Thursday...

We've had a wonderful and very different past 24 hours. We picked Ivanna up yesterday around 1pm. Everything went well. We made it back to the apartment, gave her some food and then she napped for a couple of hours. In the evening, we had a Jonathan-prepared lavash lasagne (frozen since he was here - thanks bro) and then met the Andrews for dessert at Mario's. Unfortunately, the wi-fi was not working (which is why there was no post yesterday and why today's will be short). Nonetheless, we had a nice time out. Ivanna then slept from 9-something until around 7 this morning with only a brief bout of semi-consciousness when she rolled off the mattress (it's on the floor - no worries). Shona managed to call another Canadian couple (who had contacted her a few days ago) and we met them and the Andrews for coffee this morning on Kreschatyk. It was really enjoyable. They are all kind of in the same boat, waiting for second appointments.
After picking up some socks in Independence Square (for soccer), we walked back to the apartment. After a bit of lunch, Shona tried to put Ivanna down for a nap. No such luck. Unfortunately for her, I had to leave at 1:30 to go do a bit of paperwork. When I returned at 5:15, she was a little stir-crazy, and Ivanna was a bit manic. Apparently, after an hour of trying, Shona figured it was not worth it and then spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with a very energetic 23-month old. I tried to spell her off a bit before supper by entertaining Ivanna while Shona typed. Around 6, we headed over to Mario's again to meet the Andrews clan. Again, no luck with wi-fi, but a good supper. Ivanna totally crashed a few minutes after we arrived and spent the whole time sleeping on the bench. Just before leaving she woke up. Shona said she'd take her home to give her some food while I came here (the gamers' dungeon) to post and email. So, there you have the very short and broad-stroked version of our last day and a bit. We are saving our posts and will try to get them onto the blog when we have access again. The bottom line is that we are feeling ver blessed, and very grateful.

it's a girl!

Happy little family (daughter still not thrilled about the camera!)

let me out of here!!!

KVAS break!

Granite curbs being put it...what do you think dad (nickel) maybe for your front yard?

How can sitting in a car for the better part of a day leave one so exhausted? We are tired but elated. We are truly celebrating because Ivanna is officially our daughter. Now, we feel like we can exhale. Today, we were picked up at 8:20 and headed off to the court to pick up the official papers from the judge. We waited for a while there then proceeded out to Boyarka to get Ivanna’s birth certificate changed. That took a while (about an hour) then we got the birth certificate copied (line-up and wait there) and then finally ended up at the orphanage where Slava needed to pick up some documents. We got to play with Ivanna for about 45 minutes (she had just had her lunch) then had to take her back to her group (for the LAST time! :) We carried on and we got some other documents from another office in Boyarka. Then we headed into Veshneve (a town between Boyarka and Kyiv) to get some other documents. We made a brief wrong stop (wrong building) then found the correct one and had to wait a while because it was their lunch break. At 2:00pm we went up and signed for the document (I have no idea what it was – though needed for her passport application). We briefly stopped to copy some of the documents for that office and dropped them back off. As Slava was copying the documents, Vadim got out for a cup of KVAS – our guide book describes it as a gingery beer-like soft drink (made from fermented bread). He loves it (everytime we pass a seller on the street he says ‘Kvas-country champagne’ or ‘country beer’ rather lovingly:) He let me have a taste of his and as I was thirsty and it was pretty darn good, Darren and I shared a cup. Slava came out and had one too. A nice little break in the middle of document gathering and errand running! Anyway, we dropped off the copies at the last office we were at then headed into the city. Traffic was crazy. We eventually got to the passport office and when Slava came out she said it would be ready Thursday morning. Yay! We then had some more crazy traffic just getting back to our part of the city (dropping Slava at a metro station on the way). So tomorrow we will get picked up at 8:40 and go get some documents legalized and then head back out to Boyarka to pick up our girl. It’s surreal to actually be at this place. It is slowly feeling more and more real that we actually ARE her parents and that we get to take her home to Canada with us in 4 day. Crazy! We are thrilled everything went well today and that we got to see Ivanna in the middle (we weren’t expecting to). We now plan to head out for something to eat as it is 4:15 and we haven’t had anything since breakfast (except kvas - for once I didn’t have stuff in my bag for snacks – bad timing)! Hopefully, the wi-fi at Mario’s is working.

monday

Our last Monday here began with me (shona) actually sleeping quite soundly until the alarm went off at 7:30 and I eventually dragged my carcass out of bed at 8. Having the apartment cooler has resulted in much better sleep! (thank-you Lesya) We got up and ready to go and headed off to the train station for our LAST trip by train out to Boyarka. Well, as usual, I headed to the Kasa (where you buy tickets) with pretty close to exact change (they usually like that) only to have trouble communicating with the lady this morning – she didn’t seem to get where I wanted to go and then she said I needed more money. I figured she just didn’t understand where I wanted to go so I repeated ‘Boyarka’ ‘Dva’ (two) but she still said I needed more money. Then Darren came up and said that he didn’t see our train on the list this morning. I took my money back and we went to look outside to see if we could see our usual train – no luck. So, life lesson #1 today – apparently our usual train doesn’t run sometimes (although it has run every other holiday). So we decided to walk to the circus (another 5-10 minutes or so) to try to catch a ‘Marshutka’ (little bus). We’d seen the buses in Boyarka with signs for the circus so knew there should be some (and Jonathan had mentioned I think that they left from there too). Anyway, we eventually found one with a ‘Boyarka’ sign and tried to ask when the bus was leaving. We thought the guy said ‘chas’ (in an hour), so I clarified and pointed to my watch and I thought he said 10:10. Darren and I walked a little ways away to discuss what to do. After a while, as we stood there Darren noticed the bus start up so we moved toward it and managed to get on just in time. We laughed a little but were thankful to be on our way. Now we figure they were probably saying ‘soon’ or ‘in a minute’ when they said ‘chas’ and were probably telling us when the bus would arrive in Boyarka (because we did indeed arrive just before 10:10). Anyway, have we mentioned how nice it would be to know the language better? Life lesson # 2 – we don’t know how to communicate very well (but we really knew that already!). So we got out to Boyarka with no trouble once we were on the bus and the driver wasn’t as crazy as we had been told bus drivers are. We had a great time with Ivanna going for walks, swinging, and looking yet again at the chickens. A German lady (who I think we’ve seen once or twice before) and her son were feeding the chickens with scraps of bread which Ivanna found fascinating. She wanted to get right in there and despite me trying very hard to keep her hands away from the fence, at one point I was watching the other little boy and she got her little fingers through the chain link and one of the chickens immediately gave her a peck to see if she was food. No broken skin or anything, but she cried out briefly and was a little more hesitant about getting close to them after that (but still wanted to watch!). The only other hiccup in the visit so far was at one point she headed from the swing into a little ‘house’. Darren had noticed a bunch of flies around and was just saying ‘there are a lot of flies around – I wonder why?’ when we realized that Ivanna had stepped in what we thought initially was mushed up apple – no such luck. It was poop. That would explain the flies. I grabbed her and whipped off her shoe and tried to wipe off the little bit of poop off her sock then held her while Darren dealt with the much worse of sandal. As I held her I realized her other shoe also got a small dose so dealt with that one as best I could while holding a squirmy kid who wanted to get down and play – shoe or no shoe. Eventually Darren got the first shoe as clean as he could (not a good day to forget wipes!). As her shoe still stank, we decided shortly thereafter that we should head in. We took off both her socks and shoes and took her back to her group. We tried to explain what had happened – hopefully our ‘foo’ (stinky) and acting out stepping in something gross got it across! The nurse took her stuff anyway. Life lesson #3 – where there are many flies there is often poop (or other gross stuff you don’t want your kid getting into). Ivanna headed into the mess of kids that surrounded us and we squatted down for our goodbyes. We were surrounded by all the kids in the group and Ivanna was none too impressed that the were so close to us getting kisses and ‘pakas’ so she headed into her daddy’s arms for some attention. So many kids who want and need love.

