More Firsts

Yesterday was Tetyana's first day of school in America. She had the best day and loved her teacher and all of her classmates. She was excited to go but did get very nervous when we arrived at school. She had a quick eye exam and hearing exam by Nurse Sue, who is so sweet. She passed without problems. I guess she just likes to blare her music!

We went to her classroom where she was assigned her seat in between two little girls who were very excited for her to join the class. Her teacher emailed me and called me during the day to keep me updated. She is wonderful! Ms. Beavin had Russian twins two years ago so she is familiar with our situation.

When Luke and I picked her up she was smiling from ear to ear and called out "bye bye" to all of her friends out the car window.

She did learn her first complete sentence at school. We met Beckie and her daughter Taylor at the park after school and the kids were running and playing. I could hear Tetyana but I wasn't sure what she was saying. After about the 5th time of her saying the same phrase I figured it out. She was saying "OH MY HOD!"....there isn't a G sound in Ukrainian so her G's are H's. Translation....OH MY GOD! She says it constantly and it was pretty funny at first but now she she says it with attitude when she is mad. So we are trying to break a habit before it gets her in trouble. Gotta love school! LOL

I am learning about life with a girl. She can turn on the tears at the drop of a hat. Not just tear but all out wailing! Talk about a drama queen. It is surprising me because we did not see tears for a long time but now she cries about 20 times a day. I know part of it is being tired and going through so many new experiences. We have chosen to ignore it if we know she is doing it for our benefit.

We must seem like the meanest parents ever but we feel like if we let her get away with everything now, we will never gain control later. She has chosen not to eat dinner several times only to be hungry in 10 minutes. We warn her and even allow Luke to have dessert right after he finishes his dinner in front of her. The tears start when I show that her dinner is in the trash and tell her there isn't anything for her to eat until morning. Last night she kept fooling around, laying all over and we warned her several times her meal would be going away and she would be hungry. I guess she didn't believe us because she was fooling around under the table and her dinner was gone when she sat up.

Things with Luke have gotten worse. We have had sessions with a counselor twice and it seems that he is more upset and combative after the session. Our goal last week was to spend one on one time with him without Tetyana. From last Thursday to Monday it was basically all about Luke. When we asked him how he felt having so much attention he said he didn't even realize it!

Our goal this week was to have the kids spend more time doing fun things together and try to bond. She is a thorn in his side and he makes it known to everyone, mostly her. He won't let her use anything of his. She doesn't get this because at the orphanage, everything is everybody's. She looks around our home and everything is Luke's. We never expected this much challenge from Luke. We knew there would be some rough spots with his adjustment as well as hers but he is simply unhappy. Let's hope that magic 6 week marker all adoptive parents say things seem to get better applies to biological children as well.

Last Couple of Days

Today we took Tetyana to the doctor for the first time. We hadn't planned on it but they had a opening and we took it. It was very weird to not know every detail about her life. They were so good to her. So far she has a clean bill of health.

I took her in the bathroom to do the urine sample and she thought this was the funniest thing she had ever done. I think she peed more on my hand because she was laughing so hard and not the poor aim! I never knew peeing in the cup could be so funny!

She had 4 shots plus the TB test. I felt so awful and so did the nurses. It was hard because we could not explain to her why we were hurting her or that she would feel better soon. We didn't draw blood because our health insurance claimed they haven't received our documentation yet and we had to pay for the visit in cash. I can't imagine what the bill would have been with the labs!

The doctor thinks she is older than 7 because she is so tall. Drew and I disagree and will not seek to change her birth date. She has enough catching up to do without the pressure of being 9 and in 1st grade. She relates well with other 7 year olds and that is what counts. She was in the 75th percentile for height and 50th for weight. She is 7.9 months old. Our son is 8.10 years old and is in the 75th percentile for both. I don't agree that this is the best indicator.

So on Friday when we go back to read the TB test, if our insurance has added her, she will have her blood drawn. I am not looking forward to that!

Next Monday she will start school. Luke is off for some storm make up day or some ridiculous thing so he wanted to take her to school on her first day. It will give he and I time to just hang out together alone. Something he craves right now more than food.

Things feel just as crazy still. I think I haven't mentioned here that we are selling our house and my husband is moving his office! Just a few more changes to add to the mix! I bit the real estate brokers head off yesterday when she said she wanted to show the house in 2 hours! I felt so bad afterward. Our house looked like a tornado went through and picking up was not at the top of my list.

So that about covers our past few days. I wanted to thank Aimee and her family for sending the kids so much stuff! They were in heaven. Also, some of Luke's former classmates stopped by today to meet Tetyana and catch up and they brought her a great bag of goodies. Luke was not home but actually reacted okay with the whole thing. A big step for him. I am a big one on sending thank you notes but they may just be months late and I really wanted to express my gratitude.

Our Beauty

These pictures are just fun! Can you tell how much fun we were having? How about how much she loves our dogs!!

Our American Beauty!

