Door number 3

Well we could have had one of two answers yes or no...the answer we got was you have to wait until Monday.  They decided to go ahead and do things exactly by the book and have us wait until Monday to meet the boys.  We have a meeting set up for 8:00 am on Monday morning.  We are obviously a bit sad we did not get to met them today but in a lot of ways this is better.  It may prove easier down the road to have done every single step by the book, so the court may go a lot faster.

Really right now Megan and I need a lot of prayers for some rest.  We thought Maggie might finally be adjusting well to the time change but the car ride really screwed everything up.  We are both getting really tired and our patience is running a bit low.  We really need Maggie to at least sleep for 5 hours or more straight tonight, and the rest of the trip.

The hotel is actually very nice and has WiFi access so that is great.  The prices are very reasonable, as is food.  Megan is most excited by the fact that they will do all our laundry for about $2,50.  I guess in some ways this is turning into a true vacation, no working (well almost none), no cooking, no cleaning, no laundry.

Love,

4 but in need of some rest to make a happy 6

Zhovti Vody...eh?

How is it going eh?

The theme of this email will be Canadian...since according to the SDA we are now citizens of the wonderful 51st state of Canada!  Seriously we went to pick up our paperwork today to head to Zhovti Vody and Igor looks at the paper and says a bunch of things and the SDA lady Ivana runs out of the room...he looks at me and goes they had you down as citizens of Canada, minor mistake.   So I said no problem eh.  But they insisted on fixing it, so I siad ok eh, let me know when it is done eh.

We left Kyiv at 3:30 and got to see some of the wonderful countryside of Ukraine for the first 2 or so hours.  The next three hours was terrifying driving on dark 2 lane roads and passing big rigs with out actually being able to fully tell were the road was headed.  Megan asked me to tell the driver to slow down, I was afraid he would give a big Ukrainian laugh and say "In Soviet Ukraine road drive you!"  We did actually arrive into the city with no problem, but finding the hotel was a different story.  We actually had to stop and ask a local taxi cab driver to lead us to the hotel.  Once at the hotel our facilitator was not there and receptionist spoke Russian...and was asking me all kinds of questions...so naturally I nodded and signed were she told me to.  It is now 11:30 and we are still awaiting for the facilitator Roman.  I guess he had a big emergency with some other family in Dnipropetrovsk (Megan just literally laughed at me trying to spell this).  No worries we see the boys tomorrow and that is all that matters.

For the families coming to the Ukraine to adopt a few things we just learned.  Banks will only take perfect $20 bills.  IF they have any mark on them from a counterfeit pen or anything like that they will not accept the bill and will not exchange it.  Also LOTS of people here will just take dollars outright so that helps alot.  Lastly I mean this in a half serious way but Apple products (iPhone, iTouch, Macbook, Air,.etc...) sell for a HUGE premium.  If you brought some of those you could probably either barter for a great deal on things or sell them outright for nice profit, we were told the iPhone sells for well over $1000.

Three last things by popular demand.  I have uploaded all pictures and videos taken so far

http://terans.org/index.php?album=Pictures/171+Ukraine

http://terans.org/index.php?album=Videos/37%20Ukraine

And lastly we now have a blog, basically the same things you find in this email, but pass it along if you think anyone might find it interesting.

Love,

The 4 and with God's grace 6 as of tomorrow

Word of the day...

Phivo! 

Yup that is right we had to go out and celebrate the very smooth meeting with the SDA this afternoon with lunch and phivo, well just me not for the girls.  In case you haven't figured it out phivo is Ukrainian for beer.  Of course the funny part is we went to an Irish pub for lunch and had a Ukrainian salad and Ukrainian soup and Ukrainian beer (insert really long name I cannot pronounce here), but Irish kaboob and mashed potatoes.

We are almost on a decent schedule, today we got to sleep in until 5:00 am which is a big improvement from 3:00 and you wish the nights before.  Hopefully tonight we get to sleep till about 7:00 then we will just have to get Maggie go stop waking up every two hours.

