Shona, Darren and Ivanna...

our family now

2010-01-08T23:23:00.005-06:00

We realize it has been a long time since we have posted anything and thought we would put a few new pictures up. Our family has grown in the past year (but that is another story), and we are all doing well. Ivanna is in preschool and we have become those parents who want their kids to grow more slowly. She continues to delight and amaze us and keep us laughing. She loves to have fun.

a year later...

2008-07-08T23:33:00.000-06:00

We've been thinking quite a bit about our time in Ukraine a year ago. We tried to read our blog entries every day a year later in order to relive the experiences a bit. With a bit of distance, it still amazes us how well things went. As we predicted when in Ukraine, we are now pretty nostalgic about much of it. And how could we not be? It now feels like a marvelous adventure where we got to know our daughter a bit before bringing her home. Although I (Darren) am occasionally accused of living more in the past than in the present, these days it is pretty easy to be in the now. Frankly, life is pretty good.
Shona here now. Ivanna has continued to grow (she's 6 inches taller than a year ago), learn and blossom into an even more delightful little girl. We continue to just revel in the fact that she is our daughter. What a gift she is to us and we continue to be so grateful and thankful. We have spent the last few months doing much of the same. It's amazing how little time there is between breakfasts, playing, snack, playing, lunch, nap, reading books, snack, playing, walking to pick up Daddy at work, supper, and bedtime. We've had many playdates and suppers with friends and more playdates. We went as a family with Ivanna's buddy, Natalie and her family to Fairmont for week in March. 4 adults and 3 children under 3 in a 7 seater minivan, and all went surprisingly well. The kids did marvelously with the long drives and we all had a relaxing time there. I (Shona) did about 2 months of working 2 days a week, to help out at my workplace and Ivanna did well with being away from her Mama - getting to spend time with her nana, papa, and daddy helped. Ivanna and I accompanied Darren on a work trip to Waskesiu in June and we stayed for a brief family vacation overnight (we would have stayed longer, but the weather was cold and rainy). We've also just come back from a weekend up in Nipawin visiting Ivanna's Great Grandma and Grandpa (Darren's Grandparents) and discovered just how light sensitive our daughter is for sleeping as it doesn't get dark up there until after 10PM...not good...but a great visit nonetheless. Our plans for the summer are to spend as much time outside in the parks as possible, go to family camp at Oshkidee and try some camping (likely later in the summer when it gets dark sooner!)
We've just celebrated Ivanna's 3rd birthday. Wow. We have a 3 year old! We had her party at a local indoor pool (the weather was too threatening to have a pool party, as planned, at Nana and Grandpa's) and true to Ivanna's interests, when it came time for her to blow out her candles, she threw a little fit, and said 'no cake' and promptly jumped back into the pool...not caring that neither parent was near. She loves the water and would much rather play than eat sweets! Eventually we convinced her to come out and blow out the candles and at least the other kids got some cake! Anyway, that's our update...we'll post pictures soon :)

Some more pics...

2008-02-10T17:31:00.001-06:00

Ivanna loves chocolate like her mom!

'Helping' to decorate the Christmas tree

Out for a walk on the riverbank

First time skating

Talking on the phone (or calculator)

Holding baby 'Seal' (Theo)

Winter fun

2008-02-10T13:07:00.000-06:00

So much for updating each month...

What is new?

Ivanna has two new cousins (Theo - born to Tanis and Jonathan Jan31, and Jonathan - born to Val and Jason Feb8). We are thankful for good health all around. She is quite entranced with the new babies and likes to hold and kiss them. Although her attention span for them is still short and she quickly moves on to other interests! She has been playing alot more with her 'baby' (doll) since they have come along. Her own baby seems to be called 'baby Theo' but we'll have to see if that sticks now that baby Jonathan is also around. Initially she had trouble with Theo's name and when she talked about him, she'd say 'baby seal...arf, arf arf - with the hand motions and everything. It was pretty cute. After Jonathan's arrival, we told her she had another new baby cousin and that we were going to meet him. We told her his name was 'baby Jonathan'. She has since deduced that he is 'baby uncle' (as she has an uncle Jonathan!). It's been pretty consistent so far and makes us giggle. Oh how the mind of a toddler works!

Other than the new arrivals, there is not much new or exciting around here. Christmas was alot of fun - overwhelming at times...but fun. It was really quite a special time for us - especially when we thought about last Christmas (we had heard just before Christmas that we had to redo most of our dossier and were feeling pretty discouraged, frustrated and sad). This year, Darren had the time off work and only did a little work on final revisions of his dissertation (which he defended before Christmas), so we spent lots of time together and with family and friends.

It will be a year at the end of February since we heard of our appoinment date. It is really hard to believe that we have been home as long as we have and that Ivanna has done so well. She has grown a full 3 inches since June and seems to be feeding up for another growth spurt. While she continues to have moments (and sometimes entire days) that are trying for her parents as she behaves like any two year old - most of the time she is a truly delightful little girl. Regardless of her behaviour, we love her very much and feel very blessed. Her language is coming along and she continues to display alot of physical gifts and skills. She's beginning to be more interested in story books (as opposed to picture dictionary-type books which she loves), but still hasn't shown much interest in TV (OK with us!). We are doing both her music and gymnastics classes again this term and she continues to love both. We've gone swimming fairly regularly with Val, Jason and their kids and she really ought to have gills. She still has no fear and thinks she can swim (not a great combo right now - we have to watch her closely!)

Shona is starting to look at return-to-work options and we are thinking about childcare options. Crazy. Darren submitted his dissertation last month and is waiting on bound copies (yay.). He has settled into his work pretty well. We are really glad to have our Fridays together (he's working 80%).

We are looking forward to somewhat more temperate weather in the spring and summer as the last few weeks have been extra frigid and make it impossible for us to get outside even to play for a few minutes (-45C with the windchill is just too cold!!!) and Ivanna really does love to be outside. We've managed to get her out skating once (she lasted about 10 minutes!) and shovelled out her swing set so she could swing on one of the nicer days (yes, she still loves to swing!) but other than that it's mostly 'run, run run' (to and from house/car) and 'leave your mitts on...it's too cold to take them off ' (do all toddlers ALWAYS take off their mitts?)! Her love of wearing skirts and dresses are also a challenge when it's this cold!

We do plan to continue updating periodically, but have obviously failed miserably with the monthly updates! Reminders do help to get us going!

Fall

2007-11-11T14:10:00.000-06:00

Reading with Sam

Reading with Will and Eilidh and Auntie Val

going trick-or-treating with Natalie

Halloween with the MacKenzie cousins...

Halloween with the Nickel cousins

my first bubble bath - I loved it!

kissing 'Jakey'

2year old + 1 bucket at the cottage=hours of fun!

Great-grandma

Is he going to eat me?

Exercising with Will!
Wow. Time flies when you are having fun! It is hard for us to believe that it has been almost 3 months since we have updated our blog - so much for the monthly updates - sorry! Life at home with Ivanna continues to be a delightful adventure. In early September, Ivanna and I (Shona) flew to Ottawa with my parents to spend some time at 'the cottage' on Big Gull Lake. We had a wonderful time there with Auntie Joyce and 'Grandpa' Gord and other family that came to visit. The weather was lovely and we spent as much of our time outdoors as we could. It is amazing just how a child can entertain herself with very few toys when there is the great outdoors to play in! Ivanna was enchanted with Jake (Joyce and Gord's Dalmation) and once she had mastered the cottage door was very happy to serve as Jake's door opener. She gave him much love over the week there and continues to call any Dalmation 'Jakey'! I think he is still recovering from her attention/affection. We learned our little swimmer is not so fond of cold water and the concern of being so close to water with a 2 year old lessened after she'd been in the cold lake once or twice. From then on if you mentioned going in she would back away and say 'no wanna'! It was a relaxing week and wonderful to introduce her to extended family. Darren unfortunately couldn't come as he was working hard on his thesis - next time though. Since our return home, we have settled into our fall routines. Darren started working through the University in a research position and continued to work hard on his thesis and so has been quite busy. Ivanna started a music class for toddlers and mom's with her auntie Lecia, which she has grown to love (she's not much for sitting still and has quite a mind of her own, so a structured class was a little challenging at first - but now she seems to really enjoy it). We spend much of the rest of our week repeating the songs we learn in music class. 2 year olds sure do like repetition! We also are in a parent/tot gymnastics class, which is quite a lot of fun. Again quite structured which Ivanna does not always enjoy, but she sure does love to jump and swing and do summersaults! We do both of these classes with our neighbours (Jen and Rob) and their little girl Natalie - the girls have become quite the little buddies. Besides these classes, we spend time with friends playing or going to the library story time, as well as weekly having tea with the ladies from Darren's mom's side of the family (where Ivanna plays with some of her cousins). I've also been going the mom's program at our church which is a nice break as they provide childcare for the children. The weeks fly by. This fall we also participated in a Parent Language Program through the local hospital Speech/Language Pathology Department. We have learned many ways to help Ivanna's language to continue to develop and it does seem to be helping. She has a phenominal vocabulary, considering she's only heard english for 6 months, but has been somewhat slow in starting to put words together in phrases. This has really improved in the last several weeks and she talks constantly at home. She's still not exactly understandable to strangers - but we generally know what she is saying! "No wanna" continues to be a favorite phrase, but I suppose that is relatively normal for 2! Other excitement this fall was Ivanna's first Halloween in Canada - where she dressed up as a ladybug (or 'budeedee' as she calls them). It didn't take her long to figure out that people would give her candy as we went to the doors (she didn't master 'trick or treat', but did manage to learn 'treat'!)- we only did a few houses in our area where we know people and she certainly gave us funny looks as we passed other houses when she saw other children going up the walks! It was quite fun and after a drive to visit both sets of grandparents and meet up with all the cousins, she went to bed quite late and exhausted!

In the last week, Darren has submitted his thesis to his commitee and that is a tremendous relief. He will have more time to spend with us as a family once he has finished his defence, as he is working 80%. I have formally requested an extension of my leave from work and so will not be returning to my position until the fall of 2008. So life in our little family is settling down. It is a good life and we are daily grateful.

Summer Fun...

2007-08-19T16:46:00.000-06:00

Having a snack with some of her cousins (Misha and Sabrina)

Playing with Will

Sunday evening supper at Nana and Grampa MacKenzie's (playing with Dad's coke can)

Just generally being a monkey!

Finding swings wherever we go (at family camp)

Camping at Pike lake

Playing and having fun in Nana and Papa (Nickel's) yard

Playing with Sam and a box...need we say more?

Having a blast at the zoo with Auntie Val, Uncle Jason, Eilidh and Will

Ivanna's 2nd birthday party at Pike Lake

Mooching dessert from Grampa (or Bampa as Ivanna says)

Swimming with her Nanas - she now LOVES water!

Reading with Eilidh

Sharing Papa's dessert... yes this is a theme of her life (mooching her grandparents' desserts)

Well, life is good and fun in the Nickel household. It is hard to believe the summer is almost over and we are planning fall activities. This has been an amazing summer and we are feeling very blessed and thankful. Ivanna continues to adjust well. Her language is coming along in leaps and bounds and she has become quite a little parrot - repeating most things we say (time to become more cautious with what we say!). She is very fond of all her family and loves to spend time with all her cousins. She now definately has a name for each of her cousins (some more acurate to the real thing than others - Tug=Sam, Wow=Will, etc...) It is such a joy to see her grow and develop. We are definitely learning A LOT and have our moments when we are amazed at just how classically 2 she can be; but she is generally a delightful child. This morning (after being lead back to her room to play/read quietly on her own at 6:45) she came back into our room around 7:20 and came quietly up to the bed, placed a stuffed dog beside me and then went around to Darren and put a stuffed bunny on his head. How sweet is that? She is a very dear child. She continues to love animals and we are trying to teach her not to torment Nana and Grandpa MacKenzie's dog (she tries hard to chase her and loves to help Nana take her for a walk). She loved the zoo when we went last week and I think we'll make good use of the yearly membership we bought (chickens are still a hit!) We spent a week at a family camp up north of Meadow Lake where she learned to tolerate the sand (at first we had to swim in deep water only). It was a fantastic time. We've also had lots of fun playing in our yard, going to parks with friends and cousins - basically being outside as much as possible. Yeah, we're having fun. Life is good.

Life at home...

2007-07-19T13:42:00.000-06:00

It is really hard to believe that we have been home for about as long as we were in Ukraine. Time has gone much quicker here. We have settled quite well into somewhat of a routine and are really enjoying our daughter. She has adapted incredibly well and at times we really have to remind ourselves that we've only had her for 7 weeks. She is such a wonderful little girl and has really just blossomed since we've had her with us. It's been incredible to watch. She is most definately well attached to us, but also is quite attached to both sets of grandparents and all her cousins, aunties and uncles. We have pictures on our fridge of the cousins that she looks at and points to (and often kisses) several times each day - it's pretty cute! She's got her own version of most of their names down (for example Will is 'wow' and Sam is 'tug' - we're not sure of the connection but it suits him!) She knows both her grandparents' houses and gets quite excited to get out of the car or stroller as soon as she sees them. She has settled in so well to our families that in many ways it is like she was always here.
We continue to learn alot about Ivanna and experience many firsts and watch her expand her little world. While at first, water was quite terrifying to her and she HATED her bath time (as in kicking and screaming hated), now she has turned into a little fish in her Nana and Grandpa MacKenzie's pool and loves her bath. The transformation started by watching her cousins (Eilidh and Will) having FUN in the bath and then progressed to having a bath with her cousin Sam (who loves the bath) to now she goes to the bath and holds up the plug and points to the taps and says 'please' with a very cute expression on her face. The pool has also helped. While at first she was a little tentative (at least I think I remember her actually being tentative the first time or two - she's so different now!) and clung to me (Shona) and her daddy, she eventually discovered that splashing is FUN and then that water is fun. After a couple of visits she was jumping in (to my increased stress) from the edge without hanging on to me and was quite happy to go right under the water (with me to pull her up). Now we mostly put her in a life jacket (and she's progressed to jumping off the diving board)! In the life jacket she will kick and try to swim and will purposefully put her face in the water and will 'dive' under the rope dividing the shallow and deep ends lifting it over her as she goes under it. It's amazing -- and actually hard to remember just how tentative she was about water a few short weeks ago!
Ivanna also really loves to be outside and will play for hours (if we let her) on the play structure in the backyard or in the parks near our home. We have realised that she is really quite a physically-gifted child as she is quite strong for her age, is incredibly flexible and has no fear. She will try to climb anything (and is able to climb most play structures - even those made for much older children!). She definately keeps us running!
In the last month, we also went camping and she had a lot of fun. She and I (Shona) went with Tanis and her boys to a nearby camp-ground (Pike Lake) and stayed for most of a week, camping with other friends. It was so much fun. The pool there is ideal for kids (zero-entry) and also has a water slide (which, surprise surprise, she loved riding down with me). Our days were fantastic and lots of fun but our nights were a little rough as she and I both had bad colds, and she had croup the first night there (not fun to deal with on your own without medical assistance close by!). We both survived and learned that she reacts with cold medication, so we will NEVER EVER give it to her again (lets just say that 4 hours of a manic/hyper child in a small tailer from 11PM to 3am is not a good experience!). We have since learned that the nightime version is tolerable and she doesn't go wild with it. Ah. Life lessons learned the hard way.
We had her 2nd birthday party out at Pike Lake and that was a lot of fun and provided a lot of space for the kids to run around. She hadn't napped that day (other than 10 minutes in the car - which apparently she thought was enough) so by the end of the party as we put her in the vehicle and said goodbye to family she sleepily said (and signed) to me 'tired, night night'. So we fed her wieners and put her to bed. A good day.
Food has been another adventure. As we got NO information from the orphanage about her usual foods, we've been kind of winging it. We've discovered that most of the time she would gobble up oatmeal in the morning and thick, chunky soup/stew for lunch (yes she'd even eat all the vegetables). Those were my 'sure things'. Well, a week of camping with her cousins now has her eating hot dogs like CRAZY and fries and ketchup. That's a balanced diet right? She also will now eat cheese (especially cheese strings - what Sam has, Ivanna wants - how that has helped her to eat more things!) and yogurt cheese (Minigo) and she'll eat a few other options for fruit besides bananas, so at least she'll now eat something in all the food groups! I'm learning to be more relaxed and let her eat what she will and not to push what she won't (she is 2 after all - the more I push, the more she pushes back! DN: yeah, I'm learning that one too. I figured that since I am older, I ought to have a stronger will. oops. not so). It really is an adventure all round.
Anyway, that's all I have time for now. She will be waking up from her nap soon so off I must run. Know that we are all doing well and loving being home. We'll post more recent pictures soon and will try to continue to post at least monthly updates for all our loved ones who live far away and don't get to experience the adventure first hand!
Shona, Darren and Ivanna

time warp...

