in prayer (feel free to join in :) that we'll get our day in court and be able to legally adopt Masha and Andriy in the morning.

Had a fun day with them today as always. Light breakfast then we ended up walking around our area here in Zhytomr, as it was a beautiful day, mid 60's and sunny (I am more than ready for the 80's in Texas though....) There's a real nice walking boulevard near one of the universities here in town that leads down to the river. Found some great areas for Dylan and I to take martial arts pictures and videos. Bought cotton candy from a street vendor. Hit our favorite pizza joint here in town (Mario Pizza, we highly recommend it), great as always. Then we ran by Eko (grocery store) for some food and such and back to hanging out with the kids at the flat.

Our three existing and two soon to be kids continue to get along amazingly well. I watch them hang out with each other and interact in our few "regular" days and they really fit in like they've always been here. They laugh and smile easily, get silly and play games (even our stupid family games like ear cookie monster) and communication continues to be really just not that hard for the basics. The Fab 5 is getting ready to ride!

Mucho Dobra

LOL. We've spent all day yesterday and today with the kids and had a great time. Went to Easter service at the baptist church this morning, keep getting blessed with someone who can translate. The choir was really, really good. Back home for brunch. It rained so no running around outside in the mud. Had fun playing games, vegging on the computer (enjoyed lots of music videos on Youtube :) Cooked dinner and now just playing card games. It's a hilarious blend of games we or they know, english and ukrainian, all blended together! We use Google Translate on occasion but for the vast majority of our communication, we just go for it and it works out. Both Masha and Andriy have proven to be very bright so we, and they, catch on to what one or the other is trying to communication pretty quickly. Having a great time, hope we're not disturbing the neighbors too much! Court scheduled again for Tuesday 9:00am, praying the 3rd try for court is the charm!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! It's Easter for us in Ukraine this weekend as opposed to last weekend in the states. Spending the day with the kids. Nuff said :)

An un-ordinary ordinary day

We are spending today with the kids. There are no special events, appointments, paperwork, meetings, etc today. Just a pretty quiet Saturday that we're spending together here in Zhytomr. The kids got up, everyone got showered, breakfast of juice and pastries and fruit. Heading out to visit Andrei, the pastor in town we've gotten acquainted with. Then we'll return to the flat for lunch. Maybe some tag and ninja in the playground next to our flat. Dinner of some sort.

It is so fun to see the kids together, it still amazes us daily how instantly they've blended together. For anyone who knows our family, you know how well our three get along with each other, watch out for each other and care for each other. I have always wondered how adding the other two would affect that dynamic and the answer is it has only gotten better. Bekah, Alyssa and Dylan have taken them in like they've been family their whole life, and it's been like we've been a family of five kids all along. The girls painted nails, did hair and match outfits (our girls pre-planned this...). Andriy is already following Dylan around and Dylan has instantly embraced the big brother role. It is truly special to watch.

Our third attempt at being able to do our court date will be Tuesday. Our facilitator says our stuff is all good to go, just having to wait for the judge to be able to make the appointment. We are really, really praying this will happen Tuesday, as the court date has to happen to start the ten day clock for the adoption to finalize. In the meantime, we're getting pretty comfortable with being temporarily Ukrainian and are enjoying our break from the real world. Naturally, we will be ready to return home as soon as we can, we miss our home world and all that we have going on in it (especially sleeping in my own bed and BBQ!).

Zavtra Chotyry Razy (4 more days...)

And............ The judge is not available today so no court today. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm as we are now scheduled for Tuesday the 17th at 9:00am. So, we'll continue to enjoy our quaint little Ukrainian town and kids to be for a few more days! On the plus side the orphanage is allowing us to spend as much time as we want with Masha and Andriy, it's Easter weekend here for us in Ukraine (no chocolate bunnies though, we'll have to manage....) and it's not 20 degrees below zero, so we'll be fine. Please continue to pray for the court date to happen, everything documentation wise is good to go, we have all our approvals, everything. Just need the court date to happen so we can move forward!