I am sad to report that we had to resort to McDonald's for dinner last night.  Isabella has not been eating that well so we thought maybe she would really like McDonald's, yes we appriciate the irony of taking someone to McDonald's to eat well!  The great part is we get there and it was so packed it was standing room only!  I did learn an important lesson while there...God was teaching me something important.  Anytime you feel prideful and feel you can go it alone nothing humbles you quicker than being in a foreign land with a strange language and different culture and needing help like a little child just to order something off of the McDonald's menu.  Don't even get me started on the adventure of going to the mini market and trying to buy some milk (we ended up with some sort of cream).  It is a good thing most people are very friendly and helpful.

We found a little park today for Isabella to play at, and that worked out really well...but we forgot the camera we will hopefully get some pics tomorrow, since she is still talking about going back.

Oh so you are probably reading all this and wondering well what the heck happened at the meeting...Well we showed up early and so we got to check out a really cool Orthdox church that was undergoing some renovation.  Also it was a much more tursit trap area so there were a lot of street vendors...as such I was finally able to buy the overpriced knockoff Shevchenko jerseys for the boys (think Micheal Jordon*100).  So we went into the SDA which ends up being this very small office on the second floor of a mid 19th century building.  We all sit down and the psychologist says about 600 hundred words (or maybe 6 really long ones) and our facilitator tells us her name is Lana.  We show her our passports, and she asks how we heard about the children.  Then she explains a little about each child.  We learn that Vlad as we know is almost 9 and as of his latest evaluation (they perform a full medical/mental exam every 6 months) is perfectly healthy.  A little quiet and reserved but loves sports.  Dima on the other hand we found out has a couple of difficulties. His eyesight they believe may need some corrective assistance (glasses) and he also has Torticollis (wyneck).  Usually this is very treatable but since he is a little older there may be some more therapy possibly surgery necessary,at least according to Wikipedia.  We don't know the severity and we don't know how much it affects him.  It could be as minor as a cosmetic issue, his head tilts slightly one way. To possibly something more complex that actually causes him discomfort and pain.  The understanding is that it is of the very minor issue since he is very active and sociable.  We will find out more Saturday and Monday.  We also found out that they have different fathers.  

So what is next..we go to Zhovti Vody tomorrow at around 3:00.  We have to pick up some papers at the SDA giving us approval to travel to the region.  We should be at the city sometime that night, depends on how many stops we have to make.  At the orphanage Saturday from what everyone tells us it will be very quick to find out whether that want us as parents or not.  Also we will find out more info about the mother and the situation the boys have been in.  The central SDA has very limited information, the regional authority will have much more information.  We were very glad to find out the car ride to the city will be much cheaper than expected, and the lodging will be as well.  We are trying to confirm what room we will be getting at the hotel,.but we were told they have a suite available, hopefully that includes a bedroom and living area.  The good part of the hotel is that it is only about 3 blocks from the orphanage.  Basically after Saturday all we do is hurry up and wait...the timing could be as little as 2.5 weeks until we are headed back home up to 6 weeks.  I will explain this more an other day since this is now turning into a minute by minute recap of the last couple of days.

Love,

The 4 soon to be 6

Hello Comrades!

Greetings from the old Iron Curtain!

We have arrived in Kyiv and are safe and very well traveled.  I am glad to be out of the UK I don't think we could have afforded many more days there...we spent $60 just getting the couple miles from the terminal to the Hotel.  I just about had a heart attack and was trying to figure out how long it would take us to walk to the terminal this morning, but was vetoed by the power that be.

Our flight from London to Kyiv actually arrived early.  Megan had the good fortune of tasting some formula at Heathrow.  Seems in the name of security they allow to take formula on board the plane but you have to open a can and taste it in front of them, I politely declined.