2007-07-11T09:49:00.000-06:00

It is almost unbelievable that we have had Ivanna for 6 weeks and that we've been home for 5 1/2. Ivanna has settled in extremely well. She seems very attached to us -- and actually, pretty fond of us too. I (Darren) have been going in to work most days and must say that it is very heartwarming to see Ivanna's face light up as she says, "Dada!" when she sees me. Yeah, it is pretty great. She has picked up a decent amount of English already and, we think, understands even more than she lets on. Really, she seems to be exhibiting most of the normal behaviours of any 2-year-old girl -- which brings me to the next point: we are tired. Who knew that having a 2 year old could tire you out?
Ivanna has incredible energy. She seems overjoyed to be discovering the world and sprints from interest point to interest point. She is at times a bit hard to keep up with, but oh so much fun to watch. I'm coming to realize that all the energy we spent worrying about the future before we had Ivanna is now spent on her -- where is she? Is she safe? How did she get that? How did she do that?
We celebrated Ivanna's 2nd birthday on Saturday with family and friends at a local provincial park and had a great time. It will probably take a few years, but I hope she comes to see just how blessed we feel and how much many people love and celebrate her.

The way home (part 2) and ...

2007-06-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

not sure how that is a comfortable sleep...

playing with Misha

on the swings in our backyard with Sam

So… Here we sit in Toronto. Ivanna slept from around 3:00am (NFLD time) to 7:20ish, which is good. We played, had breakfast, got cleaned up and dressed then went for a walk – to the airport as the other direction had no sidewalks. It took less than 10 minutes to walk there. We walked inside a bit (it was about 7 Celcius in St. John’s this morning – so inside walking was good after being acclimatized to over 30 for the last 3-4 weeks!) and had a coffee at Tim Hortons and introduced Ivanna to donuts (pretty big hit). We walked back and then did the last second packing up and grabbed the shuttle back to the airport. Our girl was pretty tired by the time our flight was loading and had a bit of a fit as I tried to settle her and hold her so that she might sleep. We eventually tried some soft chewy candies (actually – oops – I bought sour candies and so had to suck the sour sugar off then she would eat them) which kept her quiet for seconds to minutes at a time. She slowly got tired though and even though she still was fussing a bit by the time the plane was taxiing her little eyelids were drooping and as we took off she fell asleep. She slept for 1 ½ hours (until I decided to try laying her down as we had an extra seat again – unfortunately she stirred and woke and didn’t go back to sleep despite probably needing it. Alas. Mom and Dad were back on. She actually did quite well for the rest of the trip and played mostly on her own in her seat with some books for most of an hour and only got a bit fussy right at the end (she really doesn’t like losing her freedom for take-off and landing!) Darren did a good job of distracting her with a puppet. Once we got into the terminal (gate service for the stroller is the most brilliant idea ever – much easier than yesterday) we had a nice meal (we were all hungry) of burgers for Darren and me (it’s been a LONG time without burger for Darren) and chicken fingers for Ivanna. Now as I write Ivanna is ripping around and playing. She’s enjoying watching the goings-on the tarmac and trying to entice her Daddy into a game of chase (which she loves, but gets incredibly riled up – which after yesterday we are trying to avoid - so Darren is doing a good job of emanating calm – or is it just the fatigue?) We are both feeling very weary and will be very glad to get home tonight. It’s still hard to believe all that has happened in the last 6 ½ weeks. In some ways it seems just like yesterday we were here waiting to leave to go the other direction and had no clue of what would happen when we got there. Now there is this amazing little girl who calls us ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ who is traveling HOME with us. There are many moments when this all still feels like a dream.

June 6th….the story continues
We are now safely home, but I will jump back to where we left off in Toronto. We managed to pass the rest of the time waiting for our flight and all were pretty exhausted by the time our boarding time came around – and passed without the plane boarding as it hadn’t arrived yet. We managed to keep Ivanna somewhat distracted from losing it (she was really tired and ready to sleep – airports are way too stimulating for toddlers!) When the plane finally arrived and we got on, she actually was pretty calm and fell asleep as the plane was taxiing. Unfortunately, it then proceeded to sit on the runway, in a line-up of planes and then the pilot came on to say that all takeoffs were being stopped as there was an electrical storm and the priority for air-traffic control was to get the planes in the air landed. We worried a bit as our connection in Winnipeg was only 40 minutes and we were approaching ½ hour delayed at this point. The positive to all this was Ivanna was sleeping (thankfully – neither of us had much for reserves to deal with a screaming kid). Eventually, we did take off, but it was an hour late. I couldn’t believe we’d come so close to only be stuck in Winnipeg for the night. Darren was quite calm about it and I just cried. I was feeling pretty desperate to just be home. Ivanna slept for pretty much the whole trip, but was quite restless and cried intermittently in her sleep – I think she was just desperate to have a comfortable space to move around (she does kind of thrash in her sleep) but was limited to the lumpiness of our laps). As we got closer to Winnipeg the pilot came on to say that we would be arriving 45 minutes late and said nothing about connecting flights, so I asked the stewardess to ask about whether we would make our connection to Saskatoon. She wasn’t sure and wasn’t able to get any answers from the flight deck as they were busy. All we could do was pray that somehow we would make it. As we landed and taxied in the pilot came on to say that the Saskatoon flight was being held for us as there were several people connecting and asked that people who weren’t on that connecting flight to remain seated and accommodate the rest of us getting off. Slava Bogu. We quickly got our stuff organized and stood up as soon as we could (along with most of the plane – so much for accommodating other passengers, people are funny). In any case we got out, grabbed the stroller and headed into the building. The Saskatoon flight had not even started to board yet – it had been delayed (what I prayed for as we left Toronto). I just sat down on a vacant seat with Ivanna and cried. The faucet was very leaky after that last and FINAL scare about not making it home that night. A few minutes later, an attendant asked if we were on the Saskatoon flight and came over to get our boarding passes and told us we could head into the plane. Ivanna had woken up on the landing from Toronto but was so tired still that she was very subdued. We settled into our seats and she quietly looked at a book and then fell asleep again as we took off. About halfway through that final and short flight, I realized my bladder would not make it to the end. We managed to shift Ivanna into Darren’s arms and I snuck out and then on my return did the reverse for Darren. Thankfully she’s mostly quite a sound sleeper. She slept right through landing into Saskatoon and just woke up with the seatbelt sign going off. She was a little trooper as we gathered our things and headed off the plane and was pretty happy to see her stroller but reached up for my hand as I walked beside her. We headed into the building and as we came out of the security area saw a sea of much-loved and missed faces in front of us. The cousins all had balloons and there was a great big sign welcoming us home. It was incredible. We were quickly surrounded by family and friends and the cousins swooped in to meet Ivanna. She did remarkably well considering she was surrounded by strangers and was exhausted. She was pretty quiet and rather stunned-looking but tolerated the adoring attention of the kids really well. They tied balloons on her stroller and gave her some to hold to (at which point she finally let go of my hand). She continued to do well, checking to see where we were when one or the other of us moved away briefly. After a lot of well wishes and hugs and a small smile or two from Ivanna as some people interacted with her, we (her parents who were not sitting down and were ready to drop) headed home in our car with Jonathan as our Chauffeur – he had picked up all our luggage and brought the car around. Ivanna didn’t fuss with the car seat – she just picked at and looked at the restraints with disdain and played with her balloons on the way home and began saying ‘paka, paka, paka’. Pretty sweet. We arrived home to a huge chalk arrow leading into our driveway and wonderful pictures and ‘welcome home’ filling the driveway. I took Ivanna directly up to her room and she went to sleep without a problem. We were completely overwhelmed by all the gifts and cards and pictures of us with Ivanna that filled our home and yard. That night Ivanna slept well until 6:30 the next morning. Darren did the same. I was awake from 2am until about 5:30 (forgotten how to sleep). Our first couple of days at home have been pretty amazing. Ivanna is adjusting well. She had quite a ball yesterday morning investigating her room and toys and the rest of the house. We’ve shut a few doors to limit just how much of the house she knows about right now – so as not to overwhelm her too much. I continue to sleep poorly and haven’t yet been able to nap despite being completely exhausted. Hopefully that will change soon. Things still seem to have a bit of a dream-like quality. Perhaps that will change with rest. We continue to be amazed at just how well Ivanna is doing. We are slowly getting to know better who this little girl is. We are discovering her likes and dislikes with regards to food (that can be quite funny – she has a pretty good whole body shudder when she doesn’t like something). We are guessing most of her food has been pretty bland so far in her life as anything with a lot of texture or flavour promptly gets the body shudder and spit out onto her tray. I am finding it both delightful and frustrating at different times. It would have been nice to have gotten more information from the orphanage about what foods she ate, but it is interesting to try different things with her – so far no major upsets to her tummy. This (like the whole process of adopting from Eastern Europe) is quite an adventure – probably not for the faint of heart. We are enjoying being home and are very thankful for our daughter and our family and friends who have supported us. We are blessed.

the way home (part1)

2007-06-02T23:50:00.000-06:00

What we are learning today…
The bright side of traveling with a toddler is that you are seldom bored. The dark side: new-found freedoms are not given up without formidable protests.
We tried to stay up late last night to begin shifting our internal clocks around a bit. Well, we stayed up a bit later, and Ivanna woke up a bit earlier. Yay. We cleaned ourselves up a bit and then headed out for a walk over to Shevshenko Park, where we played for a while. Despite one noisy vote against leaving, we headed down Shevshenko boulevard (for those of you on GoogleEarth) to our grocery store to pick up a few edible/drinkable souvenirs. After that, our last shawarmas by the master. Ivanna was pretty tired by the time we were on our way home (asleep, actually), so Shona moved her to the bed for a shortish nap. We woke her up before 2 so that she’d be ready to go when Lesya and her husband picked us up. Finally the time came and we said good-bye to our apartment. Jonathan told us that Kyiv would become home for us eventually, and I think some elements stood in for a while with some pseudo-hominess for a while. We will likely recall a lot of things and feel a bit sentimental fairly soon.
Everything went well checking in and getting to our gate, except that the security gate seemed to take forever to open. But eventually, it did and we boarded our plane. Well, once on board, the captain told us that the flight controllers would not let us take off for another 30 or 40 minutes. It was not welcome news. (for those of you who did not know, we had 35 minutes between landing in Munich and taking off on our next flight – you do the math). We said a little prayer. I was kind of thinking that as long as we head West, we are going in the right direction and would trust that we would make our connection in Toronto tomorrow. Well, a while later the captain said that we had been bumped up a bit (but probably still not enough for us to make our connection). A while later still, the engines fired up and we were off. Long story somewhat shortened: we made our connection and, since the flight ended up having a bit of space, Ivanna had her own seat (except for taking off and landing – see above comment). It was wonderful! Needless to say, the plumbing fixtures on Shona are a bit loose today – for VERY good reason. We are now in London, waiting to find out the gate we’ll use for our flight to NFLD. Ivanna is overdone, but overjoyed to be able to run around a bit (on a harness/leash held by Shona – thanks Michelle E.). We are really hoping she winds down enough to sleep a bit between here and St. John’s. We love her, but at this point, Shona and I could both use a break at the same time.
Oh, one other thing, it is a very interesting experience being able to just read everything by looking at it, instantly.

Later…after running about madly, Ivanna had a bit of a meltdown. It’s very understandable. She was overtired and in a hyper-stimulating environment (Heathrow is not what one might call serene). We managed to calm her a bit by taking her to a baby change room to get a break from the noise and sights and people, and so that she could cool off (she got pretty warm). She fired up a bit again on the way to our gate, but fell asleep and slept the whole flight to St. John’s. Once again, there was a spare seat for her to lie down on. It was good. Shona managed a few winks (between kicks from Ivanna – man, does she ever thrash at points in her sleep) and I got about 30 minutes or so. We are now in the bathroom of our hotel room in St. John’s. Shona got Ivanna to sleep once in the hotel room with quiet and darkness, and we are hoping to keep her that way for a while (and hoping to join her soon).

pics...

2007-06-01T09:24:00.000-06:00

leaving Boyarka...

first meal at the apartment

not sure if I like that...

Friday ... finally!

