Leaving romorrow!

Nico will pick us up so Dima dont worry about meeting us. We will look forward to seeing you though later in the week when I get the kids.

When we get in we will go to apt and probably crash until Tuesday. then my guess is we jump in with the gathering of birth certificates. Looking forward to being there. NOT looking forward to the long boring ride over there. but its what I have to do to get them home. At least I will have Cody to keep me company. Tell the kids we are on our way!

heard from the kids again

via friends. what a special gift to be able to send messages to them and hear from them via the friends we met over there. I hear my Andre is feeling better and will be back in his groupoo soon. My other kids are well and happy and enjoying summer(as children should!!!)

gosh I didnt know how much I would miss them coming home! we have passed the 10 day wait and its official. they are OURS! I cant wait to go get them and bring them home!! I love them so much!

every day the other kids ask if today is the day I will bring home Natasha Diana Jaeger and Andre. and I have to say no, not today. Sophie couldnt be happier that she can share her room with them. Maia couldnt be happier that I bought them all matching outfits. Chrysta will be happy, she has lobbied for these kids ever since the day we met them. She said we HAVE to get them! She was right. We did. they were ours in our hearts after that first day. we played with lots of kids those days we were there but none stole our hearts the way these 4 did. Ethan is thrilled to have some brothers who can keep up with him. he likes to do all boy all the time kind of stuff and poor Ben just cant. Ben knows these kids he was in groupoo with them. He looooooves the girls especially and asks about them all the time. and wants Jaeger to be on the top bunk of his bed. he and Andre are only ONE MONTH(precisely) apart in age. Cody is looking forward to going to Ukraine. last time he was sick the whole time. oh gosh I cant wait to get them home! I better go pack and get stuff done so I can get there and hug my girls and kiss my boys and see that special Jaeger smile and Andre's squinty smily eyes. so I can play Uno with Natasha and snuggle her and Diana.

heard from the kids....sort of...

poor Andre is sick again. poor baby. he was just sick 3 weeks ago. hope he feels better soon. would be better for him to be home with Mama when he is sick. soon Andre, Mama will take care of you when you get sick. Mama will hug and kiss you and rock you if you feel lousy. of course you will have hugs and kisses every day not just sick days. but Mama's have special powers when their kids are sick. They know how to make them feel better. Mama kisses and hugs can do wonders.

Dima visited with the other kids and sent us some cute photos. here is my favorite.

a fitting song

from The Music Man, by Meredith Wilson
There were bells....on the hill,
but I never heard them ringing
No, I never heard them at all,
Till there was you.

There were birds....in the sky,
but I never saw them winging,
no, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.

And there was music,
and there were wonderful roses,
they tell me, in sweet fragrant
meadows of dawn and dew.

There was love, all around
but I never heard it singing,
no, I never heard it at all
Till there was you.

Then there was music and wonderful roses
they tell me, in sweet fragrant meadows
of dawn and dew

There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No, I never heard it at all
Till there was you
Till there was you

soooooooo

trying to plan my return. tickets are paid for. I have a cd I can cash in. I have MOST of what I need leftover from last trip. I might be able to squeese a little more out of my savings. I havent looked at it lately to know. but I leave in a week and I dont think I have enough money to finish all the paperwork and room and board and driver. Small town and not at all supportive so getting anything done around here is impossible. my ebay sales never go very well. I lose money there. My etsy isnt moving. I usually have a change bucket but thats already been cashed in. I am scared that I will be there and run out of money and my husband is at home and here I am in a foreign country with 5 kids. We have enough to pay our bills no problem. but adoption is expensive and we hadnt counted on 5 weeks in country for the first trip. so the bulk of what we saved is already spent on this adoption, there are no reserves. only money that is earmarked for upcoming bills. all ideas are welcome here!

Making progress!

