I have a few minutes to update again, so I will write as much as I can.  We are trying to post pictures to our blog today too. 

Kerch is such a beautiful, cozy little city.  It is right on the black sea, and our walk to our apartment from the city is so nice.  We walk right by the water and to our left is an amusement park (it is not working right now though).  The weather had been nice so far and pretty hot during the day and cool at night.  Today it is chilly and it looks like it is going to rain.  Our apartment is very very nice!!!!  We have hot water and a washing machine so I am in heaven :)  I cooked a meal in our apatment last night (baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, and garlic bread).  It was very good.  Oh, and Alyssa has become very good friends with a baby kitten outside of our apartment.  The kitten is so cute, she is black and looks just like our cat, Casey.  Alyssa has named her Casey James :)  I told her her name was Casey Junior, but I guess she forgot and is calling her Casey James now.  This morning she gave her some milk and put her back to bed (a small shoe box with a shirt inside)  For now our translator is staying with us, but will go back to Kyiv during our 10 wait day after court.  Speaking of court, we won't be able to have court until the Thursday the 12th.  Unless for some reason we can get our paperwork before then, but it will definately not be before the 9th. 

OK, about the kids........

Sergey(Brayden), let me just say that he has got to be the sweetest little boy in the whole world!!!!  As you know, he has the measels and is in the hospital..............well, we went to see him yesterday.  Poor thing has been by himself in a small room with nothing except for a bed, a window, a chair and a peice of candy.  They do feed him, but he had NOTHING else.  When we got there, Sergey smiled so big when he saw us, it was like he was releived or something.  We couldn't go into is room to get close to him, but we stood in the doorway.  We had a goody bag for him (cookies, juice, mini magnadoodle, and a kids magazine)  He was SO excited to get that, you would've thought it was Chrismas :) Sveta had told Sergey the first day we saw him that it was Alyssa's birthday on the 29th.  And you know what he did?  He walked up to Alyssa and handed her that one peice of candy that he had and told her happy birthday!!!  I just about cried, it was so sweet :)  He had been waiting for us all day to get there so he could give this candy to Alyssa :)  We are going to see him again in a few minutes, we have more goodies for him.  I can't wait!

Dina (Abigail)..............she is SO much fun :)  Never a dull moment around her :)  She is so energetic, but proved yesterday that she could be still and cuddly.  I fixed her hair in little pigtails and it was so cute :)  We tried some of Alyssa's clothes on her and they fit her perfect. But the sad part about that was she thought the clothes were for her to keep, so she took them to her cubby and we had to tell her that she would have to wait until she was with us to wear them. We are going to see her today at 4 after we vistit with Sergey.  Alyssa can't wait because she loves playing with her :)  Abby will talk to Alyssa in Russian and Alyssa will talk to Abby in English, it is so funny, but they seem to understand eachother.  Abby will talk to us in Russian too, although she knows we don't understand.  She just laughs when we shrug our sholders. She is such a great little person and I am so blessed to have her, Sergey (Brayden) and Alyssa in my life!!!!  I'll update more tomorrow when I have some more time, we have to leave now.  My sister in law is supposed to be putting pictures on our blog for us, so maybe you will get to see them today.  Chris has put one on here(takes forever).

THANK YOU ALL for your suggestions and advice about Alyssa's croup.  She is getting much better now.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail, and Brayden 

Met the kids!!!!!!!

First, let me apoligize that I do not have any pictures for ya'll.  I have been trying to post them for the past hour (we are at an internet cafe), and it is not happening tonight.  :(  I will try again though. 

So, we met our children!!!!!!!!  They are great!!!  Yesterday, we met Dina first.  She was so excited to see us!  She ran up to me saying, "Mama" and I hugged her and it felt so good to finally hold her in my arms!!!  Then Alyssa came up to her.  Dina smiled at her and our translator told Dina that Alyssa was her sister.  They  grabbed hands and just looked at eachother smiling.  It was so cute :)  When Chris was done videotaping, she went up to him and hugged him too.  Dina, she is definately not a shy one!  She talks so much, I just wish we could understand her.  We played for a little while and then it was time to go see Sergey.  They told us that the Measels were going around in his group and 6 were already in the hospital with it.  One had gotten better and was about to be released.  Well, it turned out that Sergey had a cold, so was in a different building seperated from the other children.  When we got to where he was, he was acting very shy, sort of stand-offish.  He was smiling at us though and he finally came and sat next to me.  All of his friends were around and being VERY wild and teasing him a little since his mama and papa were there.  Sergey interacted with Alyssa a little by showing her a dog that was at the orphanage and they were both petting him.  I could tell that Sergey didn't feel well though.  It was time for us to leave, so we said out goodbyes. 