2007-06-01T09:18:00.002-06:00

We have had quite an exciting final full day in Kyiv. I did not sleep well – Ivanna was a little restless last night and I feel like I woke up everytime she turned over (which was frequent). I certainly woke up each time she bonked her little head on either our bed frame or the wardrobe on the other side. It’s not like she’s cramped – there’s at least 3 feet of space for her! She would cry out briefly each time she bonked and then would settle right back to sleep – not so for her mama. Anyway, I woke up for good by 6, made myself stay in bed until 6:30 and then got up to write in my journal – it’s been a week (a busy one!). Darren got up at 7:30 and Ivanna finally woke up close to 8. Apparently her crazy running around and playing yesterday afternoon took a little out of her! We had a nice leisurely morning and slowly got all three of us ready to go by 11. Vadim picked us up and we headed to get Irina. We then got photos for Ivanna’s Visa and headed to the Canadian Embassy. When the woman who does Visas came down she said that she couldn’t process Ivanna’s Visa today because she hadn’t yet received the second Letter of No Objection. Our hearts dropped and I’m sure mine stopped for a few seconds. We KNOW that our social worker sent it by courier weeks ago, but telling the lady this made no difference. She said if we could get it sent (fax would do for today) before 5PM she could process the visa – otherwise, we couldn’t leave because they are closed on Saturdays. I have to say we were both feeling rather panicked at that point. Irina was quite calm about it and said we would call Rodica. We left the forms (in case we could get everything sent in time) and left. Irina was immediately on the phone with Lesya who then called Rodica (from our agency in Ontario) and when we got home we also called Michelle (our social worker from DCRE -at home, we are very thankful she had given us her home number and that as it happens she’d had a strong coffee that night and wasn’t sleeping when I called!) who headed in to work for us a 3:30AM Saskatoon time to fax the letter (Thank you SO much Michelle!!). In the end, I think the Embassy got faxed the letter both from Rodica (who had a copy) and from Michelle. Better more than not enough – that’s for sure. It has been quite an emotional few hours. I have to admit – I’m a bit of a basket case. We did receive all the copies of the documents today from Irina and it was very neat (if also rather emotional) to read through all the documents – especially the court judgment and her new birth certificate – both naming us as parents. Wow.
After signing more documents at the notary’s office, we drove home and said good-bye and thank-you to Irina and Vadim. It’s hard to believe we leave tomorrow. We are so grateful. We had a nice supper of leftovers (and a nice chat with Tanis – it was almost like she had supper with us) and are now at Mario’s for dessert with the Andrews. And, as a very good ending to a strenuous day, the wi-fi is up. Yay!

thursday

2007-06-01T09:18:00.001-06:00

Wow. It’s been an amazing 24 hours. We have a daughter who is currently ripping around the apartment playing with everything from our tea towel to theraband to her teddy bear. Pretty much everything she finds becomes a toy. It’s so incredible to watch her delight in everything. She has come so much out of her quiet shell in the last day, it’s amazing. Last night we went for a walk and ended up in the at a play park in one half of the botanical gardens. She of course had the required swing time and just watched all the kids and people. We have discovered she absolutely loves animals (we knew of course she likes creepy chickens) but every animal she saw any (pigeons, other birds, a cat, many dogs) she would point and vocalize something (woof for the dogs) and have this look of absolute delight and awe. She managed to get her first pony ride (I am a sucker). She saw a little pony in the park that a fellow was taking kids for rides. He obviously saw a customer because he indicated she could have a ride. I said ‘no, she’s too little’. He then indicated she could just pet the pony, which led to him indicating that she should just sit on the pony, which as soon as I sat her on there, he started the pony going and had me hold her leg (she held onto the little handle on the saddle). We walked a short loop, which she loved and he earned a few dollars. We then headed to Mario’s to meet the Andrews for dessert. We were a little early so we walked around the block first so Ivanna wouldn’t have to sit for too long. By the end of the block she was rocking side to side and singing a little song – it was great. She did really well in the restaurant, playing for about an hour with some papers and sharing a little of my dessert. She was pretty content and not concerned at all with the strangers – they even got to see a couple of smiles. We are thrilled as hopefully if things continue to go well, we won’t have to hermit too much in the next weeks. She went to bed well, with only about 5 seconds of crying before she settled in to snuggle with me and then was asleep in about 10 minutes. She slept through the night except for briefly waking up when she rolled off the cushion she was sleeping on. I just put her back on the cushion and she went right to sleep again until 7:00am. Fantastic! I slept better than I expected considering there was this little alien on the floor beside me! We had a great morning and managed to get ready and out the door around 9 (Ivanna was ready, having brought us her shoes and hat around 8!). We walked to pick up the Andrews and then walked down to Kreschatik to meet another Canadian couple. We had a great time visiting and getting to know everyone. It is nice for the two couples to meet as they are both now waiting for second appointments at the SDA – they can be good supports and company for each other – especially while they are both in Kyiv. Darren and Ivanna and I headed back to the apartment after a little shopping in Independence Square. We had a little lunch (which Ivanna devoured) and then she and I attempted to lay down for a nap. I’ll give you the short version and say that things didn’t go as smoothly as yesterday. After an hour of various attempts on and off and much crying (mostly on Ivanna’s part) we (she and I) decided enough was enough and gave up on the nap. She’s been going strong ever since (it’s now 5:45) so she either didn’t need the nap and/or she’s (hopefully) going to crash well tonight. Darren just got back after a long and tiring afternoon of waiting and driving – getting her passport and legalizing documents. Tomorrow we get her visa and then we leave Saturday. CRAZY!! We are heading to Mario’s for supper with the Andrews and hopefully the wi-fi will work tonight.

Wednesday

2007-06-01T09:16:00.000-06:00

What a day! After a lesiurely morning at the apartment, Slava and Vadim picked us up and we headed off to do a bit more process stuff. We made two brief stops and headed out to Boyarka. Upon arrival, we spoke briefly to the Italian couple we’ve gotten to know a bit at the orphanage (we think they are set to go home this week as well). We then headed upstairs and waited briefly before Ivanna was brought to us. Apparently, she had not had any lunch (as kids often get car sick leaving their orphanages). Tatianna told us that she had been sitting at the table propping her head in hands, obviously none too pleased at not getting to eat with the rest of her group. She was a bit more tentative today. She seemed to sense that something was up. Things were not as normal. She was content to snuggle with Shona for a bit. Then Shona undressed Ivanna, and while she dressed her in her new clothes, I folded up her old ones. It felt like a pretty meaningful set of actions – marking so many changes. Slava and Tatianna asked us to sign a couple of documents and then we said a quick good-bye (and slightly teary thank-you – how do you express the depth of gratitude to a person who was an integral caregiver for your daughter?) to Tatianna, who said “Ivanna is super.” We know it. We stopped to give hugs and kisses to the Italian couple and then jumped into the car and drove away. And that was it. (Sho - For us it felt way to quick and we didn’t get all we wanted as far as information and moments there – it wasn’t what I had envisioned, but sitting here now and thinking about it – I realize that it was probably better for her not to have it drawn out.) Ivanna was very alert and pretty stiff, but not visibly upset. She watched everything pretty intently – including Vadim, when he stopped to get some petrol (standing on Shona’s lap with her head out the window!). We had a very zig-zaggy (hmm. Jason, is that ‘good’?) ride back to the apartment, and Ivanna fell asleep and slept nicely for a few minutes – twitching and jerking once in a while. Shona asked me if we were sure she has none of our genetics (I twitch a lot when falling asleep). When we got back to our place, Slava told us about the plans for the next couple of days. Apparently I am going to do a bit of running around tomorrow afternoon (thankfully, Shona and Ivanna can stay at home). Then, on Friday we will go do the visa stuff at the Canadian embassy. Shona and Slava said their good-byes (since Shona won’t see her again) and we came upstairs. Ivanna woke up when the door closed, so we offered her some food. She seems to play a little game when you offer her something she is not sure about. She kind of cocks her head to one side and gives a little smile (I have the feeling she is training us here). At first, we thought it was her way of saying ‘no’. But after Shona and I both laughed several times when she did it, I offered her a taste of something else. She cocked her head at first, but when I moved the spoon closer, she tried it. Let the social learning games begin! Now, Shona and Ivanna are having a rest in the bedroom. We expect to get out to the playground a bit later, then come home for a meal prepared for us by Jonathan when he was here (we’ve been saving it in the freezer – thanks, bro). It’s hard to believe we are finally here. We feel very blessed, very thankful. Slava Bogu.
(Sho now) We keep having to go have a little peek at this amazing little girl who is our daughter and is sleeping on the bed with her arms flopped out to the side. She’s real!

Thursday...

2007-05-31T10:40:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-05-29T07:52:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-29T07:51:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-27T08:46:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-25T10:23:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-24T09:03:00.001-06:00

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

2007-05-23T15:18:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-23T09:56:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-22T09:32:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-22T08:34:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-21T08:54:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-20T10:28:00.000-06:00

(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

2007-05-19T10:04:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-18T08:01:00.000-06:00

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!!!!!!

2007-05-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-17T04:37:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-16T15:15:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-16T10:37:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-15T09:01:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-05-14T09:01:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-05-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-05-12T09:24:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-11T08:49:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-05-11T08:41:00.000-06:00

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!

waiting...

2007-05-10T10:49:00.000-06:00

okay, let's go.

car or ball pit?

ball pit -- for now.

just passing by -- and can you put that camera down now?

S - So just to let you know that we CAN break out of our routine (though apparently we are both really fond of familiarity) we thought we’d let you know that Darren and I both had veal with baby potatoes for our anniversary supper and then for dessert somehow we managed to order 3 desserts (really, not 3 full ones – 2 were profiteroles with chocolate sauce – one white, one dark, and the 3rd was a chocolate brandy tort). All delicious! (although I have to admit while we were waiting for our meal I was certainly staring longingly at the next table’s pizzas – they make REALLY GOOD pizza!)

D - This morning we went out at our usual time, hoping to spend the whole two hours (or as close as possible) with Ivanna. When we arrived at the orphanage around 10am, Ivanna was dressed for outdoors and standing by a few nurses, along with two other children. One of the nurses told us that Ivanna was going to the hospital. We tried not to freak out too much, and just spent the next few minutes holding Ivanna and looking out the window with her. Soon the nurse came over to take Ivanna and then walked out the door. We weren’t too sure what to do. We went upstairs to see Tatianna. We went into her office and Shona said, “Ivanna. Hospital?” Tatianna’s face dropped a bit. She seemed quite surprised and tried to call someone and then hurried downstairs to find out what was going on. In just a few minutes, she came back up and motioned us into her office so that the woman in there could translate for her. Apparently, Ivanna was going for a routine appointment with the doctor. There was no cause for concern. She suggested we wait, as she expected Ivanna would be back in an hour or so. Tatianna is very warm and gentle, and you can just tell that she loves the kids and is really interested in them getting good homes. I’m hoping we can get a picture of her at some point. We really like her. We went back downstairs and sat on the couch in the foyer and listened to music on my mp3 player. We waited. And waited. And waited. (Sho – We also spent some time trying to read one of the Russian kid books we have – not so successfully, and I also discovered Ivanna’s bear is as flexible as the Circus performers and he likes to dance – Darren thinks I’ve lost it). Finally, around 11:55am Ivanna got back. The receptionist asked if we could spend some time with her right away, but the nurse seemed to insist that she eat lunch and took her straight upstairs. Tatianna came by and said that we could play with Ivanna for a ‘short’ while after her lunch, because she would need to nap with her group. Around 12:15 one of Ivanna’s usual caregivers brought her down to us and we went up to the playroom.
Very quickly, Ivanna was over looking at the toys. Shona and I sat down around her and she started pulling things out. She seemed quite comfortable and more energetic today (fewer distractions?). She also seemed quite interested in playing with us today. She would hand one toy to Shona and then one toy to me. Also, at one point she picked up a little car that she and I had played with before and brought it over to me. It was nice to see her remember previous playtimes. Nothing held her interest for very long. She’d pull a toy out and do one or two things with it, then put it away and move on to something else – usually either taking Shona’s or my finger and leading us off to whatever she wanted to do next. It was fun, and we are now expecting that she may be able to tire us out when she gets comfortable at home! (Sho here – I just have to add that at one point in our time with her, she and I were walking down the hallway – Ivanna leading the way of course – and she looked up at me and gave me the cutest smile. It seemed slightly impish, but very genuine. I’m not sure if she was pleased with me, please with us being together or just pleased that she had me doing exactly what she wanted – but it was a pretty precious smile. I think it was her first unprompted smile with us – no spinning or fast car driving involved.) Eventually, another caregiver came up to take Ivanna for her sleep. Before we left, Shona went up to her group area and gave them the cookies she baked.
We then headed back to the train platform, both feeling really glad that we stayed and got to play with Ivanna. We’ve come to the conclusion that any time with her is worth a wait. And the time today was particularly enjoyable as it seemed that Ivanna was definitely feeling more comfortable with and attached to us. Upon arriving at the train platform, we saw that the next train was to arrive in about 40 minutes. Grrr. Unfortunately, we actually waited for about an hour and a quarter in the cold wind. Not so much fun. But now, we are feeling much better, having filled our tummies with shawarma, picked up a few groceries, and made it back to the warmth of our apartment.
S – Now it’s after 7 and we have relaxed a bit, I did some ironing (I’ve done more ironing here in the last 2 weeks than I think the last year – the joy of line drying clothes), we made supper (leftover sauce and chicken with fried salami added, with fresh bread – YUM!). We’ve watched the news and read another chapter in ‘Prince Caspian’. We’re now heading out for some coffee, dessert and to post this/check the blog and email (aka – get our daily fix).

Lakeview Shower

2007-05-09T21:19:00.000-06:00

Shower update:
A drop-in baby shower for Ivanna (and Shona, & Darren) will be held in their absence on Saturday, May 12 from 2 to 4 pm at their house. It is a 'play and learn' shower, emphasizing age appropriate toys and books, although donations are welcome as well. This shower is being put on by friends from Lakeview Church.
For more information contact Brenda England @ 477-2550

There will be a second shower for family and friends coming up in the next week or so. Details will be posted early by Monday.

happy anniversary to us...

2007-05-09T09:47:00.000-06:00

the beginning of the parade

we liked seeing the kids.

good to be OUTSIDE today, although Ivanna likes the camera as much as Shona.

Well, after supper last night, Darren and I went to the store to find some dessert (we managed to find a very yummy Napoleon Tort) and went home. We sat, ate dessert and watched Mike Myers - “The Spy Who Shagged Me”. Not normally my kind of movie but I will admit it did make me laugh a bit and certainly got our minds off the day. This morning I was awake at 5 am for some crazy reason (and so Darren was mostly awake then too – I’m not exactly calm and peaceful when I wake up and want to be asleep). We got a couple of wonderful phone calls this morning (from JP/Tanis and my mom and dad) to wish us a happy anniversary. Who would think 9 years would go by so fast? Kind of hard to believe! Anyway, we got up, ready to go and walked down to Kreschatyk -- pretty close to tSUM (for those of you who've been here). The day started out lovely as we walked but soon clouded over and got colder. The parade was not exactly what we expected. We were thinking there might be some old tanks, trucks, etc… which would be neat to see. Nope. The parade was basically a parade of people walking (or parading, if you will) by, interspersed with a few of marching bands. It was an honour to see the few actual veterans going by, and it seemed as though the different groups included veterans, spouses and even extended family. But then the end of the parade consisted of big groups of several of the political parties. (D -- it definately looked like politicians were trying to co-opt the day a bit. It was a bit strange, especially when I thought I saw a man carrying a photo of Stalin and a flower. I didn't think that he had many admirers. Hmm) We left then as it had also started to rain a bit. Overall – not really worth seeing, but who would have known (not us). Anyway, we’ve decided to stop at home to write this (and have a little snack of Napoleon), have a little nap, do a little reading (Shona) and writing (Darren), then head out to visit our daughter for a little bit. We’ll go out for dinner (and try to post this) later.
Paka for now.
Later…so we’re just back from our very brief visit to the orphanage. Happily, Ivanna came down the stairs dressed in a toque and snowsuit (no it’s not THAT cold, but they like to keep the kids warm when outside). Yup. YAY! We got to go outside today. It was lovely (other than the weather was very grey). Ivanna was pretty subdued today, but continues to show more initiation in what she wants to do when she’s with us. She would get up and look back for a hand and when given to her, would lead the way. We spent some time having a snack, walking around, looking at the chickens next door and then when I asked her if she wanted a cookie (maybe she’s starting to understand some English?) she led the way back to the little table where we’d left our stuff (and chose a ‘vaffly’). Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the weather got worse and started to rain quite steadily with a little thunder and lightning. So, we headed back in. Once there Ivanna took my hand again and headed off in the direction of the stairs to her rooms, but at the bottom of the stairs made a valiant attempt to hang a left and go investigate the rooms in that direction (the forbidden corridor mentioned previously). Darren then got a little snuggle and we took her back to her group. We are unified in thinking/feeling that it’s much better to have a short visit than none. We sure love our time with her.