Ok, so I thought it would be fun to dress Tetyana up in all of the American things she has received so far. She has a bear from Aunt Shawn, t-shirt from Riley and flip flops from Haleigh. I curled her hair and she applied the lip gloss (can you tell?). We had so much fun taking these pictures. My favorite picture of her is the close up shot of her. I think she is so beautiful! Her favorite is the one next to her by the palm trees. She says she loves palm trees. Good thing, because here in Florida we have a lot of them!

Tetyana's First Playdate!

Tetyana and Luke were invited over to some very sweet friends house this afternoon to play. Luke did great playing with all of the girly stuff while the girls got acquainted. It was a great chance for us to see what kind of toys Tetyana likes to play with. I would have to say she loved dressing the American Girls, playing with all of Taylors jewelry and especially their cute new puppy, Marley. Thank you so much Kibler family for having us today and we look forward to the next playdate in the near future!

We took Tetyana to her new school today to find out what we need to do to get her enrolled. Our plan was to keep her home until the fall but the school thought it would be a great idea to enroll her as soon as possible when there was not any pressure of academic performance and she could be with peers. I do know children learn better and faster from kids their own age. So as soon as we get her to the doctor we will enroll her in school. The year ends June 4th so it will just be a short time. She seemed happy to be there and warmed up to the woman who gave us the tour very quickly.

Get this, when we were inquiring about what services she would need an administrator there says "Oh, my neighbor, who is my best friend is from Ukraine. Let me call her and see if she could meet with all of us and help us figure out where Tetyana is academically." Can you believe our luck!!!! So she called her right then and put Tetyana on the phone for her to have someone speak to her and just say hello in Ukrainian! Isn't that great! She gave us her numbers in case we needed anything or Tetyana just wanted to talk with someone!

Tomorrow we are calling our stateside facilitator so he can ask Tetyana some questions for us. We plan to video tape them so we can show her later how she spoke Ukrainian and how she was feeling in the early days. I hope she says she likes us!

The Past Few Days

We have had a busy past few days around our home. Baseball is the biggest time consumer right now. Luke had practice Friday night, pictures Saturday morning followed by a game and a scrimmage today. Luckily, Tetyana doesn't mind hanging out at the field so far. The next few weeks will be just the same. I don't know how some of the parents to it with multiple boys in baseball! They live at the field.

We had a bit of a hard day today. Luke is having the worst time adjusting to having a sister. Part of it is their ages are so close. We thought this would be fantastic because he would have a playmate and maybe it will be great later but right now she is a thorn in his side. It isn't even so much about loosing some attention but that she is getting things. We have approached this in every way possible and in Target today, in the middle of home storage, it came to a head. He was mad because she was getting plastic storage drawers for her closet. It didn't matter to him that he has 4 upstairs in the playroom.

We made our purchases and got in the car and dropped Drew off at Sports Authority. Luke was still crying and then Tetyana started crying. It is the hardest thing because I can't just ask her why she is crying and she can't tell me. Luke asked her if it was because of him and she nodded yes. Who knows if she understood his gestures and questions but this sent him reeling. He said "I am a terrible brother and I thought I was going to be a good one!". I crawled into the backseat and hugged them both and bawled my eyes out with them. All I could do was tell them both that I loved them more than anything and that it would be alright soon. Poor Drew, when he got in the car he couldn't figure out what happened! I think we may look into some therapy for Luke to try and find ways to deal with the jealousy.

On a much more fun note....we visited some dear friends of ours, the Pool family. They have a daughter Hayleigh, who is 13 and a son Henry, who is 9. They are each just one clothing size ahead of Luke and Tetyana. They did some spring cleaning and gave Luke and Tetyana gobs of clothes!!! We felt so lucky. Hayleigh is a real girly, girl too and many of the clothes had lots of bling! This made Tetyana's night! Okay, well maybe the hours she spent in their pool did or it could have been their puppy Daisy who is not so small who she played hide and seek with. Needless to say, we all had a wonderful time at their house. Thank you so much Pool family!

I was just uploading our pictures from our trip to Shutterfly and I can't believe the transformation already in Tetyana. In the pictures from the orphanage she looks like a sheltered little girl and now she looks free. I can't wait to compare pictures of her over the next few months and see how she grows and changes. I am sure it will be incredible!

How Could I Forget This.....

I saw her cry for the first time!!! Poor, sweet girl of mine...the hamster bit her finger. I know it was bound to happen and it was just a matter of time. She woke him up and surprised him. I felt so bad for her. She was so sad that her beloved little friend bit her. I did my best to explain to her that she surprised him and that is why he bit her. She got over it quickly and Bart is her friend again!

I also forgot to mention how tired our little dogs are! We have two Chihuahuas and she has made them her babies. Minnie is much more tolerant of her. Tetyana will wrap Minnie up in a robe and carry her around the house. Poor dogs....the days used to be so quiet here. Just perfect for napping.