Last Sunday

Saturday was a very relaxing day. We slept in and headed out for a bit of shopping then came back to the apartment for a rest and cool-off time. We did not make it out to the ‘Kyiv Days’ festivities, but (and for this we are extremely thankful) the air conditioner was installed last evening. We had a great time basking in its cool breezy cool breeze (that’s for you Jason). It also meant a better sleep for both of us.
This morning, we called the Andrews (who arrived last night) and then headed over to their apartment to pick them up. We spent the first half of the day walking around the neighbourhood from grocery store to grocery store to grocery store. All the while, we greatly enjoyed conversing in English. It was just so easy. After picking up a few groceries and introducing them to shawarma, we headed back to their place to cool off and chat a bit more. Their place is very nice. I believe they are the first to occupy it since it was renovated. We’re so glad they got a place in our neighbourhood, and that they want to hang out a bit. As much as Shona and I love each other and genuinely enjoy being with each other, I think we’re ready to see and talk with more people. The Andrews seem very nice and are very easy to be with. Eventually, we figured they were probably ready for a bit of rest, so not wanting to have them sick of us within the first five hours (are we sounding a bit needy?), we took our leave.
We came back to our apartment briefly and then Shona headed out to pick up a few more things (she really is a gift-giver). I had a little rest (again enjoying the cool) and then went out in search a couple things myself. I was partly successful (I’m not always able to make the purchase). I’m now waiting for Shona to return and hoping it is soon, because the sky looks like we’ll be getting some rain soon.
Sho – well I’m back and very pleased. I found the things I was looking for (just a couple more souvenirs) and on my way back from the artisans area (which has the street blocked off and there were about 5X the people – both sellers and buyers as when Jonathan was here because of ‘Kyiv Days’ this weekend) I heard singing as I passed Shevchenko park (that has the statue of ‘Jesus’ according to Misha) so I stopped for a look. The park was full of people and a group dressed up in traditional costumes were singing on a stage. I bought some water and sat down for a wonderful 45 minutes of Ukrainian culture (singing and dancing – mostly younger people but I still really enjoyed it). I’m thrilled I happened by at that time (it doesn’t feel right to leave Ukraine without having seen some dancing – even though I can see it at home!). I made it home getting sprinkled by rain and now it is pouring out (good timing!).
We are going to introduce the Andrews to Mario’s for supper soon.
Paka!

court +10

It’s Thursday night and we’ve just returned from a walk to the grocery store after Mario’s. As I was looking at yogurt, I turned to ask Darren what kind he wanted only to find Libby had taken over her introverted son’s body and he was chatting with an older man and a younger woman (telling them where to find milk in boxes - they were looking at bags, which if you don’t have a pitcher – is not so convenient). We ended up having a nice conversation – in English :) with them and it made my evening. We’ve just finished our dessert of ice cream (an almost daily occurrence), chocolate (our daily dose) and cookies. Yum!
So now it’s Friday and things have not quite gone as we thought. We received a phone call from Slava last night to tell us that she would call us around 11AM and pick us up shortly after to go fill out the form for Ivanna’s passport and that we could then go out to the orphanage in the afternoon. Well today, I woke up early (I’m not sleeping great with the heat) and got up at 6:30ish. Darren and I did yoga (temperature in apartment 29.9) and then cleaned the place up a bit – I washed dishes and Darren vacuumed (temperature rose to 30.4). We then showered and got ready for the day. Slava called close to 11:30 to tell us that she was delayed and would give us a call in an hour. So we sat around and waited. We watched some TV and rested a bit. Then she called to tell us that she had taken some of our papers to the Notary but they were busy and so the papers wouldn’t be ready until 2:15. So, we had a little lie-down and set the alarm for a real nap (only today, I suck at napping so after 30 minutes of not sleeping I gave up). It’s a bit frustrating because now we won’t get out to the orphanage today (and could have gone in the morning). It’s not anyone’s fault, just the way it worked out. It happens. I’m missing our girl. We will now probably try to go out tomorrow after all as 3 days seems like way too much time away (though we’ll try taking the later train – hopefully it will be less busy). The best laid plans…oh well. We are getting some stuff done today that we didn’t expect to so maybe that will make next week a little less crazy with running around (and maybe we’ll have more days to just hang out with Ivanna).
So, now it’s 6:49 and we’ve just returned home. The visit to the notary only took about 35 minutes so it was about 2:35 when Slava and Vadim dropped us off. We decided we had enough time to make the train to Boyarka after all, so we quickly grabbed the kid stuff (juice, snacks and wipes) and walked quickly to the train station (a challenge on a day like today – I can only go so fast in this heat). We got there in plenty of time (I thought the train left at 3:15 but it actually left at 3:30). We got seats and rather quickly realized that the train was going to be busy. So much for taking tomorrow off to avoid the crowds! Anyway, other than a close encounter with some woman’s rather large bosom (somewhat better than the sweaty guy’s gut, but not much) for Darren (at one point, I was a bit concerned about losing an eye, or being smothered), it was fine. I had my frozen bottle of water again – what a difference that makes while waiting in the heat! Once we were moving, the air movement helps a lot. Anyway, we had a great but short visit with Ivanna. We went outside and had the playground to ourselves until her group joined us about ½ hour later. It was nice to sit with them in the shade. Ivanna seemed to enjoy sitting on my lap, playing with her group all around. Everyone was pretty mellow. All too soon, we had to leave. It was particularly hard for me today. Ivanna gave Darren a great big hug when I told her ‘paka papa’ and then I gave her a great big hug and kiss and told the caregivers we had to go. Ivanna looked quite sad and confused that we were leaving and just stood staring at us while the other kids blew kisses and waved at our ‘pakas’. Hard. But when we looked back after walking across the playground, she seemed reasonably interested in playing again.
We stopped at the store for some ‘celebrate the weekend and day 10 Napoleon’ and are cooling off briefly before we head off for supper (stripped down with the fan on = good!).

court +9

eating - cheeks full!



yay!!!!!!!!

After another hot morning and hot train ride, we are back in our hot apartment. Shona is in a bit of a trance on the couch. I just had a very cold shower, so my temperature is temporarily below boiling. It feels good.
We didn’t sleep particularly well last night, but I slept better than Shona. She woke up before 6 and then got up around 6:30. I got up around 7. Tanis called, and Shona had a good chat with her. It’s good to hear from home. We left around 8:30 (as usual) and got good seats on the train. Today, Shona brought a frozen bottle of water that we took turns rubbing on our bodies while sitting on the train – particularly for the 35 minutes before the train starts moving. Actually, we mostly just held it or put it against our necks, heads, tummies, or backs – and it really wasn’t too sexy at all. I imagine it looked a little weird, us handing this bottle back and forth, but likely everyone else thought it brilliant as they figured it out. It did help. Shona is a resourceful little girl guide.
Once again, Ivanna’s group was outside when we arrived, so we quickly found her and she came over for hugs and kisses. We spent some time swinging with a girl from another group. For quite a while, we appeared to be quite the hit, with 4 or 6 other kids bringing us toys, balls, grass, and/or garbage to play with. These beautiful children love attention. I pray they are given good homes. As we were pushing Ivanna and another girl on the swing, I wished we could take more children home with us. After some time, we went over to the chickens and then up to the front of the building. Ivanna was quite interested in looking through the fence at cars and people going by. I went through the gate to film her a bit and she realized there is a way out and wanted to find it (and tried to climb the fence to get out!). I was glad to see that she is interested in exploring the world outside. Boy, is she in for a shock! She is going to see more world in the next 2 weeks than she ever could have imagined.
Shona here now. We have some wonderful news. No we don’t get to pick up Ivanna early. Lesya was over at our apartment yesterday to pick up our rent for the apartment. I’m not sure if it was the fact that she was here and realized just how hot it is (it hit 29.4 this morning) or that I had made a comment that we are really enjoying ourselves but just finding the heat hard to deal with. Anyway, about 2 hours later we got a phone call from her to tell us the owners were going to put in air conditioning and would we mind being out of the apartment for a few hours on Saturday (she had told us when she was here that they had talked about putting air in before but thought the weather this year wouldn’t be too hot so had decided to wait – I guess she persuaded them to do it now!). So I think we will make ourselves scarce for a while Saturday! We are pretty excited at the prospect of having a bit of a sanctuary from the heat (and won’t have to resort to camping out at the Andrews apartment that will have air). Hopefully we’ll sleep better with the temperature a little cooler. Oh ya. I almost forgot our other news from Lesya. She told us that Monday is yet another holiday here, so…yes that means it will be one more day until we can pick Ivanna up. We will do a fair amount of running around on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we may not pick her up until Wednesday. A bit disappointing but it probably is better for her to carry on with her usual routine than to drive all over the place and spend the days sitting in a car. We’re doing okay with this news and are really looking forward to getting the official papers that say we are her parents – even if we can’t quite pick her up yet. We will be thrilled whatever day it ends up being that we can bring her home to the apartment with us. Knowing it is so close makes it easier to take.
Later… a short nap, then the air conditioning unit was delivered. Oh we are plenty excited about that - just imagine how excited we'll be when it is installed!

