Here is our sleeping car on the train.

OCTOBER 31, 2005 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Happy Halloween from Kiev! We've had an exhausting an adventurous couple of days.

Thursday- Sasha picked us up around 6 pm to take us to the train station. Donetsk is around 450 miles/700 km from Kiev. But takes 12 hours by bus or train. We met Stas at the train station. He is to be our facilitator in Donetsk. He is a really nice man around Jeff's age who doesn't speak much English. The three of us shared a sleeping cabin. There are four bunks in each one. When you get sleepy you roll out a mattress, put on the sheets, and go to bed. We were able to talk to Stas for several hours using a translation book and by drawing pictures. One time we couldn't understand what he was saying so he called his son. His son is 15 and fluent in English. We went to sleep around midnight and slept for around 5 hours. There is a bathroom at each end of each sleeping car. They are interesting. When you are done you step on a pedal and a trap door opens in the bottom of the toilet. The contents fall out on the train tracks. I guess that is one way of keeping people from walking on the tracks. Even so they smell terrible and by morning the stench was creeping down to our room.

Friday- We arrived in Donetsk at 7 am. We were greeted by our translator Aleana who is around 23 and beautiful. She was dressed like a model: stylish black dress, high heeled, thigh high black boots, perfect make-up, gorgeous hair-the works. We felt like hillbillies, we had slept in our jeans and you don't want to see me without a shower. We headed for Sun City- the only place that is open 24 hours. We had some toast and caffeine while waiting for the inspectors office to open. We waited in the taxi with Aleana while Stas got permission from the inspector for us to visit the orphanage. Then we waited at the orphanage while Stas got permission from the orphanage director. The orphanage was nice. We were taken into a large music room. They brought in the little boy who was eating a cookie. He did not look anything like the picture we have of him. The shape of his face, eyes, etc. - nothing was the same. ??? The orphanage director told us his history. He has severe brain damage due to an infection his mother had when she gave birth. His file at the NAC said nothing of this. Then the doctor explained that he would never be normal, never read or write and hasn't mastered any skills. We played with him for an hour or so. He is a strong little guy, but there is definitely something wrong with him. We were hoping that the doctor had just overdiagnosed (sp?) him, which is common here. They do this to cover themselves. We spoke to three caregivers who all said he would be too much to handle when he was older. So we left and headed to the inspector's office for the refusal paperwork. She was out of the office so Stas took us to get something to eat and get train tickets. The train was sold out but we got bus tickets. We waited around for 5 hours and Stas got the paper work. The bus left at 6 pm. It was like a greyhound but was a Mercedes-Benz. It was clean but had no bathroom. It stopped every hour for people to get out to smoke and to use the bathroom. Around 3 my Dramamine wore off and I felt terrible. But we survived. Sasha picked us up around 5:30 and took us back to our apartment. He felt really bad and hopes to get us an appointment this week.

Saturday- When we got back to the apartment, we showered and went to sleep. We woke around noon and lounged around all day. I still wasn't feeling the greatest.

Sunday- We took the bus and metro to the grocery store and McDonald's where I stupidly drank a chocolate shake. I had a stomach ache for the rest of the day.

Today Sasha stopped by to get our refusal paperwork. We had to write a letter asking for another appointment. Then we headed to the square for some internet time. We are going to McDonald's for lunch with some friends (no shake for me today).

We are doing fine although I am craving a Mr. Pibb and a salad from Whimp's. We miss everyone at home. Today a couple from Oregon is arriving. She has been emailing me for a while and is bringing lots of books. I ran out of things to read three weeks ago.

The gates at the NAC.

This is our facilitator.

Here we are outside of the NAC

October 26, 2005

We had our second appointment today. It was much better. We are going to see a little boy in the Donetsk Region. It is around 700 km southeast of Kiev. He turned two in July, but has overall delays. They tell us that is normal for a child who has spent his life in a crib. Other than that he is supposed to be healthy. We are trying not to get our hopes up to high. We will probably leave tomorrow evening on the night train. We are waiting for a form from the NAC giving us permission to see him. If we accept him we stay in the Region and finish the adoption. If we decline we come back and wait for a third appointment. We probably won't be able to update this blog for a couple of days. We still have our cell phone but the international reception is poor.