Bunks are up! girls beds are made up wtih sheets and comforters. Boys bunks are put together just need to get all the mattresses and sheets on. I have pillows for everyone. girls are on their beds. boys will be when I make the beds. Cleaned out some closets and got rid of some useless stuff taking up valuable space. got plane tickets for myself and Cody. plane tickets for the kids to return home with me. I also have received word from some people who know the children. they tell me all about them. I love to hear what they are doing and how they are. I love to hear about what they have done or how they have been in the past. we have had very kind offers to help with the children, to take us and the children to see sights so the kids can remember Ukraine. I hope we will get a chance to do some of those things.

what I love most is hearing about the children, MY children(I love to say that), and their past before me. What a gift to get that information. Many adoptive parents know only the life their child has from the moment of meeting and forward. I have been given an insight into their past from people who love them. I used to think that adoptions should be CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED!! but as we go forward, knowing Sophie's birth family and communicating with them gives me great satisfaction. I want for them to know that she is our wonderful beautiful beloved daughter and she means everything to us. I love to show them photos. and now I have these people who have known our other children before we knew them. and I am so happy to know them and hear info about the kids. and to have that connection to their past. I don't think I could advocate closed closed closed adoptions anymore. children need parents who love them, but also they need other adults who love them, who want the best for them. Thanks Darina and Dima for all the letters and word of the children, photos and info on their past. what a special gift.

My boys too!

a cute photo of my girls. yes MY girls. ok they are OURS but I like to say MY GIRLS!

taken by my friend Darina.

baby steps

ok so I got pillows and the other set of bunks. now we need some rainy days to put them together. The boys are excited to sleep in them. Working on tickets. looks like we can fly sunday for same price as monday. same flights. which gets us in monday afternoon. vital statistics is closed on Mondays so nothing much could have happened that day anyways. so then hopefully we can hit the ground running on Tuesday since we will have to drive all over the chernigiv region to get birth certs for the children as all 4 were born in different places! Nothing is centralised like it is here. so we will have to go to each city and get a new birth certificate for each child. I nested a little today. cleaned up the downstairs hallways and bathroom. I dont knwo what goes on in that bathroom but its always a disaster. got some laundry done. the girls will have tons of clothes and the boys too. still trying to find some small toys for travel. like polly pockets or my little pony. I hope they like it here. I guess if they dont, they will have to get used to it. I finished Andre's papers for school. still 3 kids to go. you have to fill out about a million pages each kid. and its all so redundant. I cant quite bring myself to get excited about filling it all out. not to mention I did this x3 last november and again x2 in May. I suppose I better get used to it. everywhere you go everything you do there is paperwork. and with ten kids thats ten times the paperwork.

stuff

I miss the kids. still. the old kids are waiting anxiously for the new kids. there is still a ton of stuff needing to be done. am I doing it? no. Bunks need to be finished for the girls(although we did get the beds made with sheets and comforters, just need a ladder and tighten up all the bolts.) bunks need to be put up for the boys. bunks need to be bought for the remaining boys. (and put up) pillows! I need pillows! I need dressers too. and a really large pot for making laundry soap. We need a bigger van that fits us all.(likely wont happen for awhile) I need tickets to return. I thought I had it all set but its on a monday and I didnt even think about how I would get to the airport. so now I have to wait to finalise those plans until I find out what flight we can get on SUNDAY. if its a ton more money I will have to make other plans to get to the airport. Maybe my dad can drive us. Or Uncle Bob. Or my bro. or SOMEONE. I WILL get back there one way or another. hope I have enough money to do everything that needs to be done. spending 5 weeks there really depleted our savings!

I am a little nervous about Andre the runner. But thats why I am bringing Cody. an extra pair of hands. Everyone says outside of his comfort zone(orphanage) he will be different and I will be all he knows and he will stick close. but I dont know about that with this one. he has a fascination with cars and will walk right up to a car and get in. any car. So he is going to be a challenge I think. The girls I dont worry about at all and Jaeger is old enough to understand and he seems to take redirection well.

missing the children

thankfully I know people who have been in contact with them since I left and know they are fine. I am not looking forward to traveling back over there. BEING there is great, and having the kids will be wonderful, but the LOOOOOOOONG travel over there is boring and exhausting. but it will all be labor pains soon forgotten in the jumble of voices as they all say MAMA! MAMA! Hope they wont forget the English they learned. I remember enough of the Russian I learned to still play Uno so I am sure all will be well! lol. Natasha just coudlnt get enough of that game. the others enjoyed it but not as much as Natasha. She is a smart girl and I think she loves the strategy of the game. gives her a chance to think! Oh Natasha and Diana, your sisters are here awaiting your arrival!!! Jaeger and Andre, the boys can hardly wait to share their room with you! and show you around the woods.

my cuties!