(D) We got pretty soaked on our walk back to the train platform, but thankfully, the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we arrived. The train was fairly busy, so we just stayed in the entrance. A young man tried to strike up a conversation with us. Shona tried saying, “Ya ne gavaru pa Ruski.” (‘I don’t speak Russian’) So he turned to me and started talking. I said the same thing, along with ‘I don’t understand’ (in Russian – likely poorly pronounced). It didn’t really seem to matter. Eventually, a group of three teenagers came in, and the young man asked the teenage boy something about English. He then starting chatting a bit with me (What country are you from? What are you doing in Ukraine? How is Ukraine different from Canada?...). We chatted for a while as his two female friends smiled and giggled a bit (they were probably 16 or 17). Eventually, the three friends went to sit in the train and the young man continued to try to talk with us in Russian. We tried to get what he was saying for a while, but eventually resorted to just smiling. He kept talking for a while and then gave up. We think he may have been trying to get us to give him money, but we’re not really sure. It was nice to talk to a stranger wanting to try out his English, but kind of uncomfortable talking with the other fellow. He was always friendly, and would come close and tap our arms when telling/asking us something. We just could not communicate.

Now we are heading out for our anniversary supper (guess where). Hope you are all well and continuing to enjoy our adventure.

delays, frustrations, & disappointments...

2007-05-08T07:27:00.000-06:00

Frustrated. That is what we are, what we feel. Our documents and paperwork are all in order and we went to the Judge today to find out our court date (after spending several hours – which is always fun – waiting in the car while Slava got documents from a couple of different places). Unfortunately, when we were at our last stop, the court, Slava came back to the car to tell us there is a problem. The Judge has left the court suddenly, today, due to her father passing away. He lived outside of Kyiv somewhere so we don’t know exactly when she’ll be back. Slava is hoping that she’ll be back at work on Friday so we can get a court date for Monday, but at this point we are expecting our court date won’t be before Tuesday (and maybe later). The worst part of all this is it’s no ones fault and there is absolutely nothing that can be done. She is the only judge that deals with adoptions in the Kyiv region so we must wait. Slava was obviously frustrated as well. Darren is disappointed. Perhaps we haven’t learned our patience lesson well enough yet. I’m trying to focus on the positives and to have some sympathy for the judge as the reason for this (what we consider to be terribly inconvenient and difficult) delay is due to the fact that her father has died. In the grand scheme of things, it is I’m sure, a small blip. We will survive and this too, shall pass. We will, however, be relying especially on all our prayer warriors at home and around the world to carry us through this. So it looks like if our court is (hopefully – we should know for sure on either Friday or Monday) on Tuesday May 15th, then we think we would get to take Ivanna out of the orphanage Friday May 25th and our flights home on the 30th should work ok (barring any more delays which, you never know, just may occur). They do need a couple of days after she ‘gets out’ to get her passport and visa ready. If we can still make it home on the 30th – we will be VERY thankful. Another positive is that we should be able to meet up with another Canadian couple who have been in contact with us and are arriving in Kyiv on the 26th of May. We should be able to show them a few important places (shawarma guy, internet places etc…), introduce them to the city and metro, and most importantly to Mario’s and Shokoladnitsa! :) Hopefully they won’t be staying too far away from us (although we really are pretty comfortable getting around now) – we’ll have to find out from Lesya (I think that she was actually hoping we’d be all done and gone by the time they arrived so that they could stay here!). Maybe we can pass on some of the things that Jonathan taught us to help them make it through. We don’t have any other exciting news and I seem to be out of positives to focus on. I will have to try to brainstorm some more. I’m going to try to woo Darren outside (after a cloudy and cool morning it has turned into a lovely afternoon) to see if we can still do something positive with the day.
Later…naps won out instead of getting out and about.
(D)We’re now at Mario's, the wi-fi is working and the sky is beautiful and clear blue. There are always a few more positives.

pictures from Monday...

2007-05-08T07:16:00.000-06:00

still loves the car!

I haven't quite figured out numbers yet...

leading daddy all over the place...

what's going on in here?

I can eat two cookies at once!

wifi blues continue...

2007-05-07T11:36:00.000-06:00

So we have just tried 4 different places to connect to the internet (Mario's, Shokoladnitsa, and 2 Coffee Houses). None of them worked today. ARGHHHH!!!!!!!
So we are back to the dungeon and here I go re-typing what we wrote earlier today...

D - After a lovely evening yesterday, we both slept quite well, although we woke up a bit early. We drove out to Boyarka with Vadim and Slava, so that she could pick up another document for us. Shona and I had our time wiht Ivanna a bit earlier today. She seemed a bit sleepier and more reserved than normal at the beginning of our time together. However, after a little while we were ripping around the playroom on the car and then being led down the hall to say 'hi' to the fish, investigate the room behind an open door (she is definately very curious!), and downstairs to the foyer. I was a bit surprised that she wanted to go down there, but she was interested in looking at a few things there with us. Also (I'm not sure if I am projecting my own introversion here or not), she seemed to want to get out of the playroom when other parents and children arrived. Although I am looking forward to Ivanna talking more, I will not complain about a daughter who likes peace and quiet!
After a somewhat soporific ride back to Kyiv to deliver the document to the SDA, Shona and I arrived home. I was hoping to hear about a court date, but Slava just said that she'd call later tonight to tell us whether she needed to come again tomorrow to get yet another document. I guess we'll see (patience, more patience). Upon arriving home we were both ready for a nap, but figured (jonathan, you should be proud of us) we ought to get out and about. So, we headed for our shawarma guy and then bought groceries. Now, Shona is baking cookies (S - attempting anyway -- different ingredients, gas oven without a temperature gauge, no bowls or measuring devices -- make for different cookies!!) and I just finished doing a little work on a paper.
Shona here now, after reading through what Darren wrote and adding my 2 cents and a few exclamation marks.
We don't know if you've been able to tell or not, but over the past few days we've been having a bit tougher time. We are approaching what we had expected to be our halfway point (and in all reality, we have hopefully passed that point already -- if our flights can be changed), but it is still hard to be so far from home, from all things familiar and from people that we love. We know that the process is going extremely well here and that we have much for which to be thankful and we are trying to focus on that. News of our court date will help I'm sure. We are now expecting it to be on Thursday (unless we hear otherwise from Slava tonight). We did tell ourselves not to really hope for Tuesday - but apparently we were. Anyway - on a slightly more positive note, we have just finished our supper (we bought a chicken from the vendor across the street, made a tomato/pepper sauce and had bread with it - it was good (Jonathan: somehow it lacked a little without your presence, but we still managed to actually prepare a meal!) ). Somehow, I have lucked out in that it was Darren's turn to do dishes - and I made quite a mess with my baking and dinner prep. Things are status quo if I am making messes and Darren is cleaning! We plan to head out for dessert (so much for that!!!!!) this evening to post the blog (trying to maintain all your addictions by not giving you your fix FIRST thing in the morning every day!) We hope you all are well. We wanted to be sure you all know that we SO appreciate all your comments and emails and really do enjoy hearing about what's going on in your lives back home - so please continue to share! :)
Paka.
PS - Did everone read Tanis' comments on yesterday's blog? I have to admit Darren was concerned for my ability to remain continent as we read it and laughed heartily out loud (in the middle of Shokoladnitsa - getting a few funny looks). We hope you had a good chuckle too. It is good to laugh.

testing testing 1 2 3

2007-05-06T20:21:00.000-06:00

WARNING:
to avoid disappointment, before you continue, know that this was posted by jonathan and NOT by Darren and Shona.

jonathan here. D'ya think that Darren and Shona are going to regret giving me their password? Oh well. Actually, the reason i'm on here is b/c they reported having some strange goings on with the blog today and asked that I check it out to see if it was working normally from here. I guess so.

I suppose I shouldn't go too far, but since I am logged in...
I thought I'd remind everyone that this is very likely the week of their court date (Tuesday or Thursday). I wanted to encourage everyone to be praying about that. Frankly, my experience in Eastern Europe simply doesn't jive with how well things have gone for D&S&I. One might say that they are being blessed in a special way right now.
Also, on going to court, things will pass onto the Canadian embassy to get some paper work done, and we likely all know how well things have gone with passports even here in Canada lately. Yeah, so pray on.

However, regardless of the details of administering this adoption, I'd say that we are all aware of how amazingly well things are going with this lovely little family. It is wonderful. She is a precious little girl with some great parents.
jonathan

BTW: people who would like to be involved in a shower b-4 they all arrive home can come to their house on Saturday, May 12 from 2 - 4 pm. This shower is HOSTED by friends from LAKEVIEW CHURCH and is a 'play and learn' shower, which means age appropriate books/toys (ages 2-4) or donations.
There will be another shower in the near future. Stay tuned.
j

Sunday -- a good day of rest and rejuvenation

2007-05-06T12:31:00.000-06:00

May 6 - in the outdoor shopping mall (just before Darren was told to stop taking pictures - guess by whom!)

May 5th visit with Ivanna (amazingly happy considering she can't breathe well!)

We've got the stroller - we just need our girl...

Who do you think picked which shoes?

Saturday May 5 - on the train (and it wasn't really busy - Shona had a seat!)

Happy Birthday Dad! (Neil) We hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy the shawarma Jonathan is going to make. We wish we could be there to celebrate you with the family.

It is Sunday, at 2:54 here and we have just returned from church and shopping. After a GREAT sleep for me last night (I had to make up for being awake between 1 and 5 AM the night before), we woke up early-ish (either the light or my internal alarm clock seems to always wake me up around 7), and did some yoga. Then we got ready to go and headed to church. We went back to the Kiev International Bible Church. It was good to go worship and give thanks for everything that has gone on here. The more I talk to other adopting couples, the more I am so grateful for our daughter and how our process of adopting her is going/has gone. We are feeling very blessed. The music was good and we sang a song that was new to us, but quite moving and beautiful called “Still”. We’ll have to see if we can find it somewhere (or maybe Jonathan can find it???). The last line of the chorus is ‘I will be still and know that you are God’.
Anyway, after church we went to get lunch – you guessed it –shawarma (same guy as last week Jonathan). They were good (not as good as our regular guy, but still pretty yummy) – this guy puts in French fries in addition to the meat, cabbage and flatbread – very filling. Darren did well with my leftovers that I couldn’t finish though! It turns out the shopping centre Lesya told us about is at the same Metro station as the church – that was convenient! We wandered over to the other side of metro station (where the shopping center is) and wow! It’s incredible. Not only is there a 4 storey department store but outside there is stall after stall after stall of absolutely everything one could need or want for children of ANY age (Jenn Janzen – I can just see you going nuts! :) It was a bit overwhelming for us (never having shopped in a centre like that for OUR child yet.) Some stalls had strollers, others had clothes for baby girls or boys, others had shoes, others had toys….and on and on! We started by focusing on the stroller sellers (as that was our main focus of the day) – even that was overwhelming (there was probably at least 10 different places to look – not counting the department store) and who knew that there were that many different kinds of strollers out there? Lesya was certainly right about the range in costs. There were strollers ranging from cheap umbrella’s to high-end Quinny running strollers (they also had matching doll strollers – crazy!). We settled for something in the middle that should serve us well on the walks while we are here, on the journey home and when we get there (something a little smaller for when we don’t want to use our big jogger/bike trailer). Darren (as per his custom when making bigger purchases), is now second-guessing our purchase (D – I could have used a bit more time to compare… you know, it’s a bit of a sickness), but I am thrilled with it. We also bought our dear girl a couple of pair of shoes. I was quite happy to just get one pair (trying to be reasonable and all), but her Daddy fell in love with the second pair and couldn’t resist (rather unusual for him!!). I’m sure you can tell which ones he picked out (they should be great for Fall). We also spent a bit of time it the department store and picked up a couple of toys for her (for when we have her here with us) – a shape sorter that is also an elephant bucket (she likes to fill a bucket in the playroom with stuff) and some stacking cups. Nothing major and we intend to stop buying stuff now (other than some minor things like sock/tights and maybe a hat). We have heard there might be an outfit or two, and maybe a toy or two for Ivanna when we get home – so I think we’ll stop for now! We had a little sweet snack of fresh éclairs (YUMMY!!!), then headed home. It was a little crazy taking the stroller home on the Metro, but we managed fine (really all in all – we made it to and from church on the Metro – getting off at the right places and not getting lost – we’re feeling pretty good about that) and only got a couple of funny looks as we walked home with an empty stroller (mostly from younger children who were looking for the kid who was supposed to be in there). Darren is now lying down for a nap. We are going to see ‘The Nutcracker’ ballet tonight – that will be quite a treat (for only $10 each!!!!). We plan to stop for coffee/dessert at Mario’s or somewhere where the wi-fi connection works on our way home to post this – if we remember the computer this time!
Paka for now.

P.S. We are sitting in Chokoladnitsa waiting for our cocoa and dessert after the ballet which was absolutely incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jonathan! Our seats were excellent and the acoustics on the ground floor amazing . It may be the last time I get Darren to a ballet (although he did enjoy it too) but for me, it was truly MAGICAL!!! It has been a good day with a fantastic end.

hi

2007-05-05T10:49:00.000-06:00

Once again, the wi-fi connection at Mario's does not appear to be working, so we are in the boy warrior's dungeon.
We had a briefer visit with Ivanna today since she was still sick and we were confined to the foyer. She did very well (as did we, at entertaining her) for quite a while. However, eventually the four walls could not hold her and she made it out of the room (she had actually tried several times earlier in our visit). We figured it was better to have a good time than a long and excrutiating time together.
This afternoon after a little rest (Darren has managed to pick up a cold somewhere - sharing germs already!), we headed back down to St Andrew's descent (artisans area). At the bottom Darren had had enough of the crafts and crowds and headed home (apparently being sick makes him a bit cranky -- lucky Shona). Shona stayed to pick up a few things for nieces and nephews. We both made it home successfully and then went for supper.
We are both feeling a bit tired and ready for a break from our daily commute, so tomorrow we are going back to church. Shona is particularly looking forward to nearly uninterrupted English language for a couple of hours.
Have a good Saturday.

happy Friday

2007-05-04T05:55:00.000-06:00

I love 'vaffly' - wafer cookies - like my Uncle Jonathan

Mommy looks like a dork (trying to avoid the cleavage shot), but daddy likes me laughing!