We are trying to teach Tetyana she cannot feed the dogs anything. We do give them treats but how can you explain playing charades which foods they can have and which foods they can't?

I dare anyone to a game of Charades!!!

The First Days Home

We are all working on finding our new norm. Luke has started back to school. He went yesterday for a few hours. When we walked into his class all off the children started clapping for him and made a great "Welcome Back" sign. Luke was proud to introduce his new little sister to his class. He told us after we left, all of the kids were pulling on him and shouting out millions of questions about his sister and our trip. He was so happy to be back at school although he would never admit it!

Today was Luke's first full day back and we let Tetyana sleep while I drove Luke to school. She didn't wake up until 10:00. I am guessing she needed to catch up on her beauty sleep!! She and I worked on math on the computer and learning English letters. She is very eager to learn which is so different from Luke. It is great! It is hard to keep her busy and get to the things I need to get done. Our house is a mess!!

I do have a dilemma that I am not sure how to handle. I had read about this with other adopted children but they had been home longer. She wants to eat all day. Not bad things...mostly fruit. The refridgerator door is open more than closed! I don't know whether we should schedule eating times or let the free for all continue. I think we do need to teach her to ask before eating so that we can make sure she isn't eating junk. Opionions from other AP's would be great!

Speaking of eating, Tetyana did the funniest thing a couple of times. It took me a few times before I got what she was doing. I have a Williams and Sonoma recipe book that sits on the counter on a display stand and she kept opening it and pointing things out. I thought maybe she was pointing to things she thought she may like, then it hit me!! She thinks it is a menu of things I will cook her! LOL Try to explain that one to someone who doesn't speak your language!

She is testing us ok, really me. Wait till she finds out Drew is the push over and I am the mean one! I took her and Luke to Target for the first time and told them they could both pick out one toy. We looked in the girls section first and she was picking up everything. I told her we should look around and then decide on what she really wanted. She finally settled on a toy and we moved on to the boy's toys. Across from where we were looking with Luke there was some electronic toys, one of them being an Idog for the Ipod which we already have and Luke gave to her. No, she wanted this new one. I didn't want her to get it because I knew she would only play with it for 5 minutes. So I reminded her she could only get one toy. She handed me the Idog back and turned her face away from me and started tapping her foot!! I couldn't believe my eyes! So I made her look at me and pointed to the way she was tapping at me and told her "Neyt!" and made her put both toys back! I felt bad about not getting her a toy but I know I have to stop these behaviors as they happen. She gave me the silent treatment all the way home! My girlfriend Shawn, welcomed me into the world of girls! I will take the silent treatment over Luke's relentless arguing any day! A few more things like this have happened but I am remaining strong. We have learned our lesson from raising Luke.

Overall things are going well. She is comprehending more English every day. She is even counting in English rather than Ukrainian. We do not have any problems with bedtime which is a treat! We can even get Luke to go to bed which is huge in our house! The only problem that is driving me nuts, is her running to the phone trying to answer it. We still have the house phone unplugged! I guess all of the newness will wear off and she will stop running to the phone until she is a teenager!!

On Our Way Home.....

Wow! What a long day this was! Our driver, "Leo the Race car Driver" picked us up at 9 in the morning so we could stop by Yana's apartment and head to the airport.

On the way to the airport we were pulled over by the police which we had heard this was a common occurrence. Evidently, they pull drivers over to check to see if they have been drinking. Not such a big deal if you have been drinking...Leo says the penalty for drinking and driving used to be a $50 fine just a couple of months ago, but has recently been changed to a $500 fine and I think you get to just drive off. Only by the third time do you loose your license. So we got to experience 2 of the most popular experiences on a Ukrainian adoption....no water and a police stop. We were lucky to have power the entire 5 weeks!

So we got to the airport and inquired about getting Drew a ticket for business class but they said they were full. So Luke, Tetyana and I would sit in business class and Drew would sit just three rows behind us in coach. I am not sure which was the lesser of the two evils. So since we were flying during the day, Ukrainian time the kids were not tired at all. I spent most of the 10 hour flight juggling trays of food, cutting food, feeding Tetyana food, setting up entertainment and trying to make sure Tetyana did not kick the seat in front of her. The guy in front of her asked me to turn down her head phones and was quite annoyed with her pushing and pulling on his seat. I finally broke down and gave her some Benadryl. I got a whole hour and a half break!! Not very long considering we sat on the runway for an hour and the flight itself was 10.5 hours long! Neither Luke or I slept the entire time.

I think every 10 minutes Tetyana would ask me how much longer. Finally when we saw New York, she was so excited. She was yelling "tato (dad), America, America!!" She was thrilled and I was in tears. Stepping off that plane felt so good. We were in the US!

While getting some forms together for customs Tetyana was pointing and staring at a black man. Our guess is, she has never seen anyone other than a white person. We were trying to tell her it was not okay to point because the next thing we knew, she was pointing at everyone! Yikes! She went up to the black man and was looking at him so closely. She was fascinated by him. She has the same reaction to people who are over weight. We are working on not pointing!