Thursday Shower

There will be a come and go shower on Thursday, May 24th from6:30-8:30. Everyone welcome. The shower is at Shona and Darren's. Bring your gift unwrapped and labelled with who it is from.You will be able to put it in Ivanna's room ready for her to use. Look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions please contactTanis 244-1723 or Val 956-3981

court +8

look. chickens.


washing up.

Yay! We made it to and are halfway through day 3 this week. Hump day. It feels good to have finished one more day of traveling out to Boyarka by train. Today is the hottest day yet – it was predicted to get to 35C (Lesya just told us it hit 36C today). Yesterday on the train with the breeze from the windows and our location in the train (quite shaded), I actually felt quite cool and had to snuggle in to Darren a bit (that hasn’t happened a lot lately!). However today, even though we were in the same location and the windows were mostly all open – there was no coolness to be found in the breeze. Not a good sign for the rest of the day when it’s 9:30 AM (unless you are Brendan!). We got to the orphanage to find that all four groups that are usually outside at that time were already there – and most of the kids were only in underwear and hats (another testament to how hot it was!). We headed over to Ivanna’s group and she came straight over for a hug – I love that! We spent our time swinging (big surprise), going for a walk in the stroller (trying to find shade!), watching the chickens (a lovely, very shady spot – we encouraged her to stay, even though the birds are creepy), having snack and drink (one minor and brief choking incident as Ivanna gulped down some juice too quickly – it helped to clear her nose though – snot everywhere!) and then also spent a little time around her group. Her caregiver (the same one who let us stick around yesterday) asked (I think) if we wanted to stay around the group and I indicated that that was great. It’s fun to watch her with her caregivers and little friends. She took advantage of her freedom and soon wandered into other areas and headed up to the top of a slide that was in full sun. Darren at this point had headed inside with Tatiana to get some documents for Slava, so it was up to mama to follow her up (Daddy’s been the slide guy so far!). It was blistering up there and when Ivanna made a move to go down the slide I checked the temperature and promptly picked her up and took her back down the stairs (even too hot for my bottom with pants on!). She wasn’t too thrilled but was distracted by the snacks and juice I offered her (in the shade – beautiful shade). All too quickly the groups were all heading in and we followed a few minutes later (Ivanna wasn’t too pleased at first - she loves to be out). We got to stick around again to watch the post play-time wash-up and potty time. The same caregiver had fun with the kids sprinkling them with water and they all just giggled and had a blast – she’s really great with the kids. I managed to get a quick picture of her with Ivanna (our batteries are dying on our camera) – unfortunately, I’m not the steadiest and so it’s a little out of focus. Next time I’ll give the camera to Darren! On the train home (it was late again – more what we are used to), a young man was asleep across the bench we were standing beside. A couple of babushkas across from him tried to wake him up by poking him – no luck. They tried again every few minutes – it was pretty funny to watch them - they were obviously unimpressed with his behaviour and weren’t exactly gentle in their attempts to wake him! Eventually one of his legs fell off the seat and he woke up briefly – they made it quite clear to him that he should sit up (and wipe off the seat his shoes had dirtied) so that we could sit down (which he did). He promptly fell right back to sleep with his head lolling backward. The train is certainly never boring if you like to people watch! Being as hot as it has been and continues to be, the scents of the train were somewhat stronger and more ‘ripe’ today. Darren was creeped out by a guy who stood next to him with his shirt undone and fully open, allowing his ample belly to hang out, pressing against his shoulder. He considered getting up to let the man sit down but thankfully reconsidered that option when he realized this fellow would then be sitting next to ME (thank you!!!). He sacrificially remained a gallant barrier between me and the guy, and eventually, the man found another place to rest his belly (a seat away from us). On our way home we stopped at the ‘dungeon’ internet place to briefly check our email. It only costs 1hryvna ($0.20)for 15 minutes – I spent most of the time standing next to the air conditioner which was blowing out beautifully cold air! It might just be worth paying to be able to hang out down there – whether we want to use the internet or not….or maybe we could take this opportunity to get hooked on computer games and spend our hot afternoons down there (who really needs to sight-see anymore?)! We were much cooler when we left there and headed home (but still both had cold showers and again I’m sitting in my bathing suit). The apartment has hit 28.4C (but I think first thing this morning it was 28.9C) – it seems to be climbing a little more (overall) each day. Hopefully this heat wave will break soon and bring some more reasonable temperatures our way (if only we could find a happy medium between Saskatoon temperatures and here)! We’re hanging out here, waiting for Lesya (she has to pick up some $ for the apartment) then we plan to ‘cook’ tonight (that will likely consist of opening some jars of sauce and getting some bread – too hot to actually turn on the stove!) then head to Mario’s for dessert. This has so far been a good week. We are feeling very grateful that we’ve had such good visits with Ivanna, that the trains have been quite bearable this week (despite the heat) and that we have made it to Wednesday. We are finding the commute and visits tiring and we are soooo ready to have our daughter with us.


We hope (?plan) to be a little more adventurous tomorrow afternoon and try to get to the ‘Caves Monastery’ (maybe the underground caves will be cool!). Have a great day! Paka.

