Court & Ice-cold Water

Court #1 Down!

It’s Saturday and we’ve had a relaxing morning, sleeping in, breakfast in the hotel, quiet time, and Russian study. Yesterday we had the Preliminary Court Hearing where everything went fine—same judge as last time--and Katya didn’t even need to be there. The judge set our next court date (final-Godwilling) for Tuesday at 2:00pm. After, Tanya recommended a café that we went to for lunch with the girls, and Oles.

Thursday Tim and I walked approximately 15 kilometers (8 ½ miles) through a beautiful park to the center of town.
One of the highlights was seeing bathing-suit clad people (even a woman!) coming from a hot banya (one room shack that is heated like a sauna or steam room) and walking down steps to dip themselves in the freezing river. It was snowing out! Another man was breaking off branches to hit each other with in the banya. I didn’t realize how popular this activity still is here! (Tim saw the same thing on his walk this morning!) Also, folks were cross-country skiing and many older folks were out walking in the snow. Men were ice-fishing on the Desna River. It’s charming to see so many folks out in all kinds of weather communing with nature and each other.
When we reached town, we visited a beautiful cathedral and had a snack in a quaint café in town. After some window-shopping and dinner, we took a cab back to the hotel as Oles was still in Kiev.
Katya has a roommate that just came to the orphanage 2 or 3 weeks ago named Marina. She cried for the first few days we were there and stayed in bed almost all day. She wouldn’t join in our Uno games and when she wasn’t crying just clutched a cell phone she has. Katya told us she just wants to go home. Olha told us that her mother brought her here because she has just had another baby and can’t afford all her children (4or5) and Marina is the oldest at around 13. It’s heartbreaking to see this end of it. Please pray for this sweet little girl who is so homesick.
Well, that’s all for now. We miss you. Charlene

Now some pictures (from Tim)

1. We continue to enjoy the wide range of transportation. On the same day we saw cars and busses, trucks and trams, bicycles, and horse-drawn carts. These carts are pretty common in the country here. Only surprise to me is that we haven’t seen any snowmobiles – maybe that’s a business opportunity.

2. Charlene’s love for animals is demonstrated here as she feeds the last of her cat food to perhaps the cutest dog ever (sorry Lucki and Freida). This dog lives at the local gas station and resembles an artic fox.

3. This is one of the churches we walked to in Chernigov. Not sure the name but it was beautiful inside as well as out.

4. A view of Charlene and the river from the nice park behind our hotel.

5. These are steps leading to a large hole cut in the ice. Today (Saturday) I took a walk and this deserted site had a line of people leaving a sauna and walking down into the ice cold water. It could have been an old-time river baptism except for the mixture of men in speedos and those without (in the interest of modesty I didn’t think pictures would be appropriate). I guess what was most interesting – was the complete silence. Nobody said anything like “Wow that water is cold!” Maybe it was the Slavic soul of quiet suffering in action.