Well, we’ve just returned from our visit with Ivanna and as per our routine we are sitting down to write the blog before we go out. Darren and I have just shared a little snack of some yogurt that although the flavour looked liked raisin by the picture – was actually prunes. Interesting – not bad exactly, but lets just say I’m thinking we may not buy that flavour again! (Darren says we are not old enough yet to need prune yogurt – cereal better.) Today is a much nicer day weather wise – a tiny bit chilly this morning but by the time we left the orphanage, it was lovely outside. The sun is shining and it actually felt too warm with my multiple layers – I’ll have to ditch them for our outing this afternoon. We are thinking of lunch at Mario’s today (to shake things up a bit) and then we’ll maybe get a kuritza (chicken) for supper from the stand across the street from our apartment. We think we’ll do a bit of exploring this afternoon down towards the artisans area and the old town of Podil. As for our visit today – things continue to go so well with Ivanna it’s hard to believe. I got her on video as she came down with the nurse and Darren squatted down and opened his arms and she let go of the nurse’s hand and walked straight into her Daddy’s arms. It was pretty special. The other kids were outside playing today so we had the playroom to ourselves (MUCH quieter) as she’s still not allowed out due to her cough/cold. The chest physio in me is really wishing I had a stethoscope! I try to stealthily sneak in some percussion when she’ll let me (mostly she’s too busy playing and doesn’t want to sit still – so that’s good) as she definitely has some rattles in her chest. She remains active and playful and is eating and drinking well, so we’re trying not to get too concerned. She is a lot more active without the craziness of all the other people around and she definitely kept us moving today! We had fun. Our time with her really is the best part of our days here.
D – Yes, she is the brightest bit of our days. We keep getting more and more knit together. It is very good. She seemed to particularly enjoy being pushed around on the car today. She just grinned and rocked. It seemed like I could not go too fast for her. Good fun.
S again - We just had a GREAT conversation with Lesya (one of our facilitators). She stopped by to pick up some money for our rental of the apartment and to catch us up on some details of the process here. We are feeling elated. She is such a positive, fun and animated woman! Pretty much as soon as she walked in, she was asking for pictures of Ivanna. She also told us that many people are waiting for healthy referrals right now, and said that “the Lord knows what He is doing.” (We agree. After several years in the wilderness, we are entering a different place.) She told us that they are trying very hard for us to have our court date on TUESDAY (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but that because of the holiday on Wednesday (VE Day Celebrations), court may not be until Thursday – but ‘for sure’ at the latest it will be then. The other happy news is that the 10 day waiting period is only 10 regular days (not working days) so at the latest we will be able to take Ivanna out of the orphanage on May 21st. Also, she (Lesya) must have some connections everywhere because she also said that after our court date she would call Lufthansa and see what she could do about our flights (we explained to her about the fact that our flights are booked on points and she just said she would tell them her name, that it was related to adoption and give our name and see what she could do!!! As long as we already have tickets, she figures she may be able to do something. Cool.). They need a few days after we take Ivanna out of the orphanage to complete her passport, other papers and Canadian Visa too – but we’ll see – we may be home sooner than originally thought. We had many questions answered by Lesya and are feeling much more relaxed about the whole process (like the fact that they will come with us to the Embassy to bring her Visa application – and that we will meet with a worker there to answer our questions about the form – we’ve been wondering about a few things on the form and are relieved to find that we’ll have some help with it – how do people who don’t speak/understand English well ever get to our country???). Lesya also told us about a place to go shopping for kids’ stuff that is much more reasonable that the Ykraina mall down the street (rather trendy and spendy there). It’s on our Metro line (for Jonathan – at the Darnitsa station) so we’ll probably go looking for a stroller there sometime in the next few days (we had found one at a shop in Boyarka – but it is no longer on display outside the shop so I think it was sold). Anyway, all in all it is a great day (and it’s only half over although the second half is definitely the half I’m finding harder and long).
Jonathan: Lesya also asked about you. She thought you were staying the whole time. So did we. When are you going to show up again? You should have no trouble finding us. :) (by the way we have our favorite waitress today!)

a little bit of news...

2007-05-03T07:40:00.000-06:00

last evening in the botanical gardens

Statue of Shevchenko

hmmm interesting!

pointing at a sunflower hanging on the wall

notice any similarities between mother and daughter? (hey - what's going on down there?)

Hello. We just returned from the orphanage, grocery store, and shawarma stand. We have full bellies and are relaxing a bit before Slava and Vadim pick us up to do some running around (to the social worker and then attorney – we are not exactly sure what is going to happen, but we are supposed to come just in case we are needed. It is not exactly a transparent process, and we are learning to just relax and do what is asked of us).
Last evening after leaving the chocolate café, we went for a long walk in the botanical gardens (which should look amazing in a couple of weeks), then along Shevshenko blvd to Shevshenko park and back home. It was really nice to be out strolling with many others just kind of enjoying the evening. It reminded me a lot of home. We watched a little tv and then read together before heading to bed.
This morning we had nice chats with Tanis, Jonathan, and Shona’s parents. It is great to feel so connected to home, and wonderful that it is so easy to communicate. As per usual, we left around 8:30 and walked to the train station. We rode in a car towards the back of the train and were able to sit, which was nice, although in some ways it is more comfortable to stand (not much padding on my bum – or the seat).
We arrived at the orphanage a little after the Italian couples and a bit before the French and American couples. After a brief wait, a caregiver brought Ivanna up to us. She is seeming to really enjoy hugging her mom (as well as hugging me too, but really, Shona is the big hugger in our family). We alternated between time in the room (we’ve probably given you a decent idea of the level of energy and sound pressure in there) and walks down the hall to see the many stuffed animals on a couch there as well as the fish tank. Ivanna still has quite a cold and does not seem able to breathe through her nose much. Despite this, she was still really interested in everything today (when she is watching someone or something, it is really hard to get her attention – kind of reminds me of some of her cousins).
Shona had a chat with one of the mothers and heard a bit about their adoption journey here. After two unsuccessful referrals (and around 7 weeks), things appear to be nearly finalized for them. Once again we are reminded of how blessed we are. We’ll write more after our errands this afternoon.
So we are back from the running around. We (Darren and I) sat in the car while Slava picked up documents from the social worker, dropped off documents and chatted with the lawyer (he didn’t need to talk to us after all) and then stopped by the bank to pay court fees. Slava did have a copy of some paperwork we needed to fill out for DCRE (Department of community Resource and Employment) back home so we were able to fill it out, sign it and leave it with her to fax back to Rodica (our agency representative in Ontario) who will forward it to Michelle (our social worker at DCRE). Things are slowly progressing. Slava told us she and Vadim will come out to the orphanage with us on Tuesday to pick up one more document then she thinks we will (hopefully) have our court date on Thursday (May 10th). She said we would likely know for sure on Tuesday. That would be fantastic. We are not clear on whether the 10 day waiting period after the court date is 10 days or 10 working days – but either way, we should be home on May 30th (and maybe even before if flights can be changed)! We are feeling… quite happy, relieved, hopeful, joyful, thankful and excited...but also are remaining a bit guarded. With our experiences in the last several years, we are still both somewhat hesitant to get our hopes too set on anything. We are trying to trust that everything will work out and that we will very shortly (in the grand scheme of things) officially be Ivanna’s parents. What a privilege that will be. We are so blessed to call her daughter.

A cold start to a beautiful day.

2007-05-02T06:42:00.000-06:00

kisses

driving with daddy

I love my bananas!

Now that is a delicious looking hunk of meat - our shawarma guy preparing our lunch!

Our shawarma lunch

Good morning! We have just returned from the orphanage, having stopped for a shawarma on the way home. Our bellies are full of goodness. It is cold today, and as we woke up and looked outside, we noticed that it was sort-of snowing/sleeting. Not really heavily, but there was certainly white stuff swirling through the air and it was NOT flowers off the trees! So I dressed in ALL the long sleeved clothes (shirt, light sweater and zip up sweater then my spring coat) I still have here (I sent some things home with Jonathan foolishly thinking spring had sprung and I wouldn’t need them!). I was still cold – the wind was quite nasty this morning. On a happy note, the train wasn’t busy at all and we actually got to sit down AND were able to get out of our seats and off at our stop without difficulty. That was nice. The funniest (at least for me) part of the trip out there happened when Darren, who was carrying a few things in his backpack – including a new toy we had bought Ivanna that plays various tunes with button options for the child to add percussion and other instruments – happened to hit some of the buttons for the music to play…repeatedly. I had a hard time not laughing each time I could hear ‘old McDonald’ or some other tune floating out of his bag. He got some funny looks from other passengers! Note to self: buy toys with an OFF button.
Our time with Ivanna goes far too quickly. She is definitely attaching too us more and more – which is so wonderful. When the nurse brought her down today, I squatted down and opened my arms and she walked right to me and threw her little arms around my neck. We snuggled for quite a while and it was sooooo nice. Only the four Italian couples were there today, but all their kids are older (probably 3-5 years old) and boys – oh and have we mentioned before – they are all somewhat….active? Someone at the orphanage found the key for the playroom upstairs though, so the chaos was a little more bearable today (more toy options and more soft surfaces!). Ivanna had a blast riding around (being pushed alternately by Daddy and Mama) in a ride-on car. We also played with various noisy (cause and effect) toys, her musical toy (she likes music) and for a long time with a stack of rings. She would often stop to just watch the other kids. We so look forward to her getting to know her cousins and other little friends back home.
The train ride home was quite busy – people must be returning from their long weekend out of town. As we were squashed onto the entry area of the train by more aggressive people behind us, Darren’s bag began to sing again. I couldn’t stop the giggles. (D – I liked to think of it as my personal-space alarm. As it was constantly going off, I took off my backpack. No buffer zone today) We eventually got seats as we got closer to downtown Kyiv and found it slightly warmer on the walk home. I have figured out an advantage to the crazy crush of people on a busy train though…it is warm. That was the only time so far today that I was warm (when I was smooshed up against the wall with lots of people surrounding me) – that is my silver lining/glass half full thought for the day! Anyway, it is Darren’s turn to add his thoughts.

Thoughts…? Not too many to add, except that Shona and I remarked that we are feeling reasonably comfortable today. At least our oft-visited areas (the walk to the train, our store, our shawarma kiosk, the walk home, our apartment, Mario’s,…) are feeling a bit more homey. We may actually get through this. In fact, as Jonathan said before he left, soon we will be counting down to coming home, rather than counting up from leaving. That’s a nice thought.

After doing a little work on my thesis (I need to graduate someday) and doing a little pilates with Shona (apparently there's a reason we haven't done that DVD for a while - she's a nasty gumby), we ventured out into a much warmer and sunny day. We are now at Shocoladitsa (you can guess what they serve). Shona is in a little bit of heaven. It's definitely a bit more upscale from Mario's (I think our drinks and one dessert will come to about the same as an entire meal at our pizza place). But, as Shona says, change is good (note that I am quoting Shona there. I am always happy to stick with a tried-and-true).

S - yes, it is nice to have a place that (hopefully) has good chocolate desserts! Also good to have wi-fi at another location so the Mario's servers don't get too sick of us and our computer. We think we will actually cook something for supper tonight - yes we CAN do it!

Ok - we tried the chocolate cake with ganache icing - YUMMY!

Until later, paka.

a crazy but great day...

2007-05-01T09:19:00.000-06:00

Good morning. It is quite cold here today and I (Shona) am regretting sending my leather coat home with Jonathan. Who would have thought that it would be 6 degrees with a chilly, brisk wind on May 1st? We have had a wonderful morning. The train this morning has left us without any humorous stories – it was quite calm today. While there wasn’t room for us to have seats – we had plenty of elbow and breathing room today. That was a good start to the day. When we got to the orphanage, we could hear plenty of noise coming from the inside. It was chaos inside and all of the children in process of adoption weren’t down from their rooms yet! We asked for Ivanna and someone else’s interpreter helped us a bit (to tell the receptionist which group she is in). Many of the children have colds and because of the cool temperatures, no one was going outside. We sat back and watched the other people until Ivanna came down. There were (we think) 5 Italian couples, an American couple and us (we’ve also met a couple of other American couples and a German couple on other days). There were several older siblings running around as well as a few interpreters. The room is filled with hard surfaces and so the noise seemed to just escalate. Many of the children are boys who are VERY hyperactive. I found it overwhelming so it’s not surprising that when Ivanna came down she spent much of her time sitting and watching the other kids (looking curious but a bit stunned!). We are pretty sure she is the youngest of the children being adopted. I did not expect that she (nor I) would be able to tolerate to noise and chaos for long but she surprised us and the chaos eventually subsided as many of the children went back to their groups after about an hour and 15 minutes. We spent most of our time, sitting on the floor, reading books, having various snacks, colouring, and watching other kids. Besides the chaos surrounding us, she seems a bit sicker today – quite a chesty cough, lots of snot and a bit of a fever – so she seemed quite content to sit and play. Near the end of our time we looked out the window a bit and then it seemed she just wanted to snuggle. We got some precious smiles and finally got them on camera! I could have just spend the whole day snuggling her. Alas, it was time to go, so we took her up to her group. Although we haven’t been given a tour yet – I was snoopy and had a quick look in the rooms as we went by. Once in her little area, the first room on the left is a bathroom that is filled with little potty’s in a row. The first room on the right is their bedroom – filled with wee little toddler beds (so apparently she sleeps in a bed!). The last room on the right is their play room where we dropped her off. The kids (could we take them all home?) in her group swarmed to the door as we knocked and opened it. It was nice to see her run in with confidence to the kids and caregivers she knows. We are hoping at some point, to be able to spend some time with her when she is with her group. I’ve also got a ton of questions in my head I want to ask her caregivers – hopefully we’ll get the chance yet. Anyway – because of the cold we haven’t decided how we’ll spend the rest of our day. We had wanted to head in to the city centre to see what was going on today, but it’s kind of chilly for hanging around outside. We may head down to the Ykraina Mall (which is only 3 blocks away) as we could get out and about but still stay a little bit warmer.

Tuesday's pics

2007-05-01T09:05:00.000-06:00

It's really loud in here and mommy is losing it!

Playing in the orphanage entryway - arghh!
(notice the action in the background - that never stopped!)

Fun with Daddy

Cuddles with mama.

Monday Monday...

2007-04-30T08:21:00.000-06:00

How do I get outside?