Gardening bee...many hands make pretty garden

What: Gardening bee at Shona and Darren's to help get their flowers planted before they come home.
When: Saturday, May 26 at 10:00am
Bring: Gardening gloves, tools (anything you would usually use to plant flowers)
Contact: Val or Lecia if you have any questions
Please join us if you can!

court +7

You will have to use your imaginations today or refer back to other posts to get your ‘Ivanna picture’ fix today. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera on the kitchen table when we left. We got a wonderful phone call this morning from Tanis and Jonathan and perhaps I (sho) got a little distracted in packing the bag. Anyway, we missed some great pictures today :(, so I’ll try to be very descriptive so you can picture the scenes in your minds. Ivanna spent probably an hour or so on the swings today (we’ve mentioned she likes swinging, right?). At first she headed for one of the wooden swings closer to the back of the yard. One of the little girls from her group came over as I was putting Ivanna on the swing and made it quite clear she wanted on too. The caregivers often put two kids on these swings so I moved Ivanna over and put the other girl beside her. It was pretty darn cute. To hold on, they each had a wooden upright on one side and put their little arms around each other’s shoulders. Ivanna looked pretty pleased to be swinging with a buddy. They both were smiling and giggling when I tickled them. At one point the other little girl gave Ivanna a huge, smooshy faced hug – it was great! After about 15 minutes (or more?) of swinging together, the caregivers made the other little girl get off and told her she needed to run around (I’m guessing here, by the gestures that went along with the instructions) then told Ivanna she could stay and swing. Ivanna continued to swing for quite a while (and the other little girl kept trying to come over to swing too, but was continually called back by the nurses). Eventually, we stopped swinging her to see if she wanted to stop and asked her (along with signing) if she wanted ‘more’. She immediately repeated the sign and nodded but then hopped off and headed toward the front of the yard. Darren thought maybe she thought ‘more’ was related to food (we’ve probably used it more there), because our bag and snacks were in the direction she was heading, but she walked right on by the bag and headed straight for the other swing-set! She did indeed want ‘more’ swinging. She swung until close to 20 past 11, when another little boy who is somewhat demanding about getting our attention (and also likes to be a little too aggressive for my tastes with Ivanna). He proceeded to sit on the other swing and then promptly kicked Ivanna’s swing. Past experience has taught us that reprimanding him (even in Russian) just escalates his behaviour, so I picked Ivanna up and we went to look at the chickens for a while. We had a lovely snuggle as one of the caretakers was painting the fence, so I didn’t want to let her near it (we’ve already noticed green paint on some of her clothes - oops!) As some of the other groups came in with the strollers, we took one and took Ivanna for a little walk (she had spent much of her time swing watching with what looked like envy as the Italian and French couples took their boys for walks in a stroller). We had a brief little snack and drink and then headed back to her group. When we got there, the caregiver indicated that we could stay for a bit and watch the group. Yay! After playing outside the routine is to have all the kids sit on little potties before their lunch. So we watched as they sat and took off their shoes (some with a little help) and the nurse then checked their potties one by one. If they had done their ‘job’ they were led to a little rack (one at a time) where all their towels are and then led to a little sink where the nurse washed their hands and faces and then had them stand against the wall to wait for the others. Several of the children would try to get up and move on to the next step, without having done their ‘pissine’. The nurse would pick up their potty and say ‘pusta’ (empty), and tell them to sit down and ‘pissine’. One little boy is quite a handful and let’s just say he seems to have trouble staying on task and sitting or standing still. The nurse was very patient with him and just told him repeatedly to sit which he would do briefly (she also seems to have eyes on the back of her head as she seemed to know when he was getting up even if she wasn’t looking his way). She got through the kids one by one. Ivanna seemed pretty pleased we were there and kept looking up and smiling at us. The nurse eventually got all the kids washed and even though a few of them didn’t ‘go’ she led them all into the hall and then had all the kids say ‘paka’ to us (our cue to go). We thanked her profusely (how I wish I could let her know how much it means to us to get to see some of their routine) then headed back down the stairs. It was a great morning. Back at the train station, we managed to get some water and then Darren noticed the train was almost at the station so we sprinted up the stairs, over the overpass, back down and made it onto the train in time. It was the earlier train so we are back at our apartment a little earlier than we have been. It is still scorching here. Depending on what news we believe, this week is supposed to continue to have highs of over 30 all week - BBC is predicting as high as 35-36C. :( Darren has had his cold shower and now it’s my turn.
Later...we had a nap - I'm getting better at turning my brain off, then did some yoga (what does the temperature have to be for it to be considered 'hot yoga'?), and now are out for our usual supper at Mario's - yes, we are kind of predictable!
paka!

court +6

Happy Victoria Day! We hope you are all relaxing and enjoying yourselves today. It is another scorcher here today, although there is a slight breeze so that helps to make it bearable. Our apartment is now at 27.5C and I am sitting here in my 2-piece bathing suit (somehow it seems more decent than sitting in my bra and underwear!), after having a cool shower on returning home. Ivanna seemed to be very pleased to see us this morning – maybe she misses us when we don’t come? She stayed almost completely away from her group today (other than a brief interaction at the beginning with one of the kids – herding him back to the group when he had gotten a little ahead of them as they came out). We had our usual watching the chickens time and then spent A LOT of time on the swings today. At one point as Darren was pushing her, she started to sing a little song. We couldn’t pick out really any words (that we understood) but she probably sang off and on (more on than off) for the next 15 minutes as she swung (d: I got a bit of video, but could not upload it). We get the feeling she was pretty content. :) She also spent some time pushing (or rather helping to push) a couple of kids in a double stroller – she really loves to ride and to push the stroller. She also had some fun going down one of the big slides with Darren (several times). It was a good morning. I also had a nice little chat with an Italian woman (I had heard her speaking French with the French couple so took advantage of us having a similar language to talk with her) – it was really nice to TALK with someone. Yes, I like to talk with Darren but I honestly feel like I need to talk with other people too. I’ve had ‘Libby’ moments on the street or at Mario’s when I’ve heard people speaking English – I just want to go over and introduce myself and chat with them and make them be my friend (so far I’ve restrained myself)! I’m kind of desperate to be able to converse easily again and to have our family and friends around. After missing the first train because I was getting some water (it was actually on time today – not something we’ve come to expect) we caught the next one 15 minutes later – and it was relatively roomy today, we got seats right away. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things on our way home, but both felt too hot for shawarma today – kind of sad. :( It is now time for a nap.

court +5

(s) So we’ve had a completely lazy Sunday. We got up earlyish (I woke up at 6:30 but made myself stay in bed until 7:30) then just lay low, watched the news, had breakfast and then got ready for church. It was a good service although the sanctuary, being in the top floor of a non air-conditioned 4 storey building was very, very hot. Darren was pouring sweat just sitting there. I alternated between feeling overwhelmingly hot, to tolerably hot when I used my bulletin as a fan. Despite the heat, we enjoyed the service. We sang ‘Indescribable’ and the old hymn ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ this morning – both were really meaningful to me today.
(d) After church bought water and pop (to replenish the litres we sweated out) and walked over to the children’s shopping area by Darnytsa metro. As we have discovered that Ivanna’s feet are closer to size 21 than 23 (the pink shoes we bought), we looked for some sandals for her. Plenty of options – we didn’t buy any though. On the other hand, we did buy her a cute hat and shorts. If the weather keeps this up, she’ll need those. After that, we went to McDonald’s for sundaes (and to stand in the childrens’ play area, which was beautifully air-conditioned). They (the cool sundaes and room) were nice while they lasted, but eventually we had to go back out into the heat and home to our oven. After cool showers, we managed to nap a bit to catch up on sleep lost in the early mornings. It was nice. We have just finished our supper (leftover sauce, chicken, and bread – yum) and are going to do a little reading (starting ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’) before heading to Mario’s for dessert. All in all, it was a pretty relaxing and restful day. It’s almost like (despite the little bit of shopping) we found a bit of Sabbath.

Court +4

little helper - pushing a friend on the swing



Happy belated anniversary Jonathan and Tanis (May 18th)!