Today we ran around and did paperwork all day, and then went to see the children late this afternooon.  We went to see Sergey first while the other children would still be in class and we wouldn't be distracted.  Well, guess what???  It turns out that HE has the measels now too :(  He is in the hospital and will be there for 7 days they say.  We are allowed to go visit him there, but can only wave to him through the window and send him stuff.  I feel so bad for him............no wonder he wasn't acting himself yesterday.  Poor thing :(  Please pray that he gets better soon.  We then went to see Dina.  The other kids saw us yelled to Dina that we were here.  You should'veseen her.  She ran outside so fast and ran right up to me so fast and jumped into my arms.  Then she ran up to Papa and she threw her up in the air.  There were to chairs where we were and she sat in one of them and saw Alyssa.  She told Alyssa to sit by her.  She actually said "Alyssa", I couldn't beleive she remembered her name :)  She and Alyssa played so good for a while.  I think Dina wore Alyssa out, she is DEFINATELY very active!  Well, I think they ended up wearing eachother out because they both came up to us sweating and sat down for a while.  We showed Dina our pictures of home, family, etc.  She loved to look at those.  Dina downed 3 juice boxes, while Alyssa only drank half of one.  Oh, and since you can't see a picture right now, she is about an inch shorter than Alyssa, and her feet are about a size smaller too.  We measured her, but left the measurements in the car.  I will let ya'll know her sizes tomorrow (for those of you who asked).  I guess I won't know Sergey's for another week or so :(  I really hate that we are missing out on this bonding time with him, but there is nothing we can do about it. 

As far as how long we will be here, the judge is out of town until Monday, October 9th.  We shoiuld have court sometime that week (we are praying for that Monday).  After court, we have to wait the manditory 10 days (the kids should be able to stay with us during this time), and then a day or two (hopefully) later we will be headed back to Kyiv and we will have another 2-4 days there, and then be heading home.  So, we are thinking, hoping, praying that we will make it home before the end of the month. 

We had to "officially" name them this morning.  We wanted to talk to the chilren about it first, but had no choice since the judge needed to know for court.  So there names are

Brayden Sergey and Abigail Elena

Yes, I know, we changed Dina's middle name................We couldn't decide on Abigail, or Alena, so we decided to use both and Chris requested that we changed Alena to Elena (he thought it was prettier) and it is her birthmother's name.  For now, we are still calling her "Dina" and we will probably continue to call Sergey, "Sergey" for a little while until they are with us for the 10 day wait. 

Alright, that is all for now.  I will try to type more detail later, it is just hard at the internet cafe.  Maybe I can figure out how to type on our laptop and transfer it to a computer here. 

Please, please, please pray that Sergey gets better soon and please pray for everything to go smoothly so we can get home with our new family :)

I haven't checked e-mail in a couple of days and I will check all of them tomorrow.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail and Sergey

 

Last entry before we head to Kerch....

I figured since we had about 30 minutes to spare, I would update one more time before we head off to Kerch.  We are leaving soon to go get our referral letter and then go eat dinner before we board the 8pm train. 

First, let me ask all of you to pray for a couple of things.  #1-Alyssa is sortof sick.  She is not acting sick, but she has a very croupy (like a whoping sound) cough, if that makes since.  She is losing her voice too.  This happened to her 2 years ago and we had to go to the emergency room to give her oxygen because her airways closed up.  She does not have asthma though, they called it "the Croup".  If ANYONE has any "home remedies" to make this go away, PLEASE SHARE!!!  Luckily I stuck some liquid Albuterol in the luggage before we left "just incase" but there is not much, we will use it until it is gone.  I have heard of a really hot steamy shower to steam up the bathroom, and it'll help to open the airaways, but that is just not possible here.  Please pray that it doesn't get any worse, and she gets better soon.  #2-Please pray that we will have no problems getting the referral letter and we get there in time to see the children tomorrow afternoon.  

As far as what we did today, not much really.  We packed and then went to eat lunch at a cafeteria called 2 geese (or something like that).  It was really stressfull.  I won't go into detail, but Chris got nothing that he pointed at on his plate.  The food was pretty good.  Alyssa wouldn't eat, probably because she is sick.  Well, she had no problem eating chocolate when we got back to the room :)  And guess what??  I have food pictures today!!!! 

After lunch we went to the park.  Alyssa caught butterflies and chased peigons for about 2 hours.  We pretty much just relaxed on our last day together with just the 3 of us :)  It was such a pretty day to sit outside.  The leaves are starting to fall now.  It is VERY beautiful!!! 