October 25, 2005

As I started typing on here that we still don't have an appointment, our facilitator called to say we do have an appointment TOMORROW at 10. So PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that it goes well for us tomorrow. If we pick a child then we wait a day or two for permission to go visit. Then we head to where ever the child's orphanage is to see them. If we don't find one we wait for another appointment.

Last night Laura called us and filled us in about Matt and Lisa's baby. Someone tell them congratulations from us. We are so happy for them and can't wait to see their little girl. After that Katie called us. It was great to talk to her. For those of you who don't know, Katie is my 6 year old niece. She misses us as we do her and everyone else. I told her it was night time here, (she had just gotten out of school). She thought I was teasing her about it being nighttime. She is so cute. She promised to give our dog a kiss from us.

Our friends are going to see a 2 year old boy tomorrow. I hope it goes well for them. Some other Americans just got back from visiting a 17 month old boy who they were told was healthy. But he has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. They are leaving tomorrow to go back to the states. FAS is not acknowleged here as an illness, so it isn't written on the sheets at the NAC. We brought lots of information on how to spot it.

We have been walking around today seeing more of Kiev. We found the Tarasa Shevchenka Park. It is beautiful with lots of freshly planted pansies. Pansies were Jeff's dad's favorite flower and we enjoyed seeing thousands of them. We also found a neat statue on the other side of the square. It is of a famous comedian sitting with his dog. The dog is a wiener dog. We took lots of pictures.

October 24, 2005

Saturday we decided to stay in the apartment and not go out. It was in the low forties and windy. We finished reading the books we had and took them to some friends yesterday and did a book swap. Yesterday we went back to the street with all the crafts and such and bought some more souvenirs and even a couple Christmas presents. Then we took the books to our friends at their apartment which was really nice. The ceilings have to be 12 Ft. tall. They invited us to eat at Pizza Uno with them and some of the others. We had a great time and the pizza was really good. Our friends had their second appointment today but we haven't heard from them yet. Their first appointment was the day before ours so hopefully we will hear something soon. The weather was great, it had to be around 60.

Today is rainy and in the 50's. We went back to Pizza Uno for lunch since we have no groceries left. We are going to get some after we finish up here. We don't know how much to get since we don't know how long we will be here. So I think we'll just get a day or two worth of food.

For anyone who is coming to Ukraine to adopt or even just travel--- bring fabric softener. Most places have a washer but no dryer. We hang our clothes on a rack to dry with the heater underneath. The clothes are so hard and scratchy.

Dinner with other Adopting Americans-that's us way in the back

A interesting bird

Friendship of the Peoples Monument on the Dnieper River

St. Sophia's

Here is the wall at the National Adoption Center.

October 21,2005
We figured out how to put the pictures on here. So here they are.

St. Andrew's Cathedral

October 21, 2005

We really appreciate the emails and posts we get from everybody. Thank you Carrolls for mowing and raking our lawn in town, we really appreciate it. Please email us at norbycj@yahoo.com because we don't have your email address. I am glad you liked the caramel corn, it is addicting.

We spent most of yesterday reading in our apartment. Jeff is working on the "Shadow Divers" that I finished last weekend. It is just as hard for him to put it down as it was for me. We went out for a walk around the neighborhood for an hour or so. There wasn't much to see, just one apartment building after another. We decided to try some cherry filled noodle like things, It was horrible. Jeff was able to choke down a few.

Today we decided to try and find Andreyevsky Spusk. It is a very old cobblestone street that winds its way down a hill behind St. Andrew's Cathedral. We walked for quite a while and eventually found it just one street from where we started. But we got to see lots of neat architecture on our journey. Andreyevsky Spusk is where artists and crafters sell their goods. There are little stands set up on the sidewalks. We saw everything you could imagine: old coins, military goods, tablecloths, traditional outfits, dolls, stamps, paintings, carved boxes, paintings, and much, much more. We walked around for an hour or so, then we left because my hands were freezing. I bought a Christmas ornament so Donnelly's beware I am going have the best one in the ornament exchange. I also bought two of those dolls where you open them to reveal a smaller one, then a smaller one. Does anyone know what those are called? One is a traditional babuska doll with paintings of Kiev Cathedrals on the bellies and one (you'll never believe it) is a Harry Potter one with different characters for the faces. We plan to go back sometime soon. We may need another suitcase to get home.