Well, it’s actually Friday night and we’ve just arrived home after spending a couple of hours at Marios – thoroughly enjoying our dinner and your company (your blog comments and emails :)! We just wanted to update you all to say that our tickets are on their way (to BC where the Canadian family we’ve been in contact with will bring them to Kyiv for us). My mom has spent many, many, MANY hours over the last several days on the phone and internet arranging for our change in flights and tickets. Thank you SO much Mom. Anyone who sees her, would you give her a pat on the back or even better a big hug from us please? Thanks! It is such a huge relief to know that the details are all organized and that we really and truly ARE coming home in 2 weeks!
Happy Anniversary Val and Jason (May 19)!
Saturday now…One month ago today we had our appointment at the SDA and were presented with our daughter. In some moments it feel like that was just yesterday and in others like it was a lifetime ago. It’s been quite a month. We are finding it hard to believe that we actually get to take her home with us – it feels very surreal. Somehow it feels like we are just visiting this darling little girl in an orphanage everyday and not like she’s coming with us someday soon.
It is very hot here again today – we are feeling very wilted and have little motivation to do anything besides wash repeatedly in cold water and drink cold drinks. Our apartment is sitting at 26 degrees. The train was again quite cramped today (seems to be the pattern on Saturdays). We were early enough for seats but weren’t quite sure we’d get OFF at our stop. As the train started moving on the stop before ours we got up to start making our way towards the entrance. There was a serious blockage of people in the entrance area. I couldn’t move forward or back. I could tell a couple of babushka’s were trying to make it toward the door so I figured we could sneak into their wake once the doors opened and they cleared a path (I wasn’t positive this plan would work, but had no options). As the door opened and the crush began from behind us and we muscled our way out, Darren who was holding my bag over his head, says he felt quit bad eliciting groans from several older women on our way by (he says he had to ‘reshape’ them on his way through). We have unanimously decided that today’s was our LAST Saturday train trip out to Boyarka. Next week we will take the weekend to celebrate our last weekend as only a couple.
This morning was another good visit with Ivanna. It is fun to continue seeing and learning more and more about her. Today she really wanted to play near and with her group and would get briefly upset when we took her away for periods of time (and she kept trying to go back!). I actually like seeing her with the other kids and don’t mind her spending some time with them while we are there. It’s good to see how she interacts with the other kids and caregivers. When we were around them today, the caregivers would tell her to go to us instead of them. I was sort of getting the feeling they didn’t want us to play with her near them, but Darren is thinking that they are probably trying to help in her attachment to us and separation from them. That is probably good. We are learning that she really is quite a social kid (although we still think she is introverted). She really likes to be around other children and watches them constantly (which bodes well for all the little people back home that are anxious to meet and get to know her!). We have also figured out she is quite a rule follower and helper in the groups. If other kids are wandering outside of where they are supposed to be – she will stop them or point at them and look at us or a caregiver as if to say ‘hey – deal with that’(although, like we’ve said before: we think she really likes her freedom from the wandering rule when we are around!). Today, a little girl stood up on a wooden swing when the caregiver left to go deal with another child, Ivanna pointed to the little girl and looked up at me expectantly (I told the child to sit in Russian – thanks for that word Jonathan! – which she did). Also, one of the children was sitting on a wooden swing looking rather forlorn and she went over and started to push him – she just grinned and so did the other little one. We also are discovering she seems to be quite tender hearted when it comes to other children being upset. If a child is crying she tries to comfort them or points at them to her caregivers. Sometimes when we’ve been outside and she here’s a child crying inside she tries to head in to where they are. It’s pretty dear. As far as she is concerned she’s pretty tough though. She doesn’t blink twice if she falls – just gets up and keeps on going (but she doesn’t like her hands being dirty so likes to have them brushed off!) (she’s just fine with the rest of her being a disaster with dirt – just not her hands!).
It is hard to think about taking her away from all that she knows and loves – even knowing that she’ll be with us and well loved and cared for by us and all our family and friends. I just pray that the transition is not too traumatic for her. She has absolutely no concept of what is going to happen to her in the next few weeks.
I also sooo wish we could take home more children! When we do go play around the groups, many of the kids come over and either want a hug or to be picked up or to show us something – basically they want attention (and remember this is a good orphanage where there is a decent ratio of caregivers to children and most seem to be quite loving with the kids). (D: one little girl in Ivanna’s group came over to me several times today – twice carrying a stuffed animal for me to hug along with her, once without the animal. She just hugged my leg. I’m not really used to that – I mean, when I am with kids, there are usually several other more huggable targets for kids besides me. As Shona says, I am usually a bit stand-offish with kids. And I was actually standing just outside the area in which the group was playing all three times the little girl came looking for hugs.)
(S) Many of the kids call Darren ‘papa’ (Ukrainian for daddy) and me ‘mama’ (sometimes ‘Ivanna mama’). They should be growing up in homes – not orphanages. I get quite frustrated and sad when I think about the fact that this is just one orphanage with 100 kids and there are hundreds or thousands more – in Ukraine alone. It’s just wrong.
Well that’s my soapbox for the day. I’m not sure if we’ll be very ambitious today about getting out because of the heat, but we’ll see. We do feel like we SHOULD get out and do stuff while we can here. We are very glad it is Saturday and that we have a day ‘off’ tomorrow. We are both feeling quite tired (it’s been a crazy, emotional week – was it really just Monday that all that uncertainty took place?!) so maybe laying low isn’t so bad. Anyway, that’s all for now. One more day closer to getting home…paka!

court +3

Another early morning. Another hot day. Another delightful (Shona’s word) visit with our daughter (I’d say fun and/or good). Another stifling train ride (X 2). Another napoleon for dessert (we are trying to be patient enough to wait until after supper to eat most of it).
We’ve had a pretty good day so far. Ivanna was outside with her group when we arrived today. As I walked towards her, she looked at me and then started walking towards me, and seemed to be looking for Shona. Sure enough, when Shona came up, Ivanna smiled and hurried into her arms. It was nice. The next 90 minutes were pretty active with Ivanna walking and running all over the place. She definitely really likes some of the caregivers in particular. On several occasions, Ivanna picked up toys (and a dandelion once) and gave them to a caregiver. The caregiver was very warm and invited her to sit on her lap and gave her kisses and hugs. Very good to see. It also seemed at some points today, that Ivanna knows she can do things when we are around that she cannot at other times. For instance, she can walk into any area of the playground as she pleases with us, while without us, she has to stay in her group’s area. Also, she can walk on the driveway with us (something she seems to want to do virtually everyday). She seemed pretty pleased with herself (or chuffed as Shona’s dad would say) that she had that independence and freedom. We laughed as she truddled off swinging her little arms. It’s pretty cute. I (Shona now) have booted Darren off because he’s too slow and I do want to eat sometime tonight! At one point near the end of our time we were at the front of the orphanage looking out the gates and she decided to take off the way we had come. We wanted to head around the other direction so I called her name several times. She just looked back with a very impish little grin, swing her arms a little more. Finally I said ‘Ivanichka, suda’ (which means little Ivanna (diminuitive x 2) come here - we think) and I squatted down and opened my arms to her – she actually turned around and came trundling back for a great big hug and snuggle. It was great (the snuggle and that she actually listened!). She had a little snack of a cookie and some gummy bears (way to ruin her appetite for lunch!) and most of her juice then it was time to head back to her group (they had already headed in).
This afternoon after a shawarma – our regular guy is back, and dropping the kid stuff off at the apartment we walked a bit and then ended up at the ‘Ykraina’ mall for a bit this afternoon (air conditioned!!! :) and got some groceries (including the delicious Napoleon). We’re now heading out for supper, to post this and do some emailing.
2 WEEKS TOMORROW WE LEAVE TO COME HOME!!!

WE'RE COMING HOME!!!!!!