OK, I better go now.  I have attatched a few pics of Alyssa at the park.  And Tiff, I got Alyssa to take a picture of us and I attatched it above.  She did pretty good!  Happy now??  :)  The first picture is of her sleeping lastnight, I just love it when she throws her arms up over her head while she is asleep, it is so cute.  And yes, she sucks on a blanket at night, very hard habit to break!  She started it in the orphanage for security.  Chris wanted to attatch a picture of how they water the flowers at the park.  It is kindof funny how they do it, just drive around in truck with a water hose out the window :)    And of course, my famous food pictures :)

We will update more hopefully tomorrow after we see the kids.  We are VERY excited!!!!! 

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

DETAILS.........

OK, before I write anything else, I will answer the question you have all been asking.........The Mtn Dews did not make it, because I made Chris take them out of our luggage before we got to the airport :)  I just didn't want to risk it!!! 

As you read before, our appointment went more perfect than I could EVER imagine.  I think it helped that we had Alyssa with us, because it sortof broke the ice.  The SDA is a little different than the NAC because your translators are not allowed back with you, but we felt very comfortable.  For those of you who remember the old NAC, it is NOTHING like it.  There is no "scooby doo" hallway you wait in.  It is definately not as busy as the NAC either.  We first sat in a little foyer area waiting for them to call us back.  Then a really cute girl who was our SDA translator, called us back, she spoke very good English.  She lead us back to a little room with a couch and a little round table.  They already had Dina and Sergey's files layed out on the table.  Poor kids, they looked HORRIBLE in the pictures :(  Dina looked like a little chubby boy and Sergey, well, he looked allright, buy neither of them looked ANYTHING like they do now, especially Dina.  I can see the resembelence of all three siblings though.  Luckily they let us take pictures of their pictures and we have attatched them above.  They are blurry, but glad we have them since they are the youngest piccs we have of the kids.  Dina is 3 in this pic and Sergey had just turned 6.  OK, back to the appointment, we sat down, and the psycologist first asked us questions about Alyssa.  She asked if we were happy to be her parents and if she was a good child.  Of course we told her yes.  She asked if Alyssa was happy to soon have a brother and sister, and we told her YES.  Then we showed her pictures of Alyssa from when she was first adopted until now.  She really liked to see those.  She then asked us if we still wanted to adopt Dina and Sergey????  We told her, "um...............No...........I think we have changed our minds, we pretty much just came here to sight see"  JUST KIDDING :)  We told her "OF COURSE"  It always puzzles me why they ask those kind of questions :o)  She then read their files saying they were both very healthy and said there was an attatched letter stating that they both wanted to be adopted.  She then told us that she was very happy to know that Dina and Sergey would be reunited with their sister, and to be going to a nice family.  We told her "Spaceba" (thank you) and that was pretty much it.  The whole appointment lasted about 10 minutes if even that.  Oh, and remember me being SO WORRIED about our paperwork a couple of weeks ago?  Well, she said our paperwork was perfect!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!  So......now we have  to wait on our referral letter before we can go to their region to start the adoption process.  We should get it tomorrow at 6pm, and then catch the overnight train to Simferopol at 8pm.  By the way, we got tickets for the train (I was very worried they would be sold out.......they usually are to this reigon).  The only problem is, we are split between 2 cabins.  4 people fit to one cabin, so we are hoping that 2 people in one cabin will be willing to trade cabins so we can all 4 be together.  If not, it is OK, atleast we'll be on our way to see our kiddos!!!  I am so excited!!!!!!

After our appointment, we didn't do much, just went to the store to buy Alyssa and Dina a belt for their jean skirts.  They are a 4T, but for some reason it is falling off of Alyssa, so I am sure it will fall off of Dina too since she is smaller than Alyssa.  We then went to eat at Uno Pizza, and I forgot to take a pic of our meal.........what was I thinking :)  So, no food pic today ya'll. :)  We also went to a playground earlier, but had to leave because, no joke, 2 VERY young boys, about 4 and 7 were trying to sell us stuff on the playground.  I told the older one that I didn't understand Russian, and he just wouldn't accept that.  He wouldn't leave us alone, and the younger one was yelling at Alyssa, so we just left.  Very sad :(  Oh, one more thing.........speaking of sad.........there was a young homeless lady in the streets yesterday begging for money with her sick little boy in her arms.  The boy looked almost dead.  My heard just hurt SO MUCH for this boy and I could barely look. I distracted Alyssa so she didn't see it. 

Back to today, we came back to the apt. early because Alyssa was exhausted!  We are gonna crash early tonight and get up early to pack and enjoy our last day in Kyiv for a couple of weeks. 