So we got through customs without any problems. We did have something happen that we were not prepared for and I hadn't read on anyone else's blog. The part where they process your paperwork, they asked for a picture of Tetyana. We just so happened to have an extra passport picture. There was another dad there with his adopted son who was just as surprised. So make sure you bring an extra picture with your documents.

Once we got our baggage checked in at Jet Blue, we went and got something to eat. We ate Mexican food!! It tasted so incredibly good, I can't even tell you!

The next flight was an hour late which we spent on the runway waiting for air space. I was so happy they had satellite tv and music. Drew and Luke were sitting in the very last row and we were in the middle. Luke wanted to sit by us so bad and the woman sitting next to Tetyana and I ended up moving so he could. I easily got Tetyana to fall asleep but Luke just couldn't get comfortable. They both ended up falling asleep on my lap as you can see in the pictures above. Needless to say, I was unable to sleep in this position. I did manage to take these pictures though all by myself without waking the kids! They slept almost 3 hours....I watched tv in ENGLISH! What a treat!

We got into Ft. Myers around 12:20 am and Drew's brother was there to pick us up. While driving home, we were pulled over for speeding! The officer was so nice and just gave him a warning. Must have been the weary faces that convinced him we just wanted to get home.

We finally go home around 4 am. Neither of the kids slept the entire way! When we got into our community, we rolled the windows down and Tetyana kept pointing to the house and saying "Tetyana's dome (house)?" Once we got to our house we stopped out in front and told her this was her house. She was so elated! When we pulled into the driveway she and Luke nearly jumped out of the car while it was still moving! We were greeted by balloons and presents from Paula and Clay and the Grady family! We showed her every room in the house. She really liked that she had her own room. It was so helpful to have had pictures of the house to show her before we came home. It seemed like the house was already hers. We didn't get the kids settled into Tetyana's bed until 5 or so. Drew and I crawled into our bed around 5:30. It felt so good. I never knew how good our bed felt! Maybe it was the feeling of having our family together in our house that made the feeling so great.

We were silly to think the kids would sleep half of the day away...ok, I was wishing they would have but NO...they were up at 8:30! I just couldn't bring myself to get up. Luckily, my brother in law stayed over and he got up with the kids until I pulled myself out of bet at 9:30. Four hours of sleep over 2 days is not a good thing! I think the kids did everything there is to do at our house over the next 12 hours. They went swimming and to the park where Tetyana hurt herself. She shed her first tears. I am so glad I wasn't there because I think I would have turned into a blubbering idiot! She loves our dogs and Luke's hamster. Another great sign for an orphan and attachment.

We saw a few of our neighbors who we were so proud to introduce Tetyana to. My sweet, sweet friend Lonna came over with her girls and gave Tetyana some clothes they had grown out of. I was so thankful because we have almost nothing. Tetyana was shy while they were over but once we went in the house when they left she tore through the box of clothes. She kept unfolding the clothes and pointing to herself. They gave Tetyana several pairs of shoes which included a black pair of Mary Janes. I have to beg her to take them off when she goes to sleep! She wears them constantly despite being too small for her. Her little feet have blisters on them! Thank you Lonna, Maddy and Riley, you made a little girls day and bought me a few more days until I have to take her out shopping.

I have discovered the cutest girls clothing store thanks to our neighbors the Grady's....Justice. They bought Tetyana the cutest outfits from there and she loves them. I can't wait to take her shopping there. I don't know how many times she has looked through the catalog!

So after having Pizza Hut, which again tasted amazing we got the kids showered and in bed by 8:30. This time they slept in Luke's room. I don't think I finished washing my face before I fell asleep!

Today has been a whirlwind of laundry, feeding Tetyana....she has eaten about 20 pickles today alone, half of which she ate for breakfast (YUCK!), grocery shopping and wading through the mountain of mail. Thank you Paula and Clay for tossing out all of the catalogs and junk! Tomorrow, Luke heads back to school for a few hours and then back to his regular school routine. We also have our first baseball game and I know Luke is going to love getting back into the game. I can't wait for Tetyana to meet all of our friends from the team!

So, we are trying to find our new normal again. Drew, Luke and I have many moments of feeling totally overwhelmed. I am so glad we decided on an older child. I think I would be going crazy chasing a 2 year old everywhere....Tetyana is a handful enough. We are so thrilled to have her home. It seems like she has been with us forever...so familiar......

Oh yea, one more thing, if you try to call our house and don't get an answer, call my cell phone. I had to unplug the phone because Tetyana runs to it when it rings and jabbers away in Ukrainian. It is a problem when I am in the shower or don't hear it ring! Many people have just hung up! LOL Try explaining this in charades!

We Are Home!!! FINALLY!!