April 29th - at the ballet - a very, very beautiful theatre

In between acts

Ivanna is getting more bold with her colouring and trying new hues

Looking through our album for the first time

So, it is my (Darren) turn to update you on our lives here. Where did we leave off? I think it was before supper yesterday. We had another nice supper of fried salami in tomato, pepper, and eggplant sauce with bread before heading off to the theatre by metro. We arrived there with only a couple of minutes to spare and quickly found our seats in a box on the second balcony overlooking the symphony. The show was comprised of two one-act ballets: one concerning a sultan, war-mongering, lovers, and mass-murder (as all good ballets do), the other starring a young man chasing true love, trying to fight against the cynical and hollow path of his father (and most others). Some of the dancing was quite spectacular, but really, I am much more moved by the music and musicians. It was almost enough to inspire me to pick up my trumpet again. There really is nothing like a live symphony in a beautiful theatre.
Afterwards, we headed back home to pick up the computer and then headed to Mario’s. Unfortunately, it was closed and we had to post from outside the front window (where we still had very good wi-fi reception). We should have taken a picture of the three of us huddled up on the step after 10pm, looking intently at the computer screen. Well, now we know: get to Mario’s before 9:30. Later at home, Jonathan read aloud the first few chapters of Prince Caspian. (S – he has instructed us to read a chapter a night of that and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, if we do so, by the time we are done both books, we should be home or nearly there – if we can’t limit ourselves to one chapter a day of CS Lewis).
Today, we got up around 7 when Tanis called. All a bit sad because of Jonathan imminent departure, we kind of dragged around. Jonathan read us another chapter of Prince Caspian and then we all headed out to the train station – one last chance for Jonathan to babysit us in getting train tickets (which Shona requested beautifully in Russian all by herself). After a short and teary goodbye, Jonathan headed off to shop a bit more and Shona and I got onto another overloaded train. We had thought that Saturday was an exception and that everyone heading out to their dachas would be gone by now. Not so. We got wedged into the doorway adjoining two of the cars and swayed along with the other sardines. (S – Really I thought there was no room for anyone else but the swaying mass was able to move at least 6 inches in each direction with the train – so probably a few more could technically have come on). For a few moments we were not sure how our exit would go (S – I was sure we were wedged there forever and starting to have a panic attack). We were pretty much welded to the steel door – the handle nearly a new addition to my sacrum. Thankfully, before the stop before ours, a few people started squeezing toward the exit. We just followed a woman who had been pushed up against me for much of the trip, and got ourselves squished up against the wall beside the exit by the time we left the stop before ours. At that stop a young woman and her young daughter (probably about 5) wedged on beside us. I felt bad for the little girl surrounded by bums, facing her mom who calmly spoke to her in low tones. I craned my face to smile at her and wave shortly before our exit and she smiled back. Maybe she’s used to that sort of thing. I remember the church foyer at Greystone when I was little, walking through a sea of legs, trying to find the right pants to which to cling. That was one thing, but I don’t think I would have dealt well with a packed train, if I weren’t tall enough to see over most people. (S – On a happy shoe note, I have decided that maybe my feet can tolerate the crazy pointy-spiky high heeled shoes that women wear all the time here after all, as I spent much of the 45 minute trip on my tippy-toes and my feet survived).
When we got to the orphanage, we again tried to call Slava to have her ask the person at the desk to get Ivanna for us. The phone didn’t work – it seems we need to buy more credits in order to make calls (I think we can still receive calls though). So, we muddled through and eventually got someone to call Tatianna (the head nurse in charge of adoptions). It worked out and a caregiver soon brought Ivanna down to us. Through a combination of signs and words, she told us that Ivanna should not go outside today because of her cough and cold (which did seem a bit more productive today – what is the world record for snot production in a 2 year old?). We tried to go up to the playroom but it was locked, so we ended up hanging around in the foyer of the orphanage, which does not really hold much fun for a little girl who really wants to go outside. Shona and I did our best to entertain her with pictures, markers, bubbles (thankfully, we bought some yesterday), food, drink, and the window (which she tried to walk right through in her desperation to go out). But by 11:20, Ivanna was done with our distractions and starting to fuss a bit. So, rather than stoically push through to the time limit, we took her back upstairs and said a pleasant good-bye. I think my favourite moment in our time together today was when Ivanna pointed to a picture of me and said “Dada”. Yes, that feels really good.
Afterwards we headed home on a much less crowded train (although we did not get seats until near Kyiv) and had a brief sort-of (considering his lack of English and our lack of Ukrainian/Russian) conversation with a nice gentleman about us being Canadian and ‘tourista’. We had shawarma, a few tears (well, one of us did) in seeing Jonathan’s note and special treats (ice cream, his favorite chocolate bar, cookies and herbs/spices – we’ve been cooking without so far) he left for us at the apartment (it is amazing how 400 sq ft can feel too big and just a bit less homey now), and a nap, and then did a little yoga. We are now going to Mario’s for supper and possibly a little shopping.
S - Jonathan, we are going to try to continue to go out and about and not just mope in our apartment – we just may not be out and about quite as much as when you were with us. Yes, we are feeling a little down (the silence in our little place is hard - Jonathan was always making some kind of noise!!:) But looking at the pictures of our darling girl, we know we can do this for her – even if it’s hard at times.
Paka for now.

2007-04-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

Well, I sit here, feeling a little glum as we’ve just spent the last hour or so, packing Jonathan’s bags. He came with one small one and is going home with one of ours and a purchased bag as well. No, he didn’t buy a ton of stuff – he’s taking home some of the things we (Darren and I) have purchased as well as some of the clothes I brought that I don’t think I’ll wear and almost all of our art. We’re keeping one piece to take home ourselves. Neither Jonathan nor I slept well last night, so I’m flagging a bit (it’s 5 PM here) but he continues to be the energizer bunny. This morning we went to the other church we’d found out about last week – Kyiv International Bible Church. It was in English (which I really appreciated – it’s amazing how tiring and confusing it is to never understand what’s being said around you)! The music was fairly good and the preaching was much better than last week (and I don’t think I’m just being biased by the language). The church has a lot of Americans but also has people who speak Chinese, Farsi, Ukrainian and Russian. They seem to be very Biblically based and have lots of different areas of ministry. It is a relatively small church and the people were very friendly (although both Darren and I were very glad for our extroverted brother’s presence when the pastor asked visitors to stand up and introduce ourselves). I think we may go back there – it’s only 6 metro stops away from ours so it doesn’t take that long to get there. There’s also a really nice little outdoor market outside the metro station so we stopped for Shawarma again (not as good as our favorite guy who’s place is a few blocks away from us, but still pretty good.) and wandered the market a bit. We then headed downtown for Jonathan to pick up a few things to take home and stopped at the TSUM (Central Universal Magazine – basically a big department store) and bought a few shirts for Ivanna. I think most of the pants and other things we bought her should fit, but knowing how kids get shirts dirty, I wanted to pick up a few more (besides she needed a little more pink in her wardrobe). It was fun to buy her things (it sure makes it easier to shop now, knowing her size and sex!). We took the metro to our grocery store to get a few groceries and are back at the apartment. Since Jonathan is basically packed, he’s making supper, Darren’s watching TV and I’m writing to you in anticipation of going out for dessert and coffee at Mario’s after the ballet tonight. We are looking forward to going to the ballet – hopefully it will be good (Jonathan’s not exactly sure about this ballet – it is actually two 1act ballets). We haven’t yet heard from Slava so we aren’t sure if we go out to the orphanage tomorrow or not (The next 4 days are holidays to celebrate May Day). I hope we get to go out either Monday or Tuesday – 4 days away from her is just too much. We still also haven’t heard about our court date and are expecting if this holiday may delay that. We are trying to keep our spirits up but are definitely feeling quite sad about Jonathan leaving (while we are glad for him to go home to his family, it’s hard to think of doing this all on our own again – it’s a bit daunting). Anyway, so as not to end on a sad note, I will plan to add more to this later. For now, paka.

jonathan: yeah, though I am very glad to be going home to my gracious wife and family there, I am sad to be leaving these guys. I know they’re gonna be a bit down when I go too, so now is the time to be writing lots of comments and emailing them and praying like you have before: fervently and effectively. They are really very well established here, for foreigners, and I have every confidence in their abilities to get all they need.

Well, we were too late for Mario's so we're sitting out on their step to post this. Hope it gets on.

Saturday's Train Adventure

2007-04-28T11:25:00.000-06:00

Of course, this was followed by the perfect smile from Ivanna.

A brief excursion away from the swings led to Ivanna driving a car like her mommy.

I'll take what's in the box.

One at a time is not her forte, but she certainly enjoys putting the lids back on after she's had her fill.

St. Michael's Monastery, or a small part of it. Kyiv truly is a lovely city, with a great history. It is clean and feels much safer than Moscow.

Good evening (at least for us it is). I am sitting in our apartment (we are finding it easier to write here and then just copy it to the blog – more time to actually talk over dinner or coffee then instead of just staring antisocially at the computer). The boys have stopped at our little corner grocery store to grab some food for supper and I came home as my feet are tired from walking tons today (and I had to pee!). We got to go out to the orphanage today – despite it being a Saturday (or maybe we’ll get to each week – we are not sure). It seems that each day is better than the previous one. We took the train again today – it was even more of an adventure than yesterday. The seats were all pretty much full by the time we got there (25 minutes early) so we decided to stand at the entrance of one of the cars. Well, by the time the train left, the car was full: as in the seats were full and people were standing throughout, including the entrance area where we were. (BTW, this is not like “standing room only” at home; there is no ‘personal space’; everyone is touching at least a couple of other people). It was packed (or so I thought) with people, luggage and a rat in a cage (because it’s a holiday weekend we figure people were heading out to dachas etc…). We each had a little breathing space – but not much. I wondered what would happen when we reached the next few stops. Well, apparently, the train was not full after all, as at the next few stops, despite there really being no room – more people (5-10 at each stop and at every entrance to the train) pushed their way on. It was remarkable (kinda like: how many marshmallows can you put in your mouth at once? You can always squeeze another one in). People got a little heated with the cramped quarters and Jonathan was amused by a ‘discussion’ occurring between a few people (one younger man and an older baba especially). I couldn’t understand, but I could tell people were upset by the crowded conditions. It was definitely the most snuggly I’ve gotten with strangers in a long time – oh, wait, probably ever! (j: Riding the train becomes an intimate experience: I really don’t like knowing my thigh is between another person’s buttcheeks, but so is everyone else’s.) Anyway, we made it without being crushed – and it was lovely to get some fresh air and personal space back when we arrived in Boyarka.
We had a great visit with Ivanna. She is showing us each day that she is becoming more comfortable with us and that she is starting to trust us. After we walked a brief while and had our ritual swing, (we bribed her off with a snack again), Ivanna showed a little more initiative by taking us for a long walk all over the yard. We ended up near the entrance the orphanage workers usually use with the children. In the neighbour’s yard is a chicken coop with three (we think) chickens. She was quite entranced by the Kooritsa – at least until one of them came right up to the wire fence and she backed up into me and said ‘mama’ (at least, that’s what I heard). My heart could burst. She wasn’t completely freaked out though because we could barely woo her away from the fence! She threw a minor little temper tantrum (stamping both her feet on the ground and vocalizing unhappily) when we wouldn’t let her into her regular entrance to the building (we still had 15 minutes or so and weren’t about to give that up!). As we were packing up to head in, we saw her most animated display yet as another couple from the states came out with their daughter and older son. The boy went running off to play on the playground equipment and Ivanna took off after him and followed him up a large slide (with help from her mama who was having a minor heart attack at her trying to climb up the ladder which had 1/3 of the rungs missing). Darren caught her at the bottom and she was off again. Eventually we really had to take her back (I hate that part) and so Darren picked her up and in we went. As we took her to her living area (because no nurses were around to take her) she waved goodbye and blew kisses to her uncle jonathan for the first time. I hope she’ll remember him when we get home.
The train back home was a little more spacious, though we stood for most of the ride. We then had a soft ice cream appetizer and headed to Mario’s for lunch, where we posted the early blog, ate, emailed and posted pictures (the boys made me wait to post info. about today until now-they figure that spacing out the postings will feed addictions to our blog). After lunch we stopped briefly at home to dump my bag of kid stuff then headed back to look for art. Saturday is apparently a much better day as there were more people out with their paintings. The paintings that we had thought we’d missed out on (when we were there yesterday, the 2 paintings Darren and I had decided to buy, weren’t there anymore and we thought had been purchased) were there! Yay! So we bought more art today. I could just keep buying, but Darren thinks we should be done for now. It’s just so hard to stop buying because equivalent stuff at home is really so ridiculously expensive! After jonathan also bought another piece, we headed home because we were pretty much out of the money we’d brought. We took the metro home and Jonathan is now cooking us supper. We plan to go out for dessert later so we can post this. We have no firm plans for tomorrow except to go to the ballet. We may try another church or just wander the city. There are definitely a lot more people around for the rallies and upcoming holiday, so the next few days should be interesting. We’re hoping to catch the parade on May Day.
We are feeling quite settled here (we are able to get around and find our way on foot and in the metro, as well as have found some great eats), but we still miss home immensely. Your comments and emails make us feel very loved and supported: they bring us great joy (although I’m still a bawling baby when I read the comments and emails!). Thank you.

Pictures with jonathan's (& darren's) comments

2007-04-28T04:43:00.000-06:00

She likes the shades, but has a bit of a time putting them on. Today she was smiling lots when S&D put them on her properly though. (I really like it when she smiles at me -- D :)

Ivanna found something very interesting over where I was sitting, but it was definitely not me; ever time I took out the camera, she looked away.

I figured Ivanna wanted to get into the stroller, but Darren wasn't getting it yet. She didn't say anything, just looked back and forth from stroller to Darren. The bear ended up getting the ride for now.

And back to the swings: definitely the favourite part of the orphanage playground. Oh, as an aside: today there was another little kid on the swings as D&S&Ivanna went by. He just stared after them saying "with Mama and Papa; she's with Mama and Papa." (I think this is where we're all supposed to cry). Those are the times it is hard to not be bringing back the whole lot of 'em.

Be very very thankful that you will never NEED to do this in your retirement. Close to the flat; these Baba's are selling their veggies so that they can get by.

Good morning Saturday (Friday's Post)

2007-04-28T04:40:00.000-06:00

Hello all. I (Shona) am sitting in our kitchen writiing our update while Jonathan cooks our supper. I think I would like having him for a full-time cook. Tanis you are a very lucky woman! I am definitely taking full advantage of him while he is here – I haven’t stepped near the stove, other than to heat water for coffee or tea (I do realize I am spoiled – but I have washed the dishes). Anyway, we have had another good day. We took the ‘elektrichka’ out to Boyarka today (Jonathan was a big help, but really other than the language barrier – apparently most train systems are pretty similar so I felt pretty good about using the train). The train was quite busy and the interesting thing was there was a relatively constant stream of people coming through the train to sell stuff – everything from the newspaper to hand cream to pens to ice cream – certainly not something we’d see back home. Other than getting off at the wrong stop initially, realizing it, and having to rapidly hop back on the train – we made it fine. It is about a 10 minute brisk walk from the train station to the orphanage. And it only costs 4.27 Greevny – RETURN, per person – so for those of you who don’t know the value of the Greevny – that’s essentially $1. Their public transportation system here is really cheap and is well used. We haven’t decided if we’ll continue to use the train when we don’t have Slava with us or if we’ll just pay our driver to take us. It’s definitely more of an adventure to take the train (other than getting to be amused in the car by the traffic). We had a lovely visit with Ivanna that started out without her pouting or crying when she saw us waiting for her. That was nice. It was a gorgeous day today so we played outside. She is definitely feeling more comfortable with us – she was more active (though still sedate compared to some of the hyper-active kids we observe) and certainly letting us know what she wanted to do today. She led us around on a bit of a walk first then back to the swings. Big surprise. We may have to get a swing set in the back yard! We managed to bribe her off with a snack before she fell asleep this time. She then went for a little walk with her Daddy – it was pretty wonderful to watch her holding his hand, leading him where she wanted to go. They found a rickety stroller that she started pushing her teddy bear around in and then eventually we (her slow parents) figured out (with her wise uncle’s help) that she wanted to go IN the stroller and be pushed around. Her Daddy complied and pushed her around for most of the rest of our time with her – it was quite a challenge as a rear wheel kept falling off and the frame wasn’t exactly solid either. She threw her first minor temper tantrum with us as we took her out of the stroller when it was time to go. Who would think we’d be happy to have her kicking and crying – definitely letting us know what she did and didn’t want! She settled pretty quickly when we let her push the stoller toward the door (but still wasn’t happy to let GO of the stroller – we had to pry her little fingers off!). It’s quite lovely to have her being a little more active and directive in her play. We’ve been told by Slava that we get to go out again on Saturday but that the 4 days after that are holidays. She’s going to try to arrange for us to go out anyway- 4 days away is a little much time apart – especially right now.
This afternoon we wandered back to the artisans district and bought some art. It was a gorgeous afternoon. The blog site wouldn’t let me post anything new so I came home after checking email (the boys had gone to the store for supper fixin’s). We are now relaxing after a great supper. Hopefully we’ll be able to post this tomorrow.
yup.

