| OUR ADOPTION STORY |
| APRIL 5, 2002 We arrived yesterday at 1;30 pm Ukraine time, 5:30 your time. CULTURE SHOCK STARTED IMMEDIATELY!!! The airport is definately different, and customs was the most "fun" there... We finally got out of there and met Lena and Nikolai (our project specialist and driver). They drove us to our flat which is an apartment. Two bedrooms and a bathroom. We went there for an hour and then Yuri the office manager came to take us for a walk. (Alot of walking in Ukraine). We went to the market, then to the bank to change over money and to get dinner. It was...interesting. We went Italian. After dinner we had a chance to call out parents then back to the flat. By that time it was 7pm our time and when we layed on the bed, we both passed out! Today was our appointment at the Adoption Center. It went very well. We were with the director for maybe 5 minutes, then with the physchologist for 2 hours- that is where we looked through all of the photos. WOW! What an experience. It seems that they are all sick, so you have to be very careful. Anyway, we found an orphanage that had 3 referrals. We decided to drive to Kirovohrad instead of take a train because by train it would have been 5 or 6 hours and by car it took us only 3 hours 10 minutes. (We love Nikolai!) We went directly to the orphanage and met a little boy. Only one because the others were sent to a different region. He is so adorable. We have sent some photos of him to the international adoption doctor for evaluation before we make any kind of decision. He loved us, he came in and hugged bot Brian and I. He is VERY talkative, very active, loves to dance and tries to sing! :) We had to leave, however we are going back tomorrow at 10 am to read his medical records and family history. Then we will go from there. After the visit we went to check into a hotel and went to another Italian restaurant for dinner. (Tonights dinner was very good!). Now we are at the internet cafe, and getting ready to leave to go back to hotel. (20-30 minute walk). Very cold! Anyway, will try to update more tomorrow or next day, all depends on time. (We feel like we are on the Amazing Race!! :) Our love to everyone, we miss home already! APRIL 6, 2002 Today was a big day for us. We had an appointment back at the orphanage this morning at 10am to reveiw the little boys medical records and if everything was alright, we decided that this would be our son. So, everything was fine! We have made that all important decision that we came here to do- Kyle will be coming home with us! Kyle is a small little 4 year old boy about the size of a three year old. We will get his birth certificate later this week to verify his age. We just fell in love with him! Everyone will love him- he is such a lover. He loves to hug, he loves to run, and he loves music! We do not have a photo to put on the site as of yet, but will try to do that tomorrow. We were only able to visit him today for about an hour and then tomorow we can go back tomorrow for another hour and a half. After out visit today, he blew us kisses! Tomorrow after out visit we will go to the market to buy him some clothes and shoes. Now the process will be hurry us and wait! This morning before we left for the orphanage we met Sergei for breakfast. It consisted of pancakes stuffed with cottage cheese and some sort of meat that you eat on top of a small piece of bread. I took one bite of the pancake and left the rest and ate the meat. As far as lunch...we slept through that today. We came back to take a nap for an hour and fell asleep for three (JETLAG KICKED OUR BUTT TODAY!). Sergei was starving! So as soon as we woke up, we went to dinner. The food so far is really not that bad. All you have to do is just stick to the basic meat and potato type of meal. It is still kind of early here, about 5:30 pm our time and we will be leaving to go get some bread for the peanut butter and jelly that I packed for snacks! Plus this internet cafe is rather busy tonight so we are on a time restriction. Yesterday it snowed in Kiev on our way here to Kirovohrad and this morning we woke up and it was snowing here.....it is still snowing! It is so very cold here!!! We have taken so many pictures of Kyle and cannot wait to share them all with all of you! Keep us in your prayers for a fast court date, we will continue updating. Please send emails from home- it is kind of weird that we look forward to reading your mail! We will talk to you tomorrow! |
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| APRIL 7, 2002 Well after MUCH conversation between Brian and I we decided to make his name Andrew after all. So, it will not be Kyle....sorry to those of you who wrote us emails wishing Kyle well, but we will tell Andrew all about everyone....Sorry! :) We just thought that this would be better. (We spoke too soon) Tomorrow we go to the inspector's office to file paperwork on him and then meet with the attorney who will handle court and his birth certificate and his passport. Tuesday is the city council meeting where all members hav to be in order to sign his paperwork. If one member is not there then we have to wait another week (next Tuesday) to try again. This region has a lot of "off the wall" laws. But we will do what we have to do. Andrew is getting use to us now, today we taught him to say "Daddy" amd he did pretty well. We have ALOT to work on when we come home, it is very hard here since everyone speaks in Russian to him and that is how he speaks too. We went to the market to buy him clothes and shoes and underwear today and we did really well. Two outfits, two pairs of shoes, four pairs of underwear a t- shirt and a snow suit...all for just about 400 hyrvna (pronounced grivna). In american dollars all of this would have only cost us about $60. Not really that bad for all we got. Anyway, today was a busy day, and the rest of the week will only be getting busier. I am homesick!!! Enough for today, we will try to write again tomorrow...we never know what each day will bring. All that we know is that we get to see Andrew everyday atleast