Oh, and I can't promise that I'll update as much as I have or with as many pics while in Kerch.  We have to go to an internet cafe there and the connection is VERY SLOW.  But, we will still update, I DO promise that!!!! 

By the way, the other pictures above are of the SDA (new new adoption center), a toilet in one of the malls (yes, you put your feet on the sides and squat) and a couple of Alyssa.

Goodnight, and thank you again so much for your prayers!!!

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

We had our appointment!!!!!!

Just a very quick update to say we had our appointment this afternoon and it went VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!  We are leaving on an overnight train tomorrow night to go see our children.  I'll post detail later, we are about to leave to take Alyssa to the park.  THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH for the prayers!!!!!!!  They worked! :)

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

Today I got up at 8am and Chris and Alyssa slept until 10.  Again, I cooked Alyssa eggs and she drank "fresh cow milk" :)  Then we washed a huge load of clothes in the bathtub!  Boy was that a chore!!  They are still hanging outside to dry, but suprisingly the jeans are more dry than the other clothes, kinda strange???  We then got ready to go out to lunch.  It was so beautiful today, probably in the mid 70's and sunny!  We went to a WONDERFUL place called the Potato House.  It is so neat........you get a hot baked potato strait from the oven and they whip up the insides with cheese and butter.  You can either eat it plain or add toppings.  Alyssa had hers with dill and cream sauce and mine was with a creamy cheese and garlic sauce.  YUMMY!!  Oh, and Chris ordered a ham sandwich, but since it had lettuce, tomatoes and some sort of cream sauce, he wouldn't eat it.  This meal with 2 cokes cost about 6 dollars.  After lunch, we walked to independence square.  This is where it seems like all of Kyiv hangs out........they shut down the streets on Sunday there.  We sat for a while and people watched.  Then we went to a both to buy a small Ukrainian Flag and some blue and yellow Ukrainian ribbons for the girl's hair, and I got a pair of sunglasses.  Alyssa wanted ice cream, so we went to McDonalds and all got one.  Alyssa and Chris got plain vanilla cones, and I got a carmel sunday.  The sundays were cool because they come in cups made out of a cone.  For 3 ice creams, a medium fry and a coke, it was $3.    After McDonalds we took Alyssa to the park.  At the park, she rode a real camel for $5.  She loved that!  After the park, we went back to the room to rest for about an hour before we headed out to meet about 20 others from the US who are adopting too.  It was fun talking to the other families tonight. Our dinner was pretty good too..........I got a pasta dish and Chris got a filet & baked potato.  We paid $40 for our meal tonight though, but it was good.

OK, better go now, we are about to watch a movie. 

I have attatched pictures above. One is of the goofy highchairs they have in one of the restaurants.  Alyssa had to sit in one because the table was so high!  Ther are a few more of Alyssa in independence square and of her riding the camel.  The last ones are of our meal tonight (I am taking a pic of every meal) and of the group of families that met tonight. 

We've got our appointment at 2pm tomorrow, 7am Atlanta time.  PLEASE pray that everything goes well.   

More tomorrow..........

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

Beautiful day in Kyiv......

I think we are adjusted to Ukraine's time now.  It is so weird to think that it is only 1pm at home, it is 8pm here and we are about to head out for dinner. 

This morning Alyssa and I woke up at 2am wide awake.  I don't know why, but since there was no way that either one of us were going to go back to sleep, we took some benadryl and went back to sleep until 10am.  I wouldn't normally do that, but I KNEW that we both needed our sleep after not getting any the night before.  She and I slept on the fold out couch and Chris slept on the big bed.  When we got up,  I fixed Alyssa eggs for breakfast.  Chris and I didn't eat...........I'm not sure why, but I don't have the appitite here like I do at home.  Alyssa had milk with her eggs, and the milk we bought was in a bag, but the problem with that, is that we had no container to put the milk in when we opened it, so we had to pour it all out. :(  I didn't try the milk, but Alyssa said "Mommy, this milk tastes like it came right from the cow".  Now, how would she know that??  She ate breakfast and we got read to go out for the day.  I wanted to eat lunch at a place we had ate at the first night we were in Ukraine in 2004, it is an Italian place on the Left Bank next to Hotel Slavutych (fellow adoptees know this hotel).  It was a journey to get there...........we took the metro to the stop that is closest to the restaruant, then we had about a 2 mile hike to get there and we stopped a lot along the way.  Once we stopped at a flower bed where there were hundreds of butterflies.  These butterflies were cool because you could pick them up and hold them.  Alyssa met a friend there and they were piccking up butterflies and handing them to eachother.  It is amazing with the language barrier how well the girls played.  I'll attatch a picture of them together.  When it was time to go I told Alyssa to tell her "Paka" (bye-bye).  Alyssa told her and they girl frowned and said in a sad voice "Paka". 