What a long 2 days it has been! We are finally home, exhausted but very happy! We arrived home at 4 am this morning and got into bed around 5 am only to get up at 9. I think in 2 days I have had a total of 4 hours of sleep. Somehow the kids have managed to keep going despite being totally exhausted also. They have been to the park and swimming along with exploring the house. I think they will spend the whole summer in the pool!

I have so much to say and pictures to post but I just can't keep my eyes open! We had quite an adventure over the last 2 days including being pulled over for speeding on the way home! I will post tomorrow all of the details of our exciting end to our journey to bring our daughter home.

Thank you everyone who has called and come over. It is so great to see friendly faces and hear your voices!

What A Nightmare!!

Well if it weren't for my dear, dear friend Shawn we would be stuck in New York tomorrow until Tuesday. I am sending every prayer that she will schmooz the heck out of Jet Blue and get us to Ft. Myers tomorrow night so we can make the 3 hour drive back to Orlando. If all goes as we hope, pray and beg we should be home by 4 am Monday morning!

A word of advice to PAP's, don't use a travel agent to book your adoption trip!!!! Be in control of your travel plans and know exactly what is refundable or changable. What we have gone through in the past 3 hours is pure hell!!!

Calling the US from Ukraine on a cell phone is probably $4 usd a minute! We have spent all of the rest of our Ukrainian money (around $100 usd) buying cell phone minutes trying to change our flights with Jet Blue. We can not exchange any money right now because it is late at night. Luckily, Shawn is trying to call for us and get things changed. I was in the middle of working things through when the cell phone ran out of minutes for the 3rd time tonight! I was in tears!!

On top of it all, it was 10pm and I could not get the children to sleep! They are bouncing off the walls!

Please pray we get home and are not stuck in New York for 2 extra days!

We Got It!!

I LOVE AMERICA!!!!

We got Tetyana's passport and visa and we are outta here on Sunday!! We should arrive home at 10:30 on Sunday night. It feels so good to type those words!

The day has been crazy to say the least. We had Tetyana's medical appointment at 9:30, which is required for all exit visa's. We didn't have the passport yet and didn't know when it was coming or if it was coming today, but Yana had a connection and for $40 the doctor did the exam and told us we could come back later with the passport. What a guy! The exam went well. She weighs 52 pounds and is 51 inches tall. I think that is pretty darn good for a 7 year old orphan!

Afterward, we came back to the apartment in hopes that Yana would call us and tell us some good news. Our plan was to fax the passport to the embassy and then put it on a bus to Kiev. Yana called the passport agency at 11 am and the woman said the passport was not there and to please stop calling every hour. Oops! We went into our apartment to wait. We were going to go outside for some reason and Drew realized we were locked in! The lock would not unlock! Yana came back over and Drew threw the key down to her but we still could not get the door open! After about 10 minutes they finally got the thing open!

So, Yana called us at 12:30 and told us the passport was there but the inspector couldn't pick it up until 3. No good. So we called the driver who helped us while we were in Cherkasy and he agreed to drive it to us. What a guy! Ok, so it was expensive but still...

Yana later told me that when Nicolae, the driver, got to the passport agency, the woman who had our passport had left for lunch! He somehow convinced someone there to give him her cell phone number and he called her. She returned and gave him the passport! She also told us the doctor at the medical center stayed after work so he could look at the passport and give Yana the medical forms we needed!!

So we called the embassy and asked them if we could still get it done and they said yes but we had to get to the embassy by 2 because the cashier was going to close. We raced over there and made it just in time to pay the cashier. On the way, I called Aerosvit Airlines to try to change the tickets and add Tetyana. This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard...."business class is sold out and we cannot change your business class tickets to economy". I nearly came unglued! How could this be? We weren't asking for a refund, we only wanted to get on the plane and sit wherever they could put us! The woman told me to go to the office and try to work it out there. We were supposed to be waiting for Yana to come with the medical papers and passport at the embassy. But since we had about an hour, we went to Aerosvit. These poor kids, we have dragged them all over the city all day long.

So Aerosvit told us we could get 3 seats in economy and 1 in business class for now and they would put us on a waiting list for business class. I really didn't care where we sit as long as it is a flight to JFK!

After Aerosvit, we raced back to the embassy only for Yana to tell us Nicolae, the driver was in Kiev but didn't know where the embassy was so he was taking a taxi. By this time it is 4:00 and the embassy closes at 5:00. I was so scared that we were that close and we weren't going to get the passport in time. We sat at a restaurant, a very smokey restaurant and waited. Yana and Nicolae came to the embassy at 4:45!!! We raced in there and hoped they would not tell us the visa could not be done. They were all smiles and waiting for us. They had our file sitting at the window. They looked over the paperwork and printed out the visa. I think Mike, the officier was just as happy as we were. It was so great. Tetyana even understood this meant she was going to America!

To finish off our day, we had dinner with our friends Night and Suzi, who we met at the park last weekend. Their hospitality was incredible and the food was to die for! To have a home cooked meal that tasted familiar was out of this world! Their kids and ours, played in their giant apartment and we just talked....in English!