Oleana called us yesterday and told us to that there were no young children released from the database this week. Sasha wants us to get an appointment when there are young kids available so then we won't need a third appointment. She said to be patient and we are. Once we do get a referral we won't have as much time for sight seeing so we are doing it now.

October 19, 2005

It has been raining here and a bit chilly -around 45 degrees. They did finally turn the heat on in the city so we are cozy in the apartment. We didn't do much yesterday, we watched a couple of movies and went for groceries. We have finally mastered the Metro (subway). Yesterday we took the metro to the grocery store. There are little markets everywhere but I prefer the supermarket style stores. The one we went to is in an area of Kiev called Children's World. There are lots of children's clothing stores and toys there. The supermarket is 4 floors. The first is food, second and third are clothes, and the fourth is toys. We spent 173 rph. Or 34 dollars there.

Today we went to St. Sophia's cathedral. We have walked by it before but this time we went in to the complex. It was built in the 11th century. The exterior has been changed since then, but the interior is virtually untouched. It is beautiful. There is a hand carved alter that is covered in gold leaf and mosaics and paintings on all the walls and ceilings. There are several marble coffins containing the remains of Ukrainian princes. The floor is covered in cast iron squares to protect the previous floors. In several areas you can see the old floors. There were marble floors from the 11th century and ceramic tiles from the 17th century.

After we left Sophia's we went to the Fireman's Museum, but it is "no more" according to the man at the door. We are hoping to eat diner with our friends Josh and Amy if they get back from the orphanage early enough.

We called Sasha (our facilitator) yesterday and he told us he is working on our next appointment. But he also told us that on Monday. So we wait somemore.

October 17, 2005

We had lots of fun Saturday night, there were about 25 of us for supper. Jeff tried the borsht and liked it but he ate it all before I had a chance to taste it. I had fried potatoes and mushrooms. Almost everyone at supper was waiting for another appointment.

Sunday it rained all day. We stayed at the apartment and read books. Jeff finished his book and I read a book we borrowed from Brent and Patti. "Shadow Chasers" is a true story of the deep sea discovery of a German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. It was very interesting.

Today we spoke to Sasha and he is working on getting us our appointment. He said he will call us today, which really means tomorrow perhaps. We went to the grocery store and I febreezed the elevator in our apartment. It smells really bad, Jeff says it smells like rats and I say cat litter. Yuck. It doesn't help that the elevator isn't much bigger than a refrigerator.

We have lots of channels on the tv in our apartment. The music videos are mostly in English but everything else is dubbed over in Russian or Ukrainian. We watched Nanny 9-1-1 earlier. If you listen carefully you can still hear the English. I was pretty excited.

We are becoming professionals at riding the metro. It is pretty clean and seems very safe. It costs 50 kopecks to ride or 10 cents.

They still haven't turned the heat on in the apartment. We aren't freezing since there is an electric heater we can move from room to room with us.

October 15, 2005

Yesterday we went exploring the city around our apartment. We were trying to find the grocery store we had gone to with our translator. We did find it but it was a long ways from our apartment. We went down every isle looking for something familiar. To our delight we found frozen pizza! They even have just cheese and mushroom. We also found noodles and tomato juice to make vegetarian goulosh. Jeff refuses to eat this at home, but happily ate it last night. Juice is big here. It isn't watered down like at home. It is 100 percent fruit juice. It is sold in boxes similar to juice boxes at home but much larger. So far we have tried peach, cherry, raspberry, grape, and grapefruit. I taste just like sticking a straw into the fruit. Strawberry is next on my list.

Tonight we are meeting 10 other American couples for supper at 6. We are going to a Russian Restaurant. I may even try broscht (sp?). Last Saturday, our friend Patti had some and it didn't look to bad.

It seems each new thing we do is a small adventure in itself. I wanted to soak in a hot bath. It took us 5 minutes to figure out the plug. We wanted to cook the pizza, 5 minutes to get the oven lit. The phone in the apartment has taken us 5 days to figure out, we had to ask Oleana how to do it. We could figure out how to call the states but not how to call within the city. I have been reading the Anne of Green Gables series (I brought the first 3), Anne says when you move somewhere new you feel like a lost soul. Each new experience grows a little root on your soul until you feel securely rooted once again.

The weather here has been fair. It has been about 55 and cloudy.

I just read that the Oak Ridge Boys are coming to the Orpheum on December 2(I think). I hope I am home in time.