Out and about in Kyiv

2007-04-26T10:05:00.000-06:00

St. Andrew's Cathedral
April 26th, 2007 - playing outside again today. She mostly 'walked' the trike (with some help) but the ground was far from smooth!
Out and about - I don't remember exactly where we are!
This is for Dale Kary - a fighter pilot's helmet - found in one of the kiosks of people selling things in the artisan's district.
Art, glorious art...we found some amazing pictures! This little lane goes on for quite a while and is filled with various artists work. A lovely place to walk on such a beautiful day. (St. Andrew's Cathedral in the background)

So, here I am, sitting in Mario's again by myself. The boys think I'm too wordy or something so they have gone to the store to find some dessert. I sit here with a 'cafe americano - with milk' with a hockey game playing on the TV (not that I really care any more about hockey than I normally do, just because I'm so far away from home though!). We have had a good day. To ease your minds, we have talked both to Slava and to Lesya about the missing document and they have both reassured us that really, if it can't be found, everything will be fine and it won't affect the adoption. They are continuing to gather our documents and hopefully we'll hear before Jonathan leaves Monday when our court date will be. This morning we spent some time in the car with Slava and Vadim driving around (it seemed like in circles) to deal with documents for another couple who's adoption has fallen through (an older girl who has chosen not to be adopted). It was a bit frustrating but we also felt for this other couple. We ended up at the orphanage around 10:30 and so got to spend about an hour with Ivanna. We spent some time walking around, riding (walking) a trike, swinging (until she started to fall asleep again - so she sat in my lap for a while sleeping until a worker told me I was too heavy for the swing and we had to get off), having a snack (animal cookies, gummy candies and juice - nutrition will have to wait until we are home - for now, we bribe her to like us with sweets!!!) and then the best part of the day was when we were walking her back into the orphanage she was holding each of our hands. We had to 'jump' her over a low hedge and she had the hugest grin on her face after! It was priceless. We turned around and Jonathan got her smiling on the video camera as we swung her a few more times. She actually started to laugh a little! Her darling little face just lights up when she smiles - it just warmed our hearts. Darren said it was worth having the video camera just for that alone. Anyway, we then headed back into Kyiv and then the 3 of us took the Metro to the artisans area near St. Andrew's Cathedral. We bought a few souvenirs and found 'Jonathan's' artist - we plan to go back tomorrow or the weekend to buy some pictures. Good art is so much cheaper here than at home! We then wandered from there and ended up back at home - a long walk, but such a gorgeous day to be out and about. We came to Mario's for supper and plan to head back to the apartment for dessert. Tomorrow we will attempt to take the 'electrichka' or electric train out to the orphanage - we think we have it figured out and it's very cheap transportation! It will be an adventure and we are thankful Jonathan is here to help us find our way.
Thank you all for you comments and love and support. Darren and I are feeling more at home and comfortable with the city, language (sort-of) and people/culture. Jonathan has been a tremendous help to us for that. I can finally count to 8 (we are working on 9 and 10) and am able to at least say my pleases and thank you's. We are feeling like we will survive his (Jonathan's) going home and continue to enjoy this place - even if not quite as fully as when he has been here. We have tickets for the 3 of us for the ballet on Sunday (his last night here) - so that will be wonderful. Anyway, much love to everyone back home. Paka!

Feast or Famine.

2007-04-25T07:51:00.000-06:00

So it seems as though we end up sending many, many posts when we have the chance, and then leave you all in much suspense when we can't access the internet! Mario's WIFI is up and running again so I (Shona) sit here writing to you today. Darren is back at the apartment and Jonathan, who was here with me, has gone to the store to get food for supper. :) Have I mentioned that I REALLY like this place (especially when the internet is working!)? Anyway, to let you know about today (I need to think and write as briefly as Darren (good luck) as I've been given a curfew to be back at the apartment by 6PM. The boys are taking good care of me! :)). So, this morning, Darren and I were picked up around 9 to head out to Boyarka to spend some time with Ivanna. She was brought up to us wearing a heavy snowsuit again so Slava told me to take it off of her and they would bring her a lighter jacket (it was a lovely day today - mid teens). She started to cry again (like yesterday) when we took off her snowsuit - again I think she thought she wouldn't get to go outside. She settle relatively quickly (with the help of her teddy bear) and we waited for the deputy director to present our gift to the orphanage. Eventually, we delt with the formalities (we still haven't met the Director to present our papers permitting us to visit Ivanna!!! - apparently that's not as big a deal as we thought) and got to go outside to play today. It was a beautiful day and there were many children playing outside (some with nurses and some with adoptive parents - mostly Italian and French). It was fun to see her explore and take everything in. She is a fairly tentative child and pretty calm compared to many of the children at the orphanage we've obsered. She seems alot like Darren was as a child - quiet, introverted but curious. She watches and notices everything. We discovered that she likes swings! We spent much of our time with her pushing her gently on the swing and each time we tried to get her to go somewhere else she would cry. Eventually though we could tell she was falling asleep as she swung (head bob - sure clue!), so I picked her up and sat her on my lap on the swing - she cried a bit until I put her hands on the ropes and then within minutes she fell asleep as we swung together. Words can not express how that was for me. We eventually extricated her hands from the ropes without waking her (by the way, as I write and look out the window the demonstrators with the blue/yellow flags are walking by outside - on their way home, I presume) and went to sit in the shade while she slept. It was a lovely morning with her. The rest of the day for Darren and I (frustratingly) was spent sitting in the car while Slava delt with some of our paperwork (stopping at many places)- we were hoping to submit everything to the social worker today, but a snag has appeared. Prayers would be appreciated as it seems that there is a document missing that is 'vital' - something related to the person who submitted a request for her birth certificate when she was born (to prove she was abandoned we think). We, of course, immediately worry that something will stop our adoption of her, but are trying to trust. Trust in God, and trust our facilitators - that they will sort it all out - because we sure don't understand this system and process. Your prayers for finding this document or sorting out how to get around it would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, I should sign off for now. We have had a good morning, a frustrating afternoon and hopefully will have a good evening to come (how can it be bad with Jonathan cooking?)!!!! We love you all - thank you for your support and comments - they mean more to us than we can express.

We'd like to introduce you to our precious daughter...

2007-04-25T07:31:00.000-06:00

April 25th, 2007 - playing outside today! We discovered she REALLY likes the swings!
April 23, 2007 - our 1st 'official' meeting, playing in the playroom with a shape sirter and eating fish crackers. She had stopped trembling by this point - but still did not want to sit down. She crouched for about 20 minutes straight!
April 24th, 2007. Ivanna's first trip out of the orphanage and getting her first 'professional' photo.
April 24th, 2007. Waiting in the hall of the medical center for the doctor, playing with her little teddy bear.
April 24th, 2007 - Jonathan's version of the day - a protest outside of the constitutional court - he's a lot more adventurous than Darren and I are!!

2007-04-25T07:28:00.000-06:00

Ok, here is the big one that you have all been waiting for. Mario’s is finally back online and we will be making up for the missed time…

Hello all. It is Shona (for now). We have just returned from wandering about the city, looking for cconcert/ballet tickets. Let’s go back a bit first. We never got to a place with internet yesterday, so we need to catch you up a bit. Sunday we all woke up relatively early and had all slept poorly. We went to a Baptist church on the other side of the Dnipro (river) about 8 Metro stops away. We are really living in a fantastic area – everything is really quite convenient. Anyway, we didn’t know exactly where the church was from the Metro (and Jonathan had forgotten the Kyiv map) so we just followed his nose. We wandered a bit, got asked by a Taxi driver for a light, kept wandering and eventually saw the same Taxi driver again, so Jonathan asked him if he knew where the Cultural Center (where the church is) was. He chuckled and said ‘Da” (yes), but nothing more. Jonathan asked him ‘where is it? Because we are walking”. He replied, ‘I’ll give you a ride’. Jonathan asked him how much and so we paid him $1 (5 Hryvni). He then drove us about to the end of the block (where we had seen him before and he’d asked us for a light). We all laughed. We had walked right by the center and not noticed. Anyway, the church was held upstairs in a theater. They were singing familiar tunes – unfortunately for Darren and me, in a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian. It’s amazing how when you are hearing another language is seems to block my memory for the English words of the songs. No worries, we worshipped anyway. The preaching was….well…long (they had FM radio transmitter/receivers for us to listen to a translator. The whole service was over 2 hours start to finish and the preaching was a good hour and kind of… hmm…meandering and lacked a focus. Jonathan says he lacked a thesis. It was still good to be at church and the music and band were fantastic. There is another church that we may try next week and see which we like better – or we may just go to the local Orthodox Cathedral (St. Vlodymir’s) – we’ll see what we feel like then.
After church we came back here and I changed (I had been wearing a skirt and dress shoes – not great for walking miles in – besides the fact that it was really cold yesterday). Then we all had a little snooze. Naps are good. We then went out for a bit of a wander and ended up at the Circus for 5 PM. It was fantastic! It was a water-themed circus (and I’m sure you’re all wondering how THAT worked!). Let me tell you (although hopefully you’ll be able to see some video tape that JP took before they told him to stop!), it was an interesting start with a feel of a Las Vegas show (girls skimpily clad dancing with big feathery poofs coming out the backs of their outfits – do you have the mental image?) progressing to various acts from synchronized swimming (remember the pool), to rhythmic gymnastics, to magic show, to traditional circus clown goofy sketches (some including audience participants), to animal acts including: doves/pigeons, a duck, poodles, snakes (yes in the water – freaked me out), an alligator, and seals (way, way, way too much seals). The best part for me was the acts that were more like Cirque de Soleil with acrobatics, Gumby-like girls (your head is NOT supposed to be able to touch your BUM – backwards!), trapezes and ropes. Another cool part was this juggler who instead of throwing and catching juggled using a triangle shaped frame and used all sides. He had amazing hand-eye coordination (much like me!! Ha! Ha! FOFL). Anyway – overall it was a great show and it only cost $8US. Crazy. After the show we grabbed some food from ‘our’ supermarket and headed home. We were all tired. Jonathan prepared some open faced sandwiches and baked/grilled them – yummy! And then we watched a movie. I talked to Val a Jason a bit (they had tried to get through to us several times – I eventually called them because I figured they were probably having problems. I’m not sure why, but sometimes it takes many tries to get through to us (and this time we for sure were NOT in the Metro – and we have figured out the phone enough to keep it on all the time now – who would think ON/OFF would be so hard!). We watched “Ocean’s Eleven” (thank you Jen and Rob) – or rather Jonathan and Darren did – I fell asleep sitting up so I went to bed (big surprise – some things don’t change!) Apparently there was tennis on after so JP stayed up until some ridiculous hour watching TV. I slept like a solid, unmoving log. Sleep is good.

The only other thing that happened was I also got a phone call from Slava to tell us that the social worker we are supposed to meet today (Monday) is not at work in the morning so our plans have changed. She told us we will go at 2PM to start the paper work for the adoption (yes, you are all right – we still haven’t OFFICIALLY met our daughter!). Apparently if anything of concern comes up in the next few days – we can still change our minds and stop the process – but it will help to get things started (I guess the sooner we start the process – the sooner we get to come home with her!). It does seem a bit strange and backward, but we are trusting our facilitators that they know their system (‘cause we SURE don’t) and that they won’t have us do anything that could jeopardize anything. Then we will go pick up our official paperwork and head out to the orphanage for 4 PM. We are so excited and looking forward to seeing her again. We bought some markers and paper and a fun little spinny/noisy toy from the circus. Hopefully she’ll like them.

This morning we all were up and awake by 7 and then Tanis gave a lovely ‘goodmorning’ call to wish us well at our meeting – which now isn’t happening until later. We then did some Yoga (even the boys – I did get some video) and we left to go to the Internet Café – but it was closed so we wandered. We visited St. Vlodomyr’s Cathedral which is about a 10 minute walk away. It is stunning. Then we searched for tickets to the ballet. We never got any (yet) but we did find a lovely park (with a playpark for later!) that I’m sure we’ll go back to frequently – especially as the weather warms (it has been quite cold here). Eventually we ended up back at the Shawarma place for a snack and picked up a few things at our store (pretty much next door to each other) and came home for a bit. I wrote this little update while Darren and Jonathan watched TV, shaved and had rests. We’ll head out for part 2 of our day in about ½ hour so we’ll write more about that from Mario’s later.
Paka!

Shona and Jonathan have been doing most of the typing so far, so it is now my turn on the rest of the day so far – I’ll be briefer.
Slava and Vadim picked us up to do the important stuff. We went to the notary public where Slava dropped off our documents. Next, we were off (on a rather wild ride) to the social worker’s to get our papers for our official visit with our proposed daughter. Finally, we headed out to the town to meet with the orphanage director and little girl. We waited for a while upstairs and Slava told us that the director was not in today, but that we could meet with the girl and orphanage doctor anyhow. A little later a caregiver brought in the little girl and turned to go. The girl almost immediately started to cry a bit (a good sign from an attachment perspective). The caregiver got her a toy and left. Shona offered her fish crackers, which she eagerly hoovered. (apparently, she had not had a snack yet) We spent the next hour or so playing with her. It was really good. While at the start of the hour, she was shaking a bit and obviously pretty scared, after a while she was playing with Shona’s watch, pushing a ball back and forth between us, and colouring with us (she seems to like purple – Shona is now refusing to wash her hand, which has a very limited-edition tattoo on it from a pretty special little girl – her name is Ivanna, and while at the moment she lives in an orphanage outside Kyiv, pretty soon we are expecting her to move to Canada).