We have just received an email from my (Shona's) parents confirming that our return flights have been booked and we are coming home! We will be leaving here on Saturday June 2nd, flying to Munich (for about 30 minutes), on to London then to St. John's Newfoundland for an overnight stay (at least we'll be on Canadian soil). Then we'll be flying to Toronto, Winnipeg and finally home to Saskatoon around 8:30 PM on Sunday June 3rd. YAY!!!!!! We are thrilled, relieved and counting down...(and yet still trying to live in the moment and enjoy our last 2 weeks in Kyiv!)

court +2

Despite a new tentative booking to leave Kyiv (on June 2), we did not have great sleep last night. Shona woke around 4:30 and was up for the day. I also woke around then, but was determined to get a bit more sleep (and did, eventually). So, we’re both a bit tired today. But we had another good visit with Ivanna this morning (who was not off visiting the doctor for a change). Once again, we were all over the playground today, doing a variety of things. The biggest hits were still the swings and the chickens (personally, I find birds a bit creepy – they look like feathered reptiles to me). On the whole, it really seems that our little Ivanka is growing kind of fond of us. She seems to genuinely enjoy playing with us, snuggling with us, and generally just hanging out with us. We are very glad. I just can’t get enough of her smiles, which thankfully she seems quite generous with now.
After our oven-like ride home on the train (I believe the thermometer on the wall read 30C), we kind of oozed into our apartment and promptly took off our clothes (no, not for any fun - it’s way too hot for that – just hoping to feel a bit more like humans). We are going to Mario’s for lunch to do some emailing and to try to work out some of the details for our trip home (we are so looking forward to that!).

Shower for Ivanna

There will be a come and go shower on Thursday, May 24th from
6:30-8:30. Everyone welcome. The shower is at Shona and Darren's.
Bring your gift unwrapped and labelled with who it is from.
You will be able to put it in Ivanna's room ready for her to use.
Look forward to seeing you there.
If you have any questions please contact
Tanis 244-1723 or Val 956-3981

court +1

swingin' again!

bubbles taste good! (wrong kind kiddo!)

Rainbow arch with friendship monument underneath (between Ukraine and Russia)

On the beach near the pedestrian bridge (on Trukaniv island)
First things first. HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MISHA!!!! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and soooo wish we could be there with you. We hope you like your birthday cake and have fun at your party! XOXOXOXOXOX
It feels wrong to be away from home today, but alas, here we are. One day down, 11 to go (until we can pick Ivanna up). We only have 9 more days of riding on the train. While we still think it is an efficient way to get around – it has kind of lost its glamour. With the warmer weather the train is usually quite hot – although bearable if some windows are open (and I’ve eaten and am well hydrated). Quite often some babushka will ask to have the windows closed (and they are usually wearing several layers including a sweater, while I’m roasting in a t-shirt!). Thankfully, many of the windows are stuck open. :)
Today we are feeling tired - probably a combination of the emotional roller coaster over the last several days and the heat. Darren is currently napping in the other room. I tried for a while but have enjoyed several solid nights of sleep and don’t want to mess up my sleep tonight, so I came out here to write. Our morning with Ivanna was great, although she was at the doctor again when we arrived. This time the nurse pointed to her own ears and indicated we should wait (so now she’s getting her ears checked?). She was back before long though and when she came in she headed right for us and I got another wonderful snuggle for several minutes. The nurse she came back with seemed to indicate (we think) that she’s ok. I will be VERY glad to take her to Kelly and actually know for sure that everything is ok and be able to communicate. We’re glad that they seem to be on top of things though, and Ivanna does appear to be a lot better than a week ago (still some snot, but not as copious and she’s not really coughing anymore). Today she was VERY active and not behaving sick or tugging at her ears or anything (mind you they were well hidden under her toque!) so hopefully she’s on the mend. It would be GREAT to be able to communicate better with the nurses here. Alas, our limited Russian (maybe 10 words) and sign language will have to do. We had a great time playing outside, spending some time with what we think is her group and caregivers (the nurse, Lesya, who came with us to her medical check was there) and sometimes leading her away for some time with just us (we figure she gets most of her time with her group and very little with us). We had some fun with bubbles for a while, and Ivanna apparently doesn’t think the solution tastes too bad – we had quite a chuckle with her. She seems to get now that you need to blow to get the bubbles to come out (although today it is windy enough, all you have to do is hold the wand up).
The train on the way home was late and long (Darren’s comment as we got off was – ‘that felt like an overseas flight’). It has been a few days since we’ve had a shawarma fix so we headed there for lunch (our usual guy wasn’t there but his helper was – good but not quite the masterpieces they usually are), then back here. After Darren’s nap I think well go exploring a bit more and then plan to ‘make’ supper (aka get a chicken already cooked, make some sauce and pick up bread), then head out for dessert and the required internet fix.
We have not yet heard from Lesya re: our flights (whether we need to change them) so we’ll probably give her a call. We expect we’ll need to change them, so prayers for seats to be available on Friday June 1st would be appreciated (or Saturday June 2nd if necessary!) Thank you!
Paka!
D: Well, we are back. We had a nice walk down to friendship park and over to the island. It was warm and sunny – perfect for recharging Shona’s solar cells. As we were taking our shoes off to walk on the beach, Lesya called to suggest that we change our flights to Friday, June 1 – assuming that Thursday is not a holiday in Canada, and the embassy will be open. I assured her that May 31 is not a holiday in Canada. She told me to call anyway, just to be sure. After a very brief barefoot walk on the sand (much more romantic in thought than reality), we decided to put our shoes on to prevent losing a toe to the sharp glass, rocks, and shells. We also decided that the island deserves a whole afternoon. So, we headed for home, to make supper and call Shona’s parents about changing our flights. Once across the bridge, and part way up the hill, I decided that we should try a different way home. Despite Shona’s better judgment and voiced fears and concerns, she caved in and accompanied me. Well, after an extra 50% walking distance, we finally made it back to familiar territory – not much worse for the wear (mostly). I really thought that the Dnipro ran more parallel to Kreschatyk at that point. I think the lesson for me here is to limit the adventurous orienteering in big cities to days when we have a map with us. (oops) On the plus side, we did see some new territory we would not otherwise have seen.

joy

happy family (+yummy stick)



do we look relieved? (post-court)

Joy. Relief. One more hurdle completed. Tears bubbling out every few minutes -uncontrollably. The countdown begins. And we are SOOOOO thankful. Slava Bogu!
What a day this has been. We went to see our darling girl this morning only to find she was gone, yet again, to the doctor. The nurse didn’t speak English, but she managed to get across that we should wait. We sat outside because the weather was so lovely today – warm and sunny (so good for my emotional state) but with a little breeze. We listened to music for a while, then I walked a bit in the courtyard and Darren sat in the shade of the entryway. Just about an hour later, in came 3 nurses with Ivanna and another child. They let us take her around to the back to play with her. First, she and I had a wonderful cuddle and she snuggled right in and smiled. How that warms my heart. She then had a little snuggle with her dad and we walked around back. Once we got close to the chickens, she was ready to be on her feet exploring, so down she went as was off with one finger of each of us. She explored a bit, picking up various objects to share with us (pine cone, shovel etc…) then she headed towards one of the groups sitting at a table. She went straight to one of the nurses and sat on her lap for a bit (it’s good to see her in a loving relationship with the nurses). She seemed to be quite attached to that nurse although I was able to understand that the group of kids she was with was NOT Ivanna’s group - ? maybe her old group or caregiver? Ivanna kept picking up things and wanting to give them to the caregiver. She definitely seemed attached to her.
Our time with Ivanna was short – too short as we wanted to be back to the apartment in plenty of time to get ready for court. Vadim came to get us a few minutes late and said, “Sorry. Traffic very bad.” It took a while to get back to where Slava was to pick her up and by then it was 2:05. Our court time was at 2:30 and I was convinced we be late and began catastrophizing what would happen. In my vivid imagination I could hear the judge saying no – we were late so we’d have to wait for another court date. Well, Vadim, our fantastic driver got us there with about 2 minutes to spare. Once we got up to the hall where the judge’s office is, we found out she was running late (I initially understood that she was always late and this was to be expected). An hour later, I was getting the impression that the judge wasn’t actually in her chanbers at all – so I clarified with Slava whether she was there or not and NO if fact she wasn’t there at all yet (she hadn’t returned yet from hr 1-2 lunch break). So we waited a while longer. Eventually at about 4 PM she showed up. We waited about another 20 minutes and then headed in, only to be told to go back and wait outside by Slava. She came out a couple of minutes later to tell us that we had to wait for the attorney. What attorney you ask? Good question! Well, eventually Slava told us that she didn’t know who we were waiting for – that normally it was just us and the judge. So I clarified ‘it’s not our attorney then?’ ‘NO!’ she replied. (I need a little more boldness – a la Jenn Janzen - when it comes to clarifying what’s going on!!) Eventually we were called in (though I didn’t see anyone else enter the room – apparently the attorney arrived at some point – maybe through the window?) and the proceedings began. It was relatively informal in that we were sitting in her fairly casual office with 3 or 4 other people (one of whom was her son who ‘helps’ her in her work). Slava said a few things then the judge asked Darren some questions: name, date of birth, address. Then she asked me the same and what we were requesting, did we know Ivanna, where she is, had we met her, had we bonded with her (YES!!), did we know about her health, where I worked, where Darren worked. Then the attorney asked us if we would be able to support Ivanna and how much money we made. Then the judge briefly pronounced that ‘as of that time, YOU ARE HER PARENTS.’ So, in 10 days the judgment (which has already been made) will be finalized. And we were done. We said a teary ‘spasiba, spasiba’ and the judge smiled and said ‘congratulations’. And we were out of the room. At the time, it felt like the questions were never going to end and then in the blink of an eye the judge made her pronouncement and, in 10 days we will officially be her parents. Court is done. Wow. We are overjoyed.
On the way home, Slava clarified that we can’t pick up the court pronouncement until the 11th day after court, which makes it May 26th – which happens to be a Saturday, which means we won’t be able to get the papers and Ivanna until the 28th of May. We called Lesya when we got home to find out if we should be changing our flights as they need about 3-4 days after we get the paperwork from the court to get her passport, birth certificate and Canadian visa sorted out. She’s going to call us later tonight after she talks to Slava and ‘sees what she can do’. At this point we are expecting to have to change our flights, but somehow that just doesn’t matter anymore. Just knowing that on May 28th, we get to pick her up and take her with us means the world to us right now. We’ll figure out the details of exactly when we get to come home soon.