So now it is late and we are all tired from our exciting day. Tomorrow we will enjoy Kiev and take all the pictures we can!

Keeping It Real

Help! Our son is having the worst time adjusting to a sibling. I knew this was going to happen and frankly, this is one of the reasons why we wanted another child but I am not sure what to do. He is miserable and Tetyana thinks he is always mad or crying. He wants to be with her constantly but then doesn’t want her around. He is so jealous it is making us crazy. We have tried to tell him what a great job he is doing teaching her English and learning Ukrainian. How wonderful he was to give so much to the orphans and share his things with his sister. We try to sing his praises all the time. We have tried to spend time with him alone

The weird part is, he was never selfish with his things or us before this. I always was so proud of him that he didn’t act like a spoiled, only child. I know all of our nerves are frayed and I hope that when we are home and he has his own room, things, friends and most importantly routine, things will be easier on him. Part of his biggest problem is he needs to be the center of attention.

We are seriously contemplating me taking him home on Sunday and having Drew stay here and finish up, if the miracle (getting the passport and visa) we need tomorrow, doesn’t happen. Maybe this would give us time together alone before Tetyana comes home. We could get her room more ready and buy things like her clothing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

She's A Keeper!

I took Tetyana to the park today, just the two of us, and she was so darn excited! Luke is tired of the park so he went with Drew to the apartment for some quite time. I think he is feeling quite overwhelmed by the process and having to deal with a new sibling. So on our way to the park Tetyana was listening to the Ipod and was just so thrilled we were off to the park together.

When we got there she immediately wanted to go on the inflatable slide. She loves that thing. After sliding for 10 minutes, she went to the playground part and there were tons of kids there. I think they were there from school. A man had all of the kids line up to leave and Tetyana asked on of them if they were in school I think. I can't speak more than 5 words of Russian/Ukrainian but I seem to be able to understand what is being said. So Tetyana ran off to play and there was another little girl there that was not part of the big group, so I was trying to get Tetyana to play with her. It took me a couple of times of trying to explain this to her but she got it. The two of them were holding hands in no time! The were playing right next to me and Tetyana was talking about "mama". I have no idea what she was saying but I sure wish I knew. Was she telling her she has a new mama? Did she tell her she used to be an orphan? The little girl's mama was not there though. She was there with another girl and neither of the two girls was over 9 years old! Things are so different here.

Tetyana wanted to show the girl the Ipod and the little girl thought it was so cool. She listened to music for a long time and the two of them just chatted away. It was so sweet. After awhile, the little girl had to leave and Tetyana wanted to ride the slide again. On the way to the slide I asked her if she wanted to ride the pony and she said "yest" (that is her yes). She got up on the pony and was smiling from ear to ear! The guy that was leading the pony started talking to her in English and I told him she was Ukrainian and he spoke to her in Ukrainian. She told him something about going to America. Again, I wish I knew what she was saying.

But judging by the smile on her face, she is telling me she is happy and that makes me happy!

This blog is not only for people who are following our journey but for our own journal. I found a website that can turn a blog into a book! I have posted some random pictures on this post as well. The first one is us all leaving the orphanage and waving good bye. The next couple are the kids on one of those inflatable slides. Every day Tetyana wants to go on this. The last picture is the view from our apartment. It is a busy place!

So these are some random things I didn’t want to forget about our trip….

Yesterday, I gave Luke and Tetyana 2 pieces of candy. Tetyana finished both of hers before Luke finished one. She noticed he still had one left and looked at Luke and asked him for it. He said “no” and then she said “I looove yoooo Luke” and stuck out her hand!! It was so funny we all couldn’t stop laughing!

At the park the other day there was a boy with a BB gun!! The playground was full of people and little kids!! This father and mother were showing the boy how to target shoot right in the middle of the playground! We couldn’t believe it.

Also at the park (can you tell what we do all day?), Tetyana was playing with a little kid and the mother started talking to her. She asked Tetyana where her parents were and then started talking to us in Ukrainian. We told her we spoke English only and she was totally confused! How could she just have been speaking with our daughter who was Ukrainian but her parents clearly were not from Ukraine. She was inviting us to the zoo with her family. So we explained to her that we had just adopted Tetyana. She couldn’t believe it. She asked me “you are going to take her back to America to live with you?” Another family we came across couldn’t believe it either. Maybe Ukrainians don’t adopt older children very much.

Today we went over to the American embassy to get the paperwork we needed to get Tetyana’s visa since we are praying they can get it done on Friday. We will know Friday night if we can come home on Sunday or if we will have to wait until next Tuesday. When we were walking in, there is a sign that says ‘Adoptions’ in English and Ukrainian. Tetyana read the sign and said “Mom!!” and pointed to the sign and then pointed to herself. It was so cool she knew.

She says “mom” about a thousand times a day! I am thinking it is because she is happy she has one.