Did I mention?

that I took peanut butter with us and I loved it several times when I was very homesick. but we didnt eat it all and it was in my carry on, I didnt really think about it much. I brought it over there in my checked luggage. so anyways they questioned it at the airport leaving SunnyK. I explained what it was and they were fine. got to Germany, of course they flagged it too thinking it was liquid. I explained again that it was for sandwich. ok. onward ho. to Chicago. where they TOOK MY PEANUT BUTTER AWAY! I couldnt bring it to minneapolis. it is not liquid. it is not sharp. it is not dangerous. and there is nothing that says you cant have stuff of that consistency. they said NO LIQUIDS. it ISNT LIQUID. It is peanut butter and didnt cost much and there wasnt that much left anyways so I agreed that they could just toss it. wasnt worth a fuss. but I still dont understand.

home and exhausted

We are home and I am sick and exhausted. The boys had been sick last week but I just couldnt refrain from hugging and kissing them so I probably have whatever virus they had. We had one last hurrah on Friday night in SunnyK with the Whites and Urbans and Michelle Z and another family whose name I forget. I had felt this thing coming on since Thursday evening. but Friday night when ice cream didnt taste good I knew soemthing was wrong! I ate the ice cream but threw away the cone part I just couldnt stand the taste of it. so we got in late and had to get up early to fly out and I dont sleep on planes. so we were exhausted when we got home. but happy to be here. It is the little things here that make me happy right now. Things like turning on the tap and drinking the water, no worries. things like watching the tv or listening to radio and being able to understand every word. even if we dont care what they are saying we can understand! I happily sat and listened to a woman on her cell phone. I dont recall what she was saying but I listened just because I could! and besides if you are standing in the middle of the airport luggage area chatting it up it cant be THAT private of a talk. Eric is in his garden weeding like mad. the deer managed to get in despite our efforts while we were gone. but the weeds were much higher than the plants so they nibbled a lot of weeds and only some plants.

We were only able to get one dog yesterday so I have to go get Mocha today. I want to sleep instead. but I have to go get my girl. hope I dont fall asleep driving! Too bad I dont have a teenaged driver yet.

the kids at home were happy to see us and gramma said while they behaved just fine they ARE a lot of work for someone her age. We are happy they were able to be here in their own home for awhile before we got back. it also made getting back easier. I still havent unloaded the car except for my laptop. Since we had roaches at one place I want to open the bags outside and unpack them there and put them right into the laundry. and right now that just seems like too much effort.

I am now mother to ten

we did get court approval for the two boys and two girls(thus effectively seperating the siblings). we are now the parents of ten, barring no appeals in the ten day wait. we didnt have internet access until now(at home in the states) we are exhausted after traveling and being up for 2 days with little sleep and a lot of heat and a lot of driving (and our car wouldnt start after sitting in our friends garage for a month).

court was supposed to be in half hour but it is rescheduled for 1130. oh PLEASE get that crazy paper that is missing and get here for court at 1130!