hard labour...

So today. What is there to say about today. Another day of riding around in the car and waiting. Vadim picked us up at 8:10 then we picked up Slava from the metro and headed to the court (about 25 minutes away) and then we sat in the car and waited while Slava went in to talk to the judge. We waited. And waited (should have brought music today). Played some Xs and Ox. Waited. Played some hangman (Darren thought I was cheating by using the word ‘elektrichka’ as he said it’s not English – D: it’s not.). Waited (I should have brought my journal to write). Snoozed. Waited. Vadim said ‘takes long’. Then waited some more. Finally at about 10:10 Slava came out talking on the phone. When she got in the car she told us that the judge had been late and she waited an hour to see her, then that she would call the judge later to find out what day our court would be (we were hoping to find out right away – oh well) (D: I was feeling pretty good about having submitted our papers and having done something. It felt like progress to me. So I was pretty upbeat -- shocking, I know). So we decided to visit Ivanna in the afternoon as Slava had to be at the ‘department’ at noon – so there wasn’t really time to head out to Boyarka then. We came home and decided it was a nap day so crawled into bed. A few minutes later the phone rang. It was Slava. She said the judge had just called her (I immediately thought – maybe court is today!) to tell her that she needs another document from the department. (no court today. Argh!) Thus ended the nap. So Slava and Vadim will come to get us at 11:40 to head to the department and then back out to the court again. Fun. I think this time I will bring my journal and the music. Patience, patience, patience. We will someday get to court and take Ivanna home and this will all be a distant (and maybe even laughable) memory. Will write more later…

Now it’s later and what I thought was patience that was required earlier – was NOTHING!!! What a day this has been. It is now 5:14 and we’ve just returned from our afternoon. To sum it up in a few words is impossible…so here is the long version! We got to the department (SDA) and waited for a while outside for Lesya. When she arrived she went in and came out a while later and started off immediately with “the main problem is as follows….” Never a good way to start off a conversation! She then proceeded to say (in summary) that Ivanna was still adoptable but the document we were looking for (to say yet again that her mother abandoned her and hasn’t tried to see her) – they wouldn’t give us. Instead they would agree to pursue cutting off her biological mother’s rights (you’d think that would have been done already!) – that process would take 2 court dates. One to cut off her rights, then we’d have a month wait, then we could have our court date and the regular 10 day waiting period. As we tried to process that bombshell, Lesya continued to say that ‘that’s not good enough – I want you to have your court date this week’. So the option was to talk to Tatiana (the nurse in charge of adoptions at the orphanage), get her to write something we could then take to the police in Boyarka, where we would get a document from them saying that her mother hasn’t tried to find her, then we’d take THAT document back to the department (SDA) and they would give us the document to take to the judge. If it wasn’t so serious – it would be funny. Anyway, the biggest wrench in that craziness is that we couldn’t get a hold of Tatiana (she was not at the orphanage – in Kyiv somewhere with her cell phone OFF). So, we sat and waited some more as Slava said there was no point in going out to Boyarka until we had talked to Tatiana. We sat there for about 2 more hours (during which time I did get to write in my journal, enjoyed the sun and prayed ALOT). (D: I on the other hand, sat in the shade, prayed some, and, in a manner not unlike that of the disciples on the boat in a storm, tried to steel myself for the worst case scenario -- at least I am in good company). During this time there was some commotion going on at the SDA (I think a bunch of facilitators upset about something). Oh to have had Jonathan here to translate for us!!! Anyway at about 2:30 Lesya came out of the SDA with a paper in her hand and gave Darren a big thumbs up (I was sitting up the steps of St. Andrew’s). They called me down to say that we had the document and didn’t need to do all the other running around. Yes. We were stupefied. We have NO IDEA (ya ne pa ne mayu – we don’t understand!) what happened in that time (Lesya's magic?). Whatever. It was good news. So, we piled back into the car and headed to the court where we sat for a little while (and Vadim took Darren to the local woods – Jonathan you’d have enjoyed it – it was nice out :). Then Slava came out to say: “Tomorrow at 2:30”. So we have a court date Tuesday May 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon. We then (the saga isn’t over yet) had to wait for the social worker and took her back to her office (via a CRAZY shortcut) to get a document from her (saying why she wouldn’t be at court) and then BACK to the SDA (déjà vu??) to get a document from them saying why they wouldn’t be at court (both standard). And THAT was our day. The traffic was crazy and Vadim (our driver), I’m sure, is exhausted from all that back and forth (and these are not short distances we went!). The only thing that keeps us from losing it is that tomorrow, we go to court and Ivanna will officially be much closer to being our daughter! (unofficially, she already is.) Because of the insanity – we didn’t get to see her today, but it makes it worthwhile if court is tomorrow. We are heading out for supper now to try to relax. We’ll go see Ivanna in the morning and then head to court in the afternoon. As the pastor yesterday would say, “Slava Bogu.”
We are emotionally exhausted after the roller coaster ride we've had today, but very thankful for the ending. It looks like we are over one more hurdle.

Mother's Day...