Hello there – It’s Shona again. While Darren has given a good description of what went on this afternoon and briefly how it went – I will try to give you a bit of an idea of how I at least am thinking/feeling. Well, stunned continues to be a theme of this adventure. I am so filled with love and joy it is almost hard to contain. Ivanna is such a precious little girl. She appears to be quite shy but is definitely warming to us. Jonathan asked us in the car on the way home how we thought our attachment was going with her – right now I feel as though I couldn’t love her anymore than I do right now, and yet I know it will just grow as we get to know her more and better. It broke my heart to see her trembling with fear and confusion and to not be able to comfort her properly (besides distracting/bribing her with food)! It was the hardest thing to do today, to drive away and leave her in the orphanage. What a joyful day it will be when we can go pick her up and take her home with us. The funniest part of the day was when we were playing with her and I was trying to help her with a shape sorter (a toy which she really seems to like). I turned the box to bring the correct shape closer to her and she said in Russian “don’t”. Jonathan and Slava burst out laughing and we certainly joined in once we understood what she had said. So her first word to us is ‘don’t’! I’m sure we’ll hear that plenty more of those over the next 20 years or so. It was amazing to hear her little voice for the first time. She is so serious and quiet (kind of like her Daddy)! While I wasn’t paying much attention – Jonathan was able to watch another couple playing with their daughter (they are American’s from Indiana). They have been to court and are on day3 of their waiting period. Jonathan heard them comment about their daughter making some kind of sound/word. It’s good to know that Ivanna isn’t the only very quiet child! Well, I remain a blubbering fountain pretty much at the drop of a hat – whether writing our blog, reading your comments (thank you so much by the way – your comments and emails bless us in so many ways), talking to family on the phone or just looking at pictures and video of Ivanna. God is so good and we feel very much as though we are being held in the palm of His hand.
Sorry for the delay in posting this – the wireless internet at our restaurant – Marios- wasn’t working tonight. Hopefully the detail and pictures will somehow make up the previous lack of information.
Shona and Darren

a bit more...

2007-04-24T09:13:00.000-06:00

Hi.
Jonathan and I (Darren) are at the internet spot with a cd full of words and pictures. Alas, the computers don't have cd-rom drives. So, I guess I don't have much more for you except, we bought diapers today...

So it is turned over to me (jonathan) because I generally don't lack for words.
Ok, I actually do have a few things to add. First of all is that I recognize what a privileged position I am in and figured that many of you might like to know what it has been like to be watching D&S go through this experience. It has been great. Really amazing. For each of you who already have children of your own, then you know the emotions of seeing a child brought into this world and into your arms and into your family. It seems to me that D&S are experiencing those same emotions: the joy, the fear, the uncertainty, the general awe that goes along with such an...awesome experience. I have been videotaping some of the moments and look forward to sharing those with many of you when I get back to Canada, but for now I'd say that you likely have a good idea of what they are feeling. The experience? somewhat different from a hospital birth, but the experience of welcoming a child into a family seems to me to be pretty much the same. It is beautiful.
I promise that we'll get some pictures online ASAP, but as those of you that have traveled to other cultures know: sometimes things don't go as smoothly as one might hope. We figure though, that if this is the most significant challenge, then wow!
For now we're heading back to the flat for my special lasagna (fried salami, roasted zucchini, lecho, and lavash). cheers.
jonathan

A brief update

2007-04-24T05:05:00.000-06:00

Hello all. We are feeling very frustrated right now because we have some amazing pictures to share with you and are having trouble with WI-FI at our local restaurants. Argh! Jonathan just reminded me though that if this is the greatest problem that we have over here - really, we'll take it and deal with it.

Hi, this is Darren putting in a little context: right now we are in a dimly-lit basement room surrounded by about 15 adolescent boys playing boy video games. It's really pretty classic -- some things transcend culture. Now, back to Shona...

Well, you don't get any pictures right now but we can tell you that we are proceeding with the adoption of a very beautiful little girl named Ivanna. We have all sorts of details to share with you but they are on Jonathan's computer - our plan is to wander the city this afternoon until we can find a place where we can post the blog and pictures we have saved on his computer. But until then, here are some details to tide you (Tanis) over. We have begun the paperwork and took her today for her medical. The bottom line is: she is healthy. She is in the 95th %ile for height (we thought she was tall!) and is 12Kg with a 50th %ile head circumference. Developmentally she is actually not really delayed with regards to her gross and fine motor skills. The doctor thought that her vocabulary and social development are slightly delayed - but that will come with a loving home and parents. She seems to understand quite well and was pointing to the nose, eyes and ears on her little bear (thanks mom - she loved it!) when instructed to do so. She was a bit reluctant to do so on herself. We were told she is as healthy as most kids who grow up in families - a testament to a great orphanage. We have heard her speak a little more - she has a very cute little voice. While we were in the Doctor's office today, her nurse pointed to darren and instructed her to say 'daddy' and she did. She then pointed to me and said 'mama'. It was a precious, precious moment. Her little personality is becoming more evident to us (especially with her nurse present today). She sticks her bottom lip out when she is sad or scared and her eyes get teary. She cried through her physical examination by the doctor today but was easily reassured when it was done. She is very curious and as today was her first time leaving the orphanage, she spent much of the time in the car and all the places we stopped just watching and looking and taking everything it. I got to hold our daughter for the first time today and as we left the orphanage and went to get her photo taken, she clung on to me so tightly! I think she was completely overwhelmed by what was going on, but it sure felt good to hold her. As we drove in to Kyiv, she sat on my lap and held my finger in one hand and Darren's hand in the other. Our hearts are so filled with love for her.
That's it for now. We'll give you more later (today -- hopefully).

pictures from today...

2007-04-21T12:30:00.000-06:00

metro escalator

outside

circus

kitchen

We've found our favorite haunts...part 2

2007-04-21T11:31:00.000-06:00

So, we've had some fantastic Pizza and Calzone carbonara - which I managed to order (really not a big feat as it sounds pretty much the same in Russian). The Georgian wine is lovely. So back to our day. We found Jonathan his favorite treat. I can see us also spending a lot of time visiting that eating Shawarma. The vendor is quite close to the train station - so if we end up taking the train out to where Bortina (Jason's pet name for our potential daughter) lives, we may just stop there on our way home. We may never cook again while we are here. Oh. Wait. We haven't cooked yet - other than tea. So life is pretty much like at home! Although I expect we will actually make good use of the wonderful cookbook Michelle Ashdown put together for us. We stopped briefly at the store - (our store we now call it) to pick up a few necessities such as TP, tea towels, shampoo and conditioner, water, etc... It's a large supermarket with everything we pretty much need. Anyway, we then went home for a bit and we all journalled. I had a brief rest/read in bed then the boys went out to see if they could find tickets for some kind of entertainment (ballet, opera or whatever). Well, Jonathan came back (I had read, did some weights, listened to music while they were gone) practically vibrating he was so excited - he'd found tickets to the CIRCUS. For those of you who don't know - the circus was Jonathan's favorite thing to go see in Moscow. The circus (I'm told) is a far more interesting thing than what we know as the circus (think of the roots of Cirque de Soleil). We'll see it tomorrow night. We don't yet know our plans for tomorrow during the day...we'll have to figure that out. The boys have ordered us some dessert and coffee. I must say, this is a really good day. Our spirits are up and we are feeling much more comfortable with being here. I am slowly learning the letters and actually read my first word on my own today. Yay! It's amazing what an accomplishment that feels like to be able to read 'post' and know that that's the post office. Jonathan has been a tremendous help and support to us. We are so grateful he is here. Thank you Tanis, Misha and Sam for sharing him with us for so long. Anyway, I'm going to sign off for now. Know that we miss you all, but we are doing well - especially today. 'Bortina' is a wonderful image in our heads now. We are so grateful for being able to meet her yesterday. We'll have our official meeting with the director of the orphanage Monday and Lesya is arranging for us to take her to the doctor Tuesday. We are in a wonderful, amazing whirlwind - sometimes very disorienting and confusing, but what a incredible ride.

Ok, dessert just came, so it is my turn again (jonathan). We did good while Shona was typing: tiramisu and a chocolate-brandy mousse cake. both are good, but the mousse cake is killer. yum!!
Now to the 'feel' of the day: This has been a very good day. everyone of us is so much more relaxed and happy than we were even when we woke up this morning. What a lovely day, and way to end the day. I'd say that Darren and Shona are feeling more...resolved to the fact that this is all happening. The way that things are moving ahead is marvelously smooth (far more than I believed was possible - knock on wood, salt over shoulder, spit on the ground - and all other superstitious russian traditions as well). I can honestly say that i did not think that most things would be going as well as they are. From the trip to the orphanage yesterday to our exploration today to this restaurant with free (and fast) wireless internet to getting tickets to the circus tomorrow; it amazes me. Incidently, since many of you must be praying a lot, and phenomenally successfully - Swan Lake is playing on Tuesday evening and we are struggling to find 3 tickets together, pray that we can find them. It would be great. I must admit that after today, I feel like we have a giant horseshoe shoved up somewhere special.
with that lovely image in mind, i'll sign off. suffice it to say that this day is ending with us each feeling remarkably blessed and in hands of serendipity and providence. Even my language has been coming back quite well. The only little thing that has gone wrong relates to Darren and Shona's camera (you can pray about that too).
you have blessed us by reading this and with your comments. thank you for that, and keep it up. - j

We've found our favorite haunts...

2007-04-21T11:02:00.000-06:00

So here we sit in a local restaurant, that happens to be a Pizza and Pasta place, that is 2 blocks away from our apartment, that has free wireless internet! (For those of you who have been to Moscow, Jonathan says: think Patio Pizza, but smaller and with much nicer serving staff). Now that Jonathan is here with his computer, I can see us spending alot of time here. It is really a very nice place. So we are sitting here with a glass of nice Georgian wine, having just checked out what the possibilities are for english church tomorrow morning, writing to you all. We are having a very good day. Jonathan managed to sleep quite well until 7ish this morning. We lounged for a while this morning then I got ready and went to the previously used internet cafe and replied to a few emails. Man, an hour goes by quickly when you have alot of people you want to answer. The boys came all too quickly to pick me up and off we went. We took the Metro and then wandered to find an indoor market that has all kinds of produce, meats and fish, cheese, spices etc... It is quite the place - our little farmer's market just doesn't compare! We then wandered some more - bought a 'blini' - filled with boiled condensed milk - YUMMY! A very good snack. We eventually ended up back closer to where we live to find Jonathan Shawarma - a very delicious and cheap version of donair (except with cabage and sauce)....Ok - must go now, our Pizza's have arrived. Will post more after dinner.

Our meeting...

2007-04-20T09:35:00.000-06:00

Well, today has been quite a day. We only have a few minutes until the internet cafe closes so this may be brief. We picked up Jonathan today - what a blessing it is to have him here! (although he was late!!!) No big deal really. He did arrive safely, but had a crazy landing as it is really windy today. We then went directly to pick up our translator and then out to the orphanage. It took about an hour to get there from the airport - lots of traffic (but no need for sidewalk driving today!). Jonathan was immediately translating for us conversations going on between our driver and translator. Our driver picked up immediately his Moscow accent. Anyway, enough of that...
The orphanage is really nice - our translator says it is one of the best in Ukraine. We went immediately to a play room where a worker brought the little girl out (we are leaving her name out until we have made the official decision to adopt her). She is darling. She has very short brown (not blond) hair and vibrant blue (not dark) eyes. So much for file information! She was very quiet and shy with us (understandably - we are complete strangers and she was in an unfamiliar room). We stayed with her for about an hour and played with a shape sorter and other toys. She likes animal cookies and gummy candies. She also really liked to draw - she had a scrap of paper and pen clutched in her hand as she came in and by the end she was drawing on the paper. We'll have to pick up some markers and drawing paper this weekend! We are both feeling stunned.

as a result, I now get to say a bit about where things seem to be at: (Jonathan here, in case you didn't get the shift..:)
Anyway, I think that they are both doing exceptionally well. What a completely bizarre experience to go through: quite surreal. I even felt like I was kind of observing it from afar, because it has taken so long to get here and now....here is this lovely little girl before Darren and Shona. Amazing, but how does one respond to that???? The need to analyse is there but so is the need to love. What more contrary desires could there be, yet both are very important at this stage.
She really is lovely. I know that both D&S are really looking forward to actually getting to know this little wonder that has somehow stumbled into their lives. Wow!!!!
Monday is the big day of the "official" side of things. Pray. Keep them in your thoughts. We'll be picked up at 8:30 kyiv time and head out to meet the director (who is a doctor BTW) and make things ...official, at least as much as they can be at this stage of things.
For the weekend, I get my duties in order: try to help them settle in and settle down and enjoy this place. I am so fortunate to be here too.

We're here and have someone to meet tomorrow...

2007-04-19T03:48:00.000-06:00

First things first, we have had our appointment this morning and were presented with one child: a little blond-haired, dark-eyed, chubby-cheeked, healthy 21 month-old girl. We are still in joyful shock. When asked if we wanted to meet her, it was really one of the easiest choices we've made. We expect to meet her tomorrow after we pick Jonathan up. Yes, she lives close to Kyiv. So, we'll be staying put for a while. It seems that many prayers have been answered.

Now, let's jump back a bit...
Travelling this far is a little bit of a challenge to the system. Generally the travel went well. We had a brief stop in Winnipeg and a slightly longer one in Toronto - which both went fine. Mostly, Darren wandered around and Shona read her book! The overnight flight was also fine. I (shona) slept a little for a few hours, Darren only slept for a few minutes. Arriving in Frankfurt we were greeted by thousands of people crammed into a relatively small ''connection center'' surrounded by the lovely scent of cigarette smoke. We are very thankful for the smoking laws in Canada! Frankfurt had very few places to sit and rest and seemed poorly organized. We managed to find our gate and a place to sit at a table. I grabbed a few more winks of sleep (getting a nice wrinkle on my face from my jacket) and Darren read the paper. Our plane arrived late and thus left late - so we had many more lovely minutes waiting there. On arrival in Kyiv, we managed to get through passport control (no smiles from the officer there!), gather our luggage (it all made it fine) and get through customs with relative ease. Lesya and Irina (our facilitators) met us there. They took us directly to our appartment which is in a very nice area, with this Internet Cafe, grocery, bakery (very important!) and money exchangers close by. The drive here was an adventure. With lots of traffic, our driver was 'creative'. We thought sidewalks were for pedestrians and lane markers were to divide cars going different directions. We are learning new things.
Our appartment is nice - it has 2 main rooms (1 bedroom and living room + kitchen and bathroom) and has recently been updated. We will be very comfortable there. On arrival we settled in and Shona crashed for a few hours. Darren watched BBC newsworld and somehow managed to stay awake. Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to email and blog as the Cafe closed at 7 - just before Darren got there. (We appologize to those of you who were anxious to hear from us. We'll try not to do that again!) On returning home, we had a minor crisis as the door lock wouldn't open and Darren was locked out and I was locked in for several minutes. How to get the adrenaline rush in 1 easy step. Eventually I did something right and the door opened. We crashed early and slept poorly - with both of us awake for several hours in the middle of the night. The rest of today (our appointment was at 10AM), we'll spend doing some food shopping and relaxing at the apartment.

an appointment...

2007-03-08T10:22:00.000-06:00

It appears that we have an appointment at the SDA (adoption centre) in Kyiv on April 19. I say 'appears' because it is not yet official. After months of submitting and resubmitting documents, I am not quite sure what official means any more. We are trying to keep our hope a bit guarded, but have nonetheless gone ahead and booked (changeable) flights for us and Jonathan (Darren's brother) -- who will be accompanying us for the first few days of our trip. We're expecting Jonathan to help us get a bit of comfort with Eastern-European living, provide support, language help, and some fun, and generally, keep us from freaking out too much. (let's be honest, there will be some freaking out on both Shona's and my parts, on a pretty regular basis)
Shona has been filling a small book with lists of things to do and get before we leave. I'm not sure if she is aware of our luggage weight limits. Ah well, it gives us something to do while we wait; something to which we have almost grown accustomed. The prospect that our waiting may soon have a positive end is almost unbearably exciting and terrifying at the same time.