Adoption Eve

Well, court was supposed to be today but the judge was unavailable so our court date was rescheduled to Friday (the 13th!) at 2:00pm UDT (Ukranian Daylight Time ;) Please pray with us that court happens as scheduled now, othewise it won't be until at least Tuesday due to the Easter holiday weekend (Easter is this weekend here for us...). We are ready to get 'er done!

Since no court, spent the day with the kids hitting the mall again for ice skating and lunch. Hit the grocery store for more krackle nail polish (no, not for me...). Our girls brought it to the orphanage the other day and it was a HUGE hit with Masha's friends, so we're bringing a bunch of bottles to them. Soccer balls are on the list to bring as well as they're using a half inflated chewed up volleyball for soccer (and STILL play very well...). Met up and delivered stuff to one of the Ukranian adopted kids living in Texas older sibling who lives here in Zhytomr (actually the 2nd older sibling of an adopted kid we know in Texas that we have met!) Very nice girl. Then back to the flat for the evening.

We'll try to get a good nights sleep tonight and will be praying hard for court to happen tomorrow so the countown to returning home with our new kids can begin!

3...2...1...1...1...

We're back online! Zhytomr once or twice a month shuts down internet service to update their systems and that whacked out the modem but fixed. No court today as the judge won't be in, so our court date will now be Friday the 13th at 2pm. We'll spend time with the kids today and go for it tomorrow! Please continue praying for all barriers to be moved aside and for a successful court date tomorrow!

Sputnik

Today was a run around day. Taking care of administrative family stuff (hey, the world didn't totally stop back home...) in the morning, and then we did lunch with our driver, Vitaly and his girlfriend Liana (spelling on both?). Went to a sushi place in the mall with the ice rink. I don't eat sushi but all the sushi eaters said it was very good. Then we went to see the kids and run around a bit with them, Vitaly suggested the space museum here in Zhytomr. It's a small one but has some very cool stuff in it on the Russian space program. Model of the Soyuz spacecraft and the actual Soyuz 27 capsule the cosmonauts returned to earth in, autographed by the two cosmonauts. It's really like a 5 foot round great big hollowed out ball bearing. The tour guide spoke good english, it was very interesting to hear the narration of the space program from the other side of the cold war perspective. Another analogy moment looking at the sputnik model (the thing wasn't that big in size...) in that this is what our two new kids will be doing. Getting in a plane and going to a whole new world. It has been a great experience for our family to be here and feel out of place as it gives us a good taste of what they will experience when they go to America. Then hung out with the kids at the flat for awhile more, google translated some to explain the next couple days, pizza for dinner and back to the orphanage and home. Thanks for your prayers, please pray that the official you can go to court papers are ready at the SDA today for our facilitator, so that we can have our court date on Thursday. It's almost here!

Spoons

We took the morning to get some rest as Dylan has been a touch under the weather (all better now). Went over to the orphanage this afternoon to see the kids. The weather is cold and wet (snowed last night) so it was a hang out indoors kind of day. When we do indoor visits to the orphanage, Masha prefers we hang out in their room. Usually we'll play games, it gives us a good opportunity to spend time that is not language intensive. Today the game started with us, then after a couple rounds, added a few of her friends from across the hall. The door to her room was open and we'd add a couple kids. Then a couple more. And a couple more! Even some boys I would have labeled as too cool to play ended up coming in and stayed for quite awhile, until it was time for them to leave for school. We ended up with nearly 20 kids playing two big games of spoons! No clever analogy tonight, it was just neat to see kids who probably rarely if ever get to be kids, get to be kids :) Said our goodbyes to our soon to be kids, Masha gave me a big hug and said "I love you". That'll work :)

After our visit back to the flat, we ventured and cooked a real dinner for ourselves tonight, chicken with mushrooms and pasta, fresh bread, turned out quite good. Cooking can be an adventure since we can't read directions, ingredients, etc., and rely on the pictures on the packaging. Relaxing now in anticipation of a great day with the kids tomorrow!