Food for Thought

Hello and thanks to all whom encourage us with comments! We’ve been in Ukraine for over one week now and while our spirits are hopeful—we do crave the connection to home. Tim thought I should spend some time discussing the adjustment in expectations as it relates to food items. He showed you our breakfast from this morning and unless you are used to spaghetti and cucumbers for breakfast, it was out of the ordinary. We actually enjoy the variety and guessing whether breakfast will include the more traditional omelet, kashi, spaghetti, blintzes (Yum!), yogurt, vegetables, black and white bread. Dinner is always an exciting culinary adventure as well! I asked the “Excursion Department” in our hotel if they had a list of local restaurants, (in what I thought was not-halfway bad Russian) and the man said in almost-perfect English, “Yes, and here it is”.
I found a restaurant that advertised “Tex-Mex” cuisine and was excited, as we haven’t had Mexican food in a few weeks. I was a bit suspicious of the restaurant’s name “Potato House”, but still optimistic that at least some of the dishes would be Mexican. Oh, no! They didn’t have a chip, dorito, or salsa in the place! Tim ordered the closest thing to Mexican on the menu (with the help of Oles)—3 tortillas with meat or something like that. The “tortilla” was 1 soft flour blintz with meat in wrapped up in the center with cheese and mayonnaise. Oles and I ordered from a picture on the counter that had three sausages and many tomatoes on the side. What came was different; one sausage and some parsley on the side—no tomatoes! Nevertheless, the sausage was delicious. Talk about the need for truth in advertising!
Today’s culinary adventure was in the Italian realm. The restaurant’s name is not Italian and they make no claim to offer any one kind of dish. However, our mouths started watering when we saw the Pasta section on the menu (we were thinking of Maurizios, Hah!). Since Oles wasn’t with us to translate, I was able to discover with the help of the waitress, that the word I didn’t know meant “veal”. Therefore, by the looks of it, I ordered “Veal Parmesan”—my favorite! Tim ordered meat lasagna. What we were served was unlike any Italian dish I ever had (although it had spaghetti—like from breakfast), the meat did not taste like veal and wasn’t really discernable which usually means “pork”. Tim’s dish did look like lasagna but without a marinara sauce—more mayonaise. Both tasted great, just completely different from our expectations. When in doubt, there’s always good-ol’ morojennie (ice cream). The chocolate ice cream with cherry sauce was scrumptious!
Today, we didn’t get to go to the orphanage as Oles was busy driving from here to Gorodnya to Kiev back to here and then to Gorodnya and then back to Kiev to submit our documents. Long story. We were asked about Tanya and I’d like to elaborate. Tanya is Katya’s older half-sister and has been in the orphanage for 11 years. She will be 18 June 19th . She’s the oldest in the orphanage. She is tiny—well under five feet and is wearing the boots we bought for Sophie when she was 12. Despite her diminutive appearance, she mothers her sister lovingly. She has beautiful blue eyes, an engaging smile and a low voice like Katya, and is very gregarious despite the language barrier. From the information we’ve been able to extract from Oles, spending time with her, and from Katya when she visited us, Tanya is a smart girl who is determined to make a future for herself. She doesn’t smoke, drink, or do drugs and is very protective of Katya. She is planning to go to cooking school here in Chernigov next year. She has a great sense of humor and is quick-witted. We are heart-broken to leave her here: and we are praying that God will help us to help her in whatever way He leads. The lawyer at the orphanage is already starting to get her passport, so we think she’ll definitely be able to visit us this summer. If she wants to be in America, we will try to get her a student visa and a scholarship into a cooking school in the US (maybe she will learn how to make veal parmesan like Maurizios). Any ideas, Rob P.?

All Day Uno

23-25 Feb

Greetings

We have had an eventful last several days. Much time at the orphanage and some forward progress on the adoption.

First, my description of the average living conditions here seemed to be a big hit, (at least with the Midwest Quiram headquarters staff). So, continuing that genre, here is some food information. These are pictures of this morning’s breakfast. Our waitress Lela was here 2 years ago and she remembered us (and us her). She always has a friendly smile that makes us feel welcome. This morning’s breakfast was some sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes, a dab of ketchup, orange juice and an espresso. We enjoy the juices as they are different every day and seem to be less sweet and more flavorful than in America. We have had orange juice, apricot juice, cherry juice, apple juice, and pomegranate. Most mornings we also get a yogurt of some kind. It’s Dannon brand, but again is much better tasting – smoother and less sugar. I (Tim) am the only coffee drinker, so when Lela isn’t looking I switch my empty cup for Charlene’s. Today she caught me so I asked her in Russian to not start a little investigation (all in fun of course).

As we went to breakfast we saw either an armored truck for cash or paddy wagon sitting in front of the hotel. I thought back to Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” and hoped they weren’t here for us!

Yesterday we had a world’s record Uno game with Katya and Tanya. Tanya’s strategy wasn’t to win the game, only to save draw-4’s to use on the person about to win – or me (usually me). Katya has a smile on her face whenever we see her. Yesterday I asked why and she said because Papa and Mama were here, she was coming to America – and she had candy to eat. It made us think how brave Sophie was to be adopted by us. Katya has been to our house, knows her brothers, and has a good idea what she’s getting into. Sophie didn’t know us, her brothers, had never been to America and was taking a big step of faith that things would be good!

