Ukraine Journey

All is going well today.  It is so nice to be back home.  Ella and Erica are doing great together.  Erica really loves her new sister!  Ella seems to love all types of food especially pizza!  For some reason she doesn’t like tuna?  Jill is taking time off to be with the girls this summer.  We will be getting Ella into a English class next week, so she has a little English under her belt before she starts 2nd grade.  I really think she will catch on quickly.  Below is a picture of Erica and Ella’s new pajamas.

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Erica, Ella and Elizabeth (cousin)

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After being in Ukraine for 27 days, we left Kyiv Sunday morning July 8th, 2007 at 11:50am and arrived home at 11:30pm Sunday night.  I made it to bed around 1:00am and got up for work at 6:00am.  What a fun thing to do after being up more then 24 hours.  Jet lag could be taking affect.  Erica and Ella are really getting along great and love to play together.  It’s like Ella’s been in our family for every!

Our two Ukrainian girls - Erica (age 12) and Ella (age 8).

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A lot has happened this week.  All good…..we have every thing completed and are scheduled for a 11:50am flight out of Kyiv on Sunday the 8th.  Please be warned that you must acquire a Maroon (red) Ukraine passport for your children.  The US Embassy will no longer accept the light blue passports.   Since we have a cable modem in our Kyiv apartment,  I thought I would recap the past few days with a few pictures.

7-3-2007 (Tuesday)

Our van driver was waiting for us at 5:00am this morning.  We had an early morning start because we needed to drive about 3 1/2 hours to Dzhankoy (Crimera Region) to Ella’s birth village to have her birth certificate changed.   We had to wait a couple hours to completed this work.  The administrative building was quite old.  The only thing in this village is the nice train station.   People here do not have a lot of money so there are not many shops and things to do there.   We had a hot cup of coffee in a plastic cup and I’m surprised the coffee didn’t drop out the bottom of the cup.  We also had a nice pastry.  Here is the Jankoi Village main web page in English.

Dzhankoy Train Station (Tuesday Morning the 3rd) 

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Dzhankoy Coffee Shop (Tuesday Morning the 3rd)……………………………………………………………………………………………

Dzhankoy Administrative Building Gate, Soviet Era (Tuesday Morning the 3rd)

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Heading back to Kherson from Simferopol, Crimea

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Stopping for Fresh Dried Fish and Melons

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7-4-2007 (Wednesday)

Today we left the house around 8:00am to the notary and get Ella’s passport.  Took longer then we expected but made it to orphanage around 2:00pm.  We met a couple that adopted from Kherson that we found out their daughter was best friends in the same group.  We had a nice time talking to them and exchanged contact info.  It was very sad to say good bye to everyone.  We left the orphanage around 4:00pm and started to head out of town the facilitator left something at the house so we needed to return to the house.   We got back on the road around 5:00pm heading out of Kherson for Kyiv.  We drove none stop and arrived into Kyiv around 12:30am Thursday morning.  We were all so tired and I had to keep our driver up.  I said, “coffee?” and he said, “coffee, coffee!” but  kept on driving.  We made is safely back to Kyiv and stopped at the 24 hour market and checked into our nice apt. 

Robb, Jill and Ella last day at Kherson Orphage.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Mig Jet at City Limits - Leaving Kherson

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7-6-2007 (Friday)

Ella with her new US Digital VISA and Ukraine Passport Ukraine Passsport

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Cover 

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Kyiv Apartment -Ella enjoying a nice hot bath before bedtime

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Kyiv Apartment - Ella getting ready for bed

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7-5-2007 (Saturday)

Today Ella and I got up and walked about 4 miles around our neighborhood.  One thing I can tell you is that it is very easy to get lost.  On the way back to the apartment Ella and I stopped at a small coffee shop.  Ella had green tea and I had a latte.  Later we joined Jill shopping down by the SDA.  I ran into Paul and Mellisa and wished them a safe return home.  Later we caught up with Norm and Angela and had a nice diner at a Ukrainain restaurant.  We made it back to our apartment to prepare packing for our trip home.  Ukraine is a fun place to visit but we are so happy to head back home! 

 Kyiv sight seeing.

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Kyiv sight seeing.

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Kyiv Apartment - What I do best with HS Access.

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Kyiv -

 Ella and I relaxing at coffee shop while Jill shops.

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Kyiv - Wedding by SDA

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Greetings everyone.  Today is our final 10th day of wait in Kherson.  Jill and I would like to introduce you to our beautiful daughter Ella.  Ella is 8 years old and she is very excited to come home with us.  We are scheduled to fly out of Kyiv on July 8th.

June 14th, 2007 First Day Meeting Ella in Kherson Orphanage.

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Our Facilitator has really been busy this morning getting all the final paper work like the court decree, going to the inspectors office etc.  We are leaving this afternoon around 2:30pm for the orphanage to have a party for Ella’s group.  Jill has gifts for the Director and all of Ella’s caregivers.