Natasha

Diana, Jaeger, and Papa

My little AJ

afternoon visit

much uno was played. sometimes with 2 players sometimes with 3 or 4. for the first time Jaeger came and wanted to play when no one else was playing. I suppose because he got yelled at yesterday for running around after having been sick about 3 days ago. he probably didnt want to get into trouble again. smart boy!
I explained to the kids via pictures that Papa and I will go home and I will return for them and take them home with me. AJ was a funny boy this afternoon. he is so tiny. much like Ethan, only smaller! Ethan will look like a giant! anyways he was digging with one hand and eating a sour green apple with the other. I offered to hold his apple for him while he digs so he didnt get sand on the apple. he let me hold it for a long time. he is learning for sure. When we arrived this afternoon AJ got a talking to about staying out of the water and he cried because she said he couldnt go outside with us. but she changed her mine and let him come and we stayed away from the water. anyways he was digging and digging a deep hole in the sand box and then BLOOP! he just fell off the sandbox backwards. we both laughed and laughed so of course he did it again. I said oh are you hurt? and grabbed him up and smooched him all over the head and he let me. this is progress. I let him bury my feet in the sand. I love that. he had fun doing it too. We brought candies, and Diana is so funny, she was hiding them in various places in her little bag so she can savor them one or two at a time. no one wanted to say goodbye today as we all know it will be awhile until we can be together again on a daily basis. I promised Natasha I would bring back the photo book for her to keep while we are gone. I wanted to have it for court as it was useful last year. so I will drop it off when we run to say goodbye before leaving here tomorrow. It is easy to see why Natasha is everyone's sweetheart. she is so loving and sweet. she stood in the window watching us go with a big sad face. we blew her kisses and waved. the others had already moved on to dinner. not Natasha. she waved and waved. they are really such good kids that just need a family of their own to teach them right and wrong. and to let them act like kids. This mornings adventure with sailing paper boats got them in trouble. my other kids would have been swimming in the puddle for sure. or at least sitting in it. AJ the clown is the only one who got wet. he just couldnt resist. it really seems sometimes that puddles are just MADE for little boys. or maybe little boys are just MADE to play in puddles. at any rate its a fun thing to do and doesnt hurt anyone and I am rather inclined to let them do it. but alas I am not yet their boss. so we stayed out of the puddles. I cant wait to see their eyes in the spring when the snow melts and the puddles are HUUUUGE!!

note to self

AJ wears a size 2T top and 3 bottom.
Jaeger wears a size 6 top, not sure on bottoms probably 6 as his unders were 6.
Diana wears a 5
Natasha wears probably 7 or 8. the 8 top she wears is a little big.

AJ the rascal

doesnt listen so good. doesnt like to hear nee. so I picked him up and took him away since he wasnt going to walk. he is small so it was not taxing. but I was NOT going to let him go. then he tried to BITE ME! scamp! he got a little pat on the behind. Just enough to distract him and get his attention. Really all he wanted was to act like a kid and play in this giant puddle where they had been sailing paper boats but if I let him swim in it not only is HE going to be in trouble I am too. And Jaeger decided it would be fun to grab the other boys privates. those boys need some boundries and HOW! the girls are really fine other than occasional pouts of sulks and soemtimes with a boy they will break out in a hockey game! but the two boys really need to get home and find out that this running amok is NOT going to fly. tomorrow is court. think of us. Please also think of our friends the Urbans as they have court too. They have been our lifelink while stuck over here.

new day new internet problem.

The kids were pretty fun this afternoon. Full of hugs and kisses. Except Diana and Jaeger went to fisticuffs over something. I was very proud of Natasha for sticking with the game this afternoon when in Uno she had only 1 card and had to draw 4. No tantrums just the regular Uno noises we make. I put her hair up like mine she liked that. It was just a pony tail that wasn’t pulled all the way through. Nothing fancy. Diana is the fancy girl. She likes fancy hairdos. Natasha just likes hers out of her face, but not fancy. Andre was such a love this afternoon. Hugs hugs hugs from that kid. A new visit means a new paper airplane. So I gave him a paper and he wanted Natasha to make it for him and the whole time she was doing it he was saying NEE NATASHA! NEE! NEE! And then she handed it to him after it was made and it didn’t fly so he brought it back to me and I made it up my way and we tossed it around and he was happy. Baby steps! But steps indeed!

Someone really needs to come and get Vika. She is very sweet and loving and affectionate. She comes for hugs and kisses every time she sees us and always smiling at us when we hug and kiss her. I have seen her grow and learn just in the little time I have been able to give her. In a family with fewer kids she would thrive. Will you be her Mama? She is 6 and will likely go to the institution soon. She does have another underlying condition.

days run together

Well I guess the heat got to them because no one seemed to like anything I had to offer this afternoon. Most days are good but I have to remember they ARE but children and will occasionally act like them! We got there late because they are not ever ready when we get there anyways. But then they had dinner early so they had to go. So we only got about an hour with them. I guess it works out because Natasha didn’t like her hair the way I did it so she sulked, Diana doesn’t like the name we gave her because someone else gave her a name. Vasa doesn’t like to be told no and had a little temper. Andre keeps handing me paper to make airplanes but then tells me the whole time NEE Mama. And does it himself differently. Only his way doesn’t fly and my way does. So after an hour of this we were ok with sending them in for dinner. Andre is still in the infirmary but they let him come out and play with us. He is doggone cute. My little AJ. Apparently this mornings events were forgotten because he had big hugs for me when he came out and more big hugs for me when he went back to infirmary.