We still haven't heard about a second appointment, hopefully we will hear something on Monday. Keep praying for us.

October 13,2005 We've been here a week already!

We moved on Tuesday morning to our new apartment. We were only in our old apartment until the people who were in the regular adoption apartment left. So we moved clear to across the Dnipor River to east side of Kiev. Our new apartment is really nice. Something like a really fancy hotel. There is even a washing machine, although no one here has a dryer. We really like it. The outside looks like a slum but inside is nice.

On Tuesday afternoon, we met our translator and driver. Our translator is Oleana and she brought her seven year old son Max with her. The driver is Oleana's uncle. His name is Sergey and he doesn't speak much English. But I am entertained by watching him talk to Jeff. They took us to the Holy Assumption Monastery and Lavra. It is a religious complex that was build in the eleventh century. It is absolutely beautiful (I will upload pictures when I can figure out what I need to do it). Everything is gold leaf. The Lavra are underground catacombs with the mummies of saints and the prominent people of the age. I was scolded by a guard for not holding my candle in my left hand. I don't have any idea why. Then we went to the Statue of the Motherland. It is very similar to the Statue of Liberty except that she is holding a shield and a sword, and the statue is silver in color. There was a camera crew there filming a music video with dancers and all. Underneath the statue is a World War II museum. It was closed but outside of it is all kinds of machinery from WWII.

On Wednesday, Oleana was busy so we stayed in. Which was fine because it was cold and rainy. We watched movies and read our books. Angie- Jeff says you tricked him into reading a love story. He says he wouldn't have started it if he had known, but now he is hooked. We cooked both our meals in. We had something that reminds me of parogy(sp?). They are something like little turnovers filled with potato and onion. They aren't bad if you dunk them in ketchup. We also had corn and broccoli.

Today we went with Oleana, Sergey, and Max to the Cherynoble Museum. It was very interesting and sad. They also took us to the St. Vladimir Cathedral. It is huge and gorgeous. Oleana told us how to get to the Square using the bus and Metro(subway). For 50 kopeck (10 cents) we can get there safely. Then we picked up a pizza and went back to the apartment to eat it. After that we ventured out on our own to attempt to get to the square. We did fine except we missed our stop and ended up one stop past. Actually we ended up near our old apartment so we weren't even lost.

We still haven't heard anything from Sasha about a second appointment. Some friends of ours from the October Travel Group had their concillium(appointment at the NAC to ask for a second appointment). They said it was a bit intimidating but they are expecting a second appointment tomorrow or Monday. They requested a second appointment last Friday so we should be hearing something soon. Keep praying for us!

October 10, 2005

Earlier today we wrote out a petition for a second appointment. We have decided against going to see our first referral. So now we wait for a second appointment. Hopefully we won't have to wait to long. Tonight we are moving to a new apartment. I believe it is the apartment we were originally supposed to have. We like our present apartment because it is two blocks off of Independence Square and there are lots of things to see. Hopefully there is an internet place near our new one so we can keep in touch with all of you. Last night Jeff and I figure that we have only spent $54 so far. Not bad for having to eat out each meal and buy water. For those of you who are planning on adopting from here and want a young child, you should probably rethink your options. They are telling us most orphans are much older (like 10 and up).

We exchanged some money today at a bank. Before we have use the one in the deli. The bank looked over each bill under a special light and everything. The one in a deli just counted it and exchanged it. Going to the bank takes a long time.

October 9, 2005

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY !!! We hope you have a great day!

Yesterday I got to experience a pay toilet for the first time. I didn't know that you have to get the toilet paper outside of the bathroom. It was the cleanest public bathroom I have ever been in.

Last night we met up with five other couples from the states that are here adopting. We met in independence Square and had supper. Eating at a restaurant here is definitely an ordeal. It takes hours. Most places have English menus and someone who speaks a little bit of English-usually a teenager. It was an outdoor restaurant and it was a bit chilly especially for Amy and Josh who are from Rodondo Beach, CA. Amy had on flip flops, I am sure she was frozen. It took well over an hour for our food to arrive. But we had a great time. No one in our group except Amy and Josh were given what they wanted at the NAC and they are all trying to get a second appointment. So we are thinking of doing so also. It doesn't make sense to waste all that time looking at kids we aren't really interested in or getting their hopes up.