We were at the mall and we needed to go upstairs. We just started walking towards the escalator and she stopped and looked at it and we said "it's okay, go" and she was so thrilled. She had never seen an escalator before! She smiled and giggled the whole way up!

Today we took the kids to the zoo here. What a depressing place. The animals are not taken care of and there were hardly any. We did see a camel that just gave birth. The did not do anything to prepare for the birth, like put her in a barn or something. She just popped it out right in the viewing area!

We let the kids go into the petting area and afterward we wanted to wash their hands again and looked for a bathroom. We found it! The first hole in the ground toilets we have seen and smelled! It was so gross!! A bit later Tetyana told us she needed to use the bathroom and I pointed out the bathroom and told her “no” and made a yucky face. She agreed but said she really needed to go. We were walking by some bushes and I noticed there was a hole in them that she could squeeze into and squat. I have a really long down jacket and knew I could cover her. There wasn’t anyone around so I pointed to it and said “toilet?” and she said “dah, dah!!”. She went right there! We were all cracking up but it was better than the disgusting bathroom!

We are hoping we get the visa on Friday. I think I will cry right there on the spot if they tell us they can not complete it. We are dropping off every piece of paperwork we can Thursday and Yana is going to fax a copy of the passport from Cherkasy once she picks it up on Thursday. Julie, our friend that is here now also, got hers done today in a couple of hours! There is hope. If we can't get out on Sunday, then we will have to wait until Tuesday.

Have I mentioned we are NOT bringing back any of the clothes we brought here? We are so sick of wearing the same thing over and over!!!

Bricks!

These are Bricks! These little things have kept Luke busy and our sanity! I don’t know how many sets we bought for him but they were so cheap! For a set with 750 pieces it cost $35 US.

We looked them up online and they are illegal in the states because they infringe on Lego’s copyrights. We hope we can find them and have them shipped to us at home!

We have been looking all over Kiev for some more of them because Luke donated all of his (two huge bags) to the orphanage. We are having a hard time finding them here in the big city because all of the toy stores have Lego's.

Stray Dogs

In Cherkassy there was this little family of dogs that lived across the street from our apartment. I would watch them often because I found it so interesting that they stayed together as a family in the wild. The little puppies all played together and sometimes the father would play with them. It was so cute! When they crossed the street the mother would stand on one side and bark like crazy until the rest of the dogs were across with her. There were so many homeless dogs running around. They never approached us and often ran away when we passed by. We did find one dog that could catch the food when I threw it up in the air. I guess Ukraine doesn’t have a Bob Barker who wants to control the pet population!

Our Final Day At The Orphanage

Things could not have gone any better at the orphanage than they did. It was such an emotional time for me and I am sure Tetyana. She seemed very happy but she had to have some feelings of sadness as she left. The important part is SHE IS OURS!!!

We were told by Yana she would be at our apartment at 8:30 in the morning to pick us up. We thought we would be running around with her completing all of the paperwork. But around 8:00 (after we were all dressed and impatiently waiting to get on with this day), she called us and told us she would just pick up the inspector and get the paperwork done with her. We sat at the apartment and waited and waited. Finally we left for lunch and to pick up the food we were going to take to the orphanage for the party.

We were picked up at 1:30 and Yana looked very tired! She is working on another adoption with a single woman as well as ours and her case has really tired Yana out. She brought us up to speed about what was happening with our paperwork. There were several problems. None of them big, but enough to cause some delay. On the court decree, they spelled my middle name incorrectly. Clerical error…Because of this error, Yana would not be able to change the identification number (like a social security number) for Tetyana nor complete the passport process. We were lucky there was a woman who stayed through her lunch to make the new birth certificate even though there was the error. When the new court decree was finished Yana was told the judge had broken her arm that she uses to write!! We had spent about 4 hours riding around in the car. Luke was bored out of his mind and just wanted to get to the orphanage to have the party. Yana was also able to convince the passport agency to begin the passport application and have Tetyana come to take the picture they use to scan so that she would not have to bring Tetyana back to Cherkassy from Kiev on Monday. All in all, the paperwork took forever but worked out. The only bad part is, we won’t get Tetyana’s passport until Thursday afternoon. Our hope is to get to the embassy on Friday late morning, after the medical appointment in the morning and beg them to get the visa completed that afternoon so we can fly out on Sunday. This is asking a lot, but it has been done. Aerosvit does not fly to the US on Saturdays.

The time with the director was very strange. Many of you reading the blog are waiting for information on the children and I will email you privately. We were told to donate $500 in our contract with Roman. When we were walking into the orphanage we were told the director wanted $1000! I guess they tried to get her to drop it to $750 but she wouldn't budge. We really weren't surprised. This is the way adoption goes here. $1000 US will go a long way and we hope most of it goes to the orphanage. It was a small price to pay for her and the staff to take such good care of Tetyana.

We did the ceremonial "changing of clothes". In Ukraine and I suspect all orphages you don't keep any of the clothes that the children are wearing. They come to you exactly how they were born....so we changed her clothes and when we came out of the room the whole place clapped. That had to make her feel good. I took her hair down from the ponytails she was wearing and put in a new elastic.