It was beastly hot today. We walked home after morning visit and were drenched in sweat. We managed to get a taxi to come back after the afternoon visit. We are counting the days until we can go home. Eric has been trying to get the ladies to do some of our laundry. It hasn’t gone so well. The first day he went down there no one was there. Yesterday, Sunday he couldn’t find anyone around. Today he tried again and they told him no no, tomorrow is laundry day. So I guess he will try again tomorrow. When they will probably just say NO lol. that’s the way things have gone here. We bought some instant soup mix at the grocery store because there is a water heating thing in our room. But after I looked at it it is basically a bare coil inside the chamber and it really didn’t look all that clean so we opted to skip the soup altogether, although I suppose if you heated it to boiling it would kill anything. We have managed to have only one or two bouts of tummy trouble so we are trying really hard not to do anything that will make that three or four!!

I love reading all your comments. Makes me feel connected to home. I sure miss the kids. My baby doll Sophie I may not put down for a week when I get there. I told Eric the first thing I want to do is snuggle up with them all and watch a movie, ANY MOVIE, in ENGLISH! I haven’t heard too much from home except that they miss us. SO I presume all is well. Can’t wait to get Mocha and Ptera home too. I hope they haven’t forgotten us by now! I am dying to play hide and seek with Mocha. To make PB and Banana sandwiches for the kids, do DO LAUNDRY!, to do menial chores that need doing. I just want to be HOME HOME HOME!

Another morning with the kids. Another game of Uno. Or rather several games. All was well until Diana made Natasha draw 4 when she had only one card left. So she got mad and threw her cards down and ran off to pout. We carried on our game without her. But then Diana had to draw or got skipped or something she didn’t like so monkey see monkey do she tossed her cards in and went off in a half sulk in the way of Natasha. Jaeger gladly took over Natasha’s hand and played until Papa won. We only got to see Andrey for a couple minutes but long enough to make him a paper airplane since his from yesterday were lost, broken, thrown away, or otherwise disengaged from him. We just let the girls sulk and Eric pushed Jaeger in the swing. The girls inched closer and closer and eventually the two girls and Jaeger were all entertaining themselves nearby. Then they brought us little apples, as peace offerings I suppose, and Natasha was quick to give us hugs. And all was forgotten. Diana did my hair and then it was time for them to go to lunch.

We stopped at the baby house this morning and showed them all the photos of sSphie and Ben. They were all so happy to see them. I left a good picture of the two with the orphanage director to share around. I don’t imagine they get too many photos of their kids as they move on through the system or go home. As far as I know this is not a huge adoption region. Why that is I don’t know but we have had good experiences here. All of our troubles this time have been on the SunnyK end of things. And the birthplace of the girls(which is not Ptown). The director and the social worker and the attorney here at Ptown have been fabulous and I would recommend anyone looking for their child that they might consider Ptown. Beautiful children, gracious people, kind staff. The children get outside every day. They get fed at least 5 times a day. It isn’t as good as a family but it is a darn good place in terms of orphanages. There are many orphanages that are not nearly as nice as this one, and the staff not nearly as attentive. When a kid leaves here and comes home and really embraces family life with little difficulty I think that’s pretty telling that they were treated fairly well where they were. Not like a Mama of their own for sure but decent. I wish I could show you photos! I made a movie montage of the kids photos. Cant show you till I get home or Sunnyk

same ole same ole

except when we got up this morning there was no hot water. not like there was water it just wasnt hot, but REALLY no hot water, as in turn the faucet on hot and NOTHING COMES out! seems to have been resolved while we were at the orphanage with the kids this morning.