The airpot at Kyiv is very small basically one small terminal and no jetway, you get to do it the old fashioned way and walk down onto the tarmac straight to customs.  We had someone waiting for us at customs and they let us cut through the line then helped with the luggage!  He then took us straight to our driver, who promptly took us to our apartment.  It seems that there was a little bit of miscommunication though as no one here knew we were bringing an 8 month old.  They though the kdis were older.  When we asked if anyone had ever adopting with such young kids, Ilona and Igor (the adoption people here) looked at each with the look of ...no we have never seen anyone this crazy before!  Of course they were very polite, and they are very friendly and we are very happy to have them hold our hand through the process.

We found out some more good news.  The boys know someone is coming to adopt them!  They are very excited and are very much looking forward to meeting us.  With that said they still can say no, and it does happen.  We have to go to the central authorities here in Kyiv Thursday at noon.  We found out at this point that is basically a formality since we already have the boys picked out, should not take more than 30 minutes.  Then we are taking a mini-van to Zhovti Vody on Friday and should get to meet the boys Saturday!!!!  We are technically suppose to wait until Monday so that the regional authority can give their approval first, but since our facilitators here have a very good relationship with the orphanage director we will be meeting them Saturday.

Overall the city is beautiful very mid west like (weather wise too) lots of trees and all of them changing color.  The architecture is exactly what you would expect of an old soviet city, lots of block apartment complex, and high rises, but a lot of new architecture in the mix.

We will send another email, in a few days when we get to Zhovty Vody.  Thank you all of you for you thoughts and prayers we really appreciate the emails and the love.

Love,

The 4 soon to be 6

UK we have arrived!

Hi Everyone,

First leg of our trip is a success.  We made it to London today safe and sound with no serious problems.  The worst that happened was that I spilled some juice on Megan and I survived so I think we will be ok.  We should arrive in Kiev tomorrow at 3ish their time, it is a much shorter flight of 3.5 hours.

I will let you all know as soon as I can when we get to the Ukraine

Love,

The 4 Terans and awaiting 2 more

Ukraine Here we come!

Hi Everyone!

So we have some big news!  We finally got a date to meet with the Ukrainian authorities, October 28th.  This means we are leaving Sunday October 24th from Lax to London.  It is really an anniversary trip for Megan and I since 6 years to the day we would have been on a plane going on our honeymoon!  We arrive in London at 2:00 in the afternoon Monday, and then head out the following day Tuesday the 26th for Kiev.  We should arrive in Kiev around 3:00pm on the 26th.  Then on Thursday we meet with the SDA (children services) and they tell us go ahead and meet the boys.  Some more good news we heard was that the authorities have already attached our file to our boys, which mean we are VERY VERY likely to have our petition approved.  After Kiev we head to the city of Zhovti Vody were the boys orphanage is located.  Hopefully we can leave the 28th so that way we can meet the boys on Friday and the paperwork to adopt them can start.  Otherwise we will get to spend the weekend with them, and the paperwork will get started in Kiev(we stay in Zhovti Vody this whole time) on Monday November 1st.  After that there is a lot of hurry up and wait.  We will wait for approval from Kiev, then set our court date.  With any luck we can get a quick court date, and at the hearing the Judge will take favor on us and waive the typical 10 day waiting period.  If not we play with the boys, and the kids at the orphanage.  After the court and waiting period we make appointments with the medics in Kiev and the US embassy.  We get new birth certificates with the boys new names, a medical done, and US visa approval/finalization of the adoption paperwork.  With that we fly back home.  Again we will have a stay over in London.  Right now we are scheduled to fly back on December 2nd, and arrive home December 3rd at 3:00 PM, that would be the older boy Ezekiel's birthday!

We obviously need lots of prayers, so please keep us and our family in your prayers.  Please pray for safety in our trip, enjoyment in everything that happens, and lots of patience.  Please pray for the boys, because they of course still need to say yes we want the Terans to adopt us.  Pray for the kids that are not being adopted that they can find a home.  Also thank God for how he has blessed us and for all the amazing things He has done to make this happen.

Love,

Stephan, Megan Isabella Maggie and VERY SOON Ezekiel and Nathaniel.