The best thing was, when we were leaving the orphanage, she took off her coat and pulled her hair out of the elastic! She was free! Free from being bundled up like mummy and being hot all the time. She hasn't worn her hair up since!

We came back to Kiev to spend the week. There is a lot for us to do here. Today we took the kids to a great park where they played on an inflatable slide and at the playground. Tetyana is used to taking a nap daily so she has been sleepy but tells us she is not. We met a guy and his two kids that I noticed spoke English at the park. He looked Italian but his kids looked Korean. I was good though and did not tackle him! When we were leaving he asked us if we were looking for a restaurant to eat at and we told him yes. He took us to a great cafe where they speak a lot of English and kids playroom! What could be better than that? We ate with him and found out a lot more about Kiev. His wife's job is here. We hope to see them again.

So we are adjusting to life with another child and her needs. I don't think she has ever brushed her teeth in her life. I handed her the toothbrush when I was going to brush mine and and she grabbed it by the brush part with toothpaste on it! Then I showed her how to brush and spit in the sink. No wonder why the poor sweeties teeth are a mess!

Many people post on their blogs about first baths and while I can't post a picture I can tell you her first shower was also like she had never done it before. We were told she showers and bathes at the orphanage. They must have washed her and rinsed her because she had no idea what to do. I gave her the shampoo and told her to put it on her hair and the next thing I knew she was rubbing it on her face! I was trying to rinse her eyes....we were both soaked by the end. She got the soap in her eyes several more times and never cried once. We have never seen her cry yet. I know it will break my heart!

So now we learn about eachother. It is a very fun, but exhausting process!

She's All Ours!

She's all ours! We don't have internet connection our apartment....there is some problem. We hope to have it soon. We are in a coffee house and the kids are boucing off the walls!!! More as soon as we can get connected.

Pray For Tetyana

I was just laying in bed, the tiny bed here in Chekasy in our daughters hometown. As I tried to fall asleep I felt giddy about tomorrow. I could hardly hold still as I said my prayers. Then I asked for God to wrap his arms around Tetyana and let her feel safe; let her feel the love we have for her deep in her heart and soul.

What must she be thinking and feeling? We are taking her away from everything she has ever known...culture, language, food and for the last year and a half, the family that has become hers at the orphanage. As adults, we can see this is a very good thing for her but what can she really understand at such a young age?

Please share your prayers with us through your comments. We have been so blessed to have so many friends and family from home email and call us while we have been away, as well as strangers who have become our friends through this process and our blog. Thank you all!!

Visit To Tetyana's School

We couldn't have been more fortunate to be able to visit Tetyana's school. This is part of her daily life. She will be so amazed when she sees her new school! In the school they do not turn on the lights (just like everywhere else!) and it is so dim and dismal. Our driver went to this school and he looks to be about 50 years old. The desks look like they have been there since he went to school there. Tetyana's classroom was filled with plants which livened things up a bit. They did turn on the lights when I was taking pictures. It was so funny how they posed all of the children for me to take pictures of them. All of the pictures are totally posed!

The picture of the 4 children are all orphans....well except Tetyana!! They are all available. The girl with the red hair bows is named Christina, the girl with the white bows is Vika and the boy is Sasha. Vika has a scab on her lip, it is not a deformity. They are all in 1st grade so they all have to be about 7. During the class time they worked quietly and independently. The class was working on puzzles or Bricks (Lego's). I hope to find out more tomorrow about these children and the others in the orphanage.

All of they boys wore suit jackets. The poor orphans clothes were mismatched and the shoes were so worn. We were told a staff member from the orphanage attends school with the orphans so they are not picked on.

We have one last visit in the tiny room and we are done!!!

Teeth

So, I think I have mentioned it here before that Tetyana has very bad teeth. This was one thing that has always worried Drew about coming here. Since meeting Tetyana, I think she could have 2 ears on each side of her head and it wouldn't have made a difference to Drew! So today during our visit she smiled really big and I noticed that 4 of her baby molars have been pulled out! This must have happened over the weekend when we were away. I was pretty sure they were all there before, but I wanted to make sure so I called Roman and had him ask her. She said yes they were pulled over the weekend and no they hadn't been hurting. So why did they pull them? And why didn't they tell us about it? Technically, she is not legally ours until tomorrow so they can do to her what they want but they should have mentioned it to us.

Any dentists out there familiar with adoption and bad orphan teeth? I mean, every single one of her teeth are bad. What could cause this? They are all grey in color and some of them look like they are going to crumble. She is going to have some major work done to her mouth while we wait for them to fall out. Any parents have experience with this?

Tomorrow we are picking up Tetyana and the director of the orphanage so we can go visit Tetyana's school. This will be her last day of school in Ukraine. We wonder how she feels about this.

We are nearing the end of this chapter. We pick Tetyana up on Friday!!!