We got a nice tour of the orphanage yesterday. We saw the sewing classroom, wood and metal shop, and a basement boxing room. This photo of Katya was taken in the basement near the boxing area.

I (Tim) also had the unique opportunity to try out a Ukrainian snow bicycle. One of the cafeteria workers let me give it a test ride. The entire kitchen crew watched out of the window as I took it for a spin. I thought they were watching to see whether I fell, Oles told me they were worried I wouldn’t come back with it!

Oles is in Kyiv today turning in paperwork to the SDA. We should hear from him any time on how things went. We hope to have dinner with Katya’s caregiver Olha and her husband tomorrow night.

Please continue your prayers – also know that it is very encouraging to read your comments on the blog, so please don’t hesitate to say something.

SDG,

Tim and Charlene

In Gorodnya

21/22 Feb

Saturday / Sunday,

Yesterday we had a nice long visit at the Orphanage. We spent most of the day in Katya’s room talking with her, Olha, Olha’s daughter (who speaks English) and Tanya. It was interesting for me (Tim) to listen to the conversation. I understood enough words sprinkled throughout the conversation to get the gist of things, but I was ochen proud of Charlene for here ability to communicate! We really had a nice time talking and learning many things about life in the small, and shrinking, village of Gorodnya.

Oles continued his Russian lessons, teaching me a song about trees in the forest. Something like “tree and behind it another tree, and behind that another tree, but wait are there more, yes, tree, and behind it another tree, …..” I think you get the picture – it can go on a long time. I also learned the perfect answer to the question, “why?” (My phonetic spelling) – pah-ta-musch-ta zjay-sin Tah-ka-yah (something like – “because that’s life”. I tried to use the saying during our conversation, but apparently used the word for “wife or woman” instead of zjay-sin. By dumb luck (really God’s grace) it actually fit in the context and the Ukrainians got a good laugh out of my unplanned play on words.

Charlene asked me to comment about the primitive living conditions in the village. I’ve included a picture of one of the houses (very colorful) and the communal well on the street. Each house has a small outhouse in back and one had a large barrel on the roof with a hose running inside for showers. Katya assured us that somehow the water was heated, but it sure looked mighty cold to me.

I read in a book that many Ukrainians think it’s important to go outside every day. That sure seems to be true because no matter what the weather, the village seems to always be bustling. It’s very interesting to see a new car with fancy rims and rap music blaring at an intersection with a motorcycle & sidecar, horse drawn cart, and famous Ukrainian snow bicycle.

The adoption process seems to be much slower that two years ago. There are now two court appearances separated by 5 days instead of the 1 we had before. Also, it’s common knowledge that they’ve instituted an additional 10-day wait for the passport that didn’t exist before.

As best as we can tell, we are waiting for the inspector to issue her recommendation on the adoption before the first court date. Oles seems less optimistic than last time that things will happen smoothly or quickly. I told him that I needed to have the 2nd court date before the 9th of March so I could make it to my meeting in Kyiv and he wasn’t sure if it is possible. Consequently, we are praying, and ask that you do to, for the Lord to direct and control all the people and processes that need to happen for the adoption to move forward.

Katya is a wonderful girl and we’re happy to be with her. She can’t stop smiling and moving her hands.

SDG,

Tim and Charlene

We Meet Katya!

19/20 Feb

Yesterday – Thursday – we left Kyiv in a blizzard. Very much like our last trip to Gorodnya – it took about 4 hours and several near-misses with ocehn bolshoy (very big) trucks. Oles (our facilitator) says I must be an ancient snow spirit since I seem to bring it with me ;-) The first picture is our departure from Kyiv at 0700 – Oles is filling the windshield washer fluid (we needed it!)

