December 7, 2005 Gotcha Day!

Today we left the apartment at 8 am expecting a very busy day. We took a taxi(with wet seats) to the passport office. We sat in the taxi with Max while Stas took the documents in. There were around 50 people standing outside the office. Stas came back out with a form for Jeff to sign. Stas took it back in and returned 5 minutes later with Matthew's passport. We were in shock. We headed to the legalization office to finish up the birth certificate. We ran into Kristy from North Dakota there. We met her and her husband in Kiev. They arrived about 10 days after us. They had adopted two gorgeous brothers, 7 and 9 years old. We sat and talked to her for a long time. Finally we went in and signed our names. They handed us the new and old birth certificates and we left. We went to the Inspector's office to drop off copies of all the documents. Then we went to the orphanage to get Matthew.

At the orphanage we waited for the Director. She gave us permission to visit Matthew's living area and take pictures. Then we changed him into his new clothes. We gave the director some flowers, and took some pictures of her and Matthew. She gave us a picture of Matthew at birth and at 1 year old. She also gave us a cross that he was given at his baptism. He was baptised a Russian Orthodox Catholic. The head doctor talked to us for a while, Matthew fell asleep in Jeff's arms.

We took a taxi to the apartment. I layed down with Matthew, he fell asleep quickly. Jeff and Max went to the store for lunch and supper groceries. When they got back, all four of us stood around the bed and watched Matthew sleep. He looked so sweet. When he woke up we gave him a bath. He hated it, he screamed like we were torturing him. Jeff even got in the tub with him but it didn't help. After supper we took a van to the train station. Jeff, Matthew, and I had a small compartment to ourselves. Matthew really liked the train, he looked out the window and pointed to everything. Max stayed with us until it was time to go to sleep, then he went to his own compartment. We fell asleep easily. I didn't sleep well. Matthew and I were sharing a bed which is about as wide as my shoulders. At 7:30 the train pulled into Kiev. We woke Matthew up, Max came to help us with our luggage. Sasha picked us up, except for Stas who went home. We went to the medical clinic where Matthew had a physical for the embassy. They weighed him, measured him, looked at his eyes, and listened to his heart and that was it. They gave us a compeleted form and we left. We took our luggage our new apartment. It was really nice.

At the embassy, only the three of us were allowed in. We went through very tight security. They took almost everything we had in the diaper bag: pop, candy bar, camera, phone, etc. Of all the places in Ukraine we went this place was the most confusing. Finally we found American citizen services, we filled out some forms and answered some questions to a woman behind a bomb-proof window. We had an exit interview with a man (who was also behind a bomb-proof window). He asked us a few simple questions and told one of us to come back at 4 pm for Matthew's visa and immigration paperwork. We went back to the apartment for a nap. Jeff went with Max for the paperwork and brought back pizza. Matthew ate the crust and a banana. We said good-bye to Max, we will really miss him.

We stayed in the apartment all day Friday, except for a trip down the block for some supper and snacks for the plane. Sasha came over to collect the rent and introduce us to Nickoli who was going to take us to the airport in the morning. We packed our suitcases and went to bed.

December 6, 2005

Today was a busy but not very productive day. We picked up the court decree at 9:30. Then we went to the birth certificate office. We sat in this very beautiful building for a long time. Then Stas learned we had to have the Tanya our official court translator with us in order to get the new birth certificate made. So Stas called her. We didn't think she would be able to come to the office because she is a school teacher and it was only 11 am. But fortunately for us she was home with a fever. So the poor girl hopped on a bus and met us at the notary's office. We had to get a copy of her translator's diploma notarized for the birth certificate office. Let me tell you when I get sick I wear sweats, tennis shoes, and a pony tail if I have to go out. Apparently not in Ukraine, Tanya had on a dress with 4 inch heeled boots and her hair was what my sister Holly calls "wedding hair". We sat in the waiting room of the birth certificate office until 2:30. Finally they called us in, Jeff, Tanya, and I signed our names on a document and that was it. We took a cab to the legalization office while Stas took the document to get notarized. When we got there, the electricity was out, so we sat in a dark hallway until Stas arrived. He took the document into the office, they couldn't do anything without their computers. They sat the documents would be ready in the morning. So we left and took a cab to the orphanage. It was rush hour so traffic was hardly moving. Our cab driver drove on the sidewalk for several miles. He was crazy and I was so car sick. Then he took a gravel road with puddles so big I thought we would be swallowed up. We visited Matthew for about an hour. We decided to leave him one more night so we didn't have to drag him around while we finished up the birth certificate and went to the passport office. Stas said it could take all day to get Matthew's passport. We went to the internet cafe to fax our court decree to Sasha for translation for the embassy and to print off the new iterary for our plane tickets. Angie was able to get us tickets for Saturday instead of Tuesday. We were so excited. For those of you in Ukraine, if you are having problems getting return tickets as soon as you would like, have someone from the states try. For some reason it works.