Pizza As A 2nd Language

We decided to go to church again this Sunday to the baptist church we had been led to last week. The music was really great, and the sermon good (at least as near as we can tell with the translation!). Off early to get the kids and back to the flat to get ready for church. The girls had a matching outfit for Masha to wear and a nice shirt for Andriy as well. Our pastor friend and his family gave us a lift to church. Fortunate to have translation again this week, a very nice young gal named Angelina, she was great! After church back to town for lunch. We went to a pizza place next to the movie theatre that we had been to once before. We liked it as the food was good and they had someone who spoke pretty good english. Lucky again today! A young man who was very friendly and translated for our waitress, so everything was what we wanted to order and very tasty again. All the kids enjoyed the pizza.

Ordering the pizza is a lot like figuring out what our new family will be like. A pizza is like a family, we all have our specific likes / dislikes / loves / ickies, but in the end we all love pizza! Bekah likes just cheese. Alyssa will eat anything. Dylan is more discerning in his tastes. Masha likes mushrooms but not pineapple. Andriy likes the meat pizza. We've spent a life learning our three kids and know them very well. This process will now start over as we learn Masha & Andriy, but no matter the specifics on the ingredients, we know they'll love being a part of our pizza :) So far it's a lot of guess and go but not bad at all. They are both older and we can tell pretty sharp, so between us and them, we usually have found a way to get the message across to each other. We are enjoying our time getting to know them so far and are looking forward to when the process of adoption is over, and we can just settle in as a family together :)

Muddy Shoes

Our Saturday started out as a Saturday should, sleeping in! Coffee, watching everyone go to sleep on Facebook as we were waking up and general lounging to just take it easy this morning. We went over to the orphanage for a few hours this afternoon but Dylan and I never made it in the building. Andriy was on the soccer field and came out to greet us (I love his big smile) and since he was playing soccer, I asked if Dylan and I could come over and play as well, which was answered with a big yes. It was a bunch of taking turns playing goal and shooting goals. I am happy to say that we repped America pretty well, I still have a decent shot that does this cool hook to the left (I kicked righty) into the lower left corner of the goal, and quite a lot of power. And I didnt pull any muscles :) We did this for quite awhile, some other boys joined in as well. One in particular, Roma (Raymond) has a cannon of a leg and I blocked about half of his shots, but he has this wicked topspin, so it's like a soccer split finger fastball coming atcha (really nice kid). No english needed, just a soccer ball (well, it was actually a volleyball) pointing and smiling.

Masha and the girls came out from playing inside after awhile, and we turned to tag in the sandy playground. More kids joined in as well, lots of fun, they are still quite curious of the Americans, but friendly and it takes nothing to get them to join in (tag, you're it worked pretty well....). Left the orphanage and had dinner then back to the flat for the evening.

Good Friday

Friday was good Friday, and a good Friday :) Actually where we are, there are two Easter Sundays as we're told. Because the population here is split right down the middle with orthodox and non-orthodox, this Sunday is Easter for the non-orthodox population and the orthodox celebrate Easter next Sunday. I see lots of egg dying stuff at the store but no chocolate bunnies

We picked up Masha and Andriy and went to McDonalds for lunch. It's better here as they make it when you order it, and I still think the cheese is better. The McDonalds is located in a mall called Global across town. After McDonalds we took the kids to the ice skating rink and let them have at it. All 5 had a great time and we get a big smile every time they pass by, except for Alyssa who tried to pretend I'm not there. Maybe it's the big faces I make? Jodi and I had a coffee at a little stand by the rink run by three young guys who were very funny and friendly (and spoke a bit of english). After skating the kids did pics in the picture booth and we window shopped until Vitaly came and picked us up. Dropped the kids back off and went back to the apartment for a pit stop.