We got to Gorodnya about 1130 only to discover that the inspector was out with an Italian couple meeting a child at the hospital. We went to lunch at a swank diner that also had a motel attached (we had heard there was a motel in Gorodnya now). The rooms were clean, but right above the disco & bar. I hadn’t really understood how frazzled Charlene’s nerves were from the many near misses during the drive until she said, “let’s stay here tonight.” I was not convinced there was hot water (it didn’t warm up when we visited the room) and envisioned a sleepless night listening to the disco beat, so I said we better think about it over lunch.

We finally met the inspector at 1400. She called the orphanage and I understood enough to know that she was asking questions again about the spelling of Katya’s last name. This issue has been an on again – off again thorn in the process. All I knew was that the girl in the picture at the SDA was definitely Katya!

We finally made it to the orphanage about 1500 (we were getting a bit tired by then). We met Larissa the lawyer (she seems to always be in good spirits and likes to joke around) and Mr. Orphange director. He told us that he had gotten the Statue of Liberty tie we sent him, but he couldn’t wear it because he is a Ukrainian citizen – couldn’t fault his logic on that. After several minutes I started asking – Gdyeh Katya? (where’s Katya). Larissa had sent several young men and women to find her without success. Finally we saw her walking through the snow with a big smile on her face. She hugged Charlene and wouldn’t let go. Tears fell & she was overjoyed to see us!

We spent the next several hours with her and her sister Tanya in Tanya’s room. We looked through many pictures and heard stories. Tanya clearly loves her younger sister (Katya) and mothers her. She told us that this summer when Katya was with us in America she worried that everything was all right because Katya hadn’t called. When Katya did finally call, Tanya said it went something like this (from her perspective).

“Hi Tanya this is Katya – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”
“Hi Tanya this is Alona (Sophie) – ha ha ha ha ha ha”
Tanya, “Why are you laughing – are you drinking Vodka?”
Katya, “No we are calling from the computer” (we were using Skype)
Tanya, “You’re crazy” (hangs up)

When Katya got back to the orphanage, Tanya asked why she didn’t call and told here she could no go to America again. After days of crying and apologies on Katya’s part, Tanya relented.

After all that excitement, we headed to Chernigov (in the dark) to find a place to stay. We hadn’t seen a deer or squirrel all day, but almost t-boned an enormous wild boar on the trip back!

Please pray for God to continue to work through the myriad details!

SDG

Tim & Charlene

Pictures – 2nd – we meet Katya at last!

3rd – Charlene, Tanya & Katya

PS – for anyone from Charlene’s Russian class, we saw a TV show with the actor who plays Misha. He was in the snow with a pistol at his head.

Last Day In Kyiv (for a while)

Today we had an exciting time about town, culminating with the receipt of our official referral to head to Gorodnya for Katya. We plan to head out about 0700, & like last time, it’s supposed to be snowing hard – good thing I remember how to ask, “where’s the snow plow” in Russian.

Oh – last night we had Indian food with an American friend, Karen Springs. She’s doing well and says Hi to everyone – especially those of you that know her.

Nancy asked about the weather, it has been beautiful! Notice the pictures from today. The first is of our favorite church in town – not snowing yet. We stopped for lunch (2 days in a row now I’ve had borsch). By the time we got to the golden gate aka zoloti varota (photo taken by a friendly police officer who told us several times that it was closed) it was snowing harder. Same situation in the picture of Charlene in front of the statue of Yaroslav. The final picture is from the church next to the SDA office, taken at about 1730 probably 2-4 inches on the ground by then and still snowing.

Please continue to pray for God’s guidance for Oles and His direction in all matters related to this adoption.