December 5, 2005

Stas went to the courthouse this morning to get our paperwork, hopefully he won't have any problems. The birth certificate office is not open today so we can't start that until tomorrow. Then we can get the passport and take the night train to Kiev. Jeff called Sasha and had him schedule our embassy visit for Thursday and Friday.

We visited Matthew this morning for an hour and a half. He is feeling a little better but is still really tired. We hope to pick him up tomorrow afternoon. I have all of his clothes ready to go.

I don't know if I'll have time to update the blog for a couple of days but I'll try.

I just found the blog of a couple who are here in Odessa with us. We met them on last Monday. They are adopting a very cute little girl in the same orphanage as Matthew. http://spaces.msn.com/members/CopelandAdoption/

"Hello Luftansa airlines, Get me out of here"

Ukrainian lawn mower

Ukrainian ketchup

Ukrainian toaster

Ukrainian fire extinguisher

December 4, 2005

We finally got to see Matthew last night for 20 minutes. He still has a lot of chest congestion and a bad cough. He is really tired as well. We saw his again this morning for 45 minutes. He was a lot more active, Jeff had to chase after him a couple of times. He even ate a couple handfuls of pretzels. Hopefully tomorrow we will get the court degree and then Tuesday we will get his new birth certificate. Then we should be able to bring him to our apartment.

I was wrong about our tickets. The online screen says we have tickets all the way to Omaha, but when I called to confirm they said they are waiting for seats to open up from Munich to Chicago. So hopefully we'll be home soon. We are getting more and more impatient, you would think that after 9 weeks we could be patient enough to wait 1 more.

We are starting to see Christmas decorations here. McDonald's even had a Christmas tree. Christmas isn't until January 6th here. Max said New Years is a much bigger holiday than Christmas.

Great news, I just checked our luftansa online account and we have a flight two days earlier. I won't post when for safety reasons but I am very excited.

Caleb, We hope you have a great birthday. We wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We can't believe you are going to be 6 years old already. I seems like last week we were visiting you in the hospital. We loved your post. Email us and tell Katie to email us also.

Katie, Congratulations on being a big sister again! Send us a picture of you and your little brother. He is very cute and I love his name, even though you told me his name was going to be Zachary. =)

December 2, 2005

Matthew is still sick. Max came back this morning so he was able to tell us what was wrong. Matthew's entire group has the respitory flu and is quaranteed. His fever is gone but he is still coughing a lot. They wouldn't let us see him again today, hopefully tomorrow. We are getting very bored. We haved cleaned the apartment, cleaned out our suitcases, watched all our dvds a hundred times, and we have the first season of Hogan's Heroes memorized (even Max and Stas). But Monday we will (hopefully) get the court decree and be able to pick up Matthew. We have his clothes and coat ready to go, remember you get a naked baby.

Congratulations to Kelly and Amy Reynolds, They had a little boy, Cooper, on November 28th at 8:42 p.m. He was 7 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches. He is sure to be spoiled by his three big sisters: Katie, Harley, and Mariah.

Does anyone out there have any pull with Luftansa airlines? We are trying to get earlier tickets and they say they are booked.

December 1, 2005

Matthew is still sick and they won't let us see him today. Hopefully tomorrow his fever will be gone and they will let us in. I could tell he was getting sick, his eyes were watery and he was less active than usual. They tried to tell us that we were making him sick by feeding him yogurt and bananas, but now that he has a fever they can't blame me. Poor little guy.

So we have had all day to do whatever we wanted. It is raining so that rules out anything outside. Jeff washed some clothes in the tub and cleaned the bathroom while I attempted to vacuum. The vacuum in the apartment is the canister type by the carpet accessory doesn't spin. So it was more like sweeping the carpet.

Well, I have lots of time so I will explain how the toilet in the picture works since so many have asked. Basically you put your feet on the ridged part and squat, hoping to hit the hole. I have refrained from doing any "paperwork" in this type of toilet. One day Jeff came back from the orphanage bathroom and told Max and I not to go there. When we asked why he explained that someone had gone "number two" and had really bad aim. They hadn't even hit the toilet, it was on the floor. Disgusting! As far as the apartment toilet goes, it is what we call a "shelf toilet." Everything lands on a shelf and when you flush water comes from the back to push it away. We are definitely spoiled in America.