Then we went out to Andrei and Natasha's house for dinner. Andrei is one of the pastors at the church we attended last Sunday. They have a nice home in a small village outside of Zhytomr that I can neither pronounce or spell. They have 3 teenagers themselves that are all adopted 11 years ago when they were little. We had a great time! We got to see lots of pictures of their family, they sang a couple songs before dinner, very yummy dinner of chicken, i think chicken salad, beet salad and lots of desserts (still haven't eaten anything we didnt like on this trip). Then we talked for quite awhile. Andrei's english is good enough to converse and we have a great time with this family. The kids played games together and had a lot of fun. Made it back to the flat around 11 or so and off to bed :)

No Clever Title Today

Sorry, I can't think of anything catchy to name today's entry! It was another fun and full day here in Zhytomr. Got up and showered (always a good start), and then we met up with Alex for lunch. Alex is the guy we are renting our apartment from here in Zhytomr. A number of adoptive families have rented his place and we highly recommend it. Plenty of space for us, good location close to anything you need, and Alex is a really great guy. A guitar player and musician which makes him instantly cool, he has been super considerate in helping us get our bearings here, and we are very comfortable in the apartment. Tried out a new Italian place a few blocks away, the lady who runs the place was very nice and the mushroom soup was awesome.

The we had a pit stop at the apartment after a quick run by the market for water, and off to the orphanage for some time with the kids. Walked to a small convenience store with them for ice cream, which was freak show good. It was a strawberry ice cream cone with almost like frosting on top, fruit filling in the middle and chocolate at the bottom. I could conceivably live on those. Along with Captain Crunch with crunch berries :) Then back for some games (Masha still kills us on a regular basis), and finished up with tag on the playground waiting for Vitaly (driver) to pick us up. Andriy is quite small for 13 but the boy has some wheels! Alyssa, well..... let's say she's excellent at dance!

The ride back to the apartment was fun. Vitaly, our driver, is amazingly good and would do well in NASCAR. It still amazes me that people here drive insane compared to America, but we have yet to see our first accident. I emailed him a picture of my Firebird which is probably more suited to his driving style. He is a very friendly man with a great sense of humor and we have been blessed to have him safely get us from point A to B during our stay :)

Settling in the apartment for the evening as we have another busy day planned for tomorrow. Please continue to pray over the adoption as things continue to progress well. Our paperwork is all done and with the SDA, we are told we have court on Thursday April 12th, so T-minus 1 week. We are very excited that the kids have gotten along so great with our family and are looking forward to them being ours for real. It is not far away.

A Day In The New Life

Today was a fun day with our soon to be new family members. We took them out for pizza for lunch which was a bit of an adventure. The pizza place has no english menus. We dont speak Ukranian too much. Staff dont speak english at all. We guess and point. Well, got 2 of 4 pizzas correct which is 50% correct. Could have been 66.6% correct except we had only tried to order 3 pizzas :) It was very good pizza so no worries :) Both kids like mushrooms. Masha does not like pineapple. Then went to Eko (supermarket) to pick up some fruit and other sundries, we keep the purchases smaller as we have to carry what we buy back to the apartment. Then back to the apartment to drop stuff off and hang out for a bit, chat with the kids using google translate. It helps a lot on more complex conversations at this point. We are still surprised at how well they are getting along and connecting with our family. They both smile a lot, let us hug them, and have senses of humor that jell well with our family. If you know our family, you know what I mean!

We then took a walk to the mall that is about a 10 minute walk from our flat. It's a 4 story building that houses mostly small kiosk style stores selling coats, purses, shoes, and underwear. It's amazing how many street vendors leading to the mall, and stores in the mall, sell underwear. I don't know, maybe they layer in the winter months here or something? We went to the cafe that one of the pastors of the church we went to Sunday has, but it was closed due to some fire code thing for the building as a whole, but ran into him on the escalator so got to spend some time with him anyway over a cappechino. Andrei is a wonderful man who has been very generous with his time (and great cafe by the way!), with a funny sense of humor and good heart. We have been totally blessed to connect with him and his family. If I lived here, I think he would be my best friend.

Then back to the apartment for a couple more hours with the kids, then back to the orphanage and home for the evening. The kids wrote "Boofishy" on the back of his rather dirty van in the morning, it was freshly washed for the evening drive :) Yes, I know you must ask, what is "Boofishy"? It is one of my nicknames for Bekah that she completely refutes. Can't win 'em all I guess ;)

We very much enjoyed our time with the kids today, we'll see them again tomorrow :) Paperwork is all done and submitted with the SDA in Kyiv, praying all goes smoothly in the process there in preparation for our court date which is anticipated to be next week. Please continue to join us in prayer that the process goes quick and smooth, so that we can complete the adoption and bring our new family members home. G'night!