Andre did something strange today. he is clumsy. and he turned to run and fell right into a hydrangea bush and cut his hand open and he got up and ran away from us. I ran after him and scooped him up and held him in my lap clucking over his poor little booboo. it wasnt that bad and had stopped bleeding already but he fought me tooth and nail saying NEE MAMA! I kept saying DA MAMA! I dont know if he expected to get in trouble for falling into the bush or get in trouble for cutting his hand or didnt want stinging medicine on his hand. but he wanted NOTHING to do with me. I held him anyways and just talked to him and told him DA mama and he has to get used to Mama if we are going to America. then he wanted papa. surely PAPA will let me down. nothin doin I wasnt letting him go. he lived. I returned him to the infirmary with a kiss and hug shortly after that without mentioning his little booboo. maybe it will help him to learn to trust me. Nothing bad happened, he fell down, he got hurt, and he got held thats all. nothing bad.

nothing else new. I tried to upload photos but it used up my internet time and never even posted so I guess I cant show any photos till I get to Kiev or home.

just another day in paradise....uhh Ptown

Just another day in Paradise. I mean Ptown.

The weather has finally cooled off a bit. Still pretty warm but not beastly hot and steamy. Today is Sunday and we are counting the days until we are back home. We miss the simple things. We miss the kids. We miss the dogs and the cat. There are many dogs and cats running loose here but you dare not touch one lest you end up with a bite! The last night we were in Kiev we went to dinner with John and Charissa and these two HUGE dogs were out with their owner, off leash. The MONSTER sized one barely looked at us but the almost monster sized one decided he needed to check us out and I was a little worried. Charissa’s heart is about as big as the moon and she reached out to the dog to let it smell her and I automatically said DON’T TOUCH CHARISSA! Thankfully the dog didn’t seem interested in anything but saying hello and when we ignored it and kept walking he went away. So we sure miss OUR dogs. Even Ptera the weewee queen!

The boys have still been in the infirmary but they came out again this morning while we were playing Uno with the girls. Jaeger saw me and ran to me and hugged me. Andrey wasn’t far behind. Andrey doesn’t want to let go once he gets his arms around you. Both boys are feeling a bit better and are anxious to run and play but are not yet allowed. Natasha and Diana are such good loving girls. With the boys out of the picture for a couple of days we have really seen the real Diana. She is so funny and dramatic. She gets more and more loving every day. She has started batting her eyelashes and creating great drama before laying down her cards in Uno. One day she even kissed her cards! She is a riot and I know she and Maia are going to have a LOT in common. Natasha love love loves Uno. She wants to play again and again. She sometimes gets mad at Diana when she is trying to be funny and sneak a wild card out of the deck and into her hand. We took some pics of the girls today with papa and with mama. Then each girl wanted to take pictures. We also brought them a little treat today. We have to do that away from the others so we don’t get into trouble for spoiling their dinner.

I wanted to take photos of the other little ones today but it was bath day and everyone was in their underwear and I didn’t think it would be appropriate to post those kinds of photos. Later when they are all dressed up cute I will take photos and maybe you will see your future son or daughter! Dasha is my favorite no doubt. But one of the little boys who used to be really naughty to me has started eating up any attention I throw his way and he isn’t mean. and he is awful dang cute. I think his name is Sasha. Big blue eyes and sandy hair cut short. Cuuuute!! Zapphirra has started being a little nicer but can stil be a stinker. She does love hugs though. And Vika, sweet lovable Vika needs a mama and soon! She has really started to blossom with just the little bit of one on one attention I have been able to give her. If she had a full time Mama all her own who saw the light in her eyes and the love she has to offer she could really reach her potential(which is really unknown due to her cognitive disabilities)

Today because of bath day we only got an hour with the girls instead of two but we enjoyed it. They seem to enjoy our time too. They always want to know about the kids back home. They want to know about Ben and Maia and Ethan and Sophie. And is Cody big? And where are Chrysta’s glasses in this picture? They are very observant girls!

back to ptown......again.