We finally made it to the restaurant and it took about an hour to get our food.  Well, Chris got his food right away, he ordered a calzone.  Alyssa's chicken and my gnocci took about an hour to come out.  This is why I had to go to this place, becuase of the amazing Gnocci.  It is sauted in a butter sauce with blue cheese and basil.  VERY YUMMY!!  I attatched apic of it above as well.  After our 2:30pm lunch, we hiked back to the metro and took it to the HydroPark.  The Hydro Park is a really neat place.  There are beaches that line the Dnipro river, lots of restaurants, vendors, and kiddie rides.  Beleive it or not, there were LOTS of people laying out on the beach even though it is only about 70 something.  Alyssa had fun on the bumper boats and motorized cars.  It is so funny though, because where she had the most fun was on these wooden animals in a grassy area in the Hydro Park.  We sat there for about an hour while she played on these things.  Oh, and she met a friend here too.  They girl was talking to her in Russian, and she was talking back to her in English.  They had no clue what one another was saying, but somehow got thier points across.  I have also attatched a picture of  them. 

After the HydroPark, we rode the Metro back to where we are staying and went to the market to buy a few more things.  Things are so cheap here.  We bought milk, bread, yogurt, 2 packs of cookies, pastachios, 2 small bags of chips, 2 cokes and 3 fantas all for $7.  We are in the apartment right now and Alyssa is playing very contently with her My Little Ponies. She wanted to watcch TV, but we are definately putting a limit to that here.  We told her only TV in the morning before we head out and at night before bed.  I may end up limiting it more than that.  The way of life is so different around here, it is a very simple life.  All you really have to do is to go outside and enjoy the nature, walk, play on VERY simple playgrounds, eat, and just enjoy eachother.  If I let Alyssa watch movies whenever she wants, she won't want to enjoy the "simple way of life" with us :) 

Allright, I gotta go, we are going to eat at Cheletanos, a pizza place right down the street (very good salads here).  I'll check e-mail when we get back.  Oh, and some have asked me how we have wireless.........truthfully, I don't really know, we must be getting it from someone who has a router in the area.  We were going to try to figure out how to get AOL dial up from the room and then Chris found out we could open IE through a wireless connection.  I don't know if we will continue to have this the whole time, and I am almost positive we will not have it when we ge to Kerch, but for now, I am LOVIN' it!!!  :)

Inaddition to the pics of Alyssa and her "friends" and my food :) I have also attached a few pics from the plane, our apartment, etc.

Thanks so much for everyone's comments and e-mails, makes us feel "at home".

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

In Kyiv

We have wireless access in our apartment!!!!!!!  How cool is that????  :)

Well, we made it safe and sound!!  This entry is not going to be long, because I am about to fall asleep while typing this.  I guess jet lag is kicking in. 

As we were at the airport in Atl. waiting for our flight to NY, we met a wonderful couple who is also adopting a girl from Ukraine.  We had been talking through e-mail and knew we would be on the same flight, but it was nice to meet them in person.  Our Delta flight to JFK was uneventful, we then boarded the Aerosvit plane for Kyiv.  We had to wait on the runway for 1 hr. before we took off.  When we took off, OMG, it was so scary!!!  I hate flying as it is, but when the plane took off and started wobbling side to side, my anxiety kicked in!!!  It wasn't just me who noticed, most everyone else on the plane were scared also, you could sell by their panicky remarks.  Thank GOD the plane leveled off and we were just fine.  :)  Alyssa did great on the flight, she liked the part where we went through clouds.........she called it the "land of the care bears".  I told her that she probably wouldn't see any care bears since they like to hide from people.  She was determined to find one though :)  She slept most of the way to Kyiv.  Poor thing, we have been on the go ever since we landed this afternoon, that she crashed when we got back to the apartment just now.  Chris and I didn't sleep very much so we are VERY exhausted as well.  When we landed, we met our translator at the airport, and she took us to our apartment.  We dropped our stuff off and headed to buy a new sim card for our cell phone.  Therefore, we have a new number 011-38-096-445-7882.  We then went to the market to buy a few things for breakfast.......yogurt (they have Acticva here, YAY!!), bread, eggs, butter and milk.  Sveta took us back to our apartment and talked to us for a little while and we gave her some of the things she and her friends requested for us to bring.  After she left, Chris and I unpacked our things and then headed out into the city to eat dinner.  We went to a great Mexican place called the Tequila house.  I had an AWESOME bean and cheese buritto, Chris had 4 beef tacos and Alyssa had Chicken soup.  Everything was great, but oiur bill was $50!!!!!  WAY too much to pay here!!!  I told Chris we have to eat much cheaper the rest of the time.  You can buy a dinner for 3 at a lot of restaurants for 7-10 dollars total.  So, we will be tightwads until we meet about 20 other American families who are adopting at IL Patio on Sunday night.  After dinner, we went to look for a phone card, but couldn't find one.  Then we went by a playground to let Alyssa play for  a little while and now here we are, all very tired and asleep, well I am about to be.  

I will say one more thing before I go.  The people are so beautiful here!!!!  Everyone is so dressed up and just naturally good looking people.  They are all so tall and skinny.......  probably from all the walking they do!  Maybe if we are here for a few more weeks, it'll rub off on me too :)  I wouldn't mind loosing a few lbs :)

And I thought I wasn't going to write much :)  

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your comments and e-mails everyone!!!!  We LOVE to hear from you!!! 

Leaving on a Jet Plane, we don't know when we'll be back again.......

Hopefully in a few weeks :) 

Well folks, only 15 more hours and we'll be on our way!!!!!  We will be flying Delta to NY and then a direct flight on Aerosvit Airlines to Kyiv, Ukraine.  I can't beleive the day has finally arrived!!  We had my family come over last night and my grandmother cooked a good homemade meal for us.  Then tonight Chris's family came by to eat and spend some time with us before we embark on our life changing journey!  It was so nice to see everyone before we leave.  Alyssa was so excited tonight.  When I tucked her in bed, she said "Mommy, when I wake up in the morning, we are gonna get on the BIG airplane, it's gonna be so much fun."   I realized after I left her room, that it was the last time I would be tucking "just her" in bed at our house.  I am so ready to go, we are ALL ready!!!  I have been waiting for this moment to come for so long. 

We have everything packed now.  We have one large rolling duffle, one medium rolling duffle and 3 small back pack carryons.  The duffles are exactly 50 lbs each.  I hope our scale is right, because that is all that is allowed per bag on our flight.  Oh, and Chris threw in 2 Mtn Dews on the checked luggage. PLEASE someone respond ASAP if you think that is a bad idea.  He put it in a ziploc bag, but I am worried that with cabin pressure, it may explode.  That would be an UGLY sight if we got a blown up Mtn Dew on everything in our luggage!!!!!!  I will check the comments in the morniing before we leave to see what ya'll think.  BTW, they don't sell Mtn Dew in Ukraine and Chris thought it would be a good idea to pack a couple. 

OK, so I guess that is all for now.  We will update again from Kyiv.  We will be arriving in Kyiv at 11:10am (4:10am Atlanta time) on Friday.  Please pray for us to have a safe and smooth journey.  I can't wait to see our babies again!!!!!  Incase I haven't posted this already, we are having our appointment at the adoption center in Kyiv on Monday the 25th and will not be able to get the necessary paperwork to go see them until the 26th and will hopefully catch the overnight train that night and will be in Kerch on the 27th in the afternoon. 

I'll write more Friday.

Love,

Julie, Chris and Alyssa    

PAPERWORK, PARTY & PLANE

PAPERWORK- All I can say is........ GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!  I decided to have a few of the documents I was "iffy" on updated.  I knew it would be next to impossible to have them updated in 7 working days, but decided to try anyway.  I sent out a couple of e-mails last night (one to our social worker & one to the Medical Board Examiners) and I made a phone call to a fellow adoptee friend who lives down the street and works for the GBI.  Well, at 8:45 last night I dropped a copy of our police clearance letters off with our friend.  She called me this morning and told me she had our updated documents with a notary that doesn't expire until 2010!   What a true lifesaver she is (this document usually takes 6 weeks to get).  Also, I get an e-mail from our social worker at 7:30am saying that she would have our updated homestudy ready tomorrow morning.  AND I got an e-mail from the Medical Board Examiners office saying our updated document from them would be ready to pick up at 10am.  I was total shock!!!!  These documents usually take so long to do!!  Another fellow adoptee friend of mine told me that God was just keeping me on my toes!  Boy, was she right!  So, I picked up the document from the Medical board examiners in Atlanta this afternoon (for those PAP's wondering what this document is, it is a letter stating that the Dr. that did our exams is a licensed Dr., it works the same as getting a copy of his license).  I also picked up our state police clearance letters from our friend tonight.  I will get the homestudy update tomorrow.  What a HUGE stress releiver!!!!!!!  Thank you everyone for your prayers!! 

PARTY- We had Alyssa's birthday party tonight.  Her birthday isn't unitl the 29th, but since we will be in Ukraine, we decided to have her party before we go.  It went great, and she got lots of nice stuff!   We had planned on having it at the park, but it started raining, so we moved it to my mom's house.  My baby is growing up!  She will be a big 5 yr. old on the 29th.  I'll attatch some pics later. 

PLANE- Well, only 8 more days left before we leave!!!!!!!  I can't believe it is actually almost here!!!!  I don't know if I can possibly be any more excited than I am right now :)  I am so ready to geton the plane, let me re-phrase that...............I am so ready to get OFF the plane.............I am not looking forward to our flight (I hate flying).  Maybe I'll give me and Alyssa both some benadryll so we can sleep the whole way :)  Chris on the otherhand will have absolutely NO problems sleeping.  He could sleep standing up on a piece of driftwood in the ocean during a hurricane!!!!  LOL :)  But most of all, I am sooooooo ready to get to the orphanage to see our "babies".  I just miss them so much!!!!

OK, gotta go to bed now..........It is past midnight, WAY past my bedtime. 

Called the SDA again.......

I called the SDA and talked to Tanya again this morning.  She told me that they did receive our documents.  I asked them if they "checked" them.  SHe said that they do not do this until right before our appointment.  I told her that I was very worrid that if something happened to be  wrong with one of them that we would not have our appointment.  She said not to worry and that everything would be fine and she would see us on the 25th.  Like I said before, I am confident that our documents are all good (as picky as I was about them being correct), but you just never know.  I am thinking "WORST" case scenario, is if something wer not right with one of them, we could get someone in Atlanta to update the document here, get it appostilled and shipped to us in Ukraine.  It would just delay our appointment for few day or more.  I wouldn't think we would have to come back home!!!!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE continue to pray about this and for us to have our appointment and for the rest of the adoption to go smoothly!!

For those families waiting on the October list..............I asked her about this too, and she said the October list hasn't been made yet.  What??????  It has to be made by now, October is coming up in a few weeks and those with early Oct. dates would get little to no notice if they don't post it soon.  Hopefully she meant they haven't "posted" it yet, not haven't "made" it yet.  Everyone please pray for these famlies as well, that they will get their letters saying their appointment dates soon. 

On another note, we have everything packed now!!!!!!!  We tried and tried and tried some more to fit everything into one large rolling duffle.  It didn't happen.  So, we have 1 large rolling duffle, one medium rolling duffle and 3 small backpacks for carryons.  Oh, and a baby papazan that we are checking for our translator's friend, Natasha, who had a baby last month.

More updates soon........

 

A perfect day!!!!

Today was such a GREAT day!!!!  Well, first of all, yesterday was Alyssa's 2nd "gotcha" day.  We are going out tonight to celebrate it.  She want's either Chuckee Cheese or McDonalds & ice cream :)  Last year, we had a Ukrainian feast.  I picked up some food from a Russian/Ukrainian deli and celebrated at home.  Ukrainian food is much better in Ukraine :)  HAPPY GOTCHA DAY ALYSSA!!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Today is Dina's birthday.  She turned 6 years old today.  My friend Tom, who knows a sweet lady in Kerch (Irina) told me they had a suprise for us on September 9.  He gave me Irina's phone # to call her that morning and told me she'll be with the children and to brush up on my Russian in regards to little girls and birthdays.  Well, I got "Happy Birthday" down "S Dnem Rozdeniya" and a few other phrases.  He told me he would send me an e-mail at 7:45am to tell me what to do.  I got his e-mail and he told me that Irina and a friend were on the way to the orphanage to pick up Dina and Sergey and taking them to a live webcam that is in the city.  That way we could "see" them while we talked to them.  I was thinking "Oh, how cool" until I realized we are still in the "dark ages" and have dial-up.  I couldn't talk to the kids from our homephone, Tom on our cell (he was translating) and see the webcam all at the same time.  So................we ran out the door in our PJ's and booked it to my Mom's house, which has highspeed, and is 30 min. away.  Irina and the kids were to be at the webcam in 20-30 min.  We drove VERY fast and made it just in time.  As soon as I got to the computer, and went to the website, there they were, standing in front of the camera (picture above-kindof hard to make out).  I called Irina ASAP and got to somewhat talk with the children.  Tom was going to be my "translator", but he couldn't get his calling card to work.  So, he had to helplessly listen in the background as I tried my best to communicate :)  LOL!  When Dina got on the phone, she was talking up a storm!!!  So cute!!  Irina said she was saying, "You are coming to get us?  You are going to be my Mama & Papa?"  I told her "Da" (yes).  Then Sergey got on the phone, but wouldn't say much.  You've gotta wonder what was going through his mind........."Ok, we are out here in the middle of a street, talking on the phone to a lady who I cannot understand at all, and have to keep waving at the trees.........building........whatever the camera is mounted on"  :)  He would, however, tell Irina to tell us stuff.  He said "tell my Mama to tell my Papa and Sister I said hello"  He then got on the phone and said "I Love You" in English.  Awe, that was the sweetest thing I have ever heard :)  I then got to talk to Dina again and tell her "Happy Birthday".  Irina told me the children were very happy that we were coming soon.  I then let them go because Irina was taking them to eat ice cream.  What a great day for Dina and Sergey.  And and what an awesome day for us!!!!  This just makes me even more anxious to get there!  12 more days!!!!!!!!!! 