SDG
Tim & Charlene

SDA Appointment

Thank you for your prayers! Our meeting at the SDA went off without a hitch. As best we can figure it, the English translator must have been off today because they let Oles translate for us. Actually, I was able to use a lot of my Russian telling her how we met Katya, explaining scenes from the photograph album from last summer. Masha seemed very interested. She talked about Tanya, but said that Tanya was not available yet and that Katya just became available yesterday. Interestingly, she also mentioned that since Katya really wants to be with her family (us) and we so badly want to be with her, she wants it to happen as soon as possible so we can all be together. God is so good!
After our meeting, which went ochen fast, Oles had to get some documents copied. While snow sifted down through the trees, Tim and I enjoyed strolling through the outdoor stalls on Andriyivsky uzviz (the street that winds up to St. Andrew’s catherdral, which is exactly to the left of the SDA office. I saw so much that I wanted to buy—especially an adorable matryoshka doll of Cheburashka, but we decided to wait to see if we have any money left at the end of this adventure. The vendors are so eager to sell us something; it really seems that they are more desperate than last time. We saw the babushkas sweeping the snow of the sidewalks with their twig brooms. Too cool!
When Oles was finished, we toured St. Sophia’s cathedral and museum. The oldest church in all of Eastern Europe: unfortunately, St. Sophia is more of a museum and no long used for services. The mosaics made me want to try to do this! The combinations of colors and the feeling of praise elicited from these art works is awe-inspiring (for me—I doubt either Tim or Oles were quite as impressed—Tim just countered that he was impressed with the 9th century mosaic floor).
Well, that is all for now. We are off to the post office, some shopping, a visit back to Volodymyr Cathedral and dinner with Karen Springs and Oles (Indeeskom—yum!) It would appear from this vantage point that the next hurdle (and prayer request) will be with the authorities in Shorc, where Katya was born. There is a possibility that they would make us wait to adopt Katya until Tanya becomes available because of the law regarding separating siblings in the same orphanage. So I’ll end as I started: Thanks for your prayers.

Oh - Barak Obama is big news here - on the same plane as the Beattles and Vladimir Putin (as you can see from the picture here).

Charlene

Ukraine at Last!

Day 1 – we arrived in Kyiv to light snow. Had a good flight, although I spent 9 hours on the plane with the guy behind me coughing about every 5 minutes – finally gave him some cough drops so I could sleep and maybe not get sick.

Charlene made several new friends today. Yulia – 2, Tanya (her mom) and Vira (the great grandmother). Yulia was cuter than a bug’s ear and quickly befriended Charlene. Charlene talked with her Great Grandmother then and in the end exchanged phone numbers.

I am ochen tired as I write this though it’s only 1730 here. In my attempt to stay awake a couple more hours I flipped on the TV and am watching the Russian version of Judge Judy while typing. It’s pretty interesting when they pan to the bailiff holding the AK-47!

Couple pictures here – Charlene and I upon arrival and Oles’ new hat (wonder where he got the idea).

We’re planning to walk to our appointment tomorrow AM. Charlene found a great apartment online, less then ½ block from Independence square.

We’ll update you tomorrow – pls pray for Godspeed and his leading in every interaction we have.

SDG,

Tim and Charlene.

The Night Before....

It’s the night before departure and I think we’re ready.

We have had a wonderfully supportive last week or so with a send off from our Williamsburg friends on Sunday and Valentines dinner with the Bruce's tonight. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m thinking, “A week from today we’ll be in the snow in Gorodnya.” “24 hours from now we’ll be settling in for an all night flight.” You get the picture.

We leave for the airport at 0800 tomorrow. Please continue to pray for our safety, guidance, and direction.

Soli Deo Gloria (SDG)

Tim & Charlene

BTW – what did the zero say to the eight?

9 Days To Go

Nine days to go! Hard to believe that we’re in the single digits of days before our trip.

We’ve been busy preparing. What to take? Who’s watching the family? travel arrangements, etc.

We had a very uplifting time with the elders of our church praying for our trip. We know that the outcome of this is in God’s hands. As much as we think we know how things may go, and what Katya will be like, this is very much like a couple having their second child. In both cases, the parents believe themselves to be more prepared than the first go-around, but in reality they have the same amount of control over the outcome – almost none!

Please keep us in your prayers as the day’s count down.

Soli Deo Gloria (SDG)

Tim & Charlene

Oh – I have refuted one of Will’s random facts quoted at the dinner table (WRFQATDT) – He said research shows that a beard doesn’t keep your face any warmer – Oh yes it does!