We are back in Ptown. Did all the paperwork for the boys today. Ironically we were unable to see them most of the morning as they are sick in the infirmary. By chance the nanny brought them out for a bit of sunshine and we got to play with them awhile and love on them. Poor Andre is really under the weather. Poor guy. He is a really active kid who disappears often and you have to go looking for where he has wandered off to so the nannys don’t yell at him or you. But today he just sat in my lap and let me rock him. He is so tiny. He was pretty warm with fever and then it was like 100 degrees outside so he was pretty hot. He just snuggled up to my chest and let me rock him. He likes to color and draw but he was so tired today that he kept wanting ME to color for him. And have ME draw all kinds of pictures for him. He was definitely NOT himself. I hope he feels better soon. Jaeger really loves his name. Natasha Jordan and Diana Claire seem to think I am telling them their new names are Jordan and Claire when in fact their names will remain Diana and Natasha but with the addition of Jordan and Claire. I keep saying DVA! Which means two so they understand that they have two names not that I am taking away their current name but they just go on and on about Jordan and Claire. Diana cant say Claire very clearly. It comes out like clayee. Andre we didn’t talk to much about names as he was so sick. The girls were very animated today. Asking Yulia all kinds of questions. Natasha wants a doll that wets. Not to be outdone, Diana wants a doll that Kakas. lol

We filed all the paperwork and then when Yulia went to file the court papers to ask for a court date we were informed that it is time for the 6 month review and they are not currently accepting any applications to the court. Wont be until the 12. Happens every year July1. YIKES! We wanted to go home on the tenth! But Yulia went and spoke with the judge and he SO KINDLY approved our petition for court and we DO HAVE A COURT DATE for next Friday at 10am. I sure hope we don’t run into any problems there. Went pretty smoothly last time but then so did everything else!! Nothing has gone smoothly this time and it is a bit more complicated. But at least we have a date and we have something to move towards. Of course this means we are in Ptown for the next week. We are so ready to go HOME! We want to see our other kids. We want to be in our own house and watch tv in our own language. We want to be able to move around in our house (we never have more than two rooms here, living/bedrooom and kitchen) unless you could the bathrooms then its 3 rooms. But small. Our last apartment as well as our rooms in Ptown could fit in ours and the boys bedrooms completely.

So when we come home we will have to put up the other set of bunks for the boys, finish setting up the bunks for the girls and get some dressers from thrift/garage sale/freecycle. We are considering getting another set of bunks for the boys. Ben might like a big bed all his own. He and Ethan could be on bottoms and Jaeger and Andre on tops. Leaving room for a dresser on another wall.

I hope the kids are doing well at home. I miss them so much. Every day Eric and I will see something and be reminded of the kids and how much we miss them. It might be a child on the street, a child on tv, a statue, a fountain, anything. Since internet is so limited for us here and expensive we are going to try a different route tomorrow(Saturday) and see if its cheaper at the post office than it is with the router. Miss you all.

miracle of miracles

we got our referral AND our paperwork in the SAME DAY! we called Yulia and she said they would be done by 5 so we jumped up and started hiking to the SDA office where Serge met us. we got our paperrs! our walking papers as teh case may be. it means tomorrow we are off to Ptown to file for the boys. and all is on track for court next week. as soon as I have a date I will confirm the tickets home. they are set for saturday the 10th getting in around 830. so while we are in ptown we have to pay a lot for internet. so if you dont hear from us it only means we couldnt find internet cards that day. the hard part is behind us now. wow, did I just say that? we have to go to court and ask to seperate sibs and I think the HARD part is over! boy that says a lot about this experience! miss you all back home. Love to the kids and gramma and papa. cant wait to come home and hug you!!! Maia, take care of your dog Fabio! Ethan, save me some hugs! Chrysta, you are such a good girl! Cody, I cant wait to see yoU! Sophiedoodle, I miss you babydoll! Ben Ben, I lub you. seeyou all sooon!(but not soon enough!!!!)

ps our phone keeps getting these crazy text messages, that are probably advertisements for sex. so I started calling tem Sext messages.

pss Thanks for everything John and Charissa!! we will miss you guys!!

heading back to sda to pick up papers! looking for a miracle here!

WE GOT THEM!

we got the referrals for Jaeger and Andre! HUGE hurdle and relief. of course we are still having to hope and pray that the paperwork for them will be done yet today to be picked up and go to Ptown tomorrow and get the paperwork going so we can get court date and get the heck out of dodge! we did see scowly angry lady but she was not yelling at us today, thank goodness. We tried very hard to stay out of her way! we walked home after that. it was a bit of a hike but we walked on the shady side and it wasnt too bad.