for and hour and a half. (HE LOVES COOKIES!!) Much love to all back home- thank you for your emails so far...keep them coming! (BIG SMILES FROM BOTH BRIAN AND ME!!) APRIL 13, 2002 Well it seems that Yahoo is upset with all the traffic I have had on my website, so I tried changing some things around and lost the past couple of updates...my apologies. Anyway, city council held their meeting, and we are scheduled to go to court on Monday at 10am!! Hopefully we will only have court this one day. Apparantely the judge in this region is very strict and may require some things that we will have to get, but hopefully we have thought of everything. After court, we will head back to the hotel to get our bags, then Nikolai (the driver from Kiev) will come pick us up and then go pick up Andrew at the orphanage and head to Kiev for a couple of days then its off to Warsaw, Poland then HOME!!! The weather is getting nicer! Like low 60's here, nicer than it was last week. Today is Sergei's birthday, so we took him to the market and bought him a pair of pants for court and he will wear one of Brian's dress shirts and ties so that he will look nice. (He only brought with him the clothes he has on his back.....I guess that makes for VERY easy packing!) Anyway, we are going to dinner now, so I will try to update again tomorrow! (We will put another picture of us on tomorrow!!) Love to all!! APRIL 14, 2002 No update today. We celebrated Sergei's 27th birthday last night at the bar in the hotel. I had 2 beers, and the other 7 people...Brian included drank 3 bottles of Russian cognac. (VERY STRONG) Needless to say, Sergei and Brian were not feeling too good this morning. But oh well...it was alot of fun. (Wait till you see the pictures I took!) Anyway, we are off to get dinner at Grand Pizza now. This will probably be my last update from Kirovohrad, and I am not sure if we will be able to find a place back in Kiev. Keep checking, and if there are updates then I guess we found an internet cafe. Can't wait to bring Andrew home!! APRIL 16, 2001 Sorry for no update yesterday (court day). We woke up early and had breakfast as usual with Sergei then met at the attorney's office to go over a few things, then we took a cab to court. We arrived on schedule at 10 am, but here time does not matter. The judge made us (and another family from Texas) wait. So we waited till around 100:15 then the other family went first. (Thank GoD!) The judge was very picky about their documents and made them go get other copies of this past years tax returns. Then it was our turn. I think he liked us better anyway because we were extremely professional looking (like the judge was) and the other couple was very casual. We were in session about a half hour and he had some questions about some of our documents as well, but said that we would take a recess till 2pm. So we left and had lunch and came back. When we came back the judge came in and asked us a few more questions and left to make his decision. 20 minutes later he came back and read his decision that the adoption woule be executed immediately! The attorney smiled at me from across the room and I knew what was being said at that point. I was okay, until the attorney came over to congratulate us and I lost it. I cried so hard, then Brian cried hard. We hugged everyone, even the family from Texas was there hearing the decision. (We've made alot of friends here!) So we left court and headed back to the hotel to pack our things and then headed to the orphanage to pick up Andrew! We took photos of him with us and the orphanage director and alot of other photos too. Andrew seemed very happy! When we were walking out of the orphanage, one of his favorite care takers saw us leaving and ran to hug Andrew. She has been at the orphanage since Andrew came (back when he was born) and was with him throughout two surgeries that he has already had. She started to cry alot, and then so did I. She hugged me and told Andrew to make sure he writes her and sends her photos! We came back to the hotel to wait for Nikolai who was driving from Kiev to pick us up for the final ride back to Kiev!!! We arrived back in Kiev last night around 11:30 and had to stay at the Bratislava hotel because the guest flat was being occupied, so we had a welcoming committee of like 8 people. It was so nice. They helped us get settled and then we got ready for bed. Andrew's first night with his new mommy and daddy. We got ready for bed (the room had 3 single beds) and I went to put Andrew in his bed and he just layed down and started to cry. It broke my heart knowing that he didn't know what was going on. So I held him and he and I just cried together. He stopped and got in bed with me for 5 minutes then I got up and tried to put him in his again and he slept there all night. Today he had us up at 6:30 which was fine, so we took showers (Andrew thought that was fun) and had breakfast. (Andrew ate mine and his!) We then just spent the day waiting for Lena to come with Nikolai to take us to the guest flat (where we are now). Once we arrived and got settled, we took Andrew to McDonald's for the first time, and actually it tasted just like home!!!!!!!!!!! I think Brian and I devoured our food in a matter of seconds! (And boght more to bring back for dinner!) We did a litle site seeing today, saw the St. Andrew's Cathedral (how funny!) and how breathtakingly beautiful. I took lots of pictures. So I am about to sign off now...we have a son, we are very happy! Tomorrow we go to the doctor for his medical exam, then the rest of the day is free, Thursday we go to the US Embassy here in Kiev and then fly out that afternoon to Prague, Czech Republic then to Warsaw. (There were no direct flights) So our appt at the US EMbassy for Andrew's visa is Friday at 10:45 am. We are hoping to catch a flight home Friday night or Saturday morning!! (That would be so ideal for us all!) Anyway.....whew.......Good bye for now, we will try to update again tomorrow with more specifics!! LOVE TO ALL FROM ALL THE RONEY'S...even Andrew!! (It is official...Andrew Lawrence Roney) |