 June 25th, 2007 Taking Ella to have Passport Pictures Taken.

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June 28th, 2007 Ella’s Visit to our House. 

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June 19th, 2007 Our Daughter Ella.

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Tuesday July 3 we drive to Crimea region to Ella’s birth town which is about an 1 hour from Simferopol to have Ella’s birth certificate changed and for new passport.  We will be very busy Tuesday so we will post new updates when we get to Kyiv.  Thanks for following our journey…

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Hi Everyone.  Friday Jill and I were able to pick up our girl at the orphanage and take her to the park for half the day.  When we arrived she was about ready to eat her lunch.  I decided to take a picture of her lunch because this was the first time I really saw what the kids eat.  I was pretty surprised to see she had a good portion and looked good. 

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We left for the park that was down by the river.  Kherson is a large shipping port here.  The first photo was take of our girl riding a horse around the park and the next going down a slide.  All the kids in her group had hats.  We will introduce you to our new daughter this coming Monday.   She had so much fun today and asked alot of questions to our driver and facilitator about all types of things.  These are some of the new cloths Jill picked out.  Soon as she goes back to the orphanage she changes back to her old cloths.  She knows the time is getting close and she is very excited about coming to America.  She is such a sweet little girl.

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The next couple pictures are of the Kherson Public Beach.  The city had put a large ship in the middle of the River and build a steel foot bridge across to the other side where there was another beach and a small zoo.  We saw monkeys, big bears, fox, peacocks and the local dog.

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Jill and I are doing great.  We have a nice little story to tell you.

Several days ago, I received a nice e-mail from a FRUA member that saw one of my post.  She mentioned they also had adopted a girl from the same orphanage as our girl the end of 2006.  We determined that their daughter was in the same groupa and actually were best friends.  We received several pictures by e-mail and sure enough there was our daughter and theirs.  Such a small world and we are so thankful to help give our girl a new home.  There are so many children here that need a home with parents to give them a second chance of life.  We really wished we could have brought a couple more children home.   They are all so sweet and we will all cherish our visits with them.

The second part of this story, we were talking about the place we were staying at.  It started with the driver and maroon Lada and then about a dog their sons adopted during their stay.   I really thought we were talking two different places and did not think twice about it.  I was sitting in the living room yesterday morning drinking my coffee and my wife Jill said…. Robb come here!  Jill had opened the bedroom window and guess what?  The dog was there glazing his eyes into our bedroom.  I starting to laugh at the what we were seeing in the window.  We are not sure of the dogs name yet and are checking to see if any of the puppy’s are around.  I have not seen them.  Last night we did stop at the local market and I got some doggy treats for the dog..  She is always near our window.  We have a new friend now!

btw: The screens were removed and they have added bars around all the windows.  This was for security and they now have two a/c units in the house.   I will post all the pictures when we return home for you to see.

Picture sent by Friends - (Taken in 2006)

Next two Pictures taken by Me - (June 2007)

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Jill and I are hanging in there.  We left for the orphanage around 5:00pm today and Leo (our driver) took us to the toy store to pick up a small doll for our girl.  When we came out to his car he showed us his car key.  I was broken, one half in his hand and the other stuck in the ignition.  These are  typical daily life happenings in Ukraine.  Before we left our house the water went out, but they had fixed the broken pipe on the corner within the hour.  We now have running water.  So back to the broken key, Leo our driver got us another taxis to the orphanage.  When I see a taxis with the rear spoiler, I know we will arrive to the orphanage in record time.  We stopped at the little market to pick up 12 ice cream cones for the groupa.  When we arrived at the orphanage the caregiver took them in to place in the freezer to serve later to the children.   

 The past few days we both came down with the Ukrainian Monazooma Revenge.  Today we are much better and have stomachs of cast iron.  We are able to eat anything now (I think?).  We said our good byes to a few our the young missionaries kids from the Seattle area that were here visiting the children in the Kherson Orphanage.  After our visit to the orphanage we met our friends from Virginia Beach tonight at Pan Pizza for a nice dinner.  We now have met new friends and exchanged our blogs and contact info so we can stay in touch.  We arrived back to our house around 9:00pm and I thought about updating the blog since I’ve been slacking off the past few days. 

Monday we took the main caregiver to the downtown market to pick out a dresser for our daughters groups main room.  They needed this to help finish the rooms interior.  Pictures are taken at the market on Sunday and the delivery on Monday.  And a couple pictures of the groupa living space. 

Delivery of Dresser to the Kherson Orphanage.

Groupa Main Living Space 1 (Dresser in Corner).

Groupa Main Living Space 2.

Sleeping Area.

Bath Room 1.

Bath Room 2.

Mud Room Lockers.

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 It is Saturday morning around 8:00am as I write this post.  I’m really glad we brought our french press coffee maker along we our Seattle’s Best coffee.  The coffee makes me fill at home.  Next Tuesday will be our second week in Ukraine.  We have an excellent team helping us thru the process, including our stay in the wonderful home in Kherson. 