So how are you all doing, without getting your fix on Sunday? We had a lovely day. We went to church in the morning and the service of the Kyiv International Bible Church joined the main church’s service (I don’t actually know what that church’s name is – but we were in the main sanctuary instead of in the upstairs chapel where we normally have been). The service was nice – if felt a bit more formal (we were definitely the most casually dressed there – normally I don’t feel as though I’m too casual at KIBC but the Ukrainians dress up a bit more for church). The music alternated between Russian and English and the worship team did a great job. They had the English words up under the Russian which was nice. The sermon was in English (done by the pastor of KIBC) and translated into Russian (or was it Ukrainian – not really understanding much of either I can’t actually tell which was spoken). Then they had baptisms – about 20 or so people. It was neat to witness that many baptisms and to see the joy and excitement and to hear ‘SLAVA BOGU!’ (PRAISE GOD!). People are not so different despite culture and location. We enjoyed the service and were entertained by the pastor’s Texan accent come through as he praised God in Russian!
As we left the church, the weather had become somewhat cooler and so instead of heading to the beach, island and hydropark – as had been our plan - we elected to head to our grocery store via the metro then walked home for a nap. While we were shopping we decided Darren would cook (somehow it’s exciting to stay in and cook after eating out so much!) so we picked up a couple of varieties of ‘vereniky’ (perogies), some vino, carrot salad and a few other necessities (like TP, Napoleon for dessert and chocolate). Then Darren had a nap while I went to Mario’s for a coffee and a little emailing. We then did some yoga and Darren made supper. It was great. He boiled the perogies and fried the salami then fried the perogies in salami drippings – now that’s the way to have perogies! We were a little surprised when the cheese vereniky we had picked out turned out to be sweet cottage cheese – not quite what we were expecting (they didn’t go quite as well with the fried salami and onions as the potato ones did)! For dessert we each had a healthy serving of Napoleon (different from last time but still good) with a little chocolate on the side. :) We had a wonderful meal and then went for a walk. It was a gorgeous evening.

sunny saturday -- well, afternoon anyway...

back on the swings again...

walking down Kreschatyk

Independence square.

on the way home... (happy anniversary/mother's day flowers)

Although I slept a bit better last night, Shona did not (at least we are taking turns to some extent). We caught the 9:17 train as per usual this morning, and soon saw that it was going to be squishy. On top of that, it was a bit warmer and rather humid this morning. Just before the first stop, Shona said she needed to get off as she was feeling like fainting. So, rather than have her on the floor in a rather full train entrance, we got off. After a couple minutes of fresh air, Shona felt much better and we went into the station to see when the next train was. It came at 10:18, so we managed to get to the orphanage by 11am. We spent the next 45 minutes or so outside walking around with Ivanna – she really likes to stroll. Oh, and we did spend a bit of time with the swing as well (it’s been a while). It was good. She still has incredibly elastic stuff in her nose, but seems to be getting better.
After some shawarma, we came home and had a little nap (weekends should almost always contain naps). Afterwards we walked down to the city centre for fun and to pick up a couple things. It was nice to see all the people walking around on Kreschatyk (the main street, which is closed to traffic on weekends). After seeing the sights (S-which besides lots of people walking around included some buskers, artists doing portraits and people offering to take have your picture with their hawk or SNAKE – I just about screamed as I turned around and there was a guy holding his snake out asking me a question in Russian/Ukrainian. I said an emphatic NYET and carried on), we walked back home along Shevchenko blvd. It’s now nearly supper time, so we’ll soon head for Mario’s and see if the wi-fi is working... It is.

more Friday pics

stairs along the wall of caves monastery

Rodina Mat (big titanium lady) and museum

tanks...

us with the eternal flame (not burning right now) and river behind

how the other half lives...

a nice day...

peek-a-boo with daddy



Welcome to Friday! We have had a good day so far. We woke up a little early (Shona around 6am – Darren earlier) but other than that the day started off well. The sky was a little less gloomy, the train was pretty much on time leaving and there was a significant amount of space on the train today (Darren and I shared a 3 person seat!). Our time with Ivanna was great – and we actually got to spend a long chunk of time with her. We weren’t allowed outside but had the playroom to ourselves. Not that we spent a lot of time in it – Ivanna was very interested in going for walks (repeatedly) down the hallway. Each time we tried to interest her in something else, she would grab one of our fingers and pull until we went with her or she would eventually let go to explore on her own (all the while looking back as if to say ‘aren’t you coming?’. She is definitely becoming more comfortable with us and is showing more of her will (which apparently is stronger than previously thought). We are figuring out that we are going to have to start actual disciplining/consequences and quit laughing when she throws a little temper tantrum. Today she was such a busy girl and just didn’t want to sit still. When we gave her a little snack, she really didn’t want to sit and eat. After eating ½ a banana mostly sitting, we eventually just let her wander with her cookie (which definitely goes against my personal beliefs kids should sit while they eat – choking paranoia – it’s amazing how easy it is to fold to what the kid wants!). She promptly tried to just eat the chocolate chunks out of the cookie (a girl after my own heart!). Then, while wandering down the hall with her daddy and cookie, Darren said he go some funny looks – whether it was because she was walking and eating, eating a cookie or just because she was wandering down the hall for the 20th time – who knows. We decided we should maybe be a little firmer and make her sit while she ate. Oh – so – hard to go back after being indulgent!!!! Anyway, suffice it to say, she was NOT happy. She sat for about 3 seconds on my lap then wiggled her way off at which point I said she could go but I would have to take her cookie (which I did – way to be firm Sho). The look she gave me was hilarious – like I had seriously wounded her! Her bottom lip stuck out farther than I thought possible, she took a couple of steps away and flopped on the ground looking VERY sad. :( (Meanwhile her parents were laughing heartily – way to reinforce negative behaviour!!!) A few seconds later she must have forgotten what she was upset about – or realized it wasn’t the end of the world as she thought – and jumped up and was off and moving again. She is definitely testing us (for which we are grateful – it must mean she trusts us/is attached enough to want to test limits)! We are delighted to see her little personality showing through more and more with us (even if it is evident that she won’t just follow along and do everything we tell her to). Along with the pouty lips, we also both got dazzled with genuine and big smiles from her today. She also played a little peek-a-boo with us in the hall, and really seemed to enjoy playing with us. We are quite filled with love and joy. She has us thoroughly enchanted with her (and perhaps just a little wrapped around her finger)! It is hard not to be thoroughly spoiling her when she is with us so briefly. We want her to LIKE us after all! Somehow it feels like it will be easier to establish rules and consequences when she’s ours full time, but know that we must start with baby steps now (even if it doesn’t feel much like fun – discipline never really is, is it?). (D: actually, I am pretty sure it will be harder if we are big softies all the time now)
Our shawarma guy was closed today - :( very sad. We came home to have a snack instead and since the sun is shining intermittently and it actually feels a little warm outside – we are going to ‘carpe diem’ and explore a little more (yes, Jonathan, we are going to quit hermitting for the day!)

D: We just got home after touring the museum of the Great Patriotic War. We took the metro to Dnipro station and then kind of followed my nose (S – it always knows) toward where I thought the museum was (oddly enough, we could not see Rodina Mat until we were quite close). We ended up walking past the Caves Monastery and up many steps (S – about 200) along one wall into a park. From there, it was pretty easy to see the big metal lady. (S -After another 200 or so steps we got to…) The museum itself was very similar to the war museum in Ottawa, with a bit darker feel. I suppose that makes sense given that the war actually happened here. Although we could not read the signs, the exhibits were very powerful. One of the final rooms had thousands of pictures along one wall and a big table set up on top of shell casings. On it were many canteen and mess kits. It was very sobering to think of all those lives lost – wasted. On the top floor is a big airy room with names of lives lost on the supporting columns. It was pretty windy outside, and with the metal lady on top of us, we could here the creaking. Afterwards, we went outside and took some pictures, then walked over to a couple of outdoor exhibits containing airplanes, tanks, armoured vehicles, a sub, helicopter, missile, and mobile missile launcher. Shona was patient while I walked around. I took several pictures, thinking that Dale would really enjoy looking at this stuff. I find tanks, planes, and helicopters interesting, but always walk away wondering what the world would be like if we didn’t spend so much energy and creativity on making destructive things.
It was nice to get out and explore a bit more, but we are both a bit tired now (400+ steps up and down & about 6km more walking than normal!). We’ll head to Mario’s for supper – it’s been a few days since we shared a pizza!
Paka!