Tag!

Another blessed day in our adoption journey. Got a good nights sleep, did some reading and karate practice (squished) in our apartment, and went to see the kids at the orphanage in the afternoon. Warm hugs and smiles, it still amazes us how quickly they have warmed up, especially Andriy as he had not met us before. Card games, drawing and we ended up in an impromptu game of tag in the large open area in the main school building by the main office. We tried to keep it on the quiet side and used the big pillars as hiding places. It was so much fun! Lots of smiles and laughs and hugs. Nothing kids love, need and want more than simple attention and love. We don't need to be rich or famous, speak Ukranian, bring mountains of gifts etc. All it took today was running around a big room and giving some attention. As we say, Question: how to you spell love? Answer: Time. Plans are set to pick them up tomorrow and go our for pizza and spend more time together.

Afterwards, we returned to our apartment and then hiked over to a pizza joint we saw the other day a few blocks from here. Lots of good food, the manager was super nice and spoke pretty good english, and was super nice. The movie theatre is next door and showing Hunger Games. Our girls saw the movie before we left the states, but we think we have to go see it just to see what it would be like in Ukranian. We are so far very much enjoying our adventure and spread our wings a bit more each day. Stopped by a small market on the way home to pick up some dried meat and bread, it was so weird as I remember this store and the person who helped us from a dream a few months back. Still thrilled at how good the food is and how nice the people are :)

ZZZ... zzz...

We pretty much just took a day off today. Slept in a bit, chilled at the flat (apartment but they call it a flat here). Went out for a bite to eat and the market (grocery store) all by ourselves :) We're figuring out things around here pretty fast and gaining self sufficiency more each day. Still working on our basic Ukranian words so we can get the word across wherever we go. Funny at the restaurant for dinner, the staff didnt speak English and we don't really speak Ukranian. We'd be looking at each other and laughing, and we both knew it was because we couldn't really understand what the other was saying. However, pointing and smiling is still universally accepted and it all worked out. Had a meat and mushroom filled potato pancake that rocked the universe for dinner :)

Sunday Best

OK, we've probably all heard of the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. It's where you know someone whose connected to someone and on and on, and within 6 connections you get to Kevin Bacon. I don't know if that's true or not, still haven't received a Christmas card to date from KB and the family. However, seems to be true here! When we were in Kyiv we had dinner with another family here for adoption from Texas, that actually lives close to us but we had not yet met in person. They run into a friend, Andriy, who doesn't live in Kyiv but just happened to walk by the restaurant we're eating at! We get his information and ask if he knows anyone in Zhytomr, he gives us a contact (also named Andriy). Andriy here knows a guy named Tom, who knows a good friend of mine named Garrick that I've known since high school. It's a total God thing as we're 10,000 kilometers (yes we're turning metric here...) and we're making a bunch of friends :)

Anyway, Andriy (here) is a pastor so we got to go to church on Sunday. He and his wife invited us and gave us a lift across town to their church. The service was great, the choir was amazing (I'll post videos), two young ladies, Kristina and Anna translated for us, we actually had a great morning with them. After church, Andriy and Natasha (wife) took us to lunch to their place, they own a cafe in a mall that we didn't know existed that is a short walk from our apartment! The food was awesome (as always so far), and we had a great time talking with them. They have 3 adopted children.

Then Vitaly (our very cool driver) gave us a lift to the orphanage to spend some time with the kids. We hung out in their room (very cold outside) and played spoons some more, lots of laughs as we do our best to talk back and forth with our limited Ukranian. I manage to get most of the words right that I know, Bawook (spider) is still my favorite one. We brought oranges, bananas and candy with us. A few of Masha's friends joined us for spoons, Masha, Vera, Valla and Sveta (yes I'm sure I'm spelling phoenetically....). They were fun to hang out with and I think find us amusing. Anytime we're there, a pack of kids are sure to hang out and watch us, very curious of the Americans.