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Learning Russian the fun way

Hi Everyone,

So we don't speak more than 10 words of Russian, and yet when you know you know you know.  We meet with the boys today and got a chance to play with them.  We had a lot of fun and the boys even started to warm up to us.  So the facilitator and the psychologist were there, and they were talking on and off, and after about an hour half I figure out they are asking the boys some more serious questions.  To which it was clear the boys were saying nyet.  Also a lot of babooshka(grandmother) was flying around.  At that point I figured out they were asking if they would like to come with us and they answered no they want to stay with their grandmother.  It is actually more complicated than that, we learned that there is also a grandfather in the picture, and possibly a biological father.  It seems in the Ukraine the mother is allowed to put anyone they want as the father on the birth certificate.  And supposedly according to the grandmother when she found out we were coming somehow she pulled out the real father and even though he is not interested in adopting or really coming around he is somewhat in the picture.  Also I guess the grandmother is an angry lady who enjoys a good scream once in a while, so the orphanage director is a little resistant to cause any sort of conflict with her.  

With all that, the search for our sons continue.  In a lot of ways it is good we did not host Vlad because more likely than not he would have come back and his grandmother would have told him not to leave, also Dima was very much against leaving so we would have had to somehow convince him.  We head back to Kiev tomorrow.  When we arrive some paperwork will get filled with the SDA and we basically repeat this process all over again.  We should have our new appointment with the SDA Monday or Tuesday of next week and with an insane amount of luck as soon as this Thursday.

Also we did have some fun today since we went to probably the coolest playground ever, check out our website for the pics and video (uploaded in a day or two).

We know God has a great plan for our family and we have complete faith in Him.  His path may not always be the easiest but it is the greatest.

Love,

The 4 searching for 2 more

Da, Nyet, Mohzhitbyt

Hi Everyone,

First off the praise report.  We finally got a great nights sleep Maggie slept 10 hours, 8 hours straight, and Isabella slept 10 hours straight so we were finally able to get some decent rest.  We think Maggie does not like the little tent sleeper we bought her.  When she rolls over or slighty wakes up, we think she gets terrified and has no idea what is going on.  So we made a makeshift crib/bed last night and oh how beautiful the sleep was!

Now for the news that everyone has been waiting for, but first this ad from our sponsor.....Seriously not our sponsor but we did visit the orphanage and there is this great charity that works directly with the kids at the orphanage as well as helping kids that are to old for the orphanage.  They help the older kids transition from the orphanage life to the real world and help them avoid all the pitfalls that comes with being thrown essential out on their own.  Please go to http://mercyshope.org/ and help out any way you can, it makes no difference in our adoption process but it makes a world of difference to the kids, and that is what matters.

So now with out further delay here is what happened today.  Basically we completely overwhelmed and perhaps intimated Vlad and Dima a bit.  There ended up being 7 adults plus our two girls in the room when they showed up and as you would imagine they were very shy.  Dima cheered up a lot more once we started talking some and showing him some pictures.  Vlad we were told is very quite and focused and reserved, so he did not show much emotion.  He did like the gifts (even thought the jersey might fit him in 5 years), and got very interested when we showed him all the pictures.  Isabella also went around the room and handed everyone a mint including the boys and she and they really liked that.  They then left the room after about 10-15 minutes.  They were both very small and cute.  Dima was about the same size as Isabella, and Vlad was only a few inches taller.  Both looked healthy and well mannered.  They seem very close to one another, like good brothers should be...right Eric?

We talked to the orphanage director a lot and found out some very interesting information.  They do have a grandmother but because of her health, and perhaps other reasons she was not allowed to adopt the children, but is allowed visitation from time to time.  Also we found out that a nice Italian couple came about a year ago to try and adopt them but the older boy Vlad said no because he wanted to stay near the grandmother.  We also found out that the orphanage did not really prepare the kids at all that we were coming, so they were obviously overwhelmed.  They were just told that someone is coming to visit them. So basically at this point we have not been given an answer, but it is not looking good.  We are hopefully going to be able to spend some time with the kids latter this afternoon, and/or maybe tomorrow.  We may find out more today, but probably not until tomorrow, and Wednesday at the latest.

If they say yes obviously we stay the course and things should go as loosely planned as before.  If they say no there are options, but I will discuss that in another email if it comes down to that.  So at this point lots of prayers for guidance and God to reveal his plan for us and the boys.  We obviously want the boys to say yes, but we do not want it forced or coerced. 

Love,

The 4 hopefully the 6

P.S. The title is phonetic Russian for Yes, No, Maybe

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