The square was full of hundreds of people last night. They close off the street and it fills up with bands, dancers, vendors, and even a group of teenagers who are holding large flags and rollerblading up and down the street. The people here wear extremely pointy shoes, even the men. The women usually wear high heels, the really high skinny kind. I don't know how they walk. Holly, if you want to make your fortune become a foot doctor or chiropractor and move here. They are going to need it with those shoes. There were a few beggars out last night. We gave a very old woman a kop (quarter) and she said lots of prayers over all of us. At 10 pm there were lots of fireworks. It really is a neat place and it is only 2 blocks from our apartment.

Today we haven't done much. We bought a map of Kiev and a book to tell us the history of what we are seeing around the city. The buildings are unbelievable and there are statues and monuments everywhere.

For anyone coming over here, They pretty much have everything you need right in the square. There is a large department store, grocery store, the underground mall, and many kiosks. They don't have much of a selection for pop though, it's coke, coke lite, and orange. I did see Pepsi on one menu though. There are plenty of English books and magezines to read, so you don't need to load your suitcases up with reading material. Also you can buy toys and clothes it you are coming to adopt.

October 7, 2005

Our appointment at the NAC (National Adoption Center) was at 10 am. Sasha has another couple who have an appointment at the same time. That is the kind of thing the NAC does to make every step difficult. We walked down "the long hallway" that everyone talks about and sat down. Sasha went in with the couple from New Mexico and we waited. After a bit we went in and spoke to woman named Irina. I shouldn't say we spoke to her, we spoke to Sasha and he translated. She asked us about ourselves and what we were looking for. She gave us a binder of very sick kids to look through. Then she gave us a binder of older kids and siblings. Then we looked through a pile of newly released kids. When our time ran out Sasha told us to pick someone to visit because the NAC will give us another appointment quicker if we do. We chose to go visit a brother(5) and sister (7) in a city 5 hours away. We really debated about 2 brothers 2 &3 who have epidermolysis. It seems to be pretty severe. So we decided against it. Thanks Laura and Angie for the info on the disease. So on Monday after we get the paperwork we will board an overnight train to visit them. Ironically the couple from New Mexico is also going to the same orphanage.

After our appointment we went back to our apartment and took a nap. Remember we are 8 hours ahead of central time and not used to it yet. Then we ventured out into the city. It is very safe here. I definitely feel safer than I would walking around Omaha or even some parts of Sioux City. We walked past St. Sophia's Cathedral, the arch, Independence Square, and even found a three level underground shopping mall under the street. It is very clean here, there are people sweeping the leaves off the sidewalks as they fall. The dollar is worth 5x the UAH(ukraine money). So we get 500 uah for 100 dollars. We ate supper last night for 3 dollars.

Today our mission was to find an internet cafe, which we have. It is in the third part of the underground mall. I forgot the cord for the digital camera so I will attach some photos later. For those of you who would like to call our number is 0-11-380679777412. Someone told me that if you go to www.talk4cents.net you can call for cheaper.

WE ARE HERE!

We Made it! We left Omaha and flew to Chicago. In Chicago, we boarded a huge 747 for Kiev. It held well over 500 people. The flight was 7 hours long and most people did not speak English. After four or five hours I started getting sore hips and legs. Jeff slept a bit but I didn't. The TV screen displayed what time it is and where we were on a map. The time was in German time so the night went by fast. We landed at midnight our time but it was 7 am. We had a layover for 2.5 hours, so we slept a bit. The bathrooms in this airport were so small. Two Toilets and a tiny sink. I waited in line for 20 minutes. We did sleep for an hour or so on the flight to Kiev. They fed us some sort of vegetable egg crepe and beer for breakfast. We took coke instead. It was 1 pm when we arrived in Kiev. We got off the plane and were met by a man who spoke very little English. He rushed us through passport check, luggage pick-up, and customs. We were a bit nervous because we couldn't understand this man at all. Luckily, he took us to Alexander (our facilitator who prefers to be called Sasha). We spent the rest of the day looking for an apartment to stay in. Hotels are very expensive here and not very nice, so people stay in apartments. We finally found one around 8 pm. Sasha apologized because he said it was a very simple place. It isn't bad, kind of like something college kids would live it. It has hot water and doesn't smell so it's fine with me. It is very close to Independence square.
We ate at TGIF's, strange we had to go to Kiev to eat there. Neither of us had been to one before. Someone tell Larry there is Heinz ketchup here.