Friday after our morning visit at the orphanage we went down by the Dnieper River to a nice place to have lunch around 1:00pm.  After lunch we walked about a block down to the river to take some pictures.  The first set was of people coming across the river by small boat to shop in Kherson.  Then we saw a group of people just hanging out enjoying the beautiful sunny day.  We then saw a group of high school girls all dressed up and was told it was something like a summer Kherson prom today.  Needless to say they were looking really nice.   I’ve been eating pretty well.  I think my favorite thing are the Ukraine salads.  Today I had tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta cheese, garlic crotons and oil and vinigar salad along with my chicken shish-kabob.

People crossing the river.

Locals enjoying the day by the Dnieper River. 

Kherson Girls showing off there new Prom Dress.

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Ok, now for the picture of my salad…

 This evening around 5:30pm we left for the orphanage to see our girl.  She is really attaching well to her new Mama and Papa.  We told her about our court status but as  a 8 year old she was only interested in us being there and asking when we are leaving for home.  After the orphanage we drove back home and stopped by the market.  I made a quick call to the friends we met from Virginia and they were going to be busy Saturday but wanted to meet us on Sunday.  Very nice couple that are working on adopting three children ”wow!”

Robb in front of the Kherson Admin Building with Lenin. 

Hope your enjoying our blog.  We love to hear from you by comments or e-mail. 

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Hi everyone.   Jill and I are doing well.  We are able to see our daughter 2 times a day once at 10:00am and 5:00pm for a couple hours.  We have about a 20 minute drive through the towntown traffic.  They really need to look into pollution control.  Yesterday I wasn’t feeling that great and with the fumes it made it a day to remember how lucky we really are!  Our girl is always outside when we arrive at the Kherson orphanage and watching for us.  There is a long  side walk she always comes running down to greet us when we arrive.  She is such a happy little girl.  We are holding off on posting pictures of her till after our court date.  I brought little balsa wood airplanes for the group the other day and they loved that.  We also brought a pack of UNO cards and she loves to play cards and is pretty good at that also as she wins.  Last night I brought a frisbee and played.  Such fun. 

This morning we leave at 9:15am for a 10:00am court apperance.  We were told it should only last a few minutes.  We will see.  Kherson is a old town of approx. 200-300 thousand people.  It is located on a large river that has ships.  We will be going down there soon to check it out.  I have taken so many pictures and our internet connect is only good for checking e-mail messages.  So I will post all pictures when I return home.  The weather has cooled off a little and we are staying in friends home that is really nice with satelite tv and air.  What more could we ask for?  We will keep you posted of the daily events.  Thanks for following our journey.

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Friday 3:00pm News Break!

We left our house this morning at 9:15 am arrived at the Police/Court House at 9:25am and were asked for our passports at the door and was logged into the register.  We were invited into a large 2nd floor room with the Judge, Inspector and two other appointed ladies.  I went first and was asked my name, our intentions to adopted along with a few other basic questions.  Then was Jills turn.  The Judge (Lady) had asked to see our pictures which she enjoyed.   She approved our adoption with no questions and was very happy for us.   It was a quick appointment and we were out side in 15 minutes.  Now for our 10 day wait.  We went back to the house to change cloths and off to the orphanage to see our girl at 11:00am.  For the first time we saw another couple outside the orphanage that looked like they were here to adopt.  I was trying to see if they were American.  At first I thought French but then I heard some english words.  Jill spoke to them and found out they were here to adopt 3 children and were from Virgina!  We got there cell phone number and had ask them to join us for diner tonight.   More to come, sorry about all the pictures, since we have no high speed access I have a hard time trying to spend time to upload, so I will post a few pictures as time permits.

Kherson Court House

Children playing with airplanes at Orphanage.

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Hello Everyone,

I am sure you are all saying, “It’s about time”.  We finally, finally reached a place we could access the internet.  Robb has been going through major withdrawls…..I was about ready to give him an internet injection!:)

We traveled from Kiev to the region (Kherson) on Friday, (a 7 hour drive from Kiev).  The roads were extremely bumpy….non stop the whole way.  Ughhhh.  We were able to see our daughter on Saturday.  We also met with the Director, and she was very, very nice.  We brought her a beautiful bouquet of flowers

To say the least, our daughter is absolutely beautiful!  She is 8 years old and just finished the first grade.  We will post pictures soon, we promise!!  She is fun loving, very independent and cute as can be!   We are excited for everyone to meet her….and she will be exicited to come to America….We think she will adjust very easily!

Our process is moving very quickly, thank God, and our court date is on Friday, June 22nd. 

Please keep the postings coming, we really look forward to reading them.

Oh, and it is very, very HOT!  I love it so much you know…NOT!!  Thank God again, our apartment has A/C…WHEW.  I think I am literally freezing everyone out!

Well, we better go for now,  we are at the “Internet” service center waiting for Robb’s computer to get updated, so we will be able to access the internet more often….Keep checking our Blog.

Robb and Jill

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