Zoya and Joseph

Zoya and Joseph are pretty much oblivious to each other still.

She is all girl...loves to try on my shoes and jewelry, and Sherry's shoes and jewelry. And trade hats with little Jessa. She enjoys passing out cookies to everybody and is very very sweet and loves to blow kisses and give hugs.

Joseph on the other hand is very much all boy, and loves jumping on people, being tossed around, being chased, and being hung upside down. Isn't amazing how God makes little boys little boys, and little girls little girls, no matter what country they live in and no matter whether they've had mommies or daddies?

Our daily visits are fun but we are definitely ready to be on our own turf, making our own rules. I will be so glad to bathe them and dress them in clothes that are cute and that fit and match.

Clothes that don't have numbers written in magic marker to identify which groupa they belong to.

And shoes. This girl won't believe how many pairs of shoes are waiting for her at home!

I wasn't sure at first but now I am absolutely certain that Joseph understands we are here to take him away from this place. And he is so ready!!

The plan

We are sitting in our 15th floor apartment enjoying the nice cool breeze and watching a fireworks show. I'm not sure why they are celebrating the 4th of July here in Ukraine but we are sure enjoying it.

Now that we have our court date this place seems so much more charming than it did before and we are realizing how much we are actually going to miss it when we leave. Funny how that works. We have met so many really neat people these last few weeks and part of me wishes we could somehow take them all back with us.

That is where facebook is really convenient.

Today we went to our first Ukrainian church service, in Ukrainian (with english translation via headphones). A big thank you to our new missionary friends for inviting us. We loved it. Then they invited us over for a wonderful 4th of July celebration with a couple of other American missionaries. We had such a wonderful time, and the food was so amazing! It felt more like being with old friends than with brand new friends! Later we met another family, the Shupps, for coffee. Lyndi was the one who helped us through the adoption process and we had emailed back and forth and spoken on the phone many times, and now I got to meet her in real life!

We missed our visit with the kids today but we reasoned that it is probably better that we miss a couple of visits this week so they will not be in too much of a shock when we suddenly don't show up for two weeks straight.

So here is the plan:

We plan to leave ASAP after court. We go home to be with our kids  until the mandatory 10 day wait is up. For those unfamiliar with Ukraine adoptions, the purpose of the 10 day wait is to allow any relatives to have a chance to reclaim the children, although I have never heard of that actually happening. Our kids have been orphans since birth, for over five years, so we don't anticipate this happening.

When we receive the go-ahead John will return to Ukraine with Liesel. We picked Liesel because she is gifted with little children and has an ability to get them to do things that they don't think they want to do. Hopefully she can use her child psychology skills to get Joseph to sit still on the airplane for over ten hours! Also, John's niece Heather plans to return with him. She is a college student studying Russian and special education, so we couldn't think of a better person to accompany him on his trip.

We hope that both children will be in our home sometime in August. That is a very long time to wait for us all to be together but that is just how it works, in this country, in this region.

And that is the plan, for those who have asked.

More Cyrillic fun...

More Cyrillic fun....For Liesel.
Since I am pretty sure she is the only one who cares about this game. Have fun Liesel!

For Heather

Zoya is OBSESSED with jewelry.

And shoes.

Big shoes.

Heh heh. 

FYI, I 'only' wear a size 8 but don't they look like size 12s on her?

Today when we arrived for our visit we met this college student who regularly volunteers his time playing with the children here. He was teaching Zoya how to draw a horse. Aww!

If I had a single niece who was planning on visiting Ukraine I might want to try to introduce them. Oh, wait. 

Heather????!!! 

Since we've been here two weeks longer than we anticipated I was in desperate need of a haircut. Today we wandered into a hair salon. Nobody there spoke english but I decided it was worth taking a risk. It was pretty hilarious doing sign language trying to show how I wanted highlights and a cut. Somehow we managed. What do you think of my Ukrainian haircut?

And I'm not the only one who got a haircut today. Doesn't my boy look handsome?? :) Man I wish he could share some of his thick hair with Ava!

Our court date

Dear friends, we finally have a court date! Next Friday July 9!

Originally our facilitator called and said it would be July 12 or 13, then she called back with good news two hours later saying it had been changed to the 9th.

Yippeee.

For my kids...and anyone else who wants to play along.

Urban kids,
Here is a game for you. This is the Ukrainian/Russian Alphabet. Can you decode these words from Russian to English?

Our daily routine

We have been here four weeks and have finally received word this morning that we got the "good judge"...Praise God....and that we 'should', 'maybe', hear tomorrow about our court date. So we will be sure and keep you informed.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos (some of which I stole from the internet), which document our daily routine.

Every morning at about 8:30 we walk about a mile to the McDonalds by the main metro station. So you know, this is only a picture stolen off the internet which explains why the people are wearing coats and not summer clothes. In fact it isn't even the real McDonalds but a random Ukrainain McDonalds that I googled.

And we meet the Whites, who are also here adopting and are on about the same time schedule as we are. The Whites got the good judge too by the way, so you can rejoice with them as well! :)

We walk to the Metro, not to be confused with the Women's bathroom, which starts with an "M" looking character but is not really an M.

We buy 2 blue tokens for 1.7 grivnas each, which is the equivalent of about 50 cents per person round trip to and from the orphanage. We put our tokens in the slot and ride down a very, very long-like the longest escalator I have ever seen escalator-about 8-10 stories deep---into the ground.

You will notice these lit up signs everywhere. These are ads that we are forced to see every day. Here is an ad for example for what I assume is a bridal store or diamond store. Something about this advertisement gives me the creeps but I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

We shove our way onto the metro. I learned from experience that if it is really crowded, it is important to make sure you have your arms around the right guy, if you know what I mean. Ooops.

The orphanage is about 7 stops away so the metro is a great place for people-watching. It is fun to watch teenagers, babushkas, lovers, old men, and peddlers who sell anything from aspirin (I think) to bandaids, to flowers, to CDs. One guy was trying to sell me a CD to teach me how to speak english. How funny is that. We have seen people with dogs, a man with a monkey, see-through clothing. One day we saw a woman get her shoe stuck and then unstuck in the door. We saw a man hobbling on crutches asking for money, with his feet severely turned in, but once he got off the metro his feet miraculously turned straight again! John wasn't fooled but he sure fooled me!

We cross the Dnieper river where sometimes we see interesting sunbathers on the beach.

On the very last stop of the metro, we get out and walk about 1/2 mile to the orphanage where of course we play with the children during visiting hours.

When visiting hours are over, we go back home and eat lunch of most commonly ham sandwiches and chips, or pasta. Today I made homemade salsa which John is enjoying a lot with a Ukrainian version of tortilla chips.

 We wait for some kind of news from our facilitator about court or any other interesting adoption development.

Then John works while I socialize on the internet, research homeschool curriculum, take a nap, read a book, etc.

It's been such a blessing to have other adoptive parents in town to meet up with for dinner. One evening we ordered pizza and had everyone over for a game of cards.

Then we enjoy this beautiful sight from our 15th floor apartment before we go to bed.

So we can get up in the morning and start it all over again...