THANK YOU TOM AND IRINA, I don't know what I would do with out you two!!!!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DINA!!!!!

Ya Tibyia Lyublu (I love you) my sweeties! 

Mommy

Called Ukraine

Ok, so I stayed up until 3am calling the SDA.  They answered at 2:30, but told me to call back in 15 minutes so they could check to see if our documents have been checked yet.  I called back 15 minutes later and she told me that the lady who deals with this kind of stuff is out intil Monday.  :(  So, now I have to wait until then to call back.  I will say though, the lady, Tanya, who answered the phone was VERY nice and seemed to really want to help.  I guess we'll find out more Monday. 

Some of you have asked me how to read the blogs from August (that have Dina & Sergey's picture).  You have to click on ARCHIVES and then click on AUGUST.

More updates soon........ 

Prayers needed!!!!

I have a huge prayer request to ask for right now.  Our translator went to the SDA (adoption center) today to see if all was OK with our updated documents (our documents expired and we had to submit updated ones, they were submitted on July 26th).  They told her that they have not checked our updated doccuments yet and they are not checking ANY family's documents until a week before their scheduled appointment.  (supposedly they do not have the staff or time to do this ahead of time)The problem with this is that "if" something is not correct in one or some of the documents, they are mailing these documents back to the family.  They are not letting facilitators/translators know or letting the families know in advance.  This has happened to a few families so far, and the SDA has not let them have their appointment.  I am not sure what happens at this point, but I would assume they families would have to travel back home, update the documents correctly, and wait for another appointment. 

Please pray that our documents are "correct" and we will have no problems.  I am confident they are OK, but you just never know.  I am staying up until 2-3am (9-10am Ukraine time) to call the SDA (they have an English line) and ask them to PLEASE check our documents.   I'll let you know how it goes! 

Packing

Sorry I haven't updated in a while.  We have been so busy lately and we were at the beach all week last week. 

We are officially packing now!  Our living room looks like a tornado went through it!  We have our "Ukraine" stuff everywhere!!!  I stayed up until 3:30 this morning trying to organize all of it.  This isn't like your normal "trip" to the beach, you can't just throw stuff together last minute.  When packing for and adoption in Ukraine, you need to have a strategy.  Our "goal" is to get EVERYTHING into ONE large rolling duffle.  And we will each carry a small back pack on the plane.  But........by the looks of our pile.......um, I mean mountian........I don't know if we can do it!  We will either have to cut what we have in half, or take an extra duffle.  The only problem with taking too much is that it is so hard to get around with too much stuff.  The cars we will have to put our stuff in are very small and the overnight trains have hallways that you pretty much have to walk sideways in.  Oh, and in some apartments there are only stairs, no elevators.  So, imagine lugging 2 large duffle bags, and keeping up with our 4 yr. old while cimbing up and down several flights of stairs, manuvering through dark hallways, and running to keep up with our translator.  And then, on the way back.........doing all that with 3 kiddos???  My solution is to take what we have so far, cut it in half, then cut it in half again.  It's not easy. 

Time is ticking away!!!  Only 16 days to go!!!!!!  It is feeling so real now.  I feel like I am running out of time.  Chris is starting to get excited now!!  :)  Alyssa and I talked about our trip for a while today.  She can't wait to get on the big airplane and to play at the park with Mama and Papa everyday.  She said that she is gonna give Dina and Sergey a big hug, but that she can't talk to them until they learn English.  But then she said "Maybe when I get there I will remember my Russian", how cute :)  I wouldn't be suprised if she does pick up on some pretty quickly though.  Her only request for now is that we get home in time for Halloween. She has already spoted the Lion costume at Old Navy, and that is what she wants to be this year.  I hope we are back by then.  Who knows, but there are a lot more important things than Halloween right? 

I'll try to update very soon to let you know how things are going.   Oh, and